shelleyk

I've come up with 2 very different itineraries for our second trip to Japan in Nov. Our first 3.5 week visit 3 years ago covered a week in Tokyo,a week in Kyoto, Matsumoto, Takayama Hiroshima, Miyajiima, and Kanazawa.

For our second trip I want to revisit 3 of the highlights of our first trip-Miyajiima, Arashiyama , and Fushimi Inari , as well as see some new places, including Nikko , Himejii., and Uji. We like culture, scenery, walking, being outdoors and Japanese food. We are not interested in shopping.

The 2 itineraries I have come up with are as follows:

1-Fly into Fukuoka.
2-Train Kumamoto to see the castle and Garden and continue to Kagoshima
3-4-Kagoshima sightseeing and 1 hour sightseeing train ride to Ibusuki (1 hour each way
5-Train to Hiroshima
6-Miyajiima the whole day
7,8,9-Okayama-visit Okayama garden,Kurushiki,Onomichi
10-Himejii
11,12,13-Kyoto-including Uji, one temple in Nara that we missed on the last trip, Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama
14, 15, 16-Tokyo with a day trip to Nikko
17-Fly home from Tokyo
or

1-Fly into Tokyo
2,3,4-Tokyo with a day trip to Nikko
5-Train to Hiroshima
6-Miyajiima
7,8,9,-Okayama-garden, Kuashiki,Omomichi, possibly adding a 2.5 hour train ride to Matsue-
10-Himejii
11,12,13-Kyoto-Uji, a temple in Nara we missed on the last trip, Arashiyama, Fushimi Inari
14-Fly home from Osaka

I would appreciate any comments about which itinerary would be best suited for us considering our interests.

Also, any recommendation for a mid priced ryoken at any of these places would be helpful, especially in Kurashiki.

And one travel question-If we leave Shinjuku station for Hiroshima at 8 am, do we have to travel part way on a regular train that commuters would use. Someone suggested that with a JR Pass we could reserve a seat on a NEX train and get off at Tokyo station, but I don't see this as an option on Hyperdia.

russ_in_LA

Re: your last question. You can ride a N'EX train to Shinagawa station, and then pick up the Shinkansen from there. Check out this link and look at the second option:

http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi/en/searc...d&sum_target=7

BigRuss

What LA Russ said, or you can ride any other JR train that runs parallel with the Yamanote line (or that line itself) to Shinagawa to catch the shin to Osaka and transfer for the shin you need for Hiroshima. No need to go back to Tokyo station at all.

That said, you could still take the Chuo express to Tokyo station from Shinjuku and that would have commuters on it.

kja

First and foremost, it might be very helpful to us if you would highlight the things that are key differences between these itineraries. From what I see in my comparison, the places where your options diverge are ones upon which I cannot comment, but maybe I'm wrong?

A few observations in case they help:

I was disappointed with Okayama's Korakuen, but maybe it was just the time of year or whatever.

I would think you could easily incorporate Himeji into your time for Okayama, Kurashiki, and Onomichi -- but I could be wrong!

You missed only one temple in Nara on your previous trip? I spent 2 full days in Nara, and didn't see everything I would have liked to see in that area! As examples, Horyuji, and particularly Chuguji -- just outside Nara -- were places that I count among the highlights of a highlight-filled trip.

Although many people understandably choose to visit Nikko as a day-trip, I was very glad to spend a night in Nikko, as it gave me time to see Kegon-no-taki and a bit of Lake Chuzenji.

Hope those comments prove helpful!

shelleyk

La Russ-Thanks for the hyperdia link to the NEX train. I do not want to be on a commuter train at 8am because we will have 21 inch rollies with us, and I prefer not to send them ahead via a transfer service.

As for the differences in the 2 itineraries, the first is longer because it has parts of Kyusha included. Never having been there I do not know if the parts I included are worth the extra days, the extra money spent on a 14 day JR Pass rather than the 7 day JR Pass which could be used on the first itinerary, and whether I am spreading myself too thin and trying to do too much. I like fast travel, but not exhausting travel, and I do not want to feel that I am spending too much time on the trains.

kja-The temple in Nara that I missed on the last trip was Horyuji. A you know, it is a bus ride away from most of the other Nara sites, and we ran out of time. However, I'd like to see it on this trip. I am not familiar with Chuguji, but I'll look it up. If it is near Horuji, I'd probably be interested in seeing that also, as I enjoy seeing temples. We spent a very long day in Nara last trip, so in the interest of time, I don't plan on revisiting the temples that I've already seen.

kja

Chuguji is within the grounds of Horyuji, but has a separate admission. It is small, and is particularly known for its statue, the Miroku Bosatsu -- one of my favorites anywhere in the world. JMO.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that you revisit anything -- I just can't imagine how you fit so much into just a single long day. Kudos!

mrwunrfl

If you don't want ordinary trains then uncheck the "Ordinary Train" box on hyperdia.

