My summer vacation started from 12th August until 16th August. My wife and kid have been very eager to visit Tokyo since they never been there. We decided to visit our friend Bharathi and his family in Yokohoma to enjoy summer vacation.
Travel is quite expensive inside Japan. To cut down the travelling cost, we decided to travel to Yokohama by Bus and return by Shinkansen bullet train. By the time we decided to travel to Yokohama, it was very late and all the JR Buses were reserved. My Japanese colleague gave me the address of Willer Travels. I called them and booked 3 tickets to Yokohama. The payment has to be paid only via online or through convenience stores or postoffice. I paid 15,600 Yen for three persons through Lawson convenience store since I never used credit card so far.
Then I bought discount coupons to buy JR Shinkansen tickets in a discount shop near Kitashinchi, Osaka. Unfortunately that discount coupon belongs to Tokai sen. (JR Tokai). JR Kitashinchi guys told me that I can use that coupon only if I go to Shin Osaka station since all the counters in Osaka belong to JR West. Huh!. I went to Shin Osaka and reserved the return tickets from Yokohama to Osaka on 15th August around 4.00 o'clock. Two tickets cost about 26,000 JPY.
I came home early on 11th August. We boarded JR Loop line in Morinomiya station and got down at Osaka Umeda station. From Umeda, we went to Plaza Motor Pool, a place just opposite to Hankyu International Hotel, by walk. It took about 15mins. Surprisingly, that place was a complete mess with people everywhere. It is no big than the Old Madurai TTC Bus stand. There were lot of check-in booths temporarily operating in a small park nearby. The bus was scheduled to leave by 22:10 but it arrived only around 10:35. We boarded the bus and one Fuji san never came till 11:00 o'clock. By the time the Bus started from Motor Pool it was around 11:10. The driver warned about a possible delay due to congestion in the Tomei Expressway.
It was a tedious journey since the leg room was so small. My daughter complained of stomach pain for sometime and then she slept occupying 1 1/2 seats. It was a hard journey for my wife and she has to sit on just half the chair.
The bus reached Yokohama station as scheduled by around 5.40 am.
There was chaos everywhere in the road with buses dumping out passengers on the roadside and flying away. We have to walk a bit more than 400 metres to get into the yokohama station. Luckily Akshaya woke up earlier by that time.
We got into the station and walked a bit with our luggage, purchased tickets, informed Bharathi over the phone and then got into the platform. Lot of construction work is going on inside Yokohama station.
Since it was early in the morning, there were no direct trains to Nagatsuta. We boarded JR Keihin-Tohoku Negishi Line to Higashi Kanagawa (one station from Yokohama). From there we boarded JR Yokohama Line to Nagatsuta. Trains were running in an interval of about 10 mins since it was early morning. It was a local train and it took about 25 mins to reach Nagatsuta. From there we changed to Tokyu Den-en toshi Line and Aobadai is just the next station if you board the express train.
We came out of the station and informed Bharathi again. He came in about 10 mins to pick us in his car.
We reached home by around 7.30am and had a nice chat with his wife Padma and his 2nd daughter Dharsha who is of the same age as my daughter Akshaya.
We finished our morning refreshments and got ready to visit Hakone. Padma has made a nice bento (lunch box) for us since Nandhini won't take Non-vegetarian on saturdays and that is the most common thing you get out in convenience stores.
Bharathi dropped us again but in a different station in the JR Yokohama Line called Tokaichiba Station.
Tokaichiba station
Nandhini and Akshaya inside Tokaichiba Station
We boarded JR Yokohama and dropped out at Machida station. It is a little bit walk for about 5 mins and we reached Odakyu Line Station. We got two Hakone Free pass tickets (Free is only in the name) for 10200 Yen (One ticket is 5100 Yen). We are not supposed to board the Romance car (!) with this ticket but express trains are allowed.
We travelled upto Odawara by Odawara express train. The seating
arrangements looked similar to an ordinary JR train.
Akshaya playing inside Odawara Express
It was a 50 min ride to Odawara station but the landscape was very nice.
Nandhini infront a Hakone Express Train in Odawara
From Odawara we changed another local train to Hakone-yumoto station. It was a nice ride with beautiful sceneries. Moreover it is a single line as it is very common India except in few big cities.
Landscape shot while travelling towards Hakone-yumoto
By the time we reached Hakone-yumoto it was around 12:30. There was a
train just waiting in the next platform that goes to Ghora. But it was fully crowed and we decided to board the next train in 10 minutes time.
Standing inside Hakone-yumoto station
We boarded the next Hakone Tozan Train to Ghora. Odakyu website says that Hakone Tozan Train is the only full scale mountain railway in Japan. It was a nice trip until Ghora with beautiful scenaries on both sides. Due to the slope, there are three switch backs before reaching Ghora.
