Help please with an Itinerary Japan
 

Hi
I am going to Japan next month for 9 nights. I still have not worked out an itinerary, can anyone suggest.
I arrive in nagoya 1 night, kyoto 3 nights Tokyo 3 nights. Osaka 2 nights Sendai 1 night I need to be in Osaka on the morning of the 14th for an exam. Can anyone put this itinerary into order of travel days for me. ( i think there is still one night not accounted for) Also what train package would I need to purchase. thanks so much for your help
ps would like to see Hiroshima (maybe day trip from osaka or Kyoto, also Mt fuji
thanks

With all that moving around, a 7 day JR pass would be good I'd think. You'd have to time it right to get the best use out of it.

You might want to go Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, Sendai...but without knowing what your arrival date is it's hard to put you in Osaka on the 14th. Do you fly out of Nagoya too? Hiroshima could be a long day trip from Osaka or Kyoto or Tokyo. Mt Fuji could be a day trip from Tokyo.

Hi Japankim
I arrive in Nagoya on the 12th I have an exam in Osaka on the 14th. I fly back home from Nagoya
thanks

So, you might go
12 Nagoya
13 Kyoto
14 Kyoto (don't change your hotel for the exam, Osaka isn't far at all from Kyoto)
15 Kyoto
16 Day trip to Hiroshima, use storage lockers for bags, sleep in Tokyo
17 Tokyo
18 Tokyo
19 Tokyo (take a day trip if you want...you might find Tokyo fascinating)
20Nagoya the night before your flight

Hi Japankim
If the exam is on around 9am would I have plenty of time to get to the university in Osaka from Kyoto? Is it worth doing a day trip to Mount Fuji in October. Will there be much to see? Also how far (time) is Sendai from Tokyo. Is a JR 7 day pass all we will need to travel to these places. We Will probably do a day trip to Hiroshima either from Osaka or Kyoto. Can you recommend a ryokan in sendai? We leave Nagoya on the evening of the 21st. So we still have 1 day somewhere?
thanks you are very helpful.

Exam at 9 am no problem. Kyoto to Osaka is quick. Check hyperdia.com for your exact route between stations and the times and even the price. Hyperdia.com will also be very helpful to you in figuring out whether to get 7 or 14 days days jr pass. I'd say 7 days, activate it on the third day of your trip, but youu could also activate it from the start and pay for the last trips as well. Depends too on just how much travelling you are going to be doing. Best to work out your itinerary first, then price the trips using hyperdia (use the total price, not just the fare), then match that to the pass prices.

Sendai from Tokyo time...depends from where in Tokyo you start and where in Sendai you go. hyperdia will help you with this. I've only been to Sendai for a conference. Assuming you can read Japanese as you are taking a test, you could do a search for ryokan in Sendai using google.co.jp and get lots of results. No Japanese, try searching in English, though you'll have fewer results.

One more day...add a day in a small town somewhere or another day in Kyoto or Tokyo. There are lots of great ideas on this board...if you do a search on Japan, emd, mrwnrfl, kimjapan, hiroshima....you'll find lots of posts of interest to you.

I would take care of business before pleasure and focus on getting the exam done the first few days:

12) arrive Nagoya Chubu airport take train to JR Nagoya station. Buy a Nozomi shinansen ticket to Osaka. Stay in hotel near the exam site.

13) you have this day to get over jet-lag (assuming you are flying a distance to get to Japan) before your exam. I would devote the whole day to finding the exam location. I mean, exactly what door on what floor of what building to go to for the exam. This might take a half hour or it may take some time.

14) take the exam. Take a local train from Osaka to Kyoto.
15) Kyoto
16) Kyoto (or day trip to Hiroshima)
17) Kyoto/Tokyo
18) Tokyo
19) Tokyo
20) Tokyo. Have yourluggage delivered to Nagoya airport. Go to Sendai, see Matsushima or whatever and spend the night.
21) Travel to Nagoya airport

On that itinerary you would activate your 7-day pass on the 15th or 16th. You wouldn't need the pass in Kyoto on the 15th but you could activate it and get your shinkansen reserved seats for the next day.

If it is a short test you could activate your 7-day JR Pass on the 14th and go to Hiroshima after the test. Return to Kyoto that night or just spend the night in Hiroshima. That would mean that you would want to get to Nagoya on the 20th, the last day of validity of the JR Pass.

The above would come out to be less than a 14-day pass. But a 14-day pass would free up your planning. Just be aware that the JR Pass isn't going to do you much good in Kyoto (though it would be useful if you go the way Kim suggested and commute from Kyoto to your exam in Osaka).