Hakone’s a popular day trip from Tokyo to see the iconic Mt Fuji. I’m a fairly seasoned traveller so taking a day trip, with a Romancecar ticket in advance, seemed quite easy. But once I missed my train, things started to go downhill. There was nothing wrong with Hakone itself – just me being royally ignorant and unprepared.

I seemed to be the only one out of the loop but maybe I wasn’t, and maybe my knowledge in retrospect can help. Here’s what I did wrong so that you don’t make the same mistakes I did!

Keep Note of the Trains

Unless you rent a car or book an organised tour, you’ll probably get to Hakone by train. From Shinjuku Station you can take the Odakyu Line to Odawara and then transfer to the Romancecar or Hakonetozan Line. You can purchase these tickets at any time and also use your prepaid IC card. The Romancecar is the only direct train but note that

To ride the Odakyu Limited Express Romancecar, both a regular ticket/freepass and a limited express ticket are required.

The Romancecar can be purchased here and the Freepass here. You will need to purchase tickets in advance because they sell out.

I ended up missing my Romancecar (more on that below) but I thought transferring at Odawara was fine, and I’d recommend that. The Romancecar is a lot more expensive.

Take Note of Where the Train Departs

I wasn’t so frazzled that I didn’t know the trains leave from the Shinjuku station. I didn’t wake up late and got there with about 20 minute till my train, which was fine – except I couldn’t find the train. I was looking for “Romancecar” and running around different areas and couldn’t find it. When I was able to reach a staff member, I’d missed my train.

Both the Romancecar and the Odakyu train leave from a small area on a different level from where the other trains depart. You’ll want to follow the signs that say Odakyu, and the logo is below. Again, this is for both the Romancecar and the Odakyu train to Odawara.

Get a Good Bus Map

You can download one here.

The bus system is very organised! Each bus is a different letter, like T or M, and each stop has its own number, so it’s very easy to follow. The buses run quite frequently. If you don’t have a proper map, it can be difficult to know where you’re supposed to go or what bus you’re supposed to take. I have a few Maps apps on my phone and none of them were accurate when it came to the bus system. You can ask the bus drivers to help but if you don’t know Japanese then that will go only so far.

Definitely have the bus map accessible and ready to use on your phone so you can take advantage of Hakone’s great public transport system.

Don’t Underestimate Hakone’s Size

A HUGE part of the reason my trip to Hakone was so botched is that I severely underestimated the size of the town. Below I have some screenshots of the map I put together with my pins on what to do. It looks a bit smaller, like perhaps I could walk from point A to B once I got to the main town area. And that’s exactly what I planned on doing.

The closest pins are about a 10 minute walk apart, not to mention that the roads are hilly. In retrospect, it was so ignorant and silly of me to think I could do something like walk from the Okada Museum of Art to the Pola Museum of Art in about 20 minutes or so. It takes an hour and a half. What on earth was I thinking?

At the end of the day, I’d planned to go to Hakone Yuryo which is a day use onsen. “It’s right next to Hakone station,” I thought. It was a good 20 minute walk away and to be honest, by the time I got back to the station, I’d been so annoyed with how the day went that I ended up just going back to Tokyo.

Bring Vegetarian Food

I think the tip of the iceberg for this botched trip was when I had picked out a recommended restaurant for vegetarian food and got there and it was closed for an unexplained reason. It was just… ugh. You can see on Happy Cow that Hakone’s not the most veg-friendly city, though it does have some options. Be prepared and maybe bring a few snacks.

Visit the Hakone Shrine

If you’re visiting Hakone, you should make time for its famous shrine. The shrine dates all the way back to the 8th century and has been famous in Japan long before “the” famous photo of Mt. Fuji with the shrine’s torii gate graced travel brochures. Like many Japanese shrines, it’s a lovely tranquil stop and a place to experience some of the area’s history.

The Okada Museum of Art is Beautiful

With a reduced price of 2400 yen, by far the most expensive museum I visited in Japan, the sticker shock was just that – shocking. But since I’d already walked in and asked for a ticket, I decided to go ahead and visit.

Photos weren’t allowed to the point that they don’t let you even bring your phone in. But wow… the Okada Museum of Art has an absolutely beautiful collection. It’s several stories of gallery space and has different types of art from around Japan, starting at an amazing collection of prehistoric Japanese art. At the end of the day, I was happy I got to visit.

& You Should Make Proper Time to Visit the Art Museums

There are lots of other art museums in Hakone from the Pola Museum of Art, Hakone Open Air Museum of sculpture, Hakone Venetian Glass Museum, Narukawa Art Museum, and more. Especially considering that they are fairly spread out, you should make good time to see them.

A big part of me initially thought that all of these would be tourist traps, just there to grab people on a cloudy day, but the Okada Museum of Art really proved me wrong. And as the other museums got great reviews and the collections online look nice, I’d venture to say I really missed out on the ones I didn’t get to visit.

Start Your Day Early or Spend Several Days in Hakone

This goes along with “don’t underestimate Hakone’s size.” Now if you want to visit just to see Mt. Fuji (which I don’t recommend), a day would be sufficient to see the shrine and walk along the lake. But if you’re an art aficionado or maybe want to trek around the lake, you’ll need a lot more time than a day trip. You can either start really early to see as much as possible or have a more leisurely 2, 3 days to spend.

Don’t Expect to See Mt. Fuji… But Enjoy It if You Do

Despite its lure, weather conditions are so that you can only see Mt. Fuji about 80-100 days a year, which means you have a roughly 1 in 4 change of seeing it (another reason to stay multiple days). A day trip to Hakone may not be worth it if you only want to see Mt. Fuji since chances are, you probably won’t.

So when I was able to see Mt. Fuji peak out for a while, it really made the whole trip worth it. A local man came up to me as I was snapping “the” iconic photo and told me I was lucky. And you know what? I was.

Despite my botched day, I definitely recommend a visit to Hakone and I’d like to go back one day to have “redemption.” I hope this was helpful and that you don’t make the same mistakes I did!

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