Ghora is about 8 kilometres from Hakone-yumoto and by the time we got out of the station, it was around 1.00 PM.
Entrance of Ghora Station
We thought of taking the Hakone Tozan Cable Car but the one that was about to leave was full and the station master told us that we have to wait another 20 mins to board the next train. So we decided to stop there and finish lunch. There was a sign board for Ghora Gardens and we started moving there. It is a steep slope for about 200 metres.
Way to Ghora Gardens
We reached the Ghora gardens in about 10 mins.The entrance fee is around 500 Yen for Adults and 300 Yen for kids. Since we carried the Hakone Free Pass, the entry is free. We got inside and it was a small but nice park. We climbed the steps in the clockwise only to see few benches in the next corner. Lot of people occupied rest areas and were busy with their lunch.
We occupied a bench just facing a small artifical fountain and finished lunch. By the time we finished lunch, there was a sudden rain (may be Torrential since there was no forecast). We did not carry any umbrella and so got sheltered under some big umbrella's planted along the path with chairs for people to take rest. We thought the rain may stop within minutes but there were no signs of it stopping.
We waited for an hour under that small umbrella but there were no signs of the rain to stop. There is a Craft House nearby and eventually we moved into it to take shelter. Slowly people from all over the park entered the Craft House for shelter and it was jam packed with people. We waited inside for another hour and it was almost 3.30 PM. All the umbrellas were sold out in the Craft House and we luckily got one. When more and more people started moving out with rain slowly receding, we also moved with that single umbrella and climbed down the Ghora Gardens. There was a Convenience Store across the road and I bought one more umbrella from there. We climbed down the slope and reached Ghora station around 3.45 PM. The station master conveyed us that Cable car, Rope way and every other transportation is halted due to rain. He told us that he can't reveal when the transportation will resume. We decided to get into the Cable car and wait inside.
Hakone Tozan Cable Car
After 20 mins time, there was an announcement that the Cable car will resume operation. It is a 1.2 Km ride on a steep slope. The Odakyu website says that the Hakone Tozan Cable Car is went into operation from 1922 and the current cars are Swiss made.
Inside Hakone Tozan Cable Car
We reached Sounzan station around 4.10. To our surprise the Rope way which we were supposed to board from Sounzan has not resumed operation. Lot of tourists have been enquiring but the Station guys did not give any clue on when it will resume. During that confusion, a Bus from Sounzan started moving. We are supposed to go to Togendai, a place from where we can cruise through Lake Ashi. When I inquired one station guy about whether the bus is going to Togendai he told me no. Initially we planned to board the Ropeway and travel to Togendai. If one travels by the Ropeway, we can see Mount Fuji as well as the live volcanoes called Great Boiling Valley. But Odakyu website says that the Rope won't travel upto Togendai but will stop halfway and we need to board a bus to reach there, until Mid of 2007 due to maintenance. We thought the Ropeway will start working like the Cable car after sometime but later one guy told us there are no signs of resumption. We looked for Bus option but they responded that there are only 2 buses every hour but they can tell me when they will come to Sounzan due to delay caused by rain. We need to go to Togendai before 5.30 since the last cruise will start by 5.30. The station guy also suggested that we should have boarded the last bus and it travels to a place, walkable distance from Togendai. I felt like giving a blow on his face for not telling this before the bus left. He then suggested me that there is no way I can reach Togendai before 5.30 and soon the bus service will halt since it is already 4.30. He advised us to go back to Ghora and find a way to reach Hakone-yumoto.
So we boarded cable car again and came back to Ghora only to find that there was a big queue of people waiting for the Hakone-Tozan Train to resume operations to go back to Hakone-yumoto. If we wait in the queue, we will end up boarding atleast the 2nd or 3rd train. There is no bus from Ghora to Togendai also. There were lot of buses outside Ghora station to Hakone-yumoto. We boarded a bus and we were back in Hakone-yumoto around 5.15.
It was really disappointing that we missed a view of live volcanoes and Lake Ashi. One direct train left for Shinjuku and we did not board that since it was crowded. We boarded the next train around 5.30 and it is bound to Odawara. We reached Odawara and there was a large crowd waiting for this train outside. All the passengers were thinking that this train will go back to Hakone-yumoto and got out of the train. The crowd rushed into the train. Suddenly the display board changed to Shinjuku making everyone who got out of the train fools. I just wondered why that Conductor did not made any announcement that People bound to Tokyo can just stay inside. We, like every other passenger who got out missed this train and boarded the next train bound to Shinjuku after a 10 minute wait. We then changed trains in Machida, Nakatsuta and finally reached Aobadai back around 8.30 PM