Prince Lake Ashinoko Hotel

We had a couple days gap in our schedule, and thought "Can we see Fuji from somewhere?" I tried in 2003, and I didn't really see it. So, new trip, new try.

Lake Hakone area is a thirty minute shinkisen train ride away from Tokyo. With a volcano and a lake and the chance to see Mt. Fuji, I thought we'd try here. (What I didn't comprehend when booking is that there is a 90 minute bus ride from the train station to the hotel.)

The hotel is round, so everyone has different views. We were looking at the lake from our room.

There are wooden carved animals around the hotel.

In the area immediately around the hotel, everything is controlled by the "Prince Hotel Resort" company. There is a shopping area connected to the hotel. With a bakery, a gift shop, a store selling the local wooden crafts, one selling local pottery, an aquarium, and a petting zoo. Even a ropeway (aerial tram) up to somewhere. People bringing their pets with them on vacation is a thing. Lots of pets in strollers. As far as I know, we only saw dogs.

The hotel has three restaurants: French, Japanese, or buffet. We looked at the French and buffet one the first night. We decided it was simpler to order room service and eat on the balcony. There are no options here for dinner except the resturant options. (There are no laundry options except to have the hotel do your laundry. )

(Photos stolen from the internet. Click them to see the full photo. Once you click one, you can click to the right to see the next one. )

The onsen was probably the biggest I went in the whole trip. The locker / undressing / dressing area. The stools at the counters are so you can sit and dry your hair and put on your makeup before leaving the area.

The showers where you bathe with soap before getting into the baths ring the inside bath. From the inside bath you can look out to the outside bath or gardens.

The outside bath looked out onto the gardens and possibly the lake. It was night when I went. There are two baths. They (probably) flip them daily so that guests can try both sides. I only went once here. There are photos taken from the other half where you can see the lake and boats.

The outside bath I was in did have a garden growing in the center island of the bath. Serene green growing between stones in an island. Included maple trees. I'm not entirely convinced it was planned.

The thing about being at a resort where no one can live close by, is there is not a lot of local cheep labor. (Think high school students looking for a part time job). The gardens on the grounds of the resort were pretty, but they had some seriously aggressive vines going through the shrubbery. You could see all the azaleas had been neatly pruned back after their blooming period, so there are some groundskeepers.

The staff all spoke some English. (Our guide on Monday said all students take four years.). That doesn't mean they were all comfortable speaking it. One of the most fluent and comfortable speakers we encountered was a Trainee Bellhop from Tawain. We realized over three days there were a lot of visible staff with a Tawain flag on their lapel and Trainee on their name tag. One of them told me that they come from Tawain to work there for a summer or a year to get experience.

A nice hotel. The rooms themselves were not overpriced. The resort pricing on meals and laundry really got my wallet.

Mount Fuji peeking out from behind the clouds saying goodbye on Tuesday morning.