Hakone

Hakone is a town in the far west of Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, set in the mountains on the eastern side of Hakone Pass. It is a well-known spa town and tourist destination, with many hot springs and views of nearby Mount Fuji. Most of the town lies inside the volcanically active Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, centred on Lake Ashi. In the past it held the Hakone Gongen shrine, mentioned in Heian period literature, and Hakone-juku was a post station on the Tokaido highway between Edo and Kyoto. Under the Tokugawa shogunate the Hakone Checkpoint here inspected every traveller entering or leaving Edo and marked the border of the Kanto region. The climate is humid subtropical, with warm summers and cool winters, and the population has declined since it peaked around 1970.