Hakone located within 2 hours away from Tokyo is famous for its onsen (hot spring). For those planning to go to Hakone Free and Easy by yourself, hopefully the infomation below will help you in your planning. As we plan to go to both Hakone and gotemba and experience the bullet train, we plan the following : -
Purchase the Hakone Freepass to get around Hakone and upgrade to Limited Express Romancecar (Limited Express Romance Car Timetable) from Shinjuku to Hakone Yumoto. As the Hakone Freepass covers Hakone Tozan Train, Hakone Tozan Cablecar,Hakone Ropeway, Hakone Sight Seeing Cruise ,Hakone Tozan Bus, Odakyu Hakone Highway bus and Nomazu Tokan Tokai Bus to designated area.
From our hotel close to Kami Gora Station to Gotemba, our plan is to take the Hakone Tozan Bus from Gora Station to Gotemba premium outlet. On weekdays, there are 6 direct buses from Gora (0940,1040,1320,1440,1620,1720) to Gotemba Premium Outlet and the journey takes 1hour 10 minutes.
We purchase the Hakone Freepass ticket,limited express romance car and JR Limited Express Asagiri from Odakyu Sightseeing Service Center. However because we are taking JR Limited Express Asagiri ( which is different company from Odakyu ), we were require to pay a slight extra at the JR counter. ( Anyway, do not worry to much as the people who attended to us at the Sight Seeing Service counter was very friendly and helpful ). The typical Hakone Freepass for 2 days 1 night cost 5000yen. We were require to pay extra 860yen to reserve the seats for the limited romance express train.
Pic 1 : Hakone Yumoto Freepass Map
Pic 2 : Odakyu Train Station ( location to board Romance Car ).
Pic 3 : Limited Express Romance Car from Shinjuku Odakyu station
Pic 4 : Odakyu Limited Express Romancecar reserved seat.
Pic 5 : Hakone Yumoto station. From here we change to change to Hakone Tozan Train to Gora
Pic 6 : One of the stops on the Hakone Tozan Train
Pic 7 : At Gora, we change onto the Hakone Tozan Cablecar to get to Sounzan. We stop on the 4th station(Kami Gora station) to drop our luggage at the Hyatt Hakone ( refer to Hyatt Hakone post)
Pic 8 : At Sounzan we change on the Hakone Tozan Ropeway to Togendai. The Ropeway will take you across the volcanic mountain and stop at Owakudani whereby you are able to get a good view of Mount Fuji on a clear day.
Pic 9 : View of Owakudani from Hakone Tozan Ropeway. Can you see the sulphur gas coming up from there?
Pic 10 : View of Owakudani from Hakone Tozan Ropeway
Pic 11 : You are required to make a change at this stop to get to Togendai to board the Hakone Sight Seeing Cruise. There is quite a number of things to see at this stop and don't forget to try the famous kurotamago black egg that is cook naturally by placing it above the sulphuric gas and suppose to prolong your life for 7 year/egg.
Pic 12 : Owakudani. The view as you exit and turn left. For those that plan to hike up, do take note of the notice. I personally witness someone who fainted and had to be carried out by ambulance when I was there. Hopefully it did not fall onto the boiling hot water.
Pic 13 : View of Mount Fuji as you head to the right when you exit the station. Walk on as you will be able to get a great photo of Mount Fuji on a clear day.
Pic 14 : This is what I manage to take. I can't believe that we are so lucky to be able to view Mount Fuji on such a clear blue sky. You'lll see in my Gotemba post that Mount Fuji is quite shy and most of the time, it is hidden behind the clouds.
Pic 15 : After spending close to 1/2 hour taking photo of Mount Fuji, we headed back towards the mountain. The temperature was quite close so we decided to head to the shops for the famous Kurotamago and some light snacks.
Pic 16 : Souvenir Shop. There is a mini food court attached to this shop
Pic 17 : One of the counters
Pic 18: Kurotamago.. 5 pcs for 500 yen. "Eat One and get 7 years longetivity".
Pic 19 : We got a package but end up sharing this with friends we met along the way.
Pic 20 : Food Counter. Apparently they serve fresh milk. I took the ice cream though and it taste really good.
Pic 21 : Warning sign as you climb up the hill. Do heed it. There is a very strong smell of sulphur.
Pic 22 : Natural Sulphur water. The temperature of these water is almost at boiling point. " DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TOUCH IT"
Pic 23 : Another great view of Mount Fuji as we hike up the Mountain.
Pic 24 : At the top of the mountain. I notice that some of the boxes here contains the kurotamago eggs.
Pic 25 : At the top of the mountain.
Pic 26 : We proceeded to Togendai on the 2nd leg of the Hakone Tozan Ropeway
Pic 27 : Pass UBAKO station along the way. The second leg of the journey provides a better Mount Fuji view.
Pic 28 : All the rides starts and end one after the other. What this means is that when you exit Hakone Tozan Ropeway, the Hakone SightSeeing cruise is just in front.
Pic 29 : Pass by this shop along the way to board the pirate cruise
Pic 30 : Pirate cruise on standby
Pic 31 : Our Pirate cruise docking
Pic 32 : Cruising Lake Ashi
Pic 33 : Cruising Lake Ashi ( view of Togendai)
Pic 34 : Cruising Lake Ashi ( view of Mount Fuji and Tori gate )
Pic 35 : Moto Hakone. We reach here around 3.30pm. As Hyatt Hakone offers free cocktail from 4pm-7pm , we decided to head back as soon as possible to enjoy the free drinks and also the Onsen. We decided to do a late lunch here as well on one of the shops.
Pic 36 : Moto Hakone
Pic 37 : Our late lunch. Udon with tempura
Pic 38 : Our late lunch. shrimp cake
Pic 39 : This is where we waited for our Hakone Tozan Bus ride to Gora to catch the Hakone Tozan Cable car to Kami Gora station ( where Hyatt is located). Opposite is a convenient store. We bought some food from the store back to savour in our hotel room for late night snacks.
Pic 40 : Sunset at Moto Hakone
Pic 41 : The bus dropped us at Kowakudani station and we had to take the Hakone Tozan train towards Gora.
Nice report with great info! May I know what time did you set off from your hotel to Hakone trip? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi , I took the 7am romance train from Shinjuku station and got to hakone yumoto at around 8.40am. You can refer to the train timetable here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.odakyu.jp/english/rc/rc_timetable_a01.html
great post you have on Hakone!
ReplyDelete