Hi all...

I've just graduated college and am taking a trip to Japan later this month to visit a friend in Tokyo and see part of the country (this is my first trip to Asia). I have somewhat of an itinerary put together; I was hoping someone might be able to give me some insight on places I'm missing, if I'm doing enough, too much, whatever. I was an architecture student and I'm particularly interested in natural things and historic places. I'm trying to do the whole trip via train, I think this is easiest. I've never really done whirlwind tours before, either in the US or Europe; I'd rather spend more time in one place and get to know it better (this is contrary to the jam-packed itinerary below!)Here goes:

Day 1 - Arrive Tokyo
Day 2,3,4 - Tokyo (Staying w/friend)
Day 5 - Nikko for the day, then back to Tokyo
Day 6 - Leave early for Takayama
Day 7 - Takayama
Day 8 - Leave early for Kyoto
Day 9,10 - Kyoto
Day 11 - Leave early for Nara
Day 12 - Nara/ Mt. Koya
Day 13 - Leave early for Himeji, then to Kurashiki for night
Day 14 - Leave late for Nagasaki (4:00 train ride)
Day 15, 16 - Nagasaki/Yanagawa or other area towns. Leave late on night train.
Day 17 - Arrive Tokyo mid morning. Flight out later in day

Any thoughts? Thanks a lot in advance!
nate

Looks like a fun trip to me. It sounds busy, but it is not as bad as it sounds. The only long haul is the Nagasaki part. On day 10, 11,or 12 you should consider adding a visit to Horyu-ji.

What you are missing is a visit to Fuji-san. Also, you might take a look at visiting Shirakawago (for nature, history, and architecture).

Congrats on your graduation.

Sounds like fun, and very do-able. I've done several trips like this in Japan. I would have a place to stay on arrival and the night before leaving, but leave the rest open. You shouldn't have problems getting rooms as you go, and if you get a rail pass, you cna adjust the trip as you go.

You could look at your itinerary this way, too:
5 nights Tokyo
2 nights Takayama
3 nights Kyoto
2 nights Nara/Koya
1 night Kurashiki
2 nights Nagasaki
1 night on a night train

Question: what night train? I don't think there is such a thing.

Icuy is right about the rail pass. A 14-day pass activated on Day 4 should do the job.

You could stop at Kurashiki and/or Nara as you are returning to Narita.

You can easily get to both Nara and Himeji as a day trip from Kyoto and I'd try to spend a bit more time in Kyoto because there's a LOT to see.

Takayama was disappointing to me. I actually liked Kanazawa a lot more.

Gloria

glorialf: Would you pelase expand on your comment about Takayama being disappointing for you. Why was that? I am in the process of doing an intinerary myslef and am going out of the way a bit to go to Takayama. And why did you like Kanazawa so much?

Takayama was the most touristy of all the places we went. it's the one time we saw bus loads of people. There are two or three very quaint streets but the stores in them are no longer native crafts but touristy stuff.

The garden in kanazawa is spectacular. The stores and crafts wonderful -- we saw gorgeous stuff here. The old geisha quarter is small but we were able to roam around it without seeing tour buses and found it enormously interesting. We spent two days there and two days in Takayama and wished we had spent the whole time in Kanazawa.

Were you in Takayama on a weekend? I have heard it is most crowded w/tour buses then and have been advised to stay away on the weekends due to that.

No-- I was in Takayama during the week.

I was in Takayama the first weekend of June and it was not overrun by tourists or tour buses. I doubt that it will be overrun if you choose to go there during your March trip. Takayama is well worth the visit, but I think that it must meet it's reputation at festival time (i.e. it didn't meet my expectations, but my expectations were too high; I certainly don't regret going there). The Kenrokuen in Kanazawa is spectacular.

Takayama has some lovely areas...but it is a small city and looks like one most of the time. The historical district is fairly well preserved, though, and the temples are nice. The morning market is more touristy in high tourist season than off season, but always worth a stroll. If you are looking for something more "quaint" then perhaps Shirakawago or Gokayama would be more suitable. They are both much, much smaller places...you can walk around each town in an hour if you hurry...and are World Heritage villages. Takayama has a museum that exhibits the gassho houses of the Shirakawago/Gokayama area, but it's a museum, not real life, worthwhile if you will not visit the real thing...skip the museum if you will go to Shirakawago/Gokayama.

