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The Yomiuri Shimbun The hotel overlooks azalea shrubs and Ashinoko lake.
By Katsuya Ozawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
18:09 JST, March 3, 2025
The Yomiuri Shimbun The lounge of Hotel de Yama looks unchanged from when the hotel was renovated in 1978.
Hotel de Yama is located on a hill by Ashinoko lake in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, which overlooks Mt. Fuji. The European-style building with white walls and a red roof stands on a vast site of about 148,000 square meters. The building is said to be modeled on an old castle by Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
The site of the hotel was originally the villa of Koyata Iwasaki (1879-1945), the fourth president of the Mitsubishi conglomerate and nephew of founder Yataro Iwasaki. Hotel de Yama opened in 1948, and the current hotel facility is the third one, which was renovated in 1978. Koyata Iwasaki’s father, Yanosuke, was so impressed by the Swiss plateau that he decided to “make Hakone the Switzerland of Japan,” which is how the current view came to be.
Near the hotel lobby, there’s a spacious lounge with a high ceiling. The large chandeliers and palatial white columns are just as they were when the building was newly renovated. Antique lamps and works by woodblock print artist Hasui Kawase, a good friend of Koyata Iwasaki, are displayed in the lounge. From late autumn through winter, a fireplace warms the lounge where hotel guests sink into the large sofas and enjoy quiet time with a cup of coffee or other drinks.
The Yomiuri Shimbun A retro telephone placed in the hall of the hotel
One view that remains unchanged from the time of Koyata Iwasaki’s villa is the 3,000 azalea plants of 84 varieties. During the Golden Week holiday period in early May, the view of the azaleas blossoming and carpeting the hotel’s garden can be enjoyed along with the views of Mt. Fuji and Ashinoko lake. Around the same time, about 300 plants of rhododendrons in 42 varieties also bloom in the garden, and 230 plants of hydrangea in 25 varieties bloom in June. No wonder the hotel is sometimes called “flower hotel.”
The Yomiuri Shimbun Azaleas are in full bloom in the hotel’s garden in May.
When I visited the hotel in May last year during the azaleas’ peak bloom, I met a married couple in their 80s. They said they had come to the hotel for the first time since their honeymoon about half a century ago. They told me that apart from strolls in the garden to view the azaleas, they were spending most of their stay in their room to share memories with each other from when they were younger.
“Many of our guests spend their time inside the hotel and don’t go out to tourist spots,” said Daisuke Kunieda, the general manager of the hotel.
Time flows slowly at the lakeside retreat both now and in the past.
Access: 1 hour and 35 minutes by car from the Tokyo Interchange of the Tomei Expressway, via Odawara-Atsugi Road toll way and Hakone Shindo toll way
Memo: A fair celebrating azaleas and rhododendrons is held at the hotel every year for about two weeks from late April. Admission to the event is expected to be free this year.
