After spending 2 days exploring Kyoto, its time to go closer to Tokyo. During the planning we felt that we should actually visit Nara and Fuji, since each of them offers famous Japan experience. We decided to visit Nara from Kyoto, doing it as a morning side trip, before continuing the journey to Hakone and spend a night there. Also since Hakone was quite a hassle, we utilized the takkyubin service again to send our big luggages straight to Tokyo from Kyoto, and luckily our hotel provided such service!
We took JR Nara Line local at 6:13 from Kyoto station straight to Nara. The journey took one hour and that morning was unusually colder than the previous days, even though the sun was clear in the sky. Our main attration was Todaiji temple, and we got there by bus, forgot exactly what number though. Most websites told that it is walkable distance, however we wanted to save time so we just took the bus instead. We alighted correctly though, on the stop closest to the Nandaimon gate.
Now on to Hakone. Hakone ideally should be done as a one-day side trip from Tokyo. The most popular route is Hakone Round Course, detailed in that link. We made a slight modification based on location of our hotel. We booked Fujimien, which was located in Togendai – just a few bus stops away from Lake Ashi. Also since we arrived in the afternoon – so the plan was to navigate the upper half of the course (starting from Hakone Yumoto up to Lake Ashi) and then spend the night in the hotel, and navigate the lower half the next morning.
The nearest shinkansen station was Odawara, and from there you can take another local train to Hakone Yumoto station. Make sure you buy your Hakone Free Pass at Odawara! From Hakone Yumoto we took Hakone Tozan Railway – which zig-zagged the mountain up to Gora station. I have no photo on that train because it was so crowded. From Gora you need to take a short cable car ride to Sounzan station.
Sounzan was the starting station for the Hakone Ropeway. It ended up at Togendai with a stop at Owakudani – a volcanic area which was one of the main attraction of Hakone.
Owakudani was a nice place, although smells like fart due to the sulphuric fumes. There was a hiking trail that could give a good view of the mining area, sadly we couldn’t take a stroll because the ropeway was closing soon (I think the closing hour was 5pm) – so I suppose we’d better catch the ride to Togendai before that.
Togendai was a major stop with a big bus station – a lot of bus routes pass through or started at Togendai. We rode bus T to Fujimien (the bus stop name is Minami Onsen-so). The bus routes were all detailed in various brochures or maps that you can take in major stations.
Fujimien hotel is amazing – probably had the best onsen from all the hotels that we had stayed. I guess the water came directly from the mountain itself since it contains some minerals? (water was not clear). Definitely a fantastic staying experience.
We intended to cross the lake as soon as the boat service operates in the morning. Unfortunately the weather decided otherwise – it was stormy outside, and our boat was kind of delayed and the plan to hike the trail back to Hakone Yumoto had to be scrapped. We finally decided to just take bus back to Hakone Yumoto and leave for Tokyo immediately – since we can’t do anything in Hakone anyway.
We bought the ticket for Odakyu Romancecar which took us straight to Shinjuku station in Tokyo, and it was a gloomy journey – luckily it was not raining in Tokyo – but I guess I’ll save that story for the next post!
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