Trip 50

April 25, 2025

Reluctantly, we’re leaving Hakone, a peaceful oasis in the mountains.

We left on the shuttle to return to Odawara, from where we disembarked when coming from Kyoto. The shuttle first winds up the mountain road, then down, surrounded on both sides by the deep evergreen forests. We see both the sublime (resorts and hotels) and the mundane as we wind down the valley. Across the valley, there are homes perched on the slopes. There are red speed warning strips on the pavement in many spots along the road, with blind S curves and a couple of “runaway” off-ramps like we’ve seen in Germany (for vehicles going too fast to make the curve); similar to driving in Berchtesgaden, Germany, except this time, I’m grateful it’s not me doing the driving. The road is mostly two actual lanes wide, but once, we had to pull over and stop to let a bus pass.

Odawara is about a 30 minute ride from our hotel and we have some time to exchange our online QR code tickets for physical tickets, then some food for the train before heading up to the tracks for some trainspotting.

I say “spotting” because standing on the platform, if there’s one coming thru, by the time you see it, it takes 5-6 seconds before it’s passed you.

We did not book reserved seats on this leg, which is only 34 minutes, but there’s always a chance they are full (in which case, you’d stand). There are specific cars designated as unreserved seating, usually cars 1-6 and some at the other end. The trains that stopped before ours seemed mostly full, so we rather thought we’d end up standing, but when our train arrived, we boarded car 1 and it was about half full.

When we arrived in Tokyo, we spent some time looking around at some of the other Shinkansen and the vending machines….There was one that made coffee. There were more choices than you’d find at Starbucks, and no barista. We put in our 350¥ using Suica on an iPhone (about $2.45 USD), made a selection and watched the video screen as the coffee beans were ground, the iced coffee made and dispensed, lid and all. It took (according to the sign) 95 seconds , and the sign warns you so you won’t miss your train waiting for your drink.

Need dessert?

We went down a couple of levels to do a little shopping that we weren’t able to do when we first came thru the station (too early) when we arrived in Japan. Initially, when trying to find what we were looking for (we were on ground level), Maps said we’d arrived. We found out it was one level below us. There is a labyrinth of tunnels with shops and restaurants in the multiple levels below.

After making our purchases, one of the tunnels led us out to street level, where we took a taxi to our hotel. It’s 2 miles away, but Maps says it will take the taxi 20 minutes. There is just a bit of traffic.

Our hotel has a mascot.

Most shops in the the Ginza stay open until 8pm, so we still had plenty of time to start some of our planned shopping. I mentioned one place we visited in Kyoto was a stationery store. This store (G.Itoya) in Tokyo is major league compared to Kyoto, with 8 levels of a 12 story building dedicated to various aspects of writing instruments, stationery, paper, arts/craft materials and a restaurant on the top floor.

Purchases over 5500¥ ($38) are eligible for the tax rebate of 10%. We exceeded the minimum. As expected in a city like Tokyo, most every shop takes a credit card or Suica, but rarely touch to pay.

We had hopes of eating dinner at a particular restaurant, but once we found it, there was an 80 minute wait (you cannot make advanced reservations), so we left. Hopefully, we’ll be able to eat there later.