Hakone is a location in Wangan Midnight, set in the mountainous regions of Kanagawa. The 4th episode of the anime takes place here, where Akio Asakura goes stargazing with his teacher Rumi Shimada.
In the Maximum Tune series of games, there is a Hakone course which uses part of the Ashinoko Skyline and Hakone Skyline. This course has many turns consisting of changing elevations between downhill and uphill. Continuing Hakone Outbound without taking a turnover will let you proceed to Initial D's Nagao Pass while turning right from Hakone Outbound before the turnover will take you to MF Ghost's Ashinoko GT course.
Cars are pre-tuned to have very short gears here, due to the course's twisty roads.
Mount Taikan[]
In the latest installment in Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5, there's a new course added based on the region, named Mt. Taikan. It is the turnpike section of the Hakone region. The course is significantly different from the previous iterations. The differences are as follows:
- Mount Taikan features longer stretches of straight, enabling cars to reach very high speeds (it is possible to reach 300 km/h or more).
- A small amount of traffic is present, due to its real-life classification as a highway.
- It is notably steeper than the "old" Hakone, and unlike the "old" Hakone that features both uphill and downhill sections, Mt. Taikan can only run in either uphill or downhill.
- Mt. Taikan's uphill starting ramp has dividers while the downhill starting ramp has the most dangerous corners.
- Being classified as a highway, but located in a mountain range means that the cars are pre-tuned to have slightly shorter gears than it has for the highways. However there are similarities:
- Both courses can't increase their distance to goal despite of the number of players.
- Most of their corners requires the use of brakes to avoid hitting walls.
- There's a tollbooth at the last kilometer when going downhill which players may get the risk of losing the lead at the last minute.
- It is identical to Initial D's rendition of Hakone.