9 Best Places to Go Shopping in Hakone

Gotemba Premium Outlets HILL SIDE, as its name suggests, is a new area built on a slope. It has 88 stores, mostly popular American brands, arranged into 3 streets. Besides discounted outlet items, seasonal sales and limited-time sales offer great value for money.

With the opening of ITADAKI TERRACE, a food hall with a spectacular view of Mt. Fuji, the choice of restaurants has increased dramatically. Attached to the hotel is an amusement park and day-trip hot spring facilities, making it excellent for families and groups of friends.

LUSCA Odawara is the Odawara branch of LUSCA, a station building in the Shonan area. The stores offer a wide variety of products catering to a wide range of customers, from locals to tourists.

The food section on the ground floor is particularly popular with local customers. Directly connected to Odawara Station, it’s also ideal for buying souvenirs and boxed lunches before boarding a bullet train. There are restaurants and cafés serving food, too, so why not take a break here?

LUSCA Atami opened in 2016, bringing the LUSKA station buildings from the Shonan area to Atami for the first time. This is the new face of Atami Station, which was renovated at the same time. It features a lineup of shops typical of the Shonan area as well as offering a wide range of Atami-exclusive items and foods.

There are plenty of handy shops for locals, but also many shops for tourists to pick up souvenirs. You can even enjoy a BBQ on the rooftop without needing to BYO anything.

Hamamatsuya is a specialist store offering demonstrations of Hakone's traditional Yosegi-zaiku (wooden mosaic), a craft that has been practised since the Edo period. Live demonstrations are given upstairs throughout the day, so head on up to witness some meticulous craftsmanship.

Designs range from traditional geometric patterns to compositions with flowers and animals. Simple bookmarks and keychains make great souvenirs of your trip to Hakone. Or you could take back some boxes, containers, and accessory cases to accent the interior of your home. The choice is yours.

Chimoto Takidori Honten is located in an area alive with the sound of water, and you can taste Japanese sweets fresh from the factory right next door. One of the specialities here is warabi mochi (bracken starch cakes) filled with sweet bean paste, which you can buy individually. It’s definitely worth a try.

You’ll also find a variety of other healthy Japanese sweets made from natural ingredients. The beautifully boxed assortments on sale make for perfect gifts.

Filled with a wide range of goods, EVA-YA is a must-visit shop for fans of the popular Evangelion series of TV anime and films. This shop was opened because Hakone is the setting of an episode in the film TOKYO-3. It offers a lot of original products and is also a good place to buy a unique souvenir from Hakone.

The shop also has snacks and colourful Eva Soft (soft serve ice cream) to take away. It’s located inside the building in front of Hakone-Yumoto Station, and you’ll easily be able to find it thanks to the life-size figure outside the shop.

Hakone Yosegi-zaiku "Kiro" is a boutique that carries on the tradition of the marquetry that originally started in Hakone at the end of the Edo period. The geometric pattern design adopts the texture of natural wood to complement natural outfits. It also goes well with modern interiors.

Here you’ll find a plenty of products, from stationery and kitchen items to unique tote bags, that are in tune with today's lifestyles. Even if you’re only looking, there are stacks of fascinating original products to discover.

Hakone Craft House is a hands-on craft facility inside Hakone Gora Park. A one-of-a-kind original piece of artwork would make a great souvenir to remind you of your trip to Hakone. Also popular are the glass-blowing, Kiriko glass, pottery, and Tombodama (glass bead) handicrafts.

The gift boutique on the first floor offers a wide range of artwork by local artists. Many of the items are original or limited-edition items, so it can be hard to decide which piece of artwork to buy.

Odawara Fishing Port is one of the top sightseeing spots when visiting Hakone. The restaurant upstairs at the fish market is open to the public and offers a selection of affordable seafood dishes. The morning market at the port is also famous, selling everything from dried fish to Odawara's speciality, kamaboko (boiled fish paste).

It’s also well worth visiting Odawara Osakana-dori and TOTOCO Odawara. This is a fun area for shopping, with all kinds of souvenirs on offer. There are plenty of restaurants here too.