{"id":3696,"date":"2025-12-29T19:00:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T02:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=3696"},"modified":"2025-12-29T19:00:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T02:00:36","slug":"beautiful-sightseeing-boat-is-a-floating-tea-ceremony-venue-in-east-japans-best-hot-spring-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=3696","title":{"rendered":"Beautiful sightseeing boat is a floating tea ceremony venue in east Japan\u2019s best hot spring town"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Daichakai sets sail in Hakone<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Nestled in the mountains of Kanagawa Prefecture, the town of Hakone<\/strong> makes for a great weekend or overnight trip from the Tokyo area. In addition to some of east Japan\u2019s best hot springs, Hakone boats beautiful scenery, and a trip across Lake Ashinoko<\/strong> is a must-do for the views of the surrounding forests and, on clear days, Mt. Fuji.<\/p>\n

On our most recent trip to Hakone, though, it wasn\u2019t just the views from our boat that were beautiful, but the views of the boat itself too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Daichakai<\/strong> went into service on December 20. While not a completely newly constructed vessel, this remodeling of an existing Lake Ashinoko sightseeing boat was so extensive that it\u2019s been given a new name. Written with the kanji characters \u5927\u8336\u4f1a, Daichakai means \u201cGrand Tea Ceremony,\u201d and yes, the theme is tea<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Green tea-like hues are a recurring design motif, and the ship\u2019s first-floor passenger area even has verdant strands stretching down from the ceiling to give the impression of hanging lanterns. Terraced tea fields serve as the inspiration for a unique open-air seating area on the ship\u2019s top deck<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Along with tea-green, the other big player in the interior design\u2019s color palette is gold, which you\u2019ll find on the walls of the stairwell.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The most breathtaking spot, though, is the second-floor passenger area<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Stringed curtains provide a sense of relaxing seclusion while still maintaining a spacious atmosphere, and at the end of the central walkway is a bonsai pine tree crafted out of washi paper<\/strong>. If you step around to the other side of that wall, though\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026you\u2019ll find a tea ceremony room!<\/strong><\/p>\n

When not being used for events, this space, called Kinpuan<\/strong> (tea ceremony cottages often have the suffix -an), can be used as a passenger lounge. However, when we looked at the tatami reed flooring we saw that there is indeed a rodotani, or sunken hearth, built in, so actual tea ceremony demonstrations can be held here<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to wait for a tea ceremony if you\u2019re feeling thirsty, though. On the first floor is a tea stand, called Chaten<\/strong>, that offers various green tea drinks, from regular matcha to matcha floats and even matcha beer<\/strong>. They also serve green tea sweets<\/strong> such as cake and pudding, as well as light fare in the form of rice balls and ochazuke<\/strong> (rice with hot green tea poured over it) with salmon<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The tea we got was freshly brewed and high-quality, served in a nice bottle that you can take home with you.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a corner with souvenir sweets too, handy or stocking up on if you\u2019re spending a night at one of Hakone\u2019s ryokan (traditional Japanese inns) and want some snacks to munch on while you\u2019re in your room.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The ship\u2019s third floor also has a drink\/snack bar, which was unstaffed during our press tour but looks like it\u2019s ready to go for peak travel days<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Speaking of the third floor, it too has a tea cottage-style space, this one a half open-air one, called Ryokufuan<\/strong>, with a cool circular window for a classical Japanese villa feel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Certain sections of the outdoor deck are painted a very eye-catching shade of vermillion, bringing to mind Japanese lacquerware.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s going to be pretty chilly in Japan for the next several weeks, so it\u2019s nice that Daichakai has no shortage of stylish interior seating areas, and w<\/b>ith pretty much every wall being a window, you can still enjoy the view while staying out of the cold in winter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u25bc The boat\u2019s route takes it past the Hakonejinja shrine, whose torii gate stabds just off the lakeshore.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Daichakai route starts at the Hakone Sekisho Ato port, at the southeastern corner of Lake Ashinoko, and after departing makes stops at Motohakone and Hakone-en<\/strong>. From Hakone-en, the ship usually sails back to Hakone Seikisho Ato, but two boats a day, the ones departing Hakone Seikisho Ato at 9:20 a.m. and 3:05 p.m., go on to Kojiri<\/strong>, at the north end of the lake, but without docking before coming back to Hakone Seikisho Ato, and the final boat of the day is just a hop from Hakone Seikisho Ato to Motohakone, leaving at 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u25bc Note that the fares listed as \u201cRound-trip\u201d in English under the one-way section are for the full loop that goes all the way to Kojiri and back.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Full timetables for the Daichakai, and its sister ship the Sorakaze, can be found on their official website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: Daichakai official website<\/a><\/em>
\nPhotos \u00a9SoraNews24\/em>
\n<\/em>Insert images: <\/em>
\n\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daichakai sets sail in Hakone. Nestled in the mountains of Kanagawa Prefecture, the town of Hakone makes for a great weekend or overnight trip from the Tokyo area. In addition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}