Your guide to turning a trip to Japan into a creative treasure trove for your mini-artist – PART TWO: The Hakone area
Welcome back! If you caught Part One all about the Tokyo area (plus Ghibli Park), you’ll know that Japan is a goldmine for creative families. But just outside of Tokyo is perhaps one of the most art soaked places I have had the pleasure to visit.
Hakone is one of those places that feels like it was grown by the artists themselves. Mountains, forests, volcanic valleys and scattered throughout all of that, some of the most extraordinary art experiences you’ll find anywhere in the world.
And my favourite part – some of it is hands-on, not just about admiring things in glass cases. We’re talking about making things. Melting glass, throwing pottery, engraving, sandblasting. The kind of stuff that lights a mini-artist up for weeks.
Let’s get into it!
Much Love
Alissa
Hakone Open Air Museum
The Hakone Open Air Museum is Japan’s first outdoor museum, spread across a massive 70,000 square metres of lawns, mountain views, and gardens. It’s not one of those places where you shuffle quietly from painting to painting. You’re outside, you’re walking, and you’re surrounded by enormous sculptures by some of the world’s greatest artists — Rodin, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Taro Okamoto, and more.
The museum hosts over 1,000 pieces in total, with around 120 sculptural works on permanent display across the park. What makes it special for kids is that so many of these works are interactive. You can walk through them, climb around them, and get right up close. There’s also a naturally fed onsen footbath on site so when you get tired of walking around the amazing exhibits, there’s some genuine relaxing to do!
Don’t miss the Picasso Pavilion — it contains around 300 of the Spanish artist’s works, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and more. It’s a brilliant opportunity to show mini-artists that Picasso wasn’t just one style — his work changed dramatically across his lifetime.
The Symphonic Sculpture — the stained glass tower
This is the one that will make your jaw drop. The Symphonic Sculpture is one of the larger pieces, and is best experienced from inside. As you climb the spiral staircase within the 18-metre tower, the stained glass lights up your face with rainbows. At the top, an open-air viewing platform offers panoramic views across the museum and surrounding mountains.
Why This Matters for Mini-Artists
Large-scale sculpture teaches children something that drawing on paper can’t — that art has weight. It has texture and shadow, it responds to light, it exists in physical space and changes depending on where you’re standing. Walking around a sculpture is an art lesson in itself.
The Symphonic Sculpture also introduces the concept of architecture-as-art. The way structure, light, and colour can work together to create a completely immersive experience is a lesson mini-artists will draw on for years.
A sunny day is highly recommended for this one — especially for that tower!
Check opening hours and tickets on the official Hakone Open Air Museum website here.
Hakone Venetian Glass Museum (Hakone Glass no Mori)
Picture this: you’re walking through a garden in the mountains of Japan, and the whole thing is glittering. Glass sculptures in the trees, crystal installations catching the light, the whole garden shimmering like something out of a fairytale. That’s the Hakone Venetian Glass Museum — and on a bright, sunny day, it is spectacular.
Nestled in the lush greenery of Hakone’s Sengokuhara, this is Japan’s first dedicated art museum showcasing Venetian glass. The garden overlooking Owakudani features a beautiful blend of seasonal blooms and shimmering crystal glass.
Inside, the museum’s collection of about 1,000 pieces centres on the golden age of Venetian glass from the 15th to 16th centuries, alongside ancient glass from over 2,000 years ago, and glass art from the 20th century.
What I love about this place for mini-artists is how powerfully it answers a question we try to get our mini-artists to think about all the time: how many different things can you make from one medium? The answer here, it turns out, is basically everything. Goblets, sculptures, jewellery, tree and flower gardens, lamps, mosaics, architectural installations — all made from glass, all completely different, all extraordinary.
It’s such a beautiful way to stretch a child’s imagination about what a material can become with enough skill and creativity.
Why This Matters for Mini-Artists
Glass is one of those materials most kids have never worked with — it feels magical and slightly mysterious. Seeing the breadth of what’s possible with glass, from ancient Roman pieces to shimmering garden sculptures, opens up completely new thinking about materials, colour, and light.
The way glass interacts with sunlight — bending, scattering, intensifying colour — is also a brilliant starting point for conversations about light as an art medium. Mini-artists who understand light will be better painters, photographers, and designers for it.
Bright sunlight makes the whole experience dramatically better. Morning visits are stunning!
Find out more and plan your visit at the official Hakone Venetian Glass Museum website here.
Hakone Craft House (Hakone Gora Park)
If I had to pick just ONE stop in Hakone for a mini-artist, this would be it.
If your mini-artist is the kind of kid who would rather be making things than looking at things — Hakone Craft House is going to be the highlight of your entire Japan trip.
