Yokohama to Odawara Castle for a half day trip! 🏯

Hi there!

It’s easy to make it a day trip to Odawara Castle from Yokohama or Tokyo!

Actually, it’s more like a half day trip. You don’t even need a full day in Odawara. The main attraction of Odawara is the Odawara Castle, and all you need is 1-2 hours once you’ve arrived at the Odawara train station… or less if you really want it to be quick.

If all you want to do is make a quick stop to just see the castle from the outside, you could do that with a 30-40 minute round trip walk from the train station. You can see the castle from the outside by walking around the castle grounds for free.

But I think it’s worth paying the small admission fee to walk inside the castle. Odawara Castle is set up so it’s a museum-style display inside.

Below I’ll show you how to navigate yourself to Odawara Station (your starting point for your walk to Odawara Castle!), along with pictures of the 1+ hour I spent walking from the train station to the castle and back. (It’s an easy walk!)

 

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There are partner websites that are included below.

 

 

Odawara Castle tours

It’s quite possible to do Odawara on your own, but if you’ve like to have a more enhanced appreciation of Japan, you will want to do the guided Odawara Castle tour!

For more uniquely Japan experiences, you’ll want to see about doing the FUN(!!) ninja and samurai tour or the zen meditation experience, both at Odawara Castle!

Read the reviews of more Odawara tours on viator or more Odawara tours on getyourguide.

 

 

 

👆 You can see Odawara Castle for free from the outside!

 

👆 Once you arrive at Odawara Station, you can just follow the signs to get to the castle!

 

👆 In the spirit of being a historic castle town in Japan, you can see cute little tiles on the ground representing historic Japan on your walk from the train station to the castle!

 

👆 Welcome to Odawara Castle!

 

 

How to get from Yokohama to Odawara Castle by train

To go to Odawara Castle, you’ll take a train to Odawara Station.

It’s around 1 hour from Yokohama Station to Odawara Station by train, and it’s direct.

 

👆 There is a direct train from Yokohama Station to Odawara.

 

If you plan to do different day trips from Yokohama, it could be convenient to stay in hotels near Yokohama Station. The Yokohama Bay Sheraton is pretty much at Yokohama Station.

 

You can take a local train from Yokohama to Odawara, and this means that you can pay using an IC card.

 

IC cards are public transportation cards that you can load cash onto at any train station. You can get an IC card (like a suica card or pasmo card) at the first train station you go to in Yokohama or Tokyo, including when you arrive at the airport or Yokohama Station. You will buy it at the ticket machine at the train station. The ticket machines have the option to be shown in English, so look for the ENGLISH button!

 

To figure out which train to take to get to Odawara Castle, just use google maps!

This is all you need to navigate public transportation in Yokohama. It will tell you the train route and timings.

 

👆 You can take a train from Yokohama Station to Odawara Station! Google maps will give you the different train options with cost. Explore the map. I have found that looking at google maps on my phone (the app) gives more details than the desktop version. So play around with it on your phone!

 

 

If you go to google maps public transit and put “Yokohama Station” as your starting point, and “Odawara Station” as your end point, and click on the public transit option, you will see for example that one option is to take the “JT Tokaido Line” train with the destination “Atami.”

The destination is important because it will tell you which side of the platform you need to be on.

Or actually, google maps on your phone makes this easy too, because it even tell you what platform you need to go to if you expand out the directions.

Also if you expand out the directions, it will tell you how many stops you have to go, and the names of the stops you will pass by too! It also tells you the cost of the train ride, which can help in knowing how much cash to put on your IC card.

If you are still in planning stages at home, it would be better if you know the train station that’s closest to the hotel you’ll be staying at. When you are actually in Yokohama, you can just use “current location” as your starting point and that will make it super easy to know where to go!

