Hakone 箱根: Lunch at Hakone-Yumato and Shinkansen to Nikko

The title says it all. In the gist at least. We reached Hakone-Yumato and looked for a lunch before went on separate ways.

No, we didn't dine with the man. Just want to show where the luggage forwarding service was.

I had nabe udon. R, T and Y shouted lunch, thank you!

There wasn't any direct train to get to Nikko from Hakone. We actually travel back to Shinjuku Station and bought a JR Kanto Area Pass.

This is a rail pass that run three consecutive days providing unlimited travel on JR trains and (apparently also selected non JR trains) in the Kanto region. Please check the area that it is covered so you didn't get the wrong pass. It cost ¥8,300 per person for adult.

Return ticket for Shinjuku to Nikko costs approximately ¥8,800 depending on train (but with shinkansen). So even if we took a return trip to Nikko, we would've already make full use of the pass. At the time of travel, Shinjuku station is undergoing some renovation. We had to cross over to the other side (opposed to our arrival side from Hakone) where Kinokuniya is located to get the pass.

The next train to Nikko departed from Tokyo, so we made our way there. It was already almost dinner time so we bought some snacks to munch on the way. There's a queue for this dove wagashi (Hiyoko) at every food souvenir shop that carries it. For research purposes, we bought a box to share. It wasn't red bean, luckily for Little P but she doesn't really favour the mung bean either. Taste wise, it's a bit like tau sar pia but of course much prettier. Though that gives us some issue about eating the head first or butt first.

I'm so cute, do you really want to eat me?

We also got some sandwiches to share but this one nothing close to the superior Family Mart's sandwiches. Sad to say that we missed our connection to Nikko at Utsunomiya 宇都宮 because of nature's call.


Side note: Got to be more motivated!