2026 Hakone Checkpoint (箱根関所) Garden Walk: A Full-Day Course

A day exploring the Motohakone (元箱根) area centered on Hakone Checkpoint (箱根関所), where you can step back in time to the Edo period on the shore of Lake Ashi (芦ノ湖). Hakone Checkpoint is a restored facility on the site of a checkpoint that once guarded a key point on the Tokaido (東海道) road, and you can tour the buildings feeling like an Edo-period traveler. It is open 9:00-17:00 (until 16:30 from December through the end of February; last entry 30 minutes before closing) and never closes for regular holidays. Admission is 500 yen for adults and 250 yen for children, with discounts available on presentation of a Hakone Free Pass or similar. In the morning, visit Hakone Shrine (箱根神社), where a torii gate stands in the lake, then walk the cedar-lined old highway to the checkpoint. A quintessentially Japanese Hakone day spent following a historic road.