The Odakyu ticket that covers Hakone costs 7,100 yen for two days from Shinjuku, and the Romancecar seat that most people picture themselves in is not part of it: a reserved seat is a separate 1,200 yen each way. Odakyu’s own worked example for a Shinjuku return trip adds up to 9,500 yen before a single museum ticket.

Hakone is not one attraction but a circuit of transport operators, a monitored volcanic area and a handful of paid sites around a caldera lake. The figures below all come from the operators, the town, the prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Ministry of the Environment, read in September 2026.

The Hakone Freepass is 7,100 yen for two days, and the Romancecar is charged on top

Odakyu sells the Hakone Freepass in two lengths and from two starting points. From Shinjuku it is 7,100 yen for two days and 7,500 yen for three; the child fares are 1,600 and 1,850 yen. From Odawara, where many travellers arrive by Shinkansen, the same pass is 6,000 yen for two days and 6,400 yen for three, with child fares of 1,500 and 1,750 yen.

The Limited Express Romancecar is a separate charge on every version. A one-way reserved seat costs an extra 1,200 yen from Shinjuku and an extra 200 yen from Odawara, with child supplements of 600 and 100 yen. Odakyu prints the arithmetic itself: the Hakone Freepass from Shinjuku at 7,100 yen plus a round-trip Romancecar ticket at 2,400 yen comes to 9,500 yen. The same page puts the direct Romancecar run from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto at about 80 minutes, with all seats reserved.

Odakyu’s own guide lists seven ways of moving around inside Hakone

The Getting Around Hakone page of the Odakyu Hakone group names seven transit methods: the Hakone Tozan Train, the Hakone Tozan Cable Car, the Hakone Ropeway, the Hakone Sightseeing Cruise, the Hakone Tozan Bus, the Odakyu Highway Bus and the Tokai Bus. The last two carry a note on that page that their information may be in Japanese.

Each leg has a published shape. The Tozan Train runs between Hakone-Yumoto and Gora and uses switchbacks to climb the gradient. The cable car continues from Gora to Sounzan. The ropeway then covers about 4 kilometres from Sounzan to Togendai in about 30 minutes one way, in 18-person gondolas that the operator says run approximately every minute, with each of the three sections timed at about 15 minutes on the ropeway’s own page. Ropeway hours are 9:00 to 17:00 from February to November and 9:00 to 16:15 in December and January. The cruise crosses Lake Ashi between Togendai-ko and Hakonemachi-ko; Odakyu’s own itinerary describes the Moto-Hakone to Togendai leg as a 30-minute crossing.

Owakudani sits inside a crater area the meteorological agency still watches

Hakoneyama is volcano number 315 in the Japan Meteorological Agency’s list. The forecast in force was issued at 10:00 on 7 October 2019, when the agency lowered the alert from Level 2 to Level 1 and lifted the warning, writing that the likelihood of an eruption in the assumed crater area around Owakudani had fallen. Level 1 is defined as entry restrictions inside the crater depending on conditions; Level 2, the level that was lifted, is defined as entry restrictions around the crater. The agency’s commentary still records that active fumarolic activity at Owakudani has continued since 2015.

That has practical consequences at the ticket gate. The ropeway publishes a four-step sulphur dioxide scale: below 0.2 ppm is normal, 0.2 ppm and above is caution, 2.0 ppm and above is high caution, and at 5.0 ppm and above services are suspended. Between Sounzan and Ubako the ropeway states that people with allergic asthma, bronchial conditions, respiratory conditions or heart conditions, people wearing pacemakers and people in poor physical condition cannot ride, because volcanic gas is a danger to life.

Kanagawa Prefecture states that the area around Owakudani is designated a warning zone, and that the prefectural road 734 between the Owakudani junction and the Owakudani grounds car park is closed to traffic except between 9:00 and 17:00. The prefecture also records that the ropeway itself is under no special restriction arising from volcanic activity.

Kanagawa Prefecture handles the valley floor. The nature trail is about 700 metres long, was closed after the volcanic activity of 2015 and reopened on 28 March 2022. Entry is by guided walk: about 40 minutes, four times a day, 30 people per slot, with a contribution of 800 yen per person collected on the day towards safety measures. The prefecture asks people with asthma, bronchial disease, respiratory disease or a pacemaker to stay away from the Owakudani grounds altogether.

Three sites around the lake and the slope that charge admission

The Hakone Sekisho is the reconstructed Edo-period barrier on the shore at Hakonemachi. Its own guide puts a standard visit at about 45 minutes and states that it is open every day of the year, with the last admission 30 minutes before closing. It also carries a discount the transport pass makes worth checking, and a weekend rule for school pupils.

The barrier is worth the ticket as a document rather than a view. Its own English page records that the Tokugawa shogunate placed 53 sekisho on major roads to defend Edo, that this one was placed on its current site in 1619, that its job was described as controlling incoming guns and outgoing women, and that it operated, in the page’s own words, for about 260 years during the Edo era and was dissolved in the next year of 1868, when the government changed. The same page notes that Hakone did not in fact inspect incoming guns.

