x_X sorry for the typo "N'ex + Suica package"

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2359_002.html#nex

The roundtrip Suica/N'ex ticket from NRT must be used within two weeks.

Also if one activates a JR Rail Pass and starts its use at the airport, a N'ex ticket is not necessary.

Time for you to use hyperdia for the first 6 days.

I think that a better route for you, when you leave Nikko, it to go via Nagoya to the Kiso Valley. That way you can take the shinkansen from Utsunomiya, connecting in Tokyo, all the way to Nagoya and then head north thru the Kiso Valley.

The route you proposed, going from Nikko to Matsumoto would work. You'd go via Nagano, I think. But then you would have some backtracking in the Kiso Valley. If you went this way then you could leave your luggage in Matsumoto, go south in the valley, and then pick up your luggage when you get back to Matsumoto for the bus into the mountains.

Doesn't the JNTO practical travel guide give advice on luggage?

ht, are you going to Kirishima? Are you going to stay overnight in Takachiho to see the kagura dance?

I agree that your revised itinerary is much improved. I'm envious of this trip!

And kudos for adjusting your plans in response to the feedback you requested on this board - not everyone does so!

My one very small tweak would involve Nara - as I mentioned before, I think it deserves more than a day. I'm glad I stopped in Uji for a few hours - time enough to admire the bridge, spend time at the magnificent Byodoin temple, and relax over an incredible (and incredibly expensive - my choice) tea. That took me 3 or at most 4 hours.

I am very glad that I gave almost 2 full days to Nara. The statues in the Kufukuji treasure house may be the finest I saw anywhere in Japan. The National museum in Nara has some wonderful and very well-labeled examples that show changes in technique over time; I thought it among the most informative museums I visited in Japan. Kasuga Taisha remains among one of my favorite shrines in Japan; up there with the very different Fushiki Imari, close to Kyoto and along the rail lines to Nara. I had one of my most endearing and memorable interactions with locals in a shop in Naramachi. And while Todaiji wasn't among my top 5, it was, nonetheless, uniquely memorable.

And for me, the temples just outside Nara in Ikaruga were worth every moment I gave them and more! Magnificent Horyuji is among Japan's oldest temples, and within its grounds, you can find a separate temple - Chuguji - which has an extraordinarily beautiful statue and (I believe) Japan's oldest remnant of embroidery. Seeing these 2 temples were trip highlights for me.

So, if you can find a way to shift a day to Nara I don't think you'd run out of things to do.

Hope that helps!

On the 21st if you leave Nikko at 10AM then you will get to Matsumoto at 2:52 PM. If you just stay on that train then you would get to Nagiso at 3:54 or to Nakatsugawa at 4:06 PM. I assume that there would be a bus for Tsumago or Magome waiting for the train, so you could be in Tsumago by 4:10 or Magome by 4:40 or so.

That practical travel guide does say that there is a luggage service between the two towns on the weekends. So, on the 22nd you drop off your luggage, walk the Nakasendo, ...

mrwunrfl, we are spending two nights in Kurokawa Onsen and have a rental car so Takachiho will be a day trip. Have to get back to the ryokan before 5 to eat :)

Aloha!

I checked at the JR website, for Suica/N'ex package, only N'ex ticket has to be used in 2 weeks, the Suica card (which you can get by itself) does not expire unless you do not use for 10 years. http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/suica-nex/#category03

Once again, we've received really helpful responses.
And, once again, we've revised our SECOND itinerary--see our Sept. 14 post.

Basically, we:

