Japan Trip: Travelling with Shinkansen + Kawaguchi Station at Twilight

One of my to-do list during my stay in japan was to try traveling with Shinkansen, and happily my itinerary required me to take Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo. Osaka to Tokyo is about 500 km, almost similar length with Jakarta to Jogjakarta, which usually took 8 hours using Indonesian executive train, but using Shinkansen, it only took me 2 and a half hour. Really save lots of time.

I spent 11 days in Japan, for transportation I used 3 days Kansai Pass, 7 days Japan Rail Pass, and 1 day without any pass. Japan Rail Pass covers travel using Shinkansen, and because the price for taking a shinkansen and its reserved seat were not cheap, I managed my trip so 3 of my Shinkansen trip can be covered by Japan Rail Pass. Actually I bought this rail pass in Jakarta, then exchanged it in Kansai Airport.

If you used Japan Rail Pass, please note that you have to reserve your seat prior your travel time. And because this is different with other people who bought the Shinkansen ticket (without having Japan Rail Pass first), you had to enter to the gate that have locket/officer at it, and you need to show your seat reservation and Japan Rail Pass tickets to him so you can enter  the gate. Please DON'T insert your reservation ticket to the ticket machine (like the locals do to enter the gate), because it won't come out again (the locals ticket come out from the machine, so they can insert it again in the destination gate). My traveling friend inserted the ticket to the machine and then we panicked because the gate didn't want to open while the ticket didn't come out from the machine. The officer in there helped us to get the inserted ticket back but he couldn't find his ticket. So, in order to avoid the queue, he gave us a letter to be shown to the officer in the destination's gate. 

Japan Rail Pass and Shinkansen's Reserve Seat Ticket

the reserve seat letter to be shown to the officer at destination station

The shinkansen train model that I used for travel was N700. It’s the newest version that was being used in Japan. Lately I saw a review of N700 in discovery channel, I'm so happy to see that I ever travelled using this train. The interior is actually like a normal executive train, three seats on left side and three seats on the right side in every row. At least that what I saw in the ordinary class. I don’t know how it looks in the green car, only know that it has wider seats, two seats in each sides, and, of course, more pricey.

in front of Shinkansen N700 model

From inside the train, traveled with shinkansen was felt like travelling with regular train, I didn't feel we went fast at all. But remembering how many hours I saved, then I realized this train was not as slow as I thought. Of course, people from outside the train seen this train went so fast.

After arrived to Tokyo Station, we continue our destination to Kawaguchiko station. We had to continue our journey using JR Chuo Special Rapid Service, and continue with JR Chuo Line (the slower one) and finally took Fujikyu Railway Fujisan Ltd. Exp. Even though Fujikyu Railway was not covered by Japan Rail Pass, but it was the only train that can took us to our destination, Kawaguchiko Station. The traveled took us almost 3 hours. It was a long journey but felt so hommy like going to your grandma's house in the village. The temperature started to drop when we traveled by Chuo Line and Fujikyu Railway, but fortunately the train had heater under our seat, so we remained warm during our travel.

inside fujikyu railway train

We arrived at Kawaguchiko at afternoon. Lucky us because we can see the beautiful Mount Fuji from the station. I could not help my self not to take the pict of Mount Fuji. No words can explain how beautiful and glorious Mount Fuji is.

Kawaguchiko station is look classic, but because the theme was Mount Fuji, so you can see a train with cute mount fuji picture on its wall, and you can also see some cones shaped like Mount Fuji in various expression. Even thought this station look classic, but its a tourist-friendly station, because you can find tourist information here and the retro bus and local bus stops at this station.

in front fuji-themed train

cute fuji-themed cones

Thomas Land-themed train. This train is a child-friendly train where you can pretend to be a little machinist, complete with the little machinist cap and steering wheel.

ticketing machine

just a regular payphone

Tourists were queuing to enter retro bus 

directions

in front of Kawaguchiko station and mount Fuji at twilight 

Because of its uphill location, the temperature started to drop even more at twilight and night. So after eating hoto noodles near station, we ran to our lodging, since needed to hurry up and we could not walk because we could not stand the cold weather.  

XOXO,

The Tourist