So as mentioned in my other post, my family and I traveled to Hakone for our day-trip via Odakyu’s Limited Express Romancecar (and yes as the name states, it’s an express train that only stops at a limited number of stations).
We boarded it from Shinjuku Station, and traveled to Hakone-Yumoto Station (via Odawara Station)! 😀
The travel time was just roughly around 1.5 hours (though apparently it can stretch to 1hr 45mins) and we paid only 890 Yen (Limited Express Surcharge for one way) since the normal train fare of approx 1190 Yen was already included in our Hakone Freepass.
We managed to get the seats booked and purchased online (yes the website is in English and you can find the link to it further below in this post).
For boarding, we just needed to purchase and present our Hakone Freepass (paper ticket) and bring along a copy of the printout (or snapshot on the smartphone) of our purchase details for the Limited Express as well as the credit card used for payment. That’s it 😀
For our return trip, we decided to try purchasing the reserved tickets in person so we could have a paper ticket 😀
*Note*:
So in short, boarding requires either
a) Hakone Freepass/Train ticket/IC Card + printout/screenshot of the online purchase of the Limited Express seats + Credit card used for the purchase (present these to the staff at the ticket gate then make your way through the ticket gate)
or
b) Hakone Freepass/Train ticket/IC Card + Paper ticket for the Limited Express seats (stack both pieces together and insert them into the ticket gate then walk through and collect them at the other end)
Yes that’s right. Method A is the “human way” and Method B is just the “machine way”.
Hakone Freepass
Limited Express Ticket in paper form
Our saloon seat ticket – only 1 piece for the 3 of us because Saloon seats are in fours aka a box (i.e. S2 is our seat number and it covers all 4 seats. To see what saloon seats are like, take a look at the “Train types” section below)
Notice that in the paragraphs above I mentioned “booked” and “purchased” – there’s a difference here. A booking refers to a reservation not a finalized thing yet. A purchase refers to payment being made the seat is definitely yours on that day/time.
The E-Romancecar website allows you to book/reserve seats and then make payment/purchase at any Odakyu ticket vending machine or ticket counter within a certain time frame; OR you can book/reserve AND make payment/purchase the seat online at a go *yay technology* *yay cards* (which tends to be more convenient of those of us who aren’t going to be in Japan within the next few days/weeks).
{ Edit (accurate as of 3 March 2019):
Just to give a rough idea on how long the online booking/reservation can last (as of March 2019) before payment has to be made (i.e. purchasing the seat)…
Odakyu can hold your booking for 1 week before they’re due for purchase either in person or online (credit card payments).
Look out for the “Purchase Due Date” on your booking, this indicates the date by which you have to purchase your tickets (of your preferred seat), before it’s released.
You can head to the main page @ https://www.web-odakyu.com/e-romancecar/ to retrieve your booking by entering your mobile number and email address associated with the booking (you would’ve entered this right before making your search/booking 🙂 }
Another point to explain about (since I was pretty confused about it at first too) as mentioned in my other post about the cost:
890 Yen would be the Limited Express Surcharge (one way)
1190 Yen for a normal train fare (one way)
1184 Yen for IC Card fare (one way)
So basically pricing works these way, on a per person basis:
A. Hakone Freepass (round-trip) + Limited Express Surcharge
B. Normal Train fare + Limited Express Surcharge
C. IC Card fare + Limited Express Surcharge
*Hakone Freepass already has the train fare incorporated in
*IC Card refers to your PASMO/SUICA/etc.
[23/5/2020 Add on:]
So based on the above, for a ROUND TRIP, on a PER PERSON BASIS, you may want to calculate either through:
A. Hakone Freepass (round-trip) + Limited Express Surcharge (one way * 2)
B. Normal Train fare + Limited Express Surcharge <– multiply both by 2
C. IC Card fare + Limited Express Surcharge <– multiply both by 2
[28/5/2018 Edit:]
* If you’re getting Saloon seats (holds maximum 4 passengers), the limited express surcharge will be a flat surcharge regardless of how many passengers are actually sitting in the saloon box. So if the price is XXXXyen, then be it for 1 or 4 passengers, the price for the saloon seats/box (i.e. the limited express surcharge) remains at XXXXyen.
