Today is spent in search of Mt Fuji. I had originally booked a bus tour to the Hakone area in the hope of seeing Mt Fuji, but the last day and a half on a tour bus has killed any enthusiasm for that idea. Japan’s public transport seems to be incredibly easy to navigate, so I decide to take the Shinkansen (the famous bullet train) from Tokyo to Odawara and see how far I can get in a day.
The first mistake I make is paying for my ticket at the ticket machine and not remembering to withdraw any cash. I find myself in the waiting area for the Shinkansen with only a handful of coins, and none of the food vendors accept credit cards. Happily a sandwich and danish from the Organic Cafe costs marginally less than my handful of coins. I’ve officially reached old lady status now that the two lovely young men working in the cafe have cheerfully wrestled my coins from me, carefully counted them out and handed me the few yen left.
The Shinkansen dutifully pulls out of Tokyo Station exactly on time. 35 minutes later, it pulls in to Odawara Station. This seems like a good place to find an ATM to get some cash. Of all of the ATMs I tried within the station, I couldn’t find one that would accept my Australian issued cards. There is a 7-Eleven just outside Odawara station, which happily dispenses some cash.
Within Odawara Station, there is the Odakyu Sightseeing Service Center. This is the place to go to buy the Hakone Free Pass. Valid for 2 days at 4000 yen, it is still good value for one day. It is valid on virtually all of the public transport options in the Hakone area. There is also an English-speaking customer service agent walking along the queue working out what you need to buy, and translating it into Japanese for the agents behind the desk. The same agent helpfully identifies the right buses to catch back from Lake Ashi, and when the last funicular, ropeway and ferry services depart.
The train from Odawara to Gora is a small local service – the Hakone Tozan railway. On a Sunday, it is very busy, with standing room only. It is necessary to change trains at Hakone-Yumoto to reach Gora station, which travels via a series of switchbacks up the mountainside. At Gora, there is a very busy funicular/cable car service to reach the ropeway at Sounzan.
At Sounzan, the first section of the Hakone Ropeway service travels to Owakudani. The ‘ropeway’ is what I would call a ‘gondola’.
At Owakudani, there are views over the steam vents and bubbling pools on the side of the mountain. It is worth breaking the trip here to go outside to see the steam vents.
There is also a reasonable view of Mt Fuji through the glass when I’m queuing for the next section of the ropeway. There is quite a lot of haze resulting from the steam vents which spoils the image, but it may be that this is the best view of the mountain for the afternoon.
There is a another long queue for the ropeway trip to Lake Ashinoko, but happily the conductors are not cramming people in so that every seat is taken.
From the end of the ropeway, it is a ‘scenic cruise’ on Lake Ashi. I just miss one pirate ship departure, and have 40 minutes to kill before the next one. Yep, there is a pirate ship departure roughly every 40 minutes. I’m pretty sure pirates never painted their galleons yellow and blue, or yellow and red, and I’m also sure that there isn’t a stick of wood on these metal replicas. Also quite bizarre are the swan pedal boats for hire on the lake. Pirate ships and swan pedal boats on the same lake. Hmmm, this must be Japan.
It is standing room only on the pirate ship, as everyone is looking for a view of Mt Fuji. It turns out that Mt Fuji is a ‘morning’ mountain – the sun in setting in the west, right next to mountain, which is burning out the sky. Even some heavy post-processing can’t save the image (or I don’t have sufficient Lightroom skills to do it).
It also pays to read the bus station routes carefully – the customer service assistant told me to catch either the R or H line back to Hakone-Yumoto, but it turns out that the R line is the express service, and the H is the meandering version. Happily I got in the queue early enough to get a seat – late arrivals had a fairly uncomfortable standing trip down a meandering road in heavy traffic for an hour or so. Next time, I’ll catch the train to Hakone-Yamoto, and then catch the bus to Moto-Hakone in the morning to try to get a better shot of Mt Fuji.