Is Ibusuki no Tamatebako the scenic train ride you are considering? At the japan-guide forum a poster said to get tix days in advance. Do you get any time in Ibusuki? They have hot sand baths. I tried it but it was so freaking hot that I didn't last long.

7,8,9-Okayama-visit Okayama garden,Kurushiki,Onomichi
10-Himeji

Four days seems like a lot of time for that. Matsue might fit.

Onomichi is a bit closer to Hiroshima than Okayama so maybe that would come first

Interesting that the LTD. EXP YAKUMO that you looked at actually connects four places that you are interested in: Kurashiki -> Okayama -> Matsue -> Izumo-shi

Here is the timetable for one of those trains:
http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi/en/train...chday=20160311

mrwunrfl

>>Matsue might fit.

Or maybe not, not without cutting something else. Leaving Matsue you would travel back via Okayama to Himeji and Osaka. So Matsue is 5 hours off of the rest of the route. Which is probably why it is not well visited by foreign tourists - a fact that makes it more interesting to visit.

By Matsue, I mean Matsue + Isumo Taisha.

Your trip might coincide with Kamiarizuki and the Kamiari Festival. There would be you, Shinto's eight million deities, and probably more than a few Japanese.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5804.html

shelleyk

Wow, that would be something-me and all those dieties.... and all those Japanese people. I think our dates will fall around the week of the festival, so I think we'll skip the crowds and festivities.

As far as a scenic train ride from Okayama, on the LTD. EXPRESS YAKUMO line, is the one hour train ride from Kurashiki to the stop past Kurashiki scenic. The town looks like it may be interesting, though the castle on the hill looks like too much of a schlep.

Any thoughts on spending 3 days in Kyushu seeing only Kumamoto, Kagoshima and doing the scenic train ride to Ibusuki. I'm not interested in the sand bath, just the scenery.

After those 3 days in Kyushu, we would have a long train ride from Kagoshima to Hiroshima, so I'm not sure if it is worth going to Kyushu to see only the sites in Kumomoto and Kagoshima. For those that have been to Kumomoto and Kagoshina, do you think it would add to the trip or be too rushed and tiring, considering the rest of trip outlined above.

mrwunrfl

I've been saving Nikko for Japan trip #9. My reason for not going was that I think it deserves at least one night maybe three to do it justice and it just didn't fit with the rest of the plan.

What castle on the hill?

I haven't stopped in Kagoshima but the 3 nights you have there sounds right. It is less than 3 hours to Hiroshima and with no transfers between Kagoshima Chuo to Hiroshima it should be pretty easy and you have all day for that. The only ~hard part is (if flying JAL BOS-NRT-FUK) would be arriving FUK at 9PM, 5 hours after arriving NRT on the long haul. But, your other itin has that 5+ hours trip from Shinjuku to Hiroshima

shelleyk

The town one stop past Kurashiki is Bitchutakahashi. It has a hilltop castle, but it is time consuming and not easy to get to. I am wondering if just the train ride to B and seeing the town might be worth a half day.

mrwunrfl

I see the reasons for going there. Paying the 1500 taxi fare to get to the upper parking lot cuts the "climb" time from 45 minutes to 15 minutes, but it is still a 15-minute climb. As far as the scenery from the train goes, you will see that on the way when you travel between Okayama and Kurashiki.

I meant to post this earlier I've been saving Nikko but I so see that Nikko is first on your list of new places to visit.

You mentioned Korakuen, the Okayama garden, but not Okayama-jo which is next to the garcden, but I assume that castle is on your list of things to see. You also have Himeji and, hopefully, Kumamoto castles. If you go to Onomichi from Okayama the route seems to go via Fukuyama. The castle there, that you can see from the shinkansen, can be skipped even though it is across the street from the JR station. OTOH, like Horyuji, my lack of appreciation for Fukuyama-jo had something to do with the fact that there were very few people there. Lifeless. Also, the lack of grass on the grounds made it unattractive - but I guess the place gets its share of visitors, i.e. the people who trample the grass to death.

