Sweet drink for Exhausted Princess: Stone-pavement and historic Amasake Chaya Café on the 8 Miles Road of Hakone 箱根八里

Now, please check your shoes. No slippery sole? Ready to take the historical 8 Miles Road of Hakone? OK, let’s go! From Kaempfer-Barney Memorial, a nice walking road leads us to the east. In no time, we cross a petit flyover which crosses a community road busy with cars. In November, from the bridge we can admire beautiful autumn color of tall Japanese orixa (Orixa japonica) at the same level of our eyes. Bonus. 😄 The end of the overpass is the beginning of Japanese civil engineering for the 17th Century, i.e., the stone paved road of the 8 Miles Road of Hakone 箱根八里. It’s a sharp climbing, called “Gongen-zaka (Gongen Slope 権現坂). Come to think of it, Lake Ashinoko 芦ノ湖 is a crater lake made by the volcanic eruption 3000 years ago. The slope surrounding the Lake must be very steep. Accept it …

We walk on the overpass from Kaempfer-Barney Memorial.

The pavement begins.

The paved road sometimes runs with stone steps where we encounter little monuments of yesteryear travelers, such as a community Shintoism shrine. After passing the memorial stone for the song of packhorse drivers 箱根馬子唄碑, we reach to the highest altitude point, ASL 800m, of the entire old Tokaido 東海道. When people traveled Tokaido between Osaka / Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo) on foot or horseback, that was the “top of the world.” Actually, Hakone still has the highest altitude point of Route 1, at ASL 874m near Ashino-yu Hotspring 芦之湯. Hmmmmm … the mechanized power certainly makes human voyage easier … In today’s hiking course, up to this point is the only sheer climbing. The rest is mainly going down, with occasional small ascends. Especially this part of 8 Miles Road is busy hiking route so that the pavement is well-treaded and clean. Enjoy your walk of short breath!

Gongen slope

Along the way, there are several educational boards explaining the 8 Miles Road. (Hey, we’re in the National Park!) According to one of them, until 1680 Tokugawa Shogunate Government covered the 8 Miles Road with Pleioblastus chino f. vaginatus, a variant of ubiquitous sasa-bamboo, Pleioblastus chino Makino var chino. F. vaginatus is smaller in size compared with their cousins in lower altitude such as in Yokohama. Sure enough, we find lots of f. vaginatus in both sides of the 8 Miles Road that was constructed by cutting through the hill. The Shogunate soon realized it was extremely expensive to maintain the road that way. Hiring laborers to mow the road, collecting sasa-bamboos, cutting the harvested sasa in proper size, then spreading them for 8 miles so often … Phew. So, they changed their method, and paved all the route of about 3.6m wide with volcanic stones readily available in the area. When Kaempfer came to Hakone in 1691 and 1692, the pavement of the 8 Miles Road was relatively new. No wonder he was so impressed by the shiny artery road of Japan.

Hakone’s sasa bamboos are smaller than those in lower places.

The ancient civil engineering.
 By the way, have you noticed
 people in this photo avoiding the center of the way?
 I tell you why next week.

Both sides of the road beyond the slopes with sasa-bamboos are afforested forests of Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) and Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtuse). Even though, compared with the other parts of Kanagawa Prefecture, in terms of volume the % of afforested conifers is smaller here. It’s because Hakone was registered as a National Park early. Japanese National Park system started in 1934, and Hakone became the one in 1936 before the World War II. So, next to the patches of coniferous afforestation we can frequently meet deciduous broad-leaved trees spared from deforestation, such as large Wedding cake trees (Cornus controversa), Himalayan spindles (Enonymus hamiltonianus), and many others. They were spared from deforestation. It is a particular joy to hike in an old forest of biodiversity. Many deciduous trees have also been important cultural and economic thing for the traditional community we eventually reach. Wait for the next week’s post. 😊

