Hakone Scenic Loop: Odawara to Lake Ashi by Railway, Ropeway & Sightseeing Boat

The day opens at Odawara Station under a low coastal sky, a bustle of commuters and luggage carts that quickly thins as you step onto the bus bound for the mountains. Within an hour the town gives way to the Hakone Tozan Railway, a narrow-gauge line that keeps one foot in the town’s old Tokaido road history and the other in a rapidly greener world. The train climbs in hairpin turns, the forest pressing close, until you trade iron rails for cable car cables and then for the high ropeway that scans volcanic ridgelines. Steam puffs from Owakudani's vents like a live map of geologic activity; the black eggs sold there are more than a snack, they are a handheld encounter with the earth’s heat.