■The Lalique Museum

 Anyone with even a passing interest in Art Nouveau or Art Deco may want to stop by one of Hakone’s newest museums, dedicated entirely to the work of the French jeweler and glass artist Ren Lalique, a leading figure of both styles.

Over the course of his celebrated career, Lalique made jewelry for the actress Sarah Bernhardt, perfume bottles, chandeliers, clocks and other items for various jewelry and design houses, and later showed a genius for using glass in interior architectural elements, most notably in the lighted walls and glass columns that graced the dining room and grand salon of the legendary French liner SS Normandie.  In the last years of his life, he designed a series of automobile hood ornaments that are considered tiny masterpieces.


 The Lalique Museum has amassed an impressive collection of 1,500 works by Lalique, and shows about 230 of these at any given time.  In addition to the superb jewelry and glasswork, the museum owns a salon car from the Orient Express containing more than 100 decorative glass panels, an installation called “Sparrow,” consisting of a small room with 70 glass panels featuring sparrows, and a vintage Bugatti with a frosted glass dragonfly atop its radiator cap.  All well worth a visit if you find yourself in Hakone.


>>Access
186-1 Sengokuhara, Hakone-cho, Ashikagashimo-gun, Kanagawa

JR Odawara station====(45 min. by Hakone Tozan bus bound for Kojiri/Togendai)====Sengoku Annaijo Mae bus stop====(2 min. on foot)====Lalique Museum, Hakone

JR Odawara station====(15 min. by Hakone Tozan Railway)====Hakone Yumoto station====(30 min. by Hakone Tozan bus bound for Kojiri/Togendai)===Sengoku Annaijo Mae bus stop====(2 min. on foot)====Lalique Museum, Hakone

>>Hours
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

>>Holidays
No holidays

>>Fee
Adult: 1,500 yen
College/High school student or over 65 years old: 1,300 yen

Junior high/Elementary school student: 800 yen

>>Website
LALIQUE MUSEUM, HAKONE (English)


■Hakone Kowakien Yunessun
This resort and amusement park takes its hot spring them to extremes, with over 25 water attractions.  From the Mediterranean atmosphere of the “God’s Aegean Sea” to the Turkish Hamam and the coffee, wine, green tea and sake baths, visitors to Kowakien Yunessun can choose among some of the strangest baths they’ll ever see.  There are also waterslide rides, a huge ramen bowl filled with pepper-flavored water, and something called the “Hakone Geyser.”  If you enjoy the quirky and unconventional, this is definitely the place for you!

>>Access
129 Ninohira, Hakone-cho, Ashikagashimo-gun, Kanagawa

JR Odawara station====(40 min. by Hakone Tozan bus bound for Moto-Hakone/Hakone-cho)====Kowakien bus stop

>>Hours
9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. (March - October)
9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (November - February)

>>Fee
Adult: 3,500 yen
Child (Over 3 years old to elementary school student): 1,700 yen

>>Website
Hakone Kowakien Yunessan (English, Korean, Chinese)

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　-Matt Mangham

>>Hotels and Ryokans in Hakone Yumoto