“Sometimes the way was so rough, and the elevation of the feet above the head so great that, if only for comfort sake we were fain to relieve our bearers of their load. At length nestling among the mountain tops, beside a peaceful lake with Fuji-San herself towering above the surrounding peaks, we found the little town of Hakone.

“Our coolies dropt us at the ‘Hafuya Hotel.’ We left our shoes at the entrance, and slipping, as good travelers should, into straw sandals that were handed us, we were shown two roomy apartments in the second story. Thrown together by sliding partitions, and opening upon the lake, they give a fair view of Fuji-San, when her face is not veiled in clouds.

“At night-fall the water was lighted up with quite a pretty effect, by many lanterns on prayer floats set out at different points by boats, and then left to drift with the wind.”

– Glimpses of the Life of Samuel Morris, by Hannah Perot Morris, 1907

“First class transportation in Japan.” Woman being ferried in a palanquin, in front of the Hafuya Shirozaemon hotel on the shores of Lake Ashino, c. 1900. The Hafuya Hotel would later be sold to the Fujiya Hotel, renamed the ‘Hakone Hotel’ and turned into a lakeside annex.

See also:
Hakone Hotel, Hakone, c. 1910-1950

“The Hakone Hotel (Hafu-ya), rates from ¥5 and upward; and several lonely inns stand on the beach, waiting for the few travelers who come this way only in summer. It is an easy 2 hrs walk hither from Miyanoshita and 4 hrs hence to Atami.”

– Terry’s Japanese Empire, T. Phillip Terry, 1914