{"id":328,"date":"2013-08-09T09:52:02","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T09:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/?p=328"},"modified":"2013-08-26T09:01:59","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T09:01:59","slug":"the-fujiya-hotel-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/the-fujiya-hotel-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fujiya Hotel Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

How shall I write the praises of the Fujiya Hotel<\/a>?\u00a0 I was completely captivated by it the first time I came across it, a few years ago when my friend Keizo was showing me around Hakone.<\/p>\n

You need I think to consider a little the history.\u00a0 The founder Sennosuke Yamaguchi travelled to the USA and Europe and learned something of the Western hotelier tradition in the early Meiji period, and founded his hotel in 1878.\u00a0 It was apparently the first western-style hotel in Japan (if this is not strictly true it must have been one of the first), in the resort area of Hakone, popular even then. The original building burned down in the Miyanoshita fire in 1883, so the current main building dates from 1891.\u00a0 War, earthquake and fire means that even in a country so historic as Japan, Meiji period buildings are something of a rarity, so it is for me an enormous joy to be staying in an original Meiji building.<\/p>\n

When we say \u201cWestern-style\u201d we mean \u201cJapanese interpretation of Western style\u201d – it does not look anything like anything one might find in the actual West.\u00a0 The original building and most of the later additions are actually very Japanese in character, although with clear western influences.\u00a0 The result for me seems like a Japanese re-interpretation of a Swiss chalet.<\/p>\n

Buildings were added in the late Meiji and Taisho periods (early 20th<\/sup> century), the former just after Japan\u2019s success in the Russo-Japanese war, but I am most drawn by the two phases of later additions \u2013 one in the early Showa period, when Japan was expanding its empire in east Asia, and the second in the 1960s, when Japan was rebuilding itself.\u00a0 Through all these turbulent times, the Fujiya was trying to bring rest and relaxation to those in need.\u00a0 There is a museum in the basement chronicling some of the history, including a visit from the Showa Emperor himself in the 1960s.\u00a0 What it must have been like to be visited by a being sometime considered to be divine.<\/p>\n

Although setting out to be a Western style hotel, the Fujiya is in fact based around that most Japanese of leisure attractions \u2013 the onsen or hot spring.\u00a0 That is what Hakone is famous for, and that is what you get at the Fujiya.\u00a0 There is a small public bath (separated by gender), a large onsen swimming pool that is mixed, and for which bathing costumes are required, but then the crowning glory is onsen water piped into the bath in your own room\u2019s bathroom, through what appears to be genuine Meiji era plumbing.\u00a0 Guests are advised that the hot water can take up to 10 minutes to arrive.\u00a0 I think it actually takes longer.<\/p>\n

The buildings are caked in layers of paint; modern additions such as electricity, air conditioning and internet are delivered in conduits attached to the original structure; and yet\u2026 And yet\u2026\u00a0 The historic charm of years of people staying and relaxing here oozes enticingly out of every beam, windowframe, and wooden floortile.<\/p>\n

The service, while certainly better than anything in hotels in London, does not quite achieve the effortlessly inconspicuous ideal of the Okura, but you have to pity staff who must deal, displaying Japanese politeness, with not only huge parties of staying guests, but also streams of tourists who come, alone or in groups, like Keizo and I did those years ago, just to ogle and perhaps have tea.<\/p>\n

The building itself is very hard to photograph, set as it is upon a hill, and obscured from most directions by trees, but I will have a go.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0The Main Building 1891<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The Flower Palace 1936<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The Restaurant – added 1930<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0The feeling of having got away from it all is greatly increased by choosing the correct way to arrive. \u00a0Short it is not – it took a full four hours from Narita airport. \u00a0The route is this: \u00a0limousine bus to Shinjuku Station bus station; Odakyu railway Romance Car to Hakone Yumoto, and then Tozan railway three stops to Miyanoshita. \u00a0It is this last bit that makes it all worthwhile – the train ascends nearly 500m in altitude in a series of 3 switchbacks, at each one of which the two drivers swap ends, climbing though thick vegetation, featuring densely packed hydrangeas. \u00a0It was glorious. \u00a0Then you just have to heft your luggage downhill then uphill for about 500m and then you are there.<\/p>\n

A rather less welcome reminder of having got away from it all is the discovery that the nearby ATM does not accept foreign issued credit cards, followed by being politely informed by the hotel staff that they do not advance cash on cards, that there is no suitable ATM nearby, and that the nearest one that can be used is at Miyanoshita Post Office, not walkable, requiring a train, bus or taxi journey. \u00a0Oh and the machine only functions until 6pm.<\/p>\n

The odd thing is that despite the remote feeling, it is actually not remote at all by any objective standard. \u00a0It is on the route of the old Tokaido road – the main route from Tokyo to Kyoto, and the current Japanese Route 1. \u00a0So it is actually about as well connected as it is possible to be and still be apparently in the middle of nowhere. \u00a0The road, despite its impressive moniker, is at this stretch only single carriageway and very twisty.<\/p>\n

The main business of the day, however, was to have another tea like the one that had first enchanted me so much. \u00a0So that is the subject of my next post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How shall I write the praises of the Fujiya Hotel?\u00a0 I was completely captivated by it the first time I …
keep reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[55,56,30,57,58],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leisure","category-travel","tag-fujiya-hotel","tag-hakone","tag-japan","tag-miyanoshita","tag-tozan-railway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions\/450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ipalchemist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}