GORA STATION (HAKONEMACHI, KANAGAWA PREFECTURE)

Hakone railway a long, winding road

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Norikazu Tateishi

By Hajime Someya

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

The air was crisp at Gora Station, about 500 meters above sea level, the terminal of the Hakone Tozan Railway, in Hakonemachi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

In Hakone-Yumoto onsen, a town at the foot of the 1,000-meter Hakone mountains, the air is refreshing. But after experiencing the air around Gora Station, even the air in Hakone-Yumoto seemed dusty.

The train climbs the mountains through famous hot spring areas — including Tonosawa and Miyanoshita — that have healed the body and spirit of travelers since the Edo period (1603-1868).

Gora Station is halfway up the mountain. The train, running relatively slowly, might have relaxed me too much, but I felt as if the train had already climbed higher.

When I got off the train at the terminal, the scene came into view was that of tourists thronging around a tofu shop behind the station.

Kosuke Komiyama, 33, the owner of the Hakone Gin Dofu shop, was busy looking after customers. "To tell you the truth, I wanted to be a driver for the mountain-climbing train," he admitted on a break.

As road traffic is always busy in the Hakone area, the railway is indispensable to tourists and residents.

Komiyama likes the train very much and used to work for the railway company. In charge of maintaining and repairing the trains, he often repaired them throughout the night, and was relieved and proud when he saw the first train starting at 5:30 a.m.

But seven years ago, Komiyama quit the company to help his parents run the tofu shop. It became well-known after the quality of the tofu — made with the fresh, cool water of Hakone — was reported in the media. As a result, many people come to the shop.

Every morning, he hears the sound of the first train while making tofu and deep-fried soy bean curd.

When I walked through Gora, the lively town was suddenly changed to one with a quiet and refined atmosphere — orderly streets as a result of rezoning — lined with urbane villas and company-owned resort facilities. The area is a hot spring, but it would be out of place to wear a yukata there.

According to Yasuhiro Suzuki, 45, an official of the Hakonemachi Board of Education: "This is a 'celebrity' onsen. The area is so sophisticated because it was developed as a villa town at the end of the Meiji era (1868-1912)."