Travel around Japan for a while and one thing will become very clear: transportation is very expensive and can eat up a lot of your budget. Cutting corners and finding discounts can be tricky because special offers and deals are often advertised in Japanese only. But here is one nice travel deal that can save you some yen: the Tanzawa–Oyama Freepass.
The Tanzawa–Oyama Freepass is a multi-purpose card that can cut costs for people traveling to and around the Tanzawa-Oyama Quasi-National Park, a huge area of natural beauty in Kanagawa Prefecture. The park is nearly 400,000 square meters, and is filled with waterfalls, forests, the Miyagasi Dam, and the Tanzawa Mountain Range, which includes the famous Mt. Oyama. Oyama is a popular destination for tourists and locals alike, and is a wonderful place for hiking and sightseeing.
For one price, the Tanzawa–Oyama Freepass provides unlimited travel from the point of purchase (which is at train stations along the Odakyu Line) to the National Park area, and also within the park itself. It covers all the trains along the Odakyu Line, select busses in the area, and can also include the cable car that runs up Oyama (a cable car-inclusive pass is slightly more expensive than a standard one). It can also be used to get discounts at numerous local shops and businesses, all of which are listed on the Freepass’s website.
For people who are only going to Oyama, the Freepass offers a bit of a discount compared to paying the full price for each step of the way. For those who are looking to take a longer trip, it can offer significant savings. The pass can be used unlimitedly for two days. (If you are hoping to use it for two days, however, be careful if you leave the National Park and plan to come back later. Showing the pass to get off a train on the Odakyu Line can cause the train staff to try to take the ticket, assuming that your trip is over.)
In addition to saving money, it can also save you time and hassle. For my recent trip up Oyama, I bought the ticket at Yamato Station, which is on the Odakyu Line). The pass covered my train ride from Yamato to Isehara Station (the nearest stop to Oyama), and then a Kanachu Bus (from Isehara Station to the base of Oyama), and then the cable car from the mountain’s base up to the first stop (a beautiful mountain shrine named Oyama-dera), and then from the first cable car stop to the top (another beautiful shrine called Afuri Jinja). The top stop is the beginning point for many hikers, who climb from there to the summit and then return. I then reversed these steps and returned to Yamato Station. The cost of my Freepass (1,820 yen) came out to about 400 yen less than paying individually.
The Tanzawa-Oyama Freepass can be purchased from any standard ticket machine along the Odakyu Line (which have English functions). The cost varies slightly depending on where your starting point is.