 

It might seem intimidating to take public transportation in Japan, but don’t worry, after you take it a few times, you will feel like a pro! And if you do mess up, not to worry. You aren’t alone. It’s just a part of the Japan experience. 🤪 Stay calm, and as long as you have google maps, you will figure it out. 😆 And, look for signs!

 

 

Tokyo to Odawara and beyond

Similar to Yokohama, you can get to Odawara Castle by direct train from Tokyo.

 

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Depending on which train you take (faster or slower), you can get from Tokyo Station to Odawara Station in less than 35 minutes. That’s on the shinkansen bullet train, so it will be your most expensive train option. The cheapest option will get you from Tokyo to Odawara in around 1.5 hours.

 

👆 Depending on how much money you want to spend, you can get from Tokyo to Odawara in 35 minutes to 1.5 hours.

 

If you’re planning on going from Tokyo to Kyoto, you could even make Odawara a stop along the way.

Take the train to Odawara, put your luggage in the coin lockers at the Odawara train station for luggage storage, and then go and walk around Odawara!

And since there are shinkansen bullet trains that make a stop in Odawara, upon your return, you can get on a bullet train to Kyoto.

Alternatively, Odawara can also be your gateway to the popular volcanic and Mount Fuji town of Hakone.

 

 

 

Odawara Station coin lockers

If you are at a tourist town in Japan, chances are there are coin lockers at the train station! Coin lockers can work well for luggage storage if you are on the move from one city to the next and you want to stop by a city along the way!

There are coin lockers for luggage storage at Odawara Station! So you can stop by Odawara Castle on your way from Tokyo to Kyoto.

There are different size lockers, and the cost will depend on which size you get. But in general it will cost around 300 to 800 yen (around US$5). You can pay using your IC card, or cash.

When you arrive at the Odawara Station, look for a sign for “coin lockers.”

If you arrive to no available coin lockers, you can go to the Odakyu Sightseeing Service Center in Odawara, and you will need to pick up your luggage by 4:30pm.

 

👆 There are coin lockers at Odawara Station. Follow the prompts on the screen. Look for the language/English button.

 

👆 You can use the coin lockers at Odawara Station for luggage storage while you go and walk to Odawara Castle.

 

 

 

 

Walking from Odawara Station to Odawara Castle

Now, here are pictures from my walk from the train station to the Odawara Castle!

It’s free to see Odawara Castle from the outside by walking around the castle grounds.

 

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👆 Approaching the castle grounds.

 

👆👇 Walking through the castle grounds.

 

👆 Getting up close to the castle!

 

👆 You can walk inside the Odawara Castle where you will see museum-style exhibits. The Odawara Castle ticket cost is less than US$5. This ticket is just to walk inside the castle. You can see the castle from the outside for free by walking around the castle grounds.

 

👆 Comparing castles in Japan by castle tower height, Odawara Castle is in the top 10 at #7. The #1 castle is Osaka Castle. The top 10 castles by castle tower, in order are: Osaka, Nagoya, Shimabara, Kumamoto, Himeji, Kokura, Odawara, Hiroshima, Fukuyama, and Wakamatsu.

 

👆 Odawara Castle makes the list for the top 10 castles in Japan when comparing castle tower height. This makes it one of the best castles to visit from Yokohama and Tokyo!

For another castle, you can see a castle from the outside in Tokyo by going to the Tokyo Imperial Palace.

 

👆 Look down as you’re walking to see the cute little tiles that represent a historic castle town in Japan!

 

👆 There are cute manhole covers too.

 

👆 Upon returning to the train station, you’ll be asked, “Did you visit the castle?” Your answer will be, “Why yes, yes I did!” 😁

 

👆 Play around with the Odawara map! Click the upper left corner for the quick list of what’s on the map! Zoom in to Odawara Station to get a better orientation of how to get to Odawara Castle! This map also includes Tokyo and Hakone for reference. If you’re having problems viewing map, see it directly in google maps.

 

HAPPY DAY TRIP TO ODAWARA CASTLE!