Mixture of conifers and broad-leaved trees

Beautiful Botrychium ternatum

The last time this road underwent an overhaul was in 1863 when Princess Kazu 和宮親子内親王, the 8th daughter of Emperor Ninkoh 仁孝天皇, moved to Edo from Kyoto to be the First Wife of the 14th Tokugawa Shogun, Iemochi 徳川家茂. Later, she played a crucial role to save Edo (Tokyo) from destruction by modern military forces of Meiji Restoration Government 明治維新政府. I imagine how the teenager Princess moved through Hakone in a palanquin … The mountains were deep and precipitous. She must have clung for hours to the supporting rope from ceiling, in order to stay in the wagon. Her palms could have been grazed, possibly blooding … Did she walk? Nah. She was a pure court girl lived her entire life so far only in and around Emperor’s palace in Kyoto. Hiking was not in her resume. Yet, the 8 Miles Road of Hakone is very wide mountain trekking road with pavement, remaining in the 21st Century. Before trains and cars, it had several cafés along the route for travelers to have some rest. The only one remains now.

From the highest altitude point for the 8 Miles Road, after about an hour descend, we cross a pedestrian crossing over the modern prefectural road Route 732. The ancient road still continues to another side for about 5 or so minutes. Then, on our right we meet an old, thatched wooden structure. It’s Amasake Chaya Café 甘酒茶屋, established around the same time for Hakone Checking Point 箱根関所 in the early 17th century. The current owner of the premise is the 13th Master of Amasake Chaya, Mr. Satoshi Yamamoto 山本聡. The café is famous for centuries with its special recipe for Amasake drink. Amasake is sweet drink made of steamed rice fermented by malted rice. Amasake Chaya’s recipe does not add any sugar. Yet, its sweetness is easy for tired body to replenish depleted energy, thanks to lots of natural amino acid, glucose, vitamins, oligosaccharide, and dietary fiber. i.e. The café acted as a water station for long-distance trail walkers/runners for more than 400 years. Today, they serve, in a reasonable price, their almighty Amasake and traditional Japanese snacks which are basically vegan (; the menu is here). Aaaaaaaaaand, they are always open, 7:00-17:30, rain or shine. Their café is standing on this historical artery road of Japan on which lots of travelers come and go. There is no excuse to close the water station for such exhausted passengers, isn’t there?

Amasake Chaya on our right

Amasake Chaya

Their famous Amasake

Now you reach here from Lake Ashinoko. Please enjoy famous Amasake, and light meals as lots of people have done for centuries. Oh, in English Wikipedia, they say Amazake is alcohol drink. WRONG. If we make it as Amasake Chaya does, it does not contain alcohol. Their fermentation method is same for soy source or miso paste, i.e. non-alcoholic, and safe for Muslims to drink. Even a 0-year-old baby can have it when their mom has problem of breast-feeding. Additional info: when you try their rice cake (Mochi) menu in Amasake Chaya, you can combine the flavoring of your choice. They serve a Mochi plate for two pieces of rice cakes. The choice of flavoring is soy source with seaweed (named ‘Isobe いそべ’), sweet kinako topping (called ‘Uguisu うぐいす’), and slightly salty kinako with coarsely ground toasted black sesame (‘Kurogoma 黒ごま‘). You can choose any of these for your two rice cakes, like “One with soy source, and another with sweet kinako.” Please tell your preference at the time of ordering. Their serving system is, you tell your choice at the cashier first, find your place to sit, and wait for the servers to bring your meal. As this is a very old wooden house, air circulation can be perfect, in addition to lots of open-air seats outside. We can enjoy café even under the threat of COVID-19 (+ they provide sanitizing alcohols, wipes et al here and there). And finally, the place is in the middle of municipal garden that has independent structure for lots of toilets! You can catch a commuter bus service (time table here) from here to Hakone-yumoto Station 箱根湯本駅 of Hakone Tozan Railway 箱根登山鉄道, or keep on walking the 8 Miles Road. Actually, to experience the historical 8 Miles Road of Hakone as the yesteryear people did, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet, mate. Please stay tuned for the next week. 😉

I ordered Isobe and Kurogoma for my lunch.

In front of the Café is Amasake Chaya Stop.

Toilets

If you find environmental issues in Hakone, please make a contact with Hakone Visitor Center, Ministry of Environment of Japan.

164 Motohakone, Hakone-machi, Ashigarashimo-gun, Kanagawa 250-0522
Phone: +81-460-84-9981
FAX: +81-460-84-5721
Email: hakone-vc@kanagawa.email.ne.jp
http://hakonevc.sunnyday.jp/shizenjyouhou/gazou/englishindex.html