Places in Japan: The Amazake Tea House

BASIC INFORMATION

• Name: Amazake Tea House
• Where: Hakone, Japan
• Cost: Items on the menu cost 500 yen or less
• More Information: Amazake Tea House Official website

Directions

To get to the tea house via bus, take the Hakone Tozan Bus (Route K) from Hakone-Yumoto Station (OH51) bound for Motohakone Port.  Along the way exit the bus at the Amazake-chaya Tea House.  It is a less than 30 minute bus ride to the tea house.

Parking

If driving to the Amazake Tea House there is a large parking lot adjacent to the building.  Even on a busy weekend we found a place to park here.

Narrative

My family and I really enjoy the beauty and the history of the Hakone area.  One of the places where you can appreciate both of these aspects of Hakone is by visiting the Amazake tea house which is called a chaya in Japanese:

This tea house is over 400 years old and is operated by the 13th generation of descendants of the same family that founded the teahouse all centuries ago.  The descendants even use the same recipes for their food service that the founders created.  This allows visitors today to experience the type of simple meals travelers on the Old Tokaido Road that used to run between Edo (modern day Tokyo) and Kyoto used to eat.  The stones that made the Old Tokaido Road are still visible behind the tea house.  The road can still be hiked to this day and the less than two mile walk from Lake Ashi to the tea house is a popular one:

Before checking out the tea house make sure to check out the Tokaido Road museum located next door:

This museum is located in a historic building and has free admittance.  The museum is actually pretty nice for being free.  It has one large room filled with a displays that teaches the history of the Tokaido Road:

The Tokaido was the eastern sea route of Japan’s historic highway system that had five different roads.  The road network had been around for many centuries, but in 1618 the Tokugawa shogunate paved the Tokaido Road.  The picture below depicts the five roads and the checkpoints located along the roads.  The Tokaido can be seen running on the southern coast between Edo and Kyoto:

The vast majority of travelers on the Tokaido had to walk to get to where they were going.  The use of handcarts and horses was rare.  When people walked on the Tokaido they wore straw sandals likes these ones on display in the museum:

However, for the well off traveler they could hire a palanquin to carry them throughout their journey:

Wealthy daimyo and other nobles would not only be carried on palanquins, but would have large processions follow along with them for security and to display their status:

Along the Tokaido there was various checkpoints that provided food, drink, and entertainment for those traveling on the road.  The checkpoints are also where government officials would check the papers of travelers to ensure they paid their permit to be on the road.  Few women traveled on the road and those that did had to be accompanied by men.  Women traveling on the road was strictly controlled in order to prevent women from daimyo families from escaping Edo and the Shogun’s control.  The Tokugawa shogunate forced their nobles to move their families to Edo so he can effectively hold them as hostages to ensure the loyalty of his subordinates:

Exploring the museum should take about 20 minutes and then from there I recommend getting a bit to eat at the Amazake Tea House:

Inside of the tea house there are a few small tables for people to sit at.  Though the building is very old it does have electricity to light the building with:

My family and I when we go here like to go to a large area where people can sit on the ground around a fire.  This fire is where people’s food is cooked in an iron bowl:

I recommend ordering the Amazake (¥400) that this teahouse is famous for.  Amazake is a non-alcoholic and non-sweetened rice wine.  It didn’t find it tasty at first, but the more I have drank it the more I like it’s taste.  One of the dishes my wife likes to order here is the miso-oden (¥450):

My favorite dish is the chikara-mochi (¥500) with soybean powder and black sesame and it is excellent.  I highly recommend this item:

Eating a meal at the Amazake Teahouse should take about 45 minutes.  Something to keep in mind when eating here is that your clothes will smell like smoke after you leave.  The fire they use to cook food and heat the teahouse like they did in the old days causes the interior to be smoky.

Conclusion

The Amazake Tea House and it adjacent Tokaido Museum is a must see location for anyone visiting the Hakone area that enjoys exploring Japan’s historical past. For those looking for a modern dining experience this is not it.  The tea house and museum give visitors a small experience of what life was like for travelers on the old Taikado Road all those centuries ago.