So I skipped something from yesterday’s entry, before we went to the totally excellent Himawari Sushi, we had to go to the Odakyu Sightseeing Center in their section of Shinjuku Station. Luckily this part was really straightforward. Find the big Odakyu building (not the HALC!) go in, and look for the counter marked “Sightseeing Service Center.” Brilliant! Not only that, but the girl at the counter actually spoke perfect english, which was nice, because nearly every attempt to communicate in Japanese was met with that same blank stare…
Each of us got a “Hakone Free Pass” for ¥5000, which would get us there and back, and allow us free reign over the Odakyu transportation systems in Hakone, which is what you want. This will get you on the buses, the local trains, and most importantly, the sightseeing “pirate” boats on Lake Ashi, and the Ropeway cars.
A slight snag, though, as half of the ropeway was down for maintenance that week! Bummer! Not to worry though, as the girl explained that there would be shuttle buses to connect us through. Excellent.
Additionally, for a small charge both ways, we got reserved seats on the “Romance Car“, from Shinjuku to Hakone Yumoto, and from Odawara back to Shinjuku… And I’m so glad we did. It was also the tenth anniversary of the counter there, so we each got a nifty little plastic pouch with all sorts of coupons you could use in Hakone, but we wound up not using any of them!
The Romance Car is about the best ride you’re going to get. You can spring for the first class “Green Car” seats, which we didn’t. The ride was only an hour and change, so that option didn’t really seem worth it. Regardless, that hour was one of the more peaceful and stress-free times of the trip. The Mrs. had grabbed a sausage roll thingy from a shop at the platform, while I got a tonkatsu sandwich from the cart on the train for breakfast. It was good, not special, but still good.
When you arrive at Hakone-Yumoto, you’re not really “there” yet, unless you happen to be staying there. We had to navigate our way to the bus station through the maze of under-construction signs, and wound up on the wrong side of the road! The kind lady at the main (and covered!) bus stop told us, “no, you want over there,” and pointed to a foot-wide strip of sidewalk on the other side of the busy street. We found a spot in the shade and waited for a bit. The buses only run every 30 minutes, and we’d just missed the last one.
The road we had to cross was incredibly busy, even this early in the morning, so we navigated our way back through the maze and wound up at the right spot. The morning sun was already getting hot. Finally the bus arrived, and we jumped on board….
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