we had a quick breakfast and walked from the apartment to kuramae station, to take the metro to tokyo station. at tokyo station we booked the next train going towards osaka, as it would be stopping in odawara where we would begin our excursion to hakone. there is also a train from shinjuku, the romance car, but as we were staying far from shinjuku and we already had our jr pass, we gave that a miss.
it was only 40 minutes from tokyo station to odawara station. we took the 11am train and arrived before midday. at odawara station, we bought the hakone freepass which gave us access to all the public transportation in hakone from odawara to gora, lake ashi and back to odawara. the customer service officer at the information centre in odawara explained in great detail what we can take, where we can eat, what is the estimated time we could spend at each stop and how long each transportation would be taking. they even had a stamp excursion for children so that they would feel involved in the trip.
we first took the hakone tozan train from odawara to hakone-yumoto. the trains are classic, old and small. so unlike the shinkansen. its about a 20-minute journey on the train before we arrived in hakone-yumoto. once we arrived, we lined up for the next train to take us to gora. the boys were running to the stamp counter to get their first stamp of the trip.
akmal getting the first stamp, a doraemon stamp
waiting for the second train
the second part of the hakone tozan train took longer, around 50 minutes going uphill to gora. along the way we saw the roads and houses getting smaller and smaller. we were really going high up. it was getting colder, if its not already cold, up in gora.
in gora the boys got another stamp while we waited for the cable car. from the name we thought that its similar to the langkawi cable car, those bubble cars hanging by ropes. but that's the ropeway. the cable car is similar to trains, maybe more like monorails than trains. its only a 10-minute ride, a straight ride from gora to sounzan.
at sounzan, the boys got yet another stamp as we went from the cable car platform to the ropeway entrance. we had to stop at owakudani to change cable cars and had the opportunity to walk out and enjoy the scenery. however one of the mountains was emitting smoke, it was not safe to be out for a long time. hubby went out with the boys while i stayed indoors with amira.
the second leg of the cable car took us from owakudani to togendai. it was a longer ride and on this cable car one could view mt. fuji but due to the smoke, we were not able to. passengers have the choice to go down at ubako but we stayed on the cable car and got off at togendai. as we were going downwards, we were treated to a magnificent view of lake ashi and the ship that we'll be taking.
at togendai, we waited for the boys to get another stamp before moving into the queue for the cruise across lake ashi. the cruise was about 40 minutes and there's an option to alight at moto-hakone or hakone-machi. there is another good view of mt. fuji from lake ashi, unfortunately it was gloomy on the mt. fuji side but bright on the side looking towards moto-hakone.
we took the first point and got on the bus that would take us to odawara station. the bus was packed all the way to the back as it was the last (or second last) bus and everyone wanted to get in. the boys either had to stand or share a seat. amira was screaming from tiredness and from the stuffiness of the bus.
the bus ride took forever and we were so happy when it finally arrived at odawara station. we went to reserve seats on the next available train, which was in an hour's time sadly and had no connecting seats available. everyone had to sit separately but good thing it was only a 40 minutes ride back to tokyo. while we waited for the train, the boys went to the information counter to exchange their stamps for a small gift, a notebook each. yeay!
we arrived in tokyo station during the evening rush hour and held hands and push through the crowds. we took the jr to ueno station as we wanted a big meal for dinner. we walked 5 minutes from ueno station to halima kebab to have beryani & tandoori.
after dinner, we were so tired and so full. we had to force ourselves to walk back to ueno station to take the metro to asakusa and then change lines to kuramae. we saw the sky tree all lit up at asakusa. we also saw a kebab shop just outside the station and made a mental note to stop by if we were in the area again.
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