Set inside Hakone Gora Park, the Craft House offers hands-on workshops across a range of categories: glassblowing, ceramics, sandblasting, glass beads, pottery painting, pottery wheel, and Kiriko glass engraving. Artists guide you one-on-one through each experience, so even children can enjoy it with confidence.
Here’s a taste of what’s on offer:
- Glassblowing — Any child over four years old who can blow a balloon can take part in a glassblowing session, working with a craftsperson to manipulate molten glass and create a real glass piece with colour and pattern.
- Pottery Wheel — Shaping clay on a spinning wheel is one of those experiences that is trickier than it looks and about ten times more satisfying when it works. Kids from primary school age can join in.
- Glass Beads (Tonbotama) — Glass bead making was imported during the Edo period through trade with Spain and Portugal. The process involves melting glass over an open flame, creating beautiful and original patterns. Kanpai Japan Kids aged 10 and over can give this one a go.
- Kiriko Glass Engraving — A technique with deep cultural roots in Japan. Kiriko involves etching intricate patterns onto the surface of glass — in recent years, kiriko was chosen by the Japanese government as a gift to global heads of state at the G8 Summit. That’s how special this craft is.
- Vintage Beading, Sandblasting, Hand-Drawn Laser Engraving — there is genuinely something here for every age and interest.
Workshops are roughly in the $30–50 AUD range, making this exceptional value for a hands-on creative experience.
Note that some works — like pottery and glasswork — need time to fire or cool and will be shipped to you after your visit. If you want something to take home on the day, the glass bead jewellery workshop is perfect.
Why This Matters for Mini-Artists
Glassblowing and glass engraving are genuinely rare experiences. These are high-skill, professional art forms that most adults will never get to try in their lifetime — let alone kids. Finding a place that has broken down these techniques so carefully that a four-year-old can blow their own glass piece, or a ten-year-old can engrave Kiriko patterns, is extraordinary. That’s not something you’ll stumble across at home.
Hakone Craft House also introduces kids to the idea of craft as art — that technique, patience, and cultural tradition are woven into every piece made here. These aren’t tourist trinkets. They’re genuine cultural art techniques that have been practised in Japan for centuries.
Check the full workshop list and plan your session at the official Hakone Craft House website here.
Mishima Skywalk
Okay, this one is a little different — but stay with me, because for mini-artists who are starting to learn about perspective and drawing, this experience is honestly hard to beat.
The Mishima Skywalk is a pedestrian bridge that spans a valley on the southwestern rim of the Mount Hakone caldera, measuring 400 metres in length — the longest suspension footbridge in Japan.
Standing 70 metres above the ground, the bridge offers simultaneous views of Japan’s tallest mountain, Mount Fuji, and Japan’s deepest bay, Suruga Bay. The bridge stretches out in front of you, cables converging toward a single vanishing point on the horizon, the landscape layering and receding into the distance in every direction.
It is literally a masterclass in linear perspective and Planar perspective. In real life. With Mt Fuji as the backdrop.
There’s also a Long Zip Slide available — 560 metres of gliding through the air, 70 metres above the ground, with Mt Fuji in view. For kids who need a little extra adventure bribery to get onto a suspension bridge, that tends to seal the deal.
Why This Matters for Mini-Artists
Perspective is one of the trickiest concepts to teach in a studio — it’s abstract, it’s mathematical, and it can feel disconnected from real-world experience. Walking the Mishima Skywalk makes it physical. Mini-artists can feel scale and distance. They can see with their own eyes how objects get smaller as they recede, how lines converge, how layers of landscape stack up.
Bring a sketchbook or take reference photos from the bridge. The lines of the cable structure alone are a brilliant drawing exercise.
Find out more at the official Mishima Skywalk website here.
A Quick Note on the Hakone Free Pass
If you’re planning to visit multiple spots in Hakone, look into the Hakone Free Pass before you go. It covers trains, buses, and the ropeway throughout the Hakone area and can save you a significant amount of money — especially when you’re hopping between the Open Air Museum, the Craft House, and the Venetian Glass Museum. Some attractions also offer discounts to Free Pass holders.
Check the Odakyu website for current pricing and coverage.
This Is Just the Beginning
Hakone is one of those places that genuinely surprises you. You go expecting mountains and hot springs — and you find one of the most creative, art-rich regions in Japan. The combination of world-class gallery experiences AND hands-on making opportunities in the one area is something that’s hard to find anywhere else in the world.
Planning a trip to Japan with your mini-artist? We’d love to hear what they loved! Drop a comment below or come and chat with us in the studio — we have a feeling there are going to be some very inspired young artists coming through our doors after the school holidays. 🎨