1. Will go R/T Nikko to Tokyo, using the Nikko Pass, and spend the night of 10/21 again in Tokyo.
2. On 10/22 we will go by train from Tokyo to arrive in the Kiso Valley by late morning, send our luggage along to Tsugamo (we'll be at the Fujioto on the 22nd) and then get to Magome to do the hike. Or, maybe do the walk the next day....
3. We will not stay in Oku-Hida Onsengo, but spend the night in Matsumoto, seeing its sights as well as Narai's. We'd travel by bus.
4. From Matsumoto,still traveling by bus, we hope to get to Kamikochi for hiking and then to Takayama.
4. Our schedule from Oct. 25 to Nov. 3 is the same. We do hope to rent a car for Sh-go/Gokayama. Any advice would be great on car rental, or minimizing/sharing car rental. Or, is there a way to hire a taxi or driver?
5. When we leave Miyajima Island on Nov. 4 we will not go to Kyushu but instead to Kurashiki and Naoshima, cutting out Kyushu. It was just too much. Instead we added 2 nights to Kyoto and a second night to Nara. So, beginning 11/8, we spend 6 nights in Kyoto, 2 nights in Nara (including a daytrip to Uji), 1 night in Koyasan, and our last 3 nights back in Tokyo (includes a daytrip to Kamakura).

Additional questions:

A. It makes sense to buy the Suica/N'ex package and the Nikko Pass for Oct. 18 to 22, right? We are traveling: Narita - Tokyo (2 nights in Tokyo) - Nikko (1 night) - Tokyo (1 night)

B. Our 9 days of travel between Kiso Valley and Kanazawa, except for the Sh-go/Gokayama car rental, are most practically done by bus, right? Assuming yes, is there any kind of bus pass we should buy? This leg is the part we find most complicated.

C. We should buy a 3-week JR Pass and activate it when we leave Kanazawa on 10/30, right? That way, we could use it for the entire rest of our trip (Kanazawa-Hiroshima-Miyajima-Kurashiki/Takamatsu-Naoshima-Kyoto-Nara-Koyasan-Tokyo-Narita, including several daytrips. OR, instead of the 3-week JR Pass, would it save us to buy a 2-week or 1-week JR pass and buy one-week Regional JR passes instead? We definitely want to be using train passes, not individual tickets, as much as possible, even if it costs more. We realize that we'll still need to buy additional transportation tickets, such as subway for Kyoto and the train for Koyasan.

D. We already set on our lodging in Nikko, Tsumago, Miyajima and Kyoto. We have reservations in other locations, but these can be changed. Do you have any suggestions for places between 7,000 and 9,000 yen for two, WITH

Sorry, I hit the submit toO soon. I meant to put these words at the end of my last post: WITH PRIVATE BATH.
THANKS!

A. Yes and no :)
The NEx/Suica deal is good for one-way only as you are there longer than two weeks and the NEx round trip ticket will expire after two weeks.

http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/suica-nex/index.html

B. Not that I know of. There might be one to those who can read the Japanese bus site links on bottom.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5953.html

C. Sounds good but you will need to pay extra to get up to Koyasan as the JR Pass in no good on the private lines you need to travel on to get there. See here for details:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4904.html

D. Check out some of these:

http://www.toyoko-inn.com/eng/

http://www.sunroute.jp/SunrouteTopHLE.html

http://www.kid97.co.jp/~jeh-group/jeh-group.html

http://www.wh-rsv.com/english/index.html

http://www.solarehotels.com/english/

Aloha!

More answers to your questions:

1. Good plan

2. ok sounds good to me

3. We stayed here in Matsumoto and loved it. If you stay here ask for a castle view room. They even have an onsen downstairs that you can soak your tired aching body in at the end of the day.....

http://hotel-kagetsu.jp/englishtop.html

More Matsumoto info and other accommodation recos:

http://welcome.city.matsumoto.nagano...index.id+3.htm

4. Renting a car is easy in Japan. You can read some of my trip reports about Japan by clicking my screen name and looking at the trip reports I have written where I explain in detail or see this site for good pricing and the information you seek:

http://www2.tocoo.jp/?file=rentcar_i...in&asp_id=0001

5. Another good move.

Aloha!

A) I know very little about the Suica pass(es). I gather that you would use tne N'Ex/Suica pass just to get from NRT to Tokyo and then around Tokyo. Followed by the Nikko pass, then buying a JR ticket to Kiso Valley and Matsumoto (except see my

That sounds good, but what is the cost? I think that the JR East Pass, as KimJapan suggested, might be better. Maybe even a 7-day Pass.

B) Yes - if taking the bus "from Kiso Valley"y means taking the bus from Matsumoto. From Tsumago ou would take a bus to Nagiso and then JR train to Matsumoto.

