How to get the Kanachu Airport Limousine Bus to Haneda from Sagamiono

[dlombard]

Now that I live in Kanagawa prefecture, it has become important to know how to access the two nearby major international airports, Haneda in Tokyo and Narita in Chiba.  One of the major cities in Kanagawa prefecture is Sagamihara.  Sagamiono is a major transit gateway, primarily served by the Odakyu Electric Railway Company best known for operating the famous Romancecar service, which is an scenic express train that originates at Shinjuku station along with many other Odakyu routes.

Sagamiono is such an important hub that the aforementioned Romancecar and other express routes stops at Sagamiono Station.  It also happens to be the place where the Kanachu Airport Limousine bus stops on the way to Haneda airport (and Narita).  The gymnastics required to daisy chain the necessary train transfers to the airport from Sagamiono makes the Kanachu Airport Limousine bus your best solution.

Unfortunately, information on the Internet about exactly where to board the bus to the airport was not easy to find. Sagamiono Station is a BIG station. It's inside of a huge shopping complex that would require 40 minutes of walking if you were to walk around the entire perimeter. Therefore, not knowing where the exact bus bay would be a big problem. It is not reasonable to take for granted that asking a staff member, if you can find one, will know how to find out and provide easy directions. For example, if you find an Odakyu railway employee, it's a coin toss as to whether they will know anything about the Kanachu service. Even worse, Google Maps--the usual go-to in a situation like this--is extremely bad at dealing with Japan in general. One of many reasons being that there are so many places where you take routes where you walk on elevated structures, or, at-grade (ground level). Google Maps' "street view" utterly fails at this the vast majority of the time (which, in particular, makes walking directions next to useless).

What is particularly problematic, however, is that Kanachu's own website does not explain where the actual bus stop is either, unfortunately. The consequences of getting caught walking around with luggage in potentially bad weather frantically hunting for this stop while trying not to miss your flight could be really frustrating.

Being that I have a domestic flight coming up, I took it upon myself to do my own reconnaissance to avoid exactly this problem. Particularly if you are coming from an Odakyu train arriving at Sagamiono station. The following information is accurate as of December, 2023.



1. First, depart from Sagamiono Station's exit toward the huge shopping plaza、turn right at the jumbo tron, and then turn left.  You should be heading in the direction of the large sign on a building that says "Bono Sagamiono."  Important: since you will already be upstairs (because it's the only way to leave the train platform), you will be looking for a non-descript elevator box like this one:



「5・6番　乗り場を御(ご)利用の方は、こちらのエレベーターでお降り下さい。」"Customers boarding at bays 5 or 6, please use this elevator to reach the boarding area."

Your only indication that this is the correct bus stop at a glance (without reading 羽田空港リムジンバス which is "Haneda Airport Limousine Bus" in Japanese) are these [5] and [6] numbers in squares.



2. Square marked "6" describes bus bay six downstairs:



Due to the vehicle protection guard railing (such as the one you see in the background of the above photo), if you take an escalator downstairs to this bus bay with luggage, you won't make it.  You can walk to this bus stop from the street going north if you are approaching Sagamiono station from the southern entrance.  However, if you are already at the station, leaving a train, heading to this bus bay, you need to take the elevator shown above.

3. The bus that arrives does not look like the regular city transit coaches that show up in beige.



Stock photography by JAXA, a Japanese government agency (public domain)

The motor coaches that arrive for airport passengers is a larger, white bus such as this one:



Some additional facts:

• The fare as of this writing are:
  - Adults: ¥1600
  - Adults with Disability: ¥800
  - Children: ¥800
  - Children with Disability: ¥400
• Reservations are recommended.  Reservations can be made up to 30 days in advance and as late as 7:00 PM the day prior to your departure trip.
  * Reservations for trips originating from Haneda airport are not accepted.
• Scheduled trip times are 95 minutes (traffic conditions notwithstanding).  For a domestic flight, plan to arrive at the airport at least 90 minutes prior to your departure (as boarding tends to begin about 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time).
• The earliest bus leaving Sagamiono Station is 4:40am.  If your flight leaves before 7:45am, you'll need a taxicab instead.  This will also be your only option if you have a lot of luggage.  They won't load your bags for you unlike other limousine bus services in Japan, and, you're limited to just one bag per passenger.
• Use https://secure.j-bus.co.jp/hon/Route/Highway?gpcd=140017&rocd=0001  to find available seats - it is only available in Japanese, so your only other alternative is to go to the north exit of Sagamiono Station and purchase your ticket from the boarding staff around the time that they are boarding a bus.  For example, if you need to buy a ticket for Monday of next week, your question would be along the lines of: sumimasen, laishuu no getsuyoubi ni, Haneda Kuukou ni ikitain desuga.  Desukara, ima kippu wo kaitain desuga (すみません、来週の月曜日に羽田空港に行きたいんですが。ですから、今切符を買いたいんですが) - this roughly translates to: Next Monday, I'd like to go to Haneda Airport.  So I'd like to buy a ticket.  If it's two tickets, you would add: ni mai (二枚) or four is yon mai.
• If you do use the j-bus.co.jp website to buy a ticket, you'll need to create an account first.
• When making a reservation, check which terminal your flight leaves from in advance.  Usually, domestic flights are Terminal 1 (JAL) or 2 (ANA) at Haneda while Terminal 3 serves international flights.
• Making a reservation is free.  You only pay when it is time to get on the bus.  There is an IC card reader on the bus, so if you would prefer, have or withdraw the appropriate yen ahead of time, add the amount you'll need for the bus fare to your IC card at any one of the many automated ticketing machines（切符販売機）at the station or even at convenience stores such as 7-11.
• Once you've made a reservation, you'll get a Reservation Number (予約番号) that should be presented when boarding.
• The bus will leave on time, whether not all passengers with reservations have been boarded first.  I suggest arriving at bus bay 6 15-20 minutes before the scheduled bus departure time.

I hope this helps someone someday and saves them a lot of time.