shelleyk

DH and I spent 15 days in Japan from Nov. 4- Nov. 17. This was our second trip to Japan, the first one being 3 years ago for 23 days. We visited a few of the same cities we visited on our first trip-Tokyo, Kyoto and Miyajima. However, we did different days trips in Tokyo and Kyoto and visited several new cities, so this trip was in no way a repeat of our first trip..

Our itinerary was as follows:

4 nights in Tokyo. We visited Nikko and Kamakura as day trips as well as spent time in the the Tokyo National Museum. We preferred Kamakura to Nikko-It was easier to get to, was more of a lived in city, and the Zen and Buddist shrines were beautiful, interesting and active. We saw how the Daibutsu was pieced together from going inside the body. We found this interesting and enlightening..

1 night in Matsuyama-We visited Masuyama castle and enjoyed the visit to the caste and the castle museum.

3 nights in Okayama-We used this as a base to visit Himeji caste and the the adjacent garden. We spent one full day in Himeji. The castle is beautifully restored, and the garden is outstanding. I highly recommend you buy the combination ticket which is only 40 yen more than the ticket for the castle alone. We also visited Ritsurin Garden in Takamatsu as a day trip from Okayama and had just enough time to return to the mainland and vist the Biken area of Kurushiki.

1 night in Yonago- We visted the Adachi Museum and Garden on the day we arrived. I highly recommend this place, not so much for the artwork as for the outstanding garden which you view from within the confines of the museum. Admission is 2300 yen, but foreigners who show their passport are admitted for half price. The following day we went to Matsue castle which we enjoyed. Again foreigners with passport are admitted for half price.. We wanted to go to the samurai house near the castle, but it was closed for renovation.

1 night in Hiroshima-We took a day trip to Miyajima. In retrospect this was one of the only disappointment of the trip. I remember M being lovely and not very crowded on our last trip which was also in Nov. This year we visited on a Sunday and to say it, and the train, were teeming with people is an understatement. The trees were in full color and we probably should have anticipated the crowds, but we didn't,

4 nights in Kyoto-We visted Ninna-ji and Tofuku-ji and thankfully found neither to be very crowded, though the latter was more crowded than the former. We enjoyed both. Again the colors were gorgeous and we took many photos.

For the above itinerary I bought a 3 day Tokyo Wide Pass to cover the train from Narita to Tokyo and the train trips to/from Nikko and Kamakura. I also bout a 7 day Japan Rail Pass to cover our travel from the time we left Tokyo until the time we arrived in Kyoto.

We enjoyed our time in Japan very much. Except for 2 problems with taxis- one in Kyoto and one in Okayama the trip went smoothly.

Thank you to all the Fodorites who answered my questions prior to the trip. I know your input helped make this trip better than it would have been using just the information found in guidebooks.

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Mara

shelleyk, glad you had an enjoyable trip! You visited some nice places for sure!

Just curious, what type of problems with taxis? I think I've taken four in over ten trips to Japan, not counting the long one from Hakone to Odawara when I had a broken foot...

thursdaysd

Hi shelleyk - I just got back, was sorry we couldn't connect in Japan. Wasn't the Adachi Museum amazing? And I loved the Bizen pottery so much i actually bought a piece, although I stopped buying souvenirs years ago.

shelleyk

thursdaysd-It was too bad that although we were at Narita within a few hours of each other we couldn't meet. I thought the pottery display was beautiful, and the Adachi Museum itself was amazing. Did you buy the Bizen pottery at the gift shop? I am past buying anything for myself on our trips as I want to start getting rid of stuff as opposed to accumulating more. However, I understand that sometimes something calls out to you that you would like to have as a remembrance of a trip.

Mara-We only took taxis to/from hotels when we were arriving or departing because we did not want to schlep luggage. Other than those times we walked to/from the station, as I chose hotels that were very close to the train stations in almost all of the cities we visited.

Incident #1 was when we arrived in Okayama. I knew that the hotel was about a 7 minute walk from the station, but it was dark out and we were tired from travelling from Matsayama, so we decided to take a cab. The name of the hotel was the Okayama Koruku Hotel. I take it Koruku in Japanese also means airport, because after driving away from the lights of the hotel district for 5 minutes I told the taxi driver to stop, and repeated the name of the hotel. The taxi driver turned back to the hotel district saying in broken Japanese he thought I wanted to go to the airport because the Japanese word for airport was (or sounded like) koruku. We eventually arrived at the hotel after a 1200yen cab ride that should have been 600. I'm glad I spoke up when I did or we would have had an even bigger bill.

Incident #2 was slightly more scarry. This happened at Kyoto Station. We were staying at the Citadines where we had stayed on our previous trip, so I knew the location of the hotel. Despite my giving the driver the name and address of the hotel in writing, he took off in the totally wrong direction, and at every intersection used a magnifying glass to look at the paper I gave him. I knew he was never going to find the hotel so I told him to take us back to Kyoto station. The charge for that trip to nowhere was 1000 yen. I was not about to risk another misadventure, so we walked to the Citadines with our roll on suitcase in less than 15 minutes.

I feel fortunate that despite my not speaking or understanding Japanese, I was able to communicate to both taxi drivers that they were headed in the wrong direction, before we ran up a really expensive taxi bill. This has never happened to us before, and to have it happen twice on the same trip was a little unsettling. However, in retrospect, these taxi incidents became minor blips on the screen of our wonderful Japanese adventure.

thursdaysd

shelleyk - I, too am more into getting rid of stuff rather than acquiring more, however I just bought a small tea cup I will actually use. I bought it in Imbe, from a shop attached to one of the kilns.

Were you able to go into Narita itself? The trees in the park were gorgeous.

Both times I took a taxi in Japan it was from a hotel, not to one, so the hotel took care of the directions for me. I have occasionally had problems with taxis trying to take the long way round in other countries but it sounds more like yours were actually lost.

How's your jet lag?

Kathie

Shelley, it sounds like you had a fine trip, despite the two taxi problems. We took taxis all the time in Kyoto on our trip, and had not a single problem. I think these things are often just a matter of luck.

We would like to return to japan as well, but I'd really like to go to see the sakura. So many places to go - so little time!

Mara

shelleyk, when I took a cab in Kyoto from one hotel to another, the second being near the Kitanohakubaicho intersection which should be well known to a driver, I had a Japanese map downloaded from the hotel's website. The driver was holding it upside down! lol...Luckily I had my English map and was able to direct him....

It is always better to have the address/destination written out in Japanese if possible or else English....but still there can always be a language problem....but as Kathie said, probably you just had bad luck...

shelleyk

Kathie-one night we ate tonkatsu at Tonkatsu Waco on the 11th floor of Kyoto station. We passed the Italian restaurant where we met you and Cheryl for dinner 3 years ago. It brought back nice memories of our interesting evening with both of you.