DH and I spent 3 weeks in Japan from Nov.1-Noiv. 22. By way of introduction, we are both retired, and have traveled extensively over the past 40 years, sometimes on tours and sometimes on our own. With the encouragement and help in planning of many Fodorites, especially mrwunrful, hawaian traveller, don topaz, as well as mara, kja, and Kavey, we decided to do this trip on our own. We booked JAL seats on the Dreamliner direct flight from Boston using American Airlines frequent flier miles.

We flew into Narita and out of Osaka, which was time efficient (no backtracking by train to get to Narita for a flight home). We used a one week Japan Rail Pass, which needs to be purchased before entering Japan. I booked all of our hotels on booking. com where I guarantee my reservations with a credit card, but I did not actually pay for them in full until I arrived at the hotel. All of the reservations were cancellable and i took full advantage of this in tweaking our itinerary just before leaving for Japan

Our itinerary was as follows: 6 nightsin Tokyo, 2 nights in Matsumoto, 2 nights in Takayama 2 nights in Kanazawa, 2 nights in Hiroshima and 7 nights in Kyoto. .

Our Dreamliner flight to Narita was smooth and non eventful. The food was mediocre at best. ( On the way home it was excellent) Economy seats were comfortable and since the plane was not full, the flight attendant invited us to spread out in the 4 middle bulkhead seats, which was very comfortable. The service on board was excellent. I would use JAL again if/when returning to Japan.

We went through customs and immigration quickly, changed some currency, bought our NEX/Suica combination ticket and arrived at our Tokyo hotel at about 7 o'clock, after a 10 minute taxi ride from the station.

Anxious to read more.

Bob

great start. at what point did you a=start your rail pass?

Oh, good! Looking forward to your report.

Another fabulous Japan report - In addition to reliving our two weeks there, I look forward to hearing about the places we did not get to...

Hi Bob, Kathie and Craig. I'm still recovering from jet lag, so this TR will have to be done in fits and spurts.

gfeibleman-We started our rail pass the day we left Matsumoto. We decided to go from Matsumoto to Takayama by train because DH did not want to do the journey by bus, even though it would have taken less time. Windy mountain roads in a cramped bus would not have been a comfortable way to travel for my DH. The train ride was comfortable, scenic for the second half of the trip, and we had the extra hours built into the itinerary, so I don't regret our decision. The rail pass ended after our journey from Hiroshima to Kyoto.

In choosing hotels for our trip, our main priority was location. The hotel had to be near public transportation to get us to the sightseeing locations we wanted to see, or it had to be within walking distance of those locations. In Tokyo, we chose to stay at the Citidines Shinjuku because it had good reviews on Trip Advisor and it was within walking distance of 2 subway stations.

On our first day in Tokyo we took the subway to Ginza, visited the Sony store and the basement food court of a department, spent some time at Tsujukii outer market, and went to the Edo Tokyo Museum. I won't go into details about any of these stops except to say that although we do not eat sushi, the market was interesting and provided many great photo ops, and the Edo Tokyo Museum was our favorite museum in Tokyo. It was educational as well as entertaining, with numerous displays, dioramas, and films showing what Tokyo was like from its founding until the Meijii Period.

On our second day in Tokyo we took the subway to Asakusa to see Sensoji temple. At this stop, there was good news and bad news. The bad news...Since it was Culture Day, and there were huge crowds, the temple was closed except for invited guests. The good news...Since it was Culture Day, there was a parade with floats, marching bands dressed in traditional costumes, and numerous food stands serving up various Japanese snacks and dishes. We enjoyed the parade and entertainment for several hours before going up to the 8th floor of the Tourist Bureau to take some aerial view photos of the parade and of the Asakusa area, including the Skyview Tower.. We then moved on by subway to Yanaka, a traditional neighborhood to do a 2 hour walking tour of the area. It was very interesting to see the contrast between the Shinjuku area with its neon lights and high rise buildings and Yanaka's quiet, low rise more traditional area. All in all, we had an excellent second day in Tokyo, even though we did not get to see the inside of Sensoji Temple.

On our third day in Tokyo, we went to Ueno Park to see the park and visit the National Museum which we found interesting and worthwhile. There is a very pretty small Japanese garden behind the museum where we spent some time before moving on to the Museum of Western Art which we felt was a disppointment. The building of the Museum of Western Art was designed by Corbusier and they had a special exhibit devoted to his artwork. There were a few impressionist painting in the permanent collection which we enjoyed, but all in all I was disappointed in what we found at this museum.

In the evening, we spent some time in the nightlife district of Kabashuko before walking back toward our hotel to have dinner. While staying at the Citidines, we ate dinner at various small, neighborhood restaurants within walking distance of the hotel. All dinners were very good-tempura, Turkish food, more tempura, Dinners were not as expensive as I had anticipated. The cost was comparable to what we would have paid in the US.

Tomorrow-Meiji Shrine and more

Looking forward to reading more, Shelley! We also really liked the Edo Tokyo Museum.

Reading along from the beach in Khao Lak. There was a lot of good food around the Citidines.

Wonderful! Looking forward to more. I do have to find a good tempura place near where I live (found one in Needham Center).

The restaurant situation around the Citadines was an added bonus. We do not have a tempura restaurant near us either, so we were delighted to satiate our appetites with tempura as often as possible. It probably was not the most healthy food option, but it was delicious. And almost every restaurant made the tempura differently, from heavy batter to light, almost non existent batter. All of it was delicious and not greasy in the least.

DH enjoyed the Turkish restaurant so much that he posted a review of it on TA, which he hardly ever does. All in all we were very happy with the food in Japan, even though we did not eat sushi once.