* This also means that if there’s more than one of you and all of you are taking saloon seats (sitting in a saloon box together), the calculation (in total) will be:
D: (Number of passengers but only up to 4 * Hakone Freepass/Normal Train Fare/IC Card Fare) + Saloon Seat Limited Express Surcharge (counted once, not four times)
[23/5/2020 Add On:]
So for us, this is how much we spent for 3 people, in 2015, for our Round-trip between Shinjuku and Hakone-Yumoto:
- 3 x Hakone Freepass (at 5000yen each) = 15,000 yen
- 3 x Limited Express Romancecar Surcharge TO HAKONE-YUMOTO (at 890yen each) = 2,670 yen
- 1 x Limited Express Romancecar Surcharge BACK TO SHINJUKU (only 1, because we booked the Saloon seats which is a flat fare for between 1 to 4 people) (you can see this price on the ticket in my 2nd pic) = 3,560yen
Total: 21,230 yen
Train types
While booking/purchasing seats, you may notice that the name of the trains have a *(XXX)* next to them. This indicates the model of the train – and different train models have different features of their own (e.g. VSE has saloon seats and both VSE and LSE has observation deck seats).
Me with the VSE train 😀
That’s probably an EXE train there ~
For both our rides to and from Hakone, we took the VSE trains. We managed to get normal seats for our trip to Hakone, and Saloon seats for our trip back to Shinjuku.
Normal seats
Saloon Seats
And if you do notice in the photos, baggage can also be kept above your seats.
For more information on the train types and features, just head to http://www.odakyu.jp/english/romancecar/lineup/ 🙂
Boarding the train
Don’t forget to go to the correct platform for boarding!
(Yes the screens do change between a few languages)
Another thing to note is that because different models of the trains have different carriage sizes/lengths, there are labels on the floor to allow you to figure out where to stand at.
Seats/View
Through the online booking/purchase, you can choose which carriage and seat you would like to be at. The website will give you a preview of whether the seat is on the left or right of the train, and where the window frames are.
During our trip towards Hakone, we sat at 8A, 9A and 9B of Carriage 5 (the left seats, based on a forward-facing direction of the train) and these are the views we had:
And just 1 or 2 snapshots of the view from the other side:
Take note that the seats can be turned 😀 So if you are travelling in a group of 4 and would like to face each other (like how they always to in anime :3) you can actually turn the pair of seats around!!! 😀
Food
In MSE, EXE and LSE trains, food comes in the form of Wagon Service while in VSE trains they come in the form of Seat Service. I don’t know much about the Wagon Service so I’ll just share about the Seat Service.
Every seat has a copy of a Romancecar Menu (magazine/booklet). In here, you can find details on food and drinks, as well as souvenirs and a few other things which are sold onboard.
The Romancecar Menu (Spring ’15)
Bento, snacks and Corn soup!
Shinjuku & Hakone-Yumoto Stations
Just a little more about both Odakyu stations ~
Shinjuku Station has an Odakyu Shop where you can grab some snacks or drinks before boarding the trains.
Hakone-Yumoto Station has a nice “Welcome to Hakone” sign (yeah it’s random of me to mention this but it looked nice – no idea if it was just a spring special though), a few vending machines and an area near the platform where brochures and maps of Hakone can be found.
After getting through the ticket gates you can find a few shops and information/ticket counters.
There’s also a Hakone Cafe! 😀 With really cute toy train decorations around ~
For any other details about the Odakyu Line or stations, and A LOT OF OTHER INFORMATION about the Limited Express Romancecar (no kidding – even step by step instructions on how to purchase a ticket online/in-person or what to do on boarding day) you may refer to:
http://www.odakyu.jp/english/
http://www.odakyu.jp/english/traffic/
http://www.odakyu.jp/english/romancecar/
And you can get tickets booked at:
(No idea what’s the difference between the two apart from the design)
That’s all for now!! Feel free to drop a comment if you have any feedback or questions! ^_^
spreadyourwingsandflyy 
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