In terms of "citiness," I've found Takayama to be similar to Kanazawa. Takayama is a bit smaller, but actually has less to offer in terms of tourism I think. When my parents visited us here in Kanazawa and we travelled around a bit, it ended up that they preferred Kanazawa over Takayama, Hiroshima, Miyajima and Kyoto. We would have liked to have taken them to Shirakawago, but we all caught the flu...so next time. We visited Takayama in mid-March, and it was crowded, but not as crowded as Kyoto, Hiroshima or Miyajima. In March, the weather is also very unreliable....it could be warm and sunny, or it could snow. My parents stayed 3 weeks, and experienced t-shirt days, a snowstorm, and everything in between. I didn't think about the weather much since I'm used to it...but they really were amazed at the variation, even though they live in the Boston area and understand changable weather.

Kanazawa does have excellent shopping...my parents bought almost everything they bought in Japan in Kanazawa! There is lovely lacquerware (from the well-known lacquerware towns of Yamanaka and Wajima), Kutani pottery (more delicate than you'd expect from the word pottery), locally crafted, with white background and intricate designs in blues, reds and greens, often with gold leaf, too. Kanazawa is famous for gold leaf - 97% of the gold leaf in Japan is produced in Kanazawa, or so the museum says. Kaga yuzen (kimono fabric) is lovely. Paulonia wood trays and spoons are very nice, too.

Kenrokuen is beautiful in any season. There are 2 geisha districts, a samurai district, and temples galore. One temple, Ninja tera, has a series of trick doorways and hiding places from the days when samurai used to have to run away and hide...the old roads are very circuitous because of this. You can tour Ninja tera by appointment only, and only in Japanese...but a goodwill guide could be helpful if you don't speak Japanese and aren't on a tour. Reservations need to be made ahead of time for both the goodwill guides and the temple. There's more to see...museums and art and performances, and you can try making pottery, gold leaf, soba noodles and so on at a few places in the area. There is a lot to see and do in Kanazawa!

Thanks for all the responses so far. I've done some more reading on the internet thanks to your suggestions about Takayama and I think for me Kanazawa will be better. I'll probably do a day in Shirakawago/Gokayama as well. I'll do Fuji on a daytrip from Tokyo at the beginning. Now, as for the night train, I was looking at a scheduled one that ran from around midnight to 6 am, I don't have the info in front of me but it had berths I thought (maybe I'm wrong). Horyu-ji looks great, and I'm thinking now maybe i will stay longer in Kyoto and do day trips to Nara and Mt. Koya. The only reason I was going to overnight in these places was to have the chance to stay in a Ryokan.

Which brings me to my next question for you all: I've lived in Europe before, and when I travelled I always have plans made before I leave. I just feel better knowing I have somewhere to stay at least (I'm definately NOT a hostel person, I need some privacy ) But, ICUY, dumb question: is it really easy to find places in Japan just coming off the train? I suppose in Kyoto I'll make a reservation ahead of time, maybe Nagasaki, but the other towns I think maybe I'll just play by ear. Let me know, and thanks again!

Even in high travel season, it's possible to find places to stay. It's usually the really nice places that are full. There are some national chains of business hotels that are reasonably priced and pretty reliable. They are the APA hotel group, Washington hotel group, Tokyu Group...there are more but these are the big ones. ANA and JAL hotels are usually pretty nice, though a little more money than the others. Expect to pay at least 8000 yen a night per person...you can pay less, but usually for a tiny, smoky, moldy room. There are also pensions...if you ask at the tourist info in the station they should be able to help you.

Keep in mind that in my experience, finding a place in Europe upon arrival is simpler than finding one in Japan...if you were more comfortable with reservations in Europe, you'll surely be more comfortable with them in Japan.

Thanks for the thoughtful and insightful replies. I am going to rethink this portion of our trip and perhaps try to go to Kanazawa instead of Takayama; maybe I can fit in Shirakawago too. Got to get out the maps, schedules, etc. (actually nowadays I never bother to put them away, they have a permanent spot on the nightstand!) Boy am I glad I have 7 more months to get through the planning and decisions. Namnola is going this month! Thank you all.

