Tokyo & Around

Hakone

2 local roundups

Where Japanese locals really eat, stay, and tell tourists to skip in Hakone — pulled from their own comments and translated.

• 

  🍜 Food & Restaurants👍 349

  Food & RestaurantsYouTube

  Hakone Street Food, Rated by Japanese Comments: Black Egg Realities, the Yumochi Everyone Loves, and the Manju Shop's Real Best Item

  Under a 976,000-view walk through Hakone's street food (125 comments), Japanese commenters confirm the classics and then quietly out-recommend the video: Owakudani's famous black eggs come with lore — "one egg adds seven years to your life" (349 likes) — but also real-world gripes about multi-egg packs you can't split, and Chimoto's yumochi mochi draws the thread's purest praise at 102 likes. The best intel is in the additions: two separate commenters override manju shop Nanohana's famous steamed buns in favor of its yaki-mont-blanc pastry, others add a footbath mont-blanc soft-serve, a just-opened charcoal hamburger stand, and a rival manju shop for those who find yumochi too sweet.

  125 comments7/16/26, 11:05 AM
• 

  ⛩️ Places & Hidden Gems👍 685

  Places & Hidden GemsYouTube

  Is Hakone Worth It Right Now? Japanese Travelers on the Inbound Crowds — and the Quiet Routes That Still Work

  Under a Japanese travel pro's crowd-test of Hakone titled "Is this hell?" (557,000 views, 387 comments), the most-liked traveler reply — 319 likes — is a former Hakone route-bus driver who says the congestion drove them to medical leave, and they only returned to work on the condition of never driving Hakone again. The comment section splits between Japanese travelers giving up on Hakone outright and locals-in-the-know insisting the problem is only the famous "Golden Course" loop. The creator's own pinned conclusion (685 likes): shift your timing and Hakone is still fully enjoyable — the two chokepoints are Owakudani and the ride home. The regulars then spell out exactly which ropeways, buses and back routes stay astonishingly empty.

  387 comments7/16/26, 11:04 AM