Site Adult Child Opening hours
Hakone Sekisho (standard) 500 yen 250 yen (elementary) 9:00 to 17:00, 1 March to 30 November
Hakone Sekisho (standard, winter) 500 yen 250 yen (elementary) 9:00 to 16:30, 1 December to end of February
Hakone Sekisho with a Hakone Freepass 400 yen 150 yen as above
Hakone Sekisho, group of 20 or more 350 yen 150 yen (high school), 120 yen (junior high), 100 yen (elementary) as above
Hakone Shrine Treasure Hall 500 yen (junior high and above) 300 yen (elementary) 9:00 to 16:30, last entry 16:00
Hakone Open-Air Museum, at the gate 2,000 yen 800 yen (junior high and elementary) 9:00 to 17:00, every day
Hakone Open-Air Museum, web ticket 1,800 yen 600 yen (junior high and elementary) 9:00 to 17:00, every day

Several exemptions are printed rather than implied. At the Sekisho, elementary and junior-high pupils enter free on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, and a visitor with a disability certificate plus one carer each enter free. At the Open-Air Museum the web ticket for university and high-school students is 1,400 yen against 1,600 yen at the gate, preschool children are free, and car parking is 500 yen for the first three hours and 500 yen for each hour after that. The shrine’s own group rate, for 25 people or more, is 350 yen for junior-high age and above and 200 yen for elementary pupils.

Lake Ashi is 43.5 metres deep, and the town counts 477 hot-spring sources

Hakone Town publishes the lake’s dimensions: Lake Ashi sits at an elevation of 724 metres, has a circumference of 19 kilometres and a surface area of 6.9 square kilometres, and its deepest point is 43.5 metres. The same page dates the lake to a phreatic explosion at Kamiyama about 3,100 years ago, whose debris dammed the river of the time. The town’s statistics yearbook, published separately, dates the same event to about 3,000 years ago. Both documents were live in September 2026 and neither explains the other.

The town covers 92.86 square kilometres. Its statistics table counts 477 hot-spring sources in the fiscal year to March 2025, against 482, 481 and 480 in the three years before it, so the figure has fallen rather than risen; the table also separates sources in use from dormant and exhausted ones, so 477 is the total rather than the working count. Yumoto accounts for 98 of them and Sengokuhara for 99, and the table names 18 hot-spring areas in all. In the same year the town recorded 461 hot-spring facilities and 5,099,481 bathers.

Visitor numbers are counted on the calendar year. Hakone recorded 21,122 thousand visitors in 2025, up 812 thousand on the year before, split into 4,148 thousand staying overnight and 16,974 thousand on day trips. Foreign overnight guests came to 629 thousand.

The town’s yearbook adds the wider geology. Kamiyama, the main peak, stands at 1,438 metres, with outer-rim peaks such as Kintokiyama and Myojogatake at around 1,000 metres. Hakone was certified a Japan Geopark in 2012 on the strength of volcanic activity spanning more than 400,000 years, and 9,246 hectares of national park land lie inside the town boundary, of which 489 hectares are special protection zones. Water leaves the caldera as well as steam: 150,000 tonnes a day are still drawn from Lake Ashi through the Edo-period Fukara sluice and tunnel into Shizuoka Prefecture.

The land itself is national park. The Ministry of the Environment designated Fuji-Hakone National Park on 1 February 1936 and added the Hakone district by expansion on 17 December 1938; the Izu Peninsula followed on 15 March 1955, when the park was renamed, and the Izu Islands on 7 July 1964. The park now covers 161,202 hectares, of which 121,755 hectares are land, and the Hakone district accounts for 11,166 hectares of that land area. The park management office is at Kyu-Fudaba 164, Motohakone, inside the town.

Sources Checked

Odakyu Electric Railway — Hakone Freepass page (English)
Confirmed the 2-day and 3-day pass prices from Shinjuku (7,100 and 7,500 yen; child 1,600 and 1,850 yen) and from Odawara (6,000 and 6,400 yen; child 1,500 and 1,750 yen), the Romancecar supplements (1,200 and 200 yen one way; child 600 and 100 yen), the 9,500 yen worked example, the roughly 80-minute Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto run with all seats reserved, the ropeway figures of about 4 kilometres and about 30 minutes, and the 30-minute Moto-Hakone to Togendai cruise.
https://www.odakyu.jp/english/passes/hakone/

Odakyu Hakone — Getting Around Hakone
Confirmed the list of seven transit methods and the note that two of them are documented in Japanese.
https://www.hakonenavi.jp/international/en/around

Odakyu Hakone — Hakone Ropeway page
Confirmed the ropeway hours of 9:00 to 17:00 from February to November and 9:00 to 16:15 in December and January, the 18-person capacity gondola running approximately every minute, and the three sections Sounzan to Owakudani, Owakudani to Ubako and Ubako to Togendai at about 15 minutes each.
https://www.hakonenavi.jp/international/en/transportation/hakone-ropeway

