Odakyu Electric Railway and Odakyu Hakone Holdings will hold “Hakone Sweets Collection 2025” in cooperation with hotels, museums, and restaurants in the Hakone area. The event will run from February 28 to April 23.
This event allows visitors to enjoy limited-edition sweets created by chefs and patissiers at each store while sightseeing in Hakone. This year will be the 26th edition of the event, and a total of 32 stores will offer original sweets.
The theme for 2025 is “Once-a-Year Reward Sweets. The lineup will include not only gorgeous assorted cakes and parfaits that are Hakone’s own, but also visually appealing and delicious sweets ranging from Japanese sweets to afternoon tea, in keeping with the theme.
For example, Suzuhiro Kamaboko no Sato Shiofu Café of Suzuhiro, famous for its kamaboko, offers “Kamanoko-shaped Harumeki Cake – Berry & Cheese Tailored – (with drink)” (1,480 yen). This kamanoko-shaped cake is made with strawberries, honey, two kinds of cheese, and wine. Limited to 20 servings per day.
The Prince Hakone Ashinoko’s lounge “Yamaboshi” will offer “Papillon Repose (with drink)” (3,000 yen), limited to five servings per day and available only by reservation. A crispy pie filled with strawberries and decorated with matcha and strawberry cake in a glass, and a butterfly made of strawberry cookies perched on a chocolate branch, this is a spring-like dish. The pie can be enjoyed as is or broken open and dipped in the cake.
Irori Jaya Yari, located in Hakone Yuryo, a secluded hot spring facility just up the hill from Hakone-Yumoto Station, offers “oborozuki” (1,800 yen), limited to 15 servings a day. In this style, dumplings, monaka, taiyaki, and other Japanese sweets are served together with a shichirin, and you can roast the dumplings and monaka yourself on the shichirin as you like. This is a fun sweet that can be freely arranged with toppings such as anko (red bean paste) and vanilla ice cream fruit.
Sengokuhara Teahouse offers a limited edition version of its signature retro pudding, “Spring Cherry Blossom Retro Pudding with Ice Cream (with drink)” (1,800 yen), limited to 20 servings per day. The pudding is made with Aikawa red eggs, which are the owner’s speciality, and each pudding contains two egg yolks. Topped with Dainagon azuki beans and salted cherry blossoms, the pudding has an excellent balance of sweetness and saltiness. The pudding itself has a subtle cherry blossom aroma, and the bittersweet retro pudding has a firm texture and a spring-like feel.
In addition, there will be one original sweet from each store, which the chefs and patissiers have filled with their specialties.
As in the previous year, the “Web reservation function for sweets” will continue. You can go to the store you want on the day of the event to purchase the sweets, but since many stores limit the quantity of sweets to a certain number, web reservations are recommended for those who want to be sure of getting the sweets. 11 out of 32 stores support this feature, and reservations can be made from 3 pm on January 31 until 11 am on the day of your visit. If you make a reservation online and enjoy sweets at a participating store between February 28 and April 13, 100 people will be selected by lottery each week to receive a 500-yen coupon that can be used for the next reservation.
In addition to securing the sweets, the “Hakone Best Pack” includes a Romance Car express ticket and boarding pass, and a Hakone Free Pass. Overnight trips can be selected by area, including Odawara, Hakone-Yumoto, Gora, Kowakudani/Miyanoshita, Sengokuhara, and Ashinoko.
For those who want to freely choose where they want to go and what they want to do, an assembly-type “Dynamic Package” is also available, which can include lodging, Romance Car, Hakone Free Pass, etc. in addition to sweets reservations. By combining any of the plans into a set, the price is said to be more economical than the regular price for individual reservations.
Also available is the “Sweets & Dinner Hotel Stay Plan. This is a lodging plan that includes original sweets for a limited time and dinner, and is offered only at Hotel Mayu Coeur Shogetsu and Hakone Hotel Kowakuen. The sweets at Hotel Mayu Coeur Shougetsu are available only for hotel guests.
This year’s event will also feature a hashtag campaign on Instagram. Those who follow the official Hakone Sweets Collection account (@hakonesweetscollection) and post photos of sweets with the hashtag “#Hakone Sweets Collection 2025” will be entered into a drawing to win prizes. The gifts include a one-day pass to Hakone Yuryo, a pass to Hakone Kowakuen Unessan, and a pass to the Hakone Lalique Museum of Fine Arts.
On February 26, a press tasting was held at one of the participating restaurants, Yumoto Fujiya Hotel, with 17 restaurants in attendance. Hidehiro Mizukami, president of Odakyu Hakone Holdings, took the stage on behalf of the organizers. Other guests included Hiroyuki Katsumata, mayor of Hakone Town, which sponsored the event; Shoji Furukawa, secretary general of the Odawara Hakone Chamber of Commerce; Masaaki Kawaguchi, secretary general of the Hakone Onsen Ryokan Hotel Cooperative Association; Mamoru Sato, executive director of the Hakone DMO (Hakone Tourism Association); and Jun Nakajima, representative director of Hakone Promotional Forum.
Mayor Katsumata said, “I hope many people will visit Hakone for the sweets collection and enjoy it.
Details of each store’s sweets are introduced on the “Hakone Sweets Collection 2025” special page.
© Source travel watch
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