Our fourth day in Tokyo included one of the highlights of our 6 days in Tokyo, the Meiji Shrine. The natural beauty of the park and gardens surrounding the shrine is a stunning contrast to the busy shopping area of Harajuku which is near by. The tori you pass under to get into the park and shrine is massive, one of the largest toris in Japan, and totally dwarfs the people passing under it.

We spent quite a bit of time enjoying the peace, quite and natural beauty of the park. We enjoyed watching several weddings, and numerous wedding photos being taken. In a addition, the day we were there, we saw many young children dressed in traditional costumes having photos taken, as it was close to the Nov. 15 holiday which celebrates 3, 5 and 7 year olds.

After several hours we left the park and walked to the shopping district of Harjuku to check out the street where Tokyo's teenagers reportedly shopped for their trendy, modern garb. It was an interesting and revealing experience.

We then took the subway to Shinjuku station. At the Japan Rail office, we turned in our Japan Rail Pass voucher for tickets and seats on our required trains, and purchased tickets for Matsumoto, as the train to Matsumoto was not covered by our 7 day pass. In addition we went to Odakyu Railway office, which was not easy to find (and that is an understatement) to purchase our Hakone Free Pass and Romance Car tickets for the following day. I am glad we decided to do this a day in advance of our actual travel to Hakone as it took 2 hours to find the correct Odakyu office and purchase the tickets.

After purchasing our tickets, we walked to the Metropolitan Government Office Building and took the elevator to the 45th floor for a spectacular bird's eye view of Tokyo. As it was almost sunset, we viewed Tokyo during daylight as well as lit up at night. As an added bonus,we witnessed a beautiful sunset with Mt. Fuji somewhat visible in the distance.

Am happy to hear you enjoyed Meiji Jingu with weddings and 7-5-3 celebrants and the beauty and the contrast of the park with the rest of the city. Good to hear that you got set in advance for your Odakyu trip.

Our fifth day in Tokyo was devoted to a day trip to Hakone. We left Shinjuku Station on the 8:53am Romance Car and arrived in Hakone at 10:35. As most people headed for the train up the mountain, we headed in the other direction, to the bus for Lake Asti. I had read that the view of MT. Fuji from the lakeside was better in the am than in the afternoon, and that is why I decided to do the loop in a counter clockwise direction, not to mention that since most other people headed for the train up the mountain, the cars looked like they would be very crowded.

The bus ride took one hour, passed through several small villages and gave us our first glimpse of the lush foliage that makes Hakone a wonderful retreat from the neon and concrete of Tokyo. We took a short walk, down a magnificent cedar lined path that dates back hundreds of years. The sun dappled pathway and the huge cedars made this half hour walk very special.

We then headed for the lake where we sat for a while gazing at Mt. Fuji. Although it was visible, the view from the train to Hakone was much clearer. We actually got a spectacularly clear view of Fuji-san from the plane we took from Osaka to Tokyo at the end of our trip.

After spending some time at the lakeside, we embarked on the loop course covered by the Hakone Free Pass. It covers a ride on a pirate ship,, a cable car , a ropeway and finally a train. The leaves were just starting to turn and the scenery was pretty, though not as spectacular as what was yet to come once we left the Tokyo area. We got off the ropeway at a certain point to walk about half a mile to see the volcanic activity close up. Some people were boiling eggs in the hot sulfur pools of water. I was satisfied to simply observe.

We left Hakone at around 6PM and were back in Tokyo for dinner by 7:45. At one point in my trip planning, I was thinking of spending the night in Hakone. In retrospect, I am happy we did not. Visiting Hakone as a day trip rather than changing hotels for the night was a more relaxing way for us to see Hakone. Soaking in an onsen in Hakone did not affect my decision as I would be spending the next 4 nights at properties that had onsens. I was happy to return to the restaurant and nightlife scene in Tokyo at the end of our visit to Hakone.

Our final day in Tokyo was supposed to be devoted to Shinjuku Garden. However, we awoke to rain which was the impetus for plan B-a visit to the Bridgestone Art Museum. We took the train to Tokyo station and walked a few blocks to the Museum.
This museum proved to be a disappointment. The permanent collection of impressionist art is small, limited, and second rate, compared to other art museums we have visited. Had there not been a special exhibit, which increased the admission charge to $15pp, the whole experience would have been totally underwhelming. As it was, we spent about 1.5 viewing the special exhibit before heading back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage, taxi to the train station, and take a train to Matsumoto. I had booked seats on a 5PM train, but easily changed our seats to an earlier train once we arrived at the station.

After a 3 hour train ride, we arrived in Matsumoto (one of the highlights of our trip) at 6:30 PM and walked 5 minutes from the train station to our hotel, the Dormy Inn Matsumoto.

shellyk - I am really enjoying your report. Sounds like you had a great trip. Thanks for sharing!

We also thought that the Bridgeport Museum was lame. From what I can tell from the reports I've read, you probably did Hakone the right way. Looking forward to hearing about Matsumoto...

I'm enjoying your report, Shelly!

What day was your Hakone trip?

mrw-I guess I am still suffering from jet lag, as your question made me rethink the sequence of our days in Tokyo. In fact, we visited Hakone on our fourth day in Tokyo and visited the Meijii Shrine on the fifth day.

We bought the tickets for Hakone and went to the Metropolitan Government Office Buiding on Monday night, after visiting the museums in Ueno Park. We went to Hakone on Tuesday, and we visited Meiji Shrine on Wed. We checked out of the Citadines on Thursday, after visiting the Bridgestone Museum.

I needed to check the dates on my photos to make sure of the correct sequence, since I am writing this TR from memory and from notes that were obviously out of sequence for our days in Tokyo. Thanks for alerting me to the fact that I should not be making any major financial decisions until I have been home for at least a month. lol

Am so enjoying reading your report, giving me lots more ideas for our next trip, whenever that may be!