Odawara Station

Coolest and cleanest train 🚂 station I have ever seen! No joke. You could go shopping and eating and options are endless. It’s is a huge station and you might feel lost at some point arriving, but once you ask for help at any information point you will be surprised. Just be ready to walk a lot. I am so grateful that customer service in Japan is so good, but if you don’t ask people will keep going their way. This station even includes a Hotel! 🏨 It is so much easier! And the hotel is a high quality hotel, not an old or cheap hotel. It has everything you need during traveling and we are very impressed. I have so much to say about the train stations in Japan but honestly I don’t have the free time I need to spend on it. I barely give a 5 * and I hope I can come back again.

One of the most interesting and beautiful train stations anywhere in Japan. Great architecture and I love the large lantern hanging in the entrance of the station.

Easy to go through the station and take the train for English speaking people. Took the bullet train to tokyo station and it was a good experience.

A major station to catch both local and Shinkansen trains. The Shinkansen platform is a short walk from the local platform. There are many shops, restaurants, groceries on the floors below the train platform. During peak hours of late morning until early evening, the place is pretty crowded with commuters, and shoppers. The Odawara Castle is a short walk from the East Entrance/Exit.

Caught the Shinkansen to Kyoto here after a day trip to the Hakone area. Busy, but not Tokyo busy. The shops are good here. Ended up getting this cute shoulder bag at the bookstore that I've not seen anywhere else. I used this bag for all my day trips here.

You can get food stuffs and drinks while you wait to get onto the platform.

Being on the Shinkansen was cool. Super fast. No real thrills. Didn't get anything from the onboard service. Seeing the service people bow before they leave your train car just shows you're in a different country.

Our car was partially full until Nagoya, where the school kids got up to leave. Then it was practically empty to Kyoto. There's wifi on the train.

I can't believe I didn't get a pic of the samurai statue in front of the station. (also missed a chance at a pic at a large Tanuki statue later in my trip.... take the picture!)

It is worth taking the Hakone train here, even though it has to reverse direction several times because the track is single-tracked. I really enjoyed the ride.

This staton is a transition station head to Hakone! Several lines stop at this station so looks a little bit complicated but no problem there are many arrows and signs show where you go. You have to get on the Hakone Tozan Line if you are headed to Hakone mountain. There are cute shopping mall in this station which reproduce old days here. You can enjoy this station even in short time for sure! Enjoy!

Odawara Station 🚅From here I will go to Odawara historic castle.

The train was unbelievable so fast and comfortable. I was lucky to see it sped reached 297kmh for short distance.

Provably takes 27 minutes less than expected.

This large and wonderful station is a great place to transfer to go to Hakone. It also has lots of shops inside so you can get almost anything you need there.

Very nice station with clean facilities and friendly staff.
You may buy the hakone free pass here at their clearly labelled office, as well as receive/activate your Japan Rail Pass here at the shinkansen office.
I'd recommend taking the hakone tozan train for visiting hakone rather than the bus, especially if you have luggage.

Clean station and easy to use for a variety of trains. Perfect stop for trying out the Shinkansen from Tokyo

A small station with fast connections, short walkways and plenty of shops for travel needs.

left a strawberry mochi donut behind on a bench on platform 10 if anyone wants it 💯💯

Great station. Good amenities. Lots of really helpful staff. Good links in and out.

Easy to walk around!
The hakone pass can be purchased also at the automatic vending machines (and they accept credit cards)

The staff was very, very helpful. We were running later for our train and were obviously a bit stressed. We had a mistake on our return ticket and the staff quickly fixed it and literally ran and made sure we were able to catch our train. I’ve never met such nice train station staff in my time in Japan. He even called ahead to our final destination in Tokyo to explain the situation so when we arrived there was no issue.

Main station to interchange to Hakone.
In other words gateway of Hakone.
5000 yen hakone pass will be provided here.

It was quite a busy station. Inside it has access to both Shinkansen and local trains. The bus station is right outside.
There are two information counters on the second floor. You can get Hakone day passes and get helpful tips from the information counters. They do warn of any adverse weather conditions and and conditions that may affect the sites that you may want to visit.
Staff us very helpful and there's plenty of directions in English.

Used the shinkansen to get here from Kyoto for a trip to hakone/mt. Fuji... Blisteringly hot day, while waiting for the bus, the bus ticket seller came around and handed us these small "impact activated" ice packs to keep us cool in the queue and while on the bus. Very nice place.

This is a great station to get to different parts of Japan and is very easy to use. The staff is awesome and there are enough conveniences to make your trip enjoyable. Odawara Eki rocks!