Originally Posted by
jib71
If you want to evaluate the possibilities for walking in both places you could do worse than referring to the Lonely Planet Japan guidebook on hiking in Japan:
http://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Planet-.../dp/1741040728
(Other books on the topic are available).
Perhaps rjque will moan that I'm not living up to my duty to be helpful ... but really a guidebook is your friend in this situation.
You have no duty to be helpful. I'm just suggesting that you be polite. I'm not sure why this forum is so much more abrupt and unfriendly than the other Flyertalk forums, but it is. (And I think suggesting a specific guide book, as you have, is a very helpful thing to do).
I personally find guide books to be much less useful now than they were 10 years ago. Flyertalk is a great resource, but I don't have an answer to the OP's question because I haven't been to Hakone since 1993. I very much enjoyed Nikko when I was there on a day trip a few years ago, but I don't have enough information to really help the OP there.