I don't about bus passes. Maybe japan-guide has info. When you get your bus ticket from Matsumoto to Kamikochi try to also buy the ticket from Kamikochi to Takayama. If you can't get the second ticket in Matsumoto, then buy it when you arrive in Kamikochi. The seats are reserved.

This is what I did going in the other direction. The bus from Kamikochi to Matsumoto that I wanted ended up having only 1 empty seat when it departed. I was not able to buy both tickets in Takayama. I had to change buses between Takayama and Kamikochi.

You can bus from Takayama to S-go. From S-go, the bus to Takaoka goes via Gokayama. But a car would be better and more efficient, esp if you don't stay over in S-go and wanted to visit both in the same day (which I only assume can be done).

C) I figured out earlier in this thread that a 21-day pass would be the thing to get when departing Kanazawa on the 1st because it would get you all the way to NRT on the 21st.

I did some hyperdia homework for you:

You would be able to use the JR Pass to get part of the way from Kyoto to Koyasan. It would cover about 1700 in roundtrip cost, depending on the route.

Bsically, if I understand your itin, you are traveling Kanazawa - Miyajimaguchi - Narita Airport. Using hyperdia, the cost comes to about 36,000 JPY. Maybe there are other savings, like Koyasan that you could get from the 21-day pass.

D) I liked the Best Western in Takayama. It might be in your price range. I think the gassho zukuri in S-go are in that price range, including dinner. I recommend Koemon.

E) I would consider changing the itin to just fly from Hiroshima to Tokyo (on the 787). Get FF award tickets, cheap.

http://www.nouhibus.co.jp/english/index.html

At the bottom of above page is information about the Alps Shinsyu/Hida Open Ticket for 10,000 JPY and good for four days....would that help?

Back to Suica/N'ex - there are less expensive ways to travel from NRT depending on where your hotel is - the Keisei line trains - several different ones - go to Ueno and Nippori - priced from 1000 to 2400 JPY.

Thanks to mrwunrfl. However, just to clarify, the final leg of our itinerary is not Hiroshima - Tokyo, but Koyasan - Tokyo:

As you calculated, the 21-day pass once we depart Kanazawa is a great plan for us; it will get us all the way through our departure from Narita on 11/21.

I think the East JR Pass for 5 days is 20000 yen, so not an option

Thanks to Mara...we will check into the Alps Open Ticket for the bus. We do intend to rent a car for Gokayama, as several of you have suggested, so thanks to Hawaiiantraveler for the link, but we are thinking that the car rental would be for a daytrip or an overnight, and be R/T from Takayama. Therefore, we'll need the bus for the rest of our Matsumoto-to-Kanazawa plans.

Our arrival hotel in Tokyo is the Keio Plaza for two nights, BTW. We jumped on a now-expired super deal with upgrades and breakfast.

I really don't see how the 21 day JR Pass costing 57.700 JPY will really pay for your trip from Kanazawa to Miyajima and back to Tokyo and NRT via Kurashiki, Takamatsu, Kyoto and Koyasan. When I do the math the longer trips come out to about 49000 JPY - I guess doing local trips would make up the difference.....it is also possible to fly from Komatsu near Kanazawa to Hiroshima (via Haneda though) but you can get a cheap flight if you are coming internationally.....just a thought....
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2364.html

Mara, Thanks for doing the math. I guess we'll just be doing it for the convenience. The extra $100+ is worth it for that. I actually feel better knowing the difference is not more than that. And, that difference probably not much since we will be doing many day trips, for example,Ise.

Well, I didn't do real sophisticated math and you will make up the difference with day trips, for sure. My only thought was that it seemed like you were a budget traveler or maybe I misunderstood your post about 7000 to 9000 JPY accommodation for two with ensuite facilities....
On the other hand you might be splurging on the travel convenience of having the 3 week pass and trying to find less expensive accommodations. ;-)
I often feel particularly when the exchange rate is bad for me that if I eat one take away dinner from a combini I make up the difference... :)

I was not recommending a 21-day pass for your new itin. It was good for the old itin.