HAKUBA – GETTING THERE

You will, most likely, arrive in Japan at Hanada airport. After exiting Customs, buy a ticket for the monorail and travel a few stops to JR Hamamatsucho station, which is on the JR East Line. (Does your monorail ticket include your train trip to Tokyo?)

Exit the monorail at Hamamatsucho and take the stairs down one level to the Yamanote Line. From there take the train towards Tokyo. This is well sign-posted and the trains run every few minutes.

At Tokyo Station, find the green JR Ticket Office. Using the vending machine or the staffed counter buy a ticket on the Horuriku-Shinkansen bullet train to Nagano.

The fastest train is the Kagayaki service, which only stops twice before Nagano and takes about 80 minutes. But even the slower Hakutaka and the Asama services, which take the same route, will get you there in about 100 minutes.

At Nagano Station, which is much smaller and less crowded than Tokyo, exit onto street level and find the ticket window for the bus service to Hakuba Happo Bus Terminal, which is a journey of about an hour-and-a-half.

When you arrive at Hakuba Happo Bus Terminal, ask the front desk to call Penke Panke Lodge (this costs Y200) and have a driver collect you. The lodge is just a few minutes away and a staff member will have you and your luggage collected in no time.