Hakone Kowakien Yunessun – Big kid fun outside Tokyo
Imagine bathing in a pool of sake, having buckets of it flung into your face while young people scream in glee around you.
You might be tempted to think this is some sort of foam party with a bunch of university students, but it’s actually one of the many quirky things that you will experience at Hakone Kowakien Yunessun, a short trip outside of Tokyo.
In the sake pool at Hakone Kawakien Yunessun!
Why visit Hakone Kowakien Yunessun
If you’re unfamiliar with Hakone Kowakien Yunessun, let me paint you a picture: it’s an aquatic playground (read water slides and outdoor hot springs), including pools filled with green tea, coffee, red wine, sake, etc. Yep, you read that right.
The town of Hakone is a famous tourist spot due to its natural hot springs. The Kowakien Yunessun (which includes the aquatic centre and nearby hotel) is located on a natural hot spring just outside of Hakone, and also has an amazing onsen, or traditional Japanese bath house that you can visit. But be warned, the onsen is not for the shy and prudish – onsens traditionally require you to be nude, albeit with a tiny white towel for a degree of modesty (what good is a tiny bit of cloth?).
Which one would you try?
Hakone and the Kowakien Yunessun make for a great day trip from Tokyo and show you a little more of the traditional side of Japanese culture than you might find in Shinjuku or other suburbs of Tokyo.
How to get to Hakone Kowakien Yunessun
There are various options to get to Hakone from Tokyo. For more information on your transport options to Hakone, check out this guide. We were based in Shinjuku during our trip to Japan, but these instructions will work from most stations in Tokyo with just a few amendments.
These waters slides look pretty tranquil, but we both worked up a fair amount of steam coming down!
Step 1 – Using our Japan rail pass, we took a JR fast train from Shinagawa to Odawara (free with the JR pass!) and then purchased a separate pass for the Odakyo Railway line to Hakone (a couple of hundred Yen from memory).
Step 2 – Congratulations, you’ve made it to Hakone! Finally, after stopping for a quick couple of (hundred) sushi rolls, we jumped on a bus winding its way up into the mountains to get to the Yunessun (the bus will stop right outside). All up, it’s about 2 hours of travel time, which is really just enough time to thoroughly check Facebook and post some of the previous days photos to Instagram… 🙂
Looking for more things to do in Tokyo? Read about how you can Fight a Sumo here or drive through the streets of Tokyo in a go-kart!
Your other transport options include:
Option 2 – Fast route – for those willing to take a faster, more direct route, the Romance Car option could be the one for you. From Shinjuku station, you will catch an express train with a few limited stops to Hakone Yumoto station, which takes only 85 minutes and costs 2080 yen (not covered by JR Rail Pass). Then simply transfer to the Odakyu line and get the bus (i.e. follow step 2 above).
Overlooking the valley in the Yunessun’s famous hot springs
Relax in the hot springs…
Once you have had your fun in the sake, coffee, both red and green tea pools and maxxed out on the waterslides, head up the stairs to the natural hot springs which overlook the valley below. The hot springs have been visited by Japanese for centuries and when we were there, the springs themselves were practically deserted and we pretty much had them to ourselves.
The great thing about Kowakien Yunessun, is that you get to experience both the water park fun and relax in the hot springs, all in the one place. Be sure to also visit the Mori No Yu section of the main building – the traditional (read: naked) onsen which has several baths, pools and springs set in an amazing Japanese garden.
Note: Most Japanese onsens usually have a strict ‘no visible tattoos’ policy, and unfortunately this applies at Yunessun and Mori No Yu.
Conclusion
Hakone surprised us. It wasn’t just the way having a Japanese staff member spray a bucket of coffee water in our faces made us feel (yes, that really happened). No, it was far deeper than that. The Hakone Kawakien Yunessun has that perfect mix of fun and relaxation in both a modern and traditional setting. Enjoy!
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Whoa this is the strangest thing I have read… pool of sake, getting sprayed with sake… Not sure if I would be thrilled. It does sound interesting though. Great to know of this traditional mix with modern fun.
I knew Japan had such an exciting activities. It’s packed with so much energy that many Andrelanine-rush travelers would love this. Good to read you enjoyed your time participating in Japan’s Hakone Kawakien Yunessun.
OMG bathing in a pool of sake?! I think I would be far too tempted to drink some lol which gives me mixed feelings when you’re bathing in it too!! And pools of coffee, tea, and wine too??!! A pool of wine is my dream OMG I had 10 hours on a layover in Tokyo recently on route home from Osaka – I totally should have caught a train in from the airport to here!
Definitely adding Hakone Kowakien Yunessun to the itinerary of our next trip – I like visiting hot springs anyway, even without the added bonus of crazy adult fun!
Haha if it makes you feel better, there is a barrel that dispenses sake into the bath (drip by drip) which is where I tried it – I would hate to think what I’d be drinking otherwise! Kowakien Yunessun is a great day trip from Tokyo, and Hakone in general is a really beautiful place! Hopefully we’ll both be back in Japan soon enough and have more hot spring action!
Japan is known for its relaxing hotspring as Japanese are an incredibly hard worker, and hotspring is one of their best ways to loosen up! I love the view you got from up there! Which is tastier in the body tho, coffee, tea, sake or wine? Looks very cute! It must be soothing and makes the skin smoother!
I’ll be honest, I only tasted the sake, and it was because there was a small tap that dripped into the bath (so I wasn’t trying the bathwater as such). The coffee smelt great at first, but not so much after having it in your hair after a few hours! The skin felt amazing for days though, so it was all worth it!
A pool of sake?? Wow, I can’t imagine how it would feel to drink and swim (or swim and drink?). I’ve never heard of Hakone Kowakien Yunessun, but if I do go there, I would choose the pool of red wine! Or maybe not. I would cry at such a waste of wine. haha
The great thing is, you don’t have to choose, as you can visit them all! They also have a ramen one during special times of the year, but sadly not when we were there. If it makes you feel better, I’m sure the red wine is goon quality :p
That pool looks really cool. I love how they tried to make it look like Santorini…I was distracted by the Santorini set and then I just realized what you said about swimming in sake…Very cool but what happens if you have a cut or it gets in your eyes…I love the slides and the pool overlooking the valley. That is awesome…but I’m still stuck in the Sake Pool. In Prague the have beer baths so I guess something like this makes sense…lol
Haha and it was REAL sake! You could smell it as you walked up to it! And I tasted the stuff coming out of the barrel (not the bath stuff – gross!), and it was STRONG! The slides were quite epic and the valley views are to die for! A beer bath in Prague sounds interesting (although all I can think about is all that yeast!)
The hot springs look so relaxing and the views are a bonus, aren’t they? What is the best time to visit when the valley is lush and green like you have shown it here?
Lush indeed! We were there in June, so summer is a great time! In saying that, I can imagine it would be spectacular at ALL times of the year with spring cherry blossoms, autumn colours or a magical winter wonderland!
How cool! I can’t believe I haven’t heard of Hakone Kowakien Yunessun – it sounds so unique and fun! I’m not sure if I’d love the coffee spray or be freaked out. I’d definitely love the hot springs though!
It was such a fun and unique place to visit! The pools with the views were my favourite 🙂