Hakone and Old Tokaido Highway Travel

The stretch of old Tokaido highway near Hakone was one of the most challenging sections of the Edo-era route between Tokyo and Kyoto, and the teahouse Amazake Chaya has been serving travelers here since the early 1600s. The current thatched building, reconstructed in 2009 with original materials, lets you sit beside an open fire and drink the same sweet amazake that weary walkers drank 400 years ago. Behind the teahouse, a section of the cobblestone road laid in 1680 remains largely intact, its stones still holding firm after three and a half centuries of mountain weather.