Odakyu Hakone — volcanic gas information, gas levels
Confirmed the four-step sulphur dioxide scale with thresholds at 0.2, 2.0 and 5.0 ppm and suspension of services at the top step.
https://www.hakonenavi.jp/volcanic_gas_info/volcanic_gas/

Odakyu Hakone — volcanic gas information, cautions
Confirmed that people with allergic asthma, bronchial, respiratory or heart conditions, people wearing pacemakers and people in poor physical condition cannot ride between Sounzan and Ubako, and that the operator states this is a danger to life.
https://www.hakonenavi.jp/volcanic_gas_info/caution/

Japan Meteorological Agency — volcano list and Hakoneyama warning and commentary data
Confirmed that Hakoneyama is volcano 315, that the forecast in force was issued at 10:00 on 7 October 2019 lowering the alert from Level 2 to Level 1, the wording of both levels, the statement that the likelihood of eruption in the assumed crater area had fallen, and the commentary that fumarolic activity at Owakudani has continued since 2015.
https://www.jma.go.jp/bosai/volcano/data/warning/315.json

Kanagawa Prefecture — Owakudani page, Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park section
Confirmed the nature trail length of about 700 metres, the reopening on 28 March 2022, the guided entry of about 40 minutes four times a day for 30 people at 800 yen per person, and the request that people with asthma, bronchial disease, respiratory disease or a pacemaker avoid the Owakudani grounds.
https://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/docs/f4y/hakone/fujihakoneizu/oowakudani.html

Kanagawa Prefecture — Hakone volcanic activity information page
Confirmed the warning-zone designation around Owakudani, the closure of prefectural road 734 between the Owakudani junction and the Owakudani grounds car park outside 9:00 to 17:00, and the statement that the ropeway is under no special restriction arising from volcanic activity.
https://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/docs/j8g/cnt/f532566/index.html

Hakone Sekisho — user guide
Confirmed opening hours of 9:00 to 17:00 from 1 March to 30 November and 9:00 to 16:30 from 1 December to the end of February, last admission 30 minutes before closing, a standard visit of about 45 minutes, opening every day of the year, admission of 500 and 250 yen, the Hakone Freepass rate of 400 and 150 yen, the group rate of 350 yen for adults and 150, 120 and 100 yen for high-school, junior-high and elementary pupils, free entry for elementary and junior-high pupils on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, and free entry for a disability certificate holder and one carer.
https://www.hakonesekisyo.jp/userguide/index.html

Hakone Sekisho — English history page
Confirmed that 53 sekisho were placed on major roads, that Hakone Sekisho was placed on its current location in 1619, the description of its role as controlling incoming guns and outgoing women, the statement that it did not inspect incoming guns, and that it operated about 260 years and was dissolved in 1868.
https://www.hakonesekisyo.jp/english/

Hakone Shrine — precincts and Treasure Hall page
Confirmed Treasure Hall hours of 9:00 to 16:30 with last entry at 16:00, admission of 500 yen for junior-high age and above and 300 yen for elementary pupils, and the group rate for 25 or more of 350 and 200 yen.
https://hakonejinja.or.jp/hakone/keidai.html

Hakone Open-Air Museum — visitor information
Confirmed hours of 9:00 to 17:00 every day, gate admission of 2,000, 1,600 and 800 yen, web tickets of 1,800, 1,400 and 600 yen, free entry for preschool children, and car parking at 500 yen for three hours and 500 yen per hour after that.
https://www.hakone-oam.or.jp/info/

Hakone Town — Lake Ashi page, statistics yearbook and visitor-numbers release
Confirmed the lake elevation of 724 metres, circumference of 19 kilometres, area of 6.9 square kilometres and maximum depth of 43.5 metres, the two different ages given for the lake, the town area of 92.86 square kilometres, the hot-spring source counts of 477, 482, 481 and 480, the 18 named hot-spring areas with 98 sources at Yumoto and 99 at Sengokuhara, the 461 facilities and 5,099,481 bathers, and the 2025 visitor totals of 21,122 thousand, 4,148 thousand and 16,974 thousand with 629 thousand foreign overnight guests.
Also confirmed the 150,000 tonnes a day drawn off through the Fukara sluice, the 1,438-metre height of Kamiyama, the outer-rim peaks at around 1,000 metres, the 2012 Japan Geopark certification, the volcanic activity spanning more than 400,000 years, and the 9,246 hectares of national park land inside the town including 489 hectares of special protection zone.
https://www.town.hakone.kanagawa.jp/www/contents/1100000001498/index.html

Ministry of the Environment — Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park introduction
Confirmed the designation on 1 February 1936, the Hakone expansion on 17 December 1938, the 1955 renaming and Izu Peninsula addition, the 1964 Izu Islands addition, the park area of 161,202 hectares with 121,755 hectares of land, and the Hakone district figure of 11,166 hectares.
https://www.env.go.jp/park/fujihakone/intro/index.html

Ministry of the Environment — national park management office list
Confirmed that the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park Management Office is at Kyu-Fudaba 164, Motohakone, Hakone Town, Ashigarashimo District, Kanagawa.
https://www.env.go.jp/park/office.html

Last updated: September 2026