Re your question ref getting tickets, I had the hotel buy mine for the Tokyo- Hakone - Kyoto journey on the Saturday and we left on the Monday. Well worth getting your hotel to do it. I did have to pay slightly extra as they had to go to the station to get them as it was a Saturday. If I had got my finger out and got them to sort on the Friday I wouldn't have had to pay extra ( but honestly it was only about $10 extra)

I am SO envious of your trip, we had the best time.

Thanks for the detail on the walk and the tip about the tickets. I will likely ask the hotel to get the tickets for us - - the even have a service where they meet you at the station and escort you to the hotel (and vice versa) so the initial shock of getting into Tokyo should be eased somewhat.

I am a little disappointed that we won't have any Fodorite meetings in Japan, I know that really added to everyone's enjoyment this past fall…perhaps some other time.

We did get a free guide set up, he sent us a nice email. Thanks for your encouragement on that front.

GREAT news ref the guide.
The concierges at the hotels in Japan really are fantastic, we used them loads more than normal and it made things so easy!!
You know I seem to think they actually pre booked some trains for us in advance of us arriving in Japan... I just remembered Fimwill sorted it all and I just sent them my CC details.
That said they did book whilst we were there.
Why don't you email the concierge if you know which ones you want, so at least you know the are sorted?

From Hakone Ginyu it looks like the rail station you would use is the Tozan Railway's Miyanoshita station. Take that or a taxi to get to Odawara station and then JR to NRT.

Here is a hyperdia query for Odawara to NRT with that excludes private railways. http://tinyurl.com/k9hjff3

Route1 shows your 9-minute connection at Shinagawa.

<b>Route2</b> shows a 23-minute connection at Tokyo station. That sounds very doable but I am not very familiar with JR Tokyo station.

Here is a query for Miyanoshita to Odawara: http://tinyurl.com/lzsyojj Route1 gives you 23 minutes at Odawara before the JR train departs.

I have always found Tokyo station large but fairly easy to navigate. You will just be changing tracks. Shinjuku on the other hand has always been somewhat confusing for me. Have only been through Shinagawa a few times but seem to recall it was fairly easy.

Thank you very much. I don't know why route 2 didn't come up for me when I put in the query yesterday. I've seen a map of Tokyo Station, and we would have to go from one side of the station to the other. So does the 23 minute connection time seem OK for this? I'm assuming trains are always on time

Well, Hyperdia isn't perfect. Which explains why the very best connection didn't show up: the one where you take that earlier train that leaves Odawara at 7:02, but then get off at Shinagawa instead of Tokyo. Arrive Shinagawa at 7:30, connect to the NEx that departs at 7:51, arriving NRT at 9:01. (You can verify that the 7:02 Kodama from Odawara stops at Shinagawa by clicking "Train Timetable" just below "Shinkansen Kodama 700".)

A 21-minute connection at Shinagawa is much better than a 23-minute connection at Tokyo.

BTW, nice work, mrwunrful.

Good one, Don. I was just looking at the individual train timetables. There is an earlier Kodama from Odawara to Tokyo 6:44 -> 7:20 that would then make it a 40-min transfer at Tokyo.

Here are the timetables that Don T referred to that you can use to piece together and make the easier transfer at Shinagawa:

Odawara -> Shinagawa http://tinyurl.com/nxhjtdt
Shinagawa -> NRT http://tinyurl.com/mrf3oep

Note that the travel dates are May/2014/28 though the schedule for your date won't vary much, if at all.

Thank you! ! This means plenty of layover time if I take the 6:44 from Odawara (we'd do a taxi there). I looked on the Shinagawa station map, it seems like the platforms are pretty close. So it looks like a "go" if there is a room available for a second night. BTW, I tried again, just putting in ODAWARA and SINAGAWA for my date in June and the routes came up.

I might start a new thread for this questions if I don't get any responses, but I was wondering if there are any good walking food tours (evening) like the ones we enjoyed in Bangkok and Istanbul. I did a search on the forum and on google but didn't come up with anything appealing.