I know, a little late! But I function best making quick decisions...I didn't even make the flight reservations until last week. I'll let you know details on the trip when I'm back...

We always have reservations in Tokyo- mainly because twice we arrived without and ended up staying once with a friend and once in a love nest hotel. We also get reservations if we're going to stay in a special ryokan or in a town with festivals going on. Occasionally, we'll call ahead the night before if we have a particular place to see or sleep.

Other than that, we rarely reserve ahead. I love the freedom to get ideas as we go. There are often little tourist reservation booths in train stations. They will happily call around to find you a room in your price range. I've found that my favorite book, "Gateway to Japan" also lists a good selection of places and the booth people will call one of them, or you can call yourself if you speak a little Japanese.

We have been known to literally jump off a train if a town looked cute or we were tired, or any other reason, and this is also (or even more so)when we have our two kids with us! Never had trouble finding a room for four.

I personally love Takayama. The old shops are beautiful; if you head towards the back and ask, you will find the better quality crafts. I love the temple walk, the museum with the matsuri floats, the open air collection of old homes, and it is a great town to rent bikes. I've never found it to be crowded, but maybe we were just lucky. There are quite a few nice inns to stay there, and the weather is also much cooler than the cities in the summer.

That said, I also loved Kanazawa. We went in the spring (very cold!)and found it a lovely place. Beautiful crafts (especially gold leaf stuff), great gardens, wonderful food.

Don't feel that the towns in Japan, especially the smaller ones, are either must see's or not worth seeing!You really don't have to select so carefully.

Often the charm of a Japanese town has a lot to do with luck...good weather, a lucky choice of hotel or restaurants, just wandering down the right streets can "make" a visit.

For example...We finally visited Nikko- one of those "must sees". Got to go into a shrines that is only opened every 350 years! Really special, but we hated Nikko itself...It was dark, rainy, and cold and the place we stayed was damp and noisy (but had one of the nicest innkeepers we've ever had anywhere!).

We cut our visit short and headed up to Lake Chusenj(sp?). We had just a magical time up there as the sun came out and we spent part of our day with some wonderful people we met on the bus up. There really wasn't much "to do" but we had a great time!

If you're on your own, you are going to meet other single travellers and local people. Allow yourself the flexibility to act on interesting advice. You'll have a great time. It is hard not to in Japan!

Kanazawa is a city of 456,000 and Takayama has 66,000.

Everyone will, of course, offer you very different advice. Here's mine. I would skip Nikko. Not that interesting in my opinion. If you want a day trip from Tokyo, there are many other nicer ones. - Kamakura, Mt. Fuji, etc.

I like Takayama and Shirakawa-go village very much. I've never cared much for Kanazawa, although many people seem to enjoy it.

Personally, I would spend much more time in Kyoto and Nara, instead of trying to rush around and see so many places, some of which are not actually that special in my opinion. It takes at least three full days to explore Kyoto and appreciate it. You can make several wonderful day trips from Kyoto too.

Koya-san is okay. A little overrated, like Nikko.

I am not sure what your price range is for accommodations. It would probably help if you gave us an idea. I just returned from 2 weeks in Japan. I payed 4500 yen to 5500 yen for a very basic, private, exceptionally clean ryokans in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. They can be reviewed on jpinn.com I stayed in a Western style hotel (7000 yen) in Hiroshima because I was arriving late from Kurashiki. I might also consider Hiroshima. I found the city quite beautiful- it has rivers running through it and mountains jutting out around it. The Peace Park is quite stunning.

I also think the more time you spend in Kyoto, the happier you'll be. It IS the center of old Japan culture in so many ways. I was there for over 2 weeks in October and still couldn't see everything I wanted to. It's a wonderful place for day trips -- Uji, Nara and the incredible Miho Museum to name a few. In 17 days you'd do very well going to Tokyo (with a side trip to Kamakura0 and the rest of the time in Kyoto.

The more time you spend in Kyoto, the more you understand and love it -- it takes time to get beyond the surface.

Gloria