Utsunomiya Station 宇都宮駅
Utsunomiya Station is the main point of access for rail services to Utsunomiya city in Tochigi Prefecture in the northern Kanto.
JR East Lines
Utsunomiya Station is on the following JR East lines: the Tohoku Shinkansen, the Utsunomiya Line (Tohoku Main Line), the Shonan-Shinjuku Line, the Nikko Line and the Karasuyama Line.
Tohoku Shinkansen
Utsunomiya Station is on the JR Tohoku Shinkansen which runs 674km from Tokyo Station in Tokyo to Shin-Aomori Station in Aomori Prefecture. It is Japan's longest shinkansen line. Utsunomiya is the fifth station outside of Tokyo after Tokyo Station, Ueno Station, Omiya and Oyama. The journey from Tokyo is about 50 minutes.
Utsunomiya Line
The Utsunomiya Line is that part of the Tohoku Main Line between Ueno Station in Tokyo and Kuroiso Station in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture. The list of stations on this part of the Tohoku Main Line is: Ueno, Oku, Akabane, Urawa, Saitama Shintoshin, Omiya, Toro, Higashi-Omiya, Hasuda, Shiraoka, Shin-Shiraoka, Kuki, Higashi-Washinomiya, Kurihashi, Koga, Nogi, Mamada, Oyama, Koganei, Jichi Medical University, Ishibashi, Suzumenomiya and Utsunomiya.
Shonan Shinjuku Line
The Shonan-Shinjuku Line provides a direct service to Shinjuku Station in Shinjuku, Yokohama Station in Yokohama, Kamakura and Zushi via the Utsunomiya Line from Utsunomiya to Omiya.
Nikko Line
The Nikko Line runs the 40 km from Utsunomiya to Nikko with stops in Tsuruta, Kanuma, Fubasami, Shimotsuke-Osawa and
Imaichi. The journey takes around 40 minutes.
Karasuyama Line
The Karasuyama Line connects Utsunomiya with Karasuyama Station around 20 km to the north east. Stations on the line are Hoshakuji, Shimotsuke-Hanaoka, Niita, Konoyama, Ogane, Kobana, Taki and Karasuyama.
Tobu-Utsunomiya Station
Tobu-Utsunomiya Station is connected by local bus the 1.6 km from JR Utsunomiya Station. The Tobu-Utsunomiya Line runs just over 24 km in 33 minutes south to Shin-Tochigi Station. From Shin-Tochigi Station which connects to the Tobu Nikko Line the stations are Yashu-Hirakawa, Yashu-Otsuka, Mibu, Kuniya, Omocha-no-Machi, Yasuzuka, Nishi-Kawada, Esojima, Minami-Utsunomiya and Tobu-Utsunomiya.
The station is inside the Tobu department store. The surrounding area is a lively entertainment hub in the evening centered around the Orion Dori aka Orion Shopping Street arcade (shotengai).
Local Kanto buses run from just outside the station and connect with Tobu-Utsunomiya, the Tochigi Prefectural Office, Utsunomiya Bunka Kaikan, Utsunomiya Castle Park, the Oya History Museum and Oyaji Temple in nearby Oya as well as many other local destinations.
These include the Utsunomiya campus of Teikyo University, Suzumenomiya Station, Ishibashi Station, Tsuruta Station, Okamoto Station and Ujiie Station.
Station Facilities
The station includes a Tourist Information Office with leaflets in a variety of languages, convenience stores, souvenir shops and coin lockers.
The adjacent malls, Lala Square and Paseo also house several gyoza restaurants as well as one or two jazz bars and cocktail bars that Utsunomiya is also famous for. However, the main jazz and cocktail scene is closer to Tobu-Utsunomiya. Lala Square has a branch of both Yodobashi Camera and Daiso.
Accommodation
There is a cluster of hotels around Utsunomiya Station. These include the Chisun Hotel Utsunomiya, the Richmond Hotel Utsunomiya-ekimae with its daily breakfast buffet, and its sister hotel, the slightly cheaper Richmond Hotel Utsunomiya-ekimae Annex, the very well-equipped Daiwa Roynet Utsunomiya, and the very reasonably priced Hotel MyStays Utsunomiya.