Prince Hakone

Prince Hakone

The Prince Hakone is located at Hakone-en, about 40 minutes from JR Odawara station.  In this blogger’s opinion, the Prince Hakone is a very nice classy hotel.  Come down to ground level from the Odawara station and be picked up by the hotel’s shuttle bus.   English speaking staff will check you in efficiently.

The room balcony overlooked the forest and the room was quite large, with a king sized bed and a sitting area with two sofa chairs.  The television was a Panasonic Viera with about a 32 inch screen.  A Marantz CD contained a CD with forest sounds and nice music.  The bath included a Toto bidet toilet.

Dinner was in the Nadaman Japanese restaurant, and was impressive.  The caring nature of the wait staff and the creative dishes of the chef made for a very pleasant experience.  The Kaiseki Hana menu (set dishes menu) started with three appetizers of broad beans and scallops with soy bean milk and yogurt, asparagus mousse on sea urchin and consommé jelly, and boiled green vegetables seasoned with soy sauce.  The dishes reflected the creative nature of the chef, who blended sweet with tart, firm with soft foods.  Soup consisted of a steamed egg custard(chawan mushi) with green peas and mozzarella cheese. The raw fish course consisted of raw tuna(maguro),smoked Spanish mackerel(sawara)with soy sauce and fresh horseradish sauce.  The hot dish was a steamed mugwort(yomogi)and bamboo shoots bun which had the consistency of steamed rice cakes(mochi) which was delicious.  The grilled dish consisted of a grilled sea bream(tai)with a butterbur sauce, a deep fried soft shell shrimp(ebi)with an egg omelet and radish(daikon) and sauted tofu.  The contrast of soft and firm, sweet and tart, expressed the chef’s detail and creativeness.  The steamed rice was a high quality rice from Yamagata prefecture called “yume gokochi” and was shiny and delicious.  Dessert was a bowl of coconut milk, vanilla ice cream, azuki beans, and tapioca with a dark syrup.  Needless to say, I was very impressed with the dinner.  Our kimono clad waitress patiently explained every course of our meal in English!  She made this restaurant review easy.  An onsen review:  The onsen, called Kohan no yu, was nice, especially the rotemburo(outside bath) which faced Lake Ashinoko, and the body felt good as the cold air met the warmth of the bath waters.  Prince Hotels never fail to impress!

For further information on travel to Japan please go to http://traveljapan-us.com.