Lake Ashi is the largest lake and the famous lake located within Hakone, Japan. It is one of the lake at the foothills of Mount Fuji. If you do not have a car, getting to Lake Ashi is not an easy task. From Odawara station, you first have to take Hakone Tozan railway to Hakone Yumoto station, then switch to another Hakone Tozan railway train to get to Gora. From there, take the Hakone Tozan Cable Car to go up to the mountain and finally switch to take the Hakone Ropeway to get over the mountains and back down to the lake shore. This whole trip could take 1.5 hours. Then from the lake shore, you can take boat cruise on the pirate ships.
We got to the lake shore boat cruise terminal at around 3PM. The boat cruise leaves every 30 minutes and there are 2 boats in operation. We were lucky to get onto the boat right away.
Although it is a pirate ship, the interior design of the boat is quite modern. This was quite disappointing. We were hoping to see some nice antique finishes inside the boat inside of modern seating plan. There are 3 levels on the boat and 2 different types of ticket. We only had economic ticket and could only sit at the economic cabin. For premium ticket, you could sit at the top of the deck. Most people go onto the deck and stand along the rail to enjoy the views.
At certain departure time, there are also pirate performances on the ship. We believe it's the 2PM cruise that has the performance, but we did not catch this.
The boat cruise has 3 terminals. 1 at the North end of the lake, and 2 at the South end of the lake. We got off at the South end of the lake, and then just took the bus back to our hotel. If you want to go to Hakone Shrine, you have to take the boat cruise and get off at the South East end of the Lake. This is closer to Hakone Shrine.
Overall, the boat cruise was not that impressive. We felt like this is something that was added on to attract the tourists. There was not much stuff to see and do around the lake either. We would not recommend this as the must see place on the travel itinerary.
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