Owakudani

High in Hakone, Owakudani is a valley where volcanic steam still rises from the earth and a faint scent of sulfur drifts on the wind. Approaching it on Route 1, the white coils up beyond the guardrails until it stands like a wall across the road — spring steam, or the pale smoke of the heights, you can no longer tell. Cold, otherworldly, and quietly thrilling, it marks the moment the climb reaches its strange white summit before the road tips down toward the lake.