Passing post town after post town, Totsuka, Fujisawa, Hiratsuka, Yaji and Kitahachi reached Odawara.
When they entered the inn, they were told the bath was ready. But the bath at this inn was a Kamigata-style "Goemon bath": an iron tub set directly over a fire to heat the water, with a round board floating on the bottom. The proper way is to step on the board, sink it and get in, but Yaji, who knew only the public baths of Edo, had no idea.
Thinking the board was just a lid, Yaji took it out and put his foot into the water, but the bottom of the tub was so hot he couldn't stand on it. "Ow, ow, hot!" At a loss, he fetched some wooden clogs from beside the toilet and got into the bath wearing them. That way it wasn't hot. Yaji soaked in the tub, very pleased with himself.
When it was Kitahachi's turn, Yaji kept quiet about the clogs and urged him, "The water's lovely." Kitahachi too leapt up the moment he put his foot in, found that Yaji was hiding the clogs, and got in wearing clogs himself. But as Kitahachi clattered about in the water, he stamped right through the bottom of the tub. The water poured out, the innkeeper scolded them roundly, and they ended up paying for the tub to be repaired.
The next morning the two crossed Mount Hakone, sung of as "the steepest pass in the land." Panting, they climbed the steep stone-paved slope, drank the famous sweet amazake at a teahouse along the way, and over the pass, on the shore of Lake Ashi, came to the Hakone checkpoint. It strictly controlled "guns coming in and women going out" of Edo, but as two men traveling together, they showed their passes and got through without trouble.
"The eight ri of Hakone can be crossed even on horseback, but the Oi River cannot be crossed." The two men's journey had only just begun.