Global Life: Hot-Water High

(2 of 2)

The resort area of Hakone is blessed with a location at the base of Mount Fuji. A speedy train takes you from Tokyo to the town of Hakone Yumoto, where you transfer to a tram that zigs and zags into the mountains. Since its founding in 1878, the Fujiya Hotel fujiyahotel.co.jp in the hamlet of Miyanoshita has attracted foreign visitors, among them General Douglas MacArthur and John Lennon. Sepia-tinted Western charm--afternoon tea, French cuisine, decor like your Great Aunt Minnie's--infuses the famed institution. Across the street, the Naraya Inn (81-460-2-2411) offers more of a Japanese flavor. For centuries it has played host to traveling nobles who have sought out its airy tatami rooms with shoji screens opening on a traditional garden and ponds full of alarmingly aggressive carp.

What both lodgings lack, in my view, is truly satisfying onsen. Luckily, around the corner are several public baths, including the Rakuyujurin, its rotenburo shaded by maples. Next day visit Japan's most famous volcano. Between the views, meals and baths, you will be grinning all the way back to Tokyo.