[Japan by train] Hakone Free Pass • 箱根フリーパス
Get on the train and travel through the beautiful
Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park,
100 km in the west of
Tokyo.
The
Hakone Free Pass - provided by
Odakyu Railways - allows you to ride (almost) all trains, ropeways and sightseeing boats in the Hakone area.
0:00
We're taking an express service on the
Odakyu Odawara Line and leaving the metropolis of Tokyo and his suburban area. After arriving in
Odawara we have to change to the
Hakone Tozan Railway towards Hakone-Yumoto and further to
Gora.
2:24
After changing once again in Yumoto - a place full of hot springs (onsen) - the
Tozan Railway pass through a beautiful mountainous landscape with many tunnels and so called switch-backs (zig zag).
The valley becomes more and more narrower until the little train reachs his terminus in Gora where we're taking the Hakone
Cable Car up towards
Mount Sounzan.
7:23
Without guessing what follows the travel goes on by the
Hakone Ropeway to
Owakudani, the highest
point of this trip. Owakudani means "
Great Boiling Valley", it smells of sulfur and other volcanic gases and you can eat some
Kuro-tamago - black hard-boiled eggs, that should prolong the life of 7 years.
On the second section of the Hakone Ropeway we're going down towards
Togendai next to
Lake Ashi, where our sightseeing boat is waiting for us to depart for Hakonemachi and Moto-Hakone.
Finally you can see the red Torii of the Hakone shrine which is placed on a hill high above the lake.
Slowly the day is coming to an end, the clouds are getting more and the bus for Yumoto is ready to leave.
Until we're finally arriving at Tama-Plaza (→ my residence ;) ) it will already be dark night.
Music:
Yōko Takahashi
「
A Cruel Angel's Thesis」
(
Opening of
Neon Genesis Evangelion, an anime which takes place in Hakone)
Jun Maeda
「
Distant years」 (
OST of
Clannad, another recommendable anime)
Nagi Yanagi
「
Koibumi」(OST of
Rewrite, a visual novel and manga)
Thank you very much for watching!
Special thanks and greetings to the nice japanese couple I met at the Gora cable car station (if you'll ever read this^^), to the sympathetic
Pakistan family I talked to on the ship near Moto-Hakone, and the competent employee at the Odakyu
Tourism information office in
Shinjuku - and many other people who shared this amazing day with me.
More informations:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5202
.html
____________
箱根フリーパス(はこねフリーパス)は、小田急電鉄が発売している周遊券である。
箱根登山線全線、箱根登山ケーブルカー、箱根ロープウェイ、箱根海賊船、箱根登山バス(指定区間)、小田急箱根高速バス(指定区間)、沼津登山東海バス。
→ http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/箱根フリーパス
歌 :
高橋 洋子
「
残酷な天使のテーゼ」
麻枝 准
「遥かな年月」
やなぎなぎ
「恋文」