We only spent about 1H at the open air museum, and it's worth more time, but I was mostly interested in having a look and keep more time for the Hakone loop and the next train back to Gora to take the connecting cable car and start our loop.

back across the river flowing from Hakone to get to the HakoneYumoto train station towards Gora

view from the very slow train to Gora

finally made it to open air museum

oops, the chute didn't open :)

inspired from MC Escher?

Time to go to Gora and the cable car up to do our loop. We went to see the sulfur and nauseous gases, including the sulfur pool where they boil eggs that also turn black in the process. We got our black eggs like some good tourists :)
Once we were done with the top, we went down the other side towards Asahi lake, for a cruise across to the town, where we picked up some sake, visited the local sights and walked to the Palace detached garden:

then gondolas up from there

and the way back down connecting to the pirate ship

there was a cable car with a view up there, but covered in clouds

Eventually we got to Kuzuryu Shrine before taking a cab back to Gora Kadan to save time and enjoy more time there:

they all have huge containers of sake

Once in Gora Kadan, we did our best to enjoy the great facilities there:

I went to check out the beautiful onsen

this is where you wash yourself before goign in the main bath

out there

Our room was great of course:

very comfortable raised futon. Almost a bed really

our private patio wasn't bad :)

if relais et chateaux said it's good, it must be :)

Then came time for a really good dinner:

After dinner, we got to enjoy our private bath:

And a shot from just as good breakfast the next morning. Jennifer complained that she only had 30mn to enjoy it (we had to get an early train out to get to Tokyo in time to meet our guide that afternoon.

Gora Kadan was definitely a great experience, probably more than Hakone itself, even if its price was a bit up there. Eh, you only live once :)