For scenery in that region I can recommend views of/from the Seto Ohashi bridges. There are viewpoints of the bridge and Seto Nai Kai on both ends at Kojima on the Honshu end and, I think, Sakaide on the Shikoku end. The bridges are an awesome feat of engineering in a beautiful setting.

My view was from the train, at sunset, and my head was swiveling around as I tried to take it all in.

After the bridge, most of the ride to Matsuyama was in the dark so I didn't get to see that, but it was a fair trade-off for the sunset views I got from the bridge. Loved Dogo Onsen and the wonderful castle in Matsuyama. Took a hydrofoil to Hiroshima - beautiful ride at sunset.

shelleyk

Thanks for the suggestion about the view of the bridge. I think the best way for me to see it is from Kojima. I see that there is a loop bus in Kojima that stops at an overlook of the bridge and the sea. I would take a JR train from Kuashiki to Kojima and hopefully hook up with that bus.

Do you know if the JR Marine Liner has views of the islands as it goes from Okayama to Shikoku? It is one hour from Okayama to Takamatsu, and since I will have a JR Rail Pass, I might consider it for a rainy day.

Dogo Onsen looks awesome. But that will have to wait for another trip.

mrwunrfl

>>Do you know if the JR Marine Liner has views of the islands as it goes from Okayama to Shikoku?

It does. That is what I meant by "tried to take it all in". Somebody ranked it is one of the top 10 views from JR trains: https://www.japan-rail-pass.com/japa...views-by-train

Am not sure about the wisdom of making the trip on a rainy day because rain and clouds and fog would tend to obscure the views.

someotherguy

I've been to Bitchutakahashi a couple of times. It has fine temples and a famous and splendid raked stone garden at Raikyu-ji, plus old merchant and samurai buildings. The meiji-era elementary school is a local museum.

The castle is the only mountaintop one of the original 12, and it may be the oldest of them. You can see it from the station, peeking through the trees at the top of one of the surrounding hills. It's pretty far away, though, and only subtends about half a degree (like the moon).

I took a taxi to the lower parking lot (the upper one is only open on weekends I believe) and toiled up the hundreds of stone steps. The ascent is quite interesting as there's a lot of defense in depth. I'm old and feeble and walk with a cane but I made it in about an hour. It's a fine place with good views over the countryside. Descending, I joined the road at the upper parking lot and bypassed the lower half of the steps. I believe there's a public phone at the lower lot but the parking lot attendant (for all of three cars) called a taxi for me on his cell (I had the foresight to request a card from the driver who drove me up). An alternative would be to arrange for the driver to return at a specified time. I was there midweek during cherry blossom and encountered very few people, so you do need some plan for getting back.

I don't see a theme to the places on your itinerary so I don't know what you are looking for, but I consider it a pretty good day out.

Mara

I'm planning to go to BitchuTakahashi to visit the castle and other sites in the town - actually as per an idea from someotherguy to visit the 12 original castles.

Anyway there is some kind of shuttle taxi service as well but the info is in Japanese....

http://takahasikanko.or.jp/modules/t...?content_id=18

someotherguy, hundreds of stone steps? Oy!

shelleyk

Mara-If you get any more info about the taxi service(or if you learn to read the Japanese website, lol) please let me know. When are you going? We will be in Japan in Nov, and hope to go to BT.

Mara

shelleyk, my browser is Firefox and there is an add-on called Rikaichan with which you can read a lot of Japanese websites. Also you can paste a url into google translate...

I plan to visit there sometime in April so I will let you know how the shuttle taxi works out. Basically it seems you have to reserve in advance and there is a phone number so I will see if my small amount of Japanese works..lol...

shelleyk

Thanks. Have a wonderful trip. I'm looking forward to reading about your experience in BT and at the castle.

someotherguy

Mara, my notes say: "uneven steps, then good steps, then steep steps with handrail, then steep sloping style steps, then really big steps." Enjoy!

What do you see as the advantage of the shuttle taxi service over the train and local taxi? BTW, two years ago, the local taxis cost me 1,280Y going up, and 1,670Y back down.