rouatt

Hello everyone,

Having done a good chunk of South East Asia, I'm now braving the wilds of Japan. Unfortunately I don't seem to have any colleagues who can give me good advice and such.... so am reaching out to you -

1) Would appreciate if you could critique my suggested itenerary

2) Would appreciate if you could provide some guidance around whether a rail pass makes sense or not.
__________________________
In Late September -

Saturday - Arrive Tokyo from London
Sunday / Monday - Tokyo. See the usual stuff
Tuesday - Tokyo. Day trip to Nikko
Wednesday - Tokyo. Day trip to Kamakura
Thursday - Train to Hakone (Love Train???)
Friday - Hakone to Gifu OR Kanzawa. Overnight in one of the places.
Saturday - Train from Gifu/Kanzawa to Kyoto
Sunday/Monday/Tuesday - Kyoto
Wednesday - Kyoto to Mt. Koya (Stay in Monastary)
Thursday - Mt. Koya to Himeja

rouatt

<hit the wrong button>
Hello everyone,

Having done a good chunk of South East Asia, I'm now braving the wilds of Japan. Unfortunately I don't seem to have any colleagues who can give me good advice and such.... so am reaching out to you -

1) Would appreciate if you could critique my suggested itenerary

2) Would appreciate if you could provide some guidance around whether a rail pass makes sense or not.
__________________________
In Late September -

Week 1: Saturday - Arrive Tokyo from London
Sunday / Monday - Tokyo. See the usual stuff
Tuesday - Tokyo. Day trip to Nikko
Wednesday - Tokyo. Day trip to Kamakura
Thursday - Train to Hakone (Love Train???). Overnight in Hakone.
Friday - Hakone to Gifu OR Kanzawa. Overnight in one of the places.
Week 2: Saturday - Train from Gifu/Kanzawa to Kyoto
Sunday/Monday/Tuesday - Kyoto
Wednesday - Kyoto to Mt. Koya. Overnight in Monastary
Thursday - Mt. Koya to Himeji Castle (2hrs) and then on to Hiroshima. Overnight Hiroshima.
Friday - Hiroshima back to Tokyo. Overnight Tokyo (near airport).
Saturday - Fly back to LHR

Does this make sense from a do-ability standpoint (i.e., no ridiculous train journeys, too little/too much time in some places)? We're a fairly young couple and can easily stand a few rushed journeys.

Does it make sense to get a rail pass or are one-off journeys better? Am not sure how to figure this out myself.

Any help you can provide would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

KimJapan

For my style, it's too much moving around, but I do know that some people like to keep moving. I might cut a day trip from Tokyo and also the move to Gifu or Kanazawa unless you can spend some time there rather than move on Kyoto the next day.

Train travel is expensive, very expensive. You can use www.hyperdia.com to figure your cost and schedule and time. Note that the amount of money you have to pay is the total, not only the fare. The way the train pricing system works is that you pay the fare, then there is an additional variable charge that is added for the speed/number of stops the train makes. Taking local trains saves you money but takes a very, very long time...an unreasonable amount of time for all but local journeys.

rouatt

Instead of going to Gifu or Kanazawa, would it make sense to stay an extra day in Hakone, or is one day/night enough?

kja

Hi, rouatt -

By Gifu, do you mean Gifu City Gifu or Prefecture (Takayama, Shirakawa-go, etc.) or Gifu City? If the former (Gifu City), you might consider skipping it in favor of some of your other destinations. If the later, I think it makes most sense to plan on at least 3 days for the combination of Kanazawa and Takayama or Shirakawa-go. Sorry I can't comment on Hakone. One other thing - you might consider staying overnight on Miyajima instead of in Hiroshima. Hope that helps!

cwn

Hi,

Can't help with the first of the trip. But three days in Kyoto will be great, we had four. On one of those we left Kyoto on a day trip on a 7ish am a high speed train. We stopped at Himeji about 9. Took a taxi to the Castle, arrived 5mins before the gate openned. A hoot to watch, 2 small, old men, one watch and a gate - to the second of the offical openning time, they swung the gate open! There were about five other people- it was a great show, everyone clapped - had the castle to ourselves, did the tour in maybe an hour plus. Well worth the stop. As we were walking out the gate, we met hords of school children in bright uniforms arriving along with many tourist busses. Our timing, for once, was perfect. I don't walk to well, so was tired after all the climbing and we took a taxi back, almost to the station. Here we got out and walked through a shopping area on the left of the street as we faced the station. We bought some sandwiches and other neat fresh good foods from a streetside stand for lunch on the next train. We took another high speed train to Hiroshima. I think it was maybe around 1pm when we got off the train. The Hyperdia will give you the times-it is a great tool-will make things so easy. From the front of the station we took a tram, can't remember the #, someone else will I'm sure, to the stop for the Dome in the Memorial Park. We spent some time, not at the Museum, but at the Hall Of Rememberance at the recomendation of another poster. This was a very moving experience. From here we continued to Miyajima Island. We had dinner on this wonderful Island and stayed through sunset, beautful! The Island is worth the over night stay kja suggested. We didn't have time, so took the ferry back to mainland, caught a local train back to the main station and took the bullet train back to Kyoto. Yes, it was a long day, time wise, but not that tiring and absolutely wonderful. We are in our 60's and I have bad knees, but sounds like you have youth on your side.

I think the trip starting at Kyoto sounds very doable. Have no feeling for the first part. Other than to say the Trains are wonderful, ride the fastest from point to point that you can. We bought all train tickets we would need at the airport when we arrived, had been told most ticket agents spoke some English there. They did, not so much at some other stations. However, we were easily able to change our ticket back to the earlier train in Hiroshima because it didn't take us as long as I had allowed. This proved very easy with ticket and hand signals. We did not have a pass, for us it worked out about the same as buying the tickets piece meal and at that time you couldn't use the pass on the bullet train which was definitely worth the money for the travel time it saved us. Plus my husband wanted to ride THAT train!

Have a great trip.

lisahasthetravelbug

Looks like almost the same itinerary we did last April. We did Hakone as a day trip from Tokyo and it was a long day but doable. We spent time in Takayama and enjoyed it. Kyoto and Hiroshima were our favorite parts of the trip. I would definately recommend a day trip to Nara from Kyoto and a side trip to Miyajima when you are in Hiroshima. We bought a seven day JR Pass and it worked out well for us. Saved us lots of money, and the bullet trains were fast and efficient.

mrwunrfl

It is doable. Without looking at hyperdia I am pretty certain that you should get a 14-day JR Pass.

The clincher is that you would be going from Hakone (actually JR Odawara station) to Gifu on Friday and then back to Narita Airport the following Friday. That's 8 days. If it was done in 7 days then it might work out that you just need a 7-day pass.

Good question kja. Purchasing tickets would be cheapest if the itin was just to Gifu city. More if it means Gifu-ken cities like Takayama. More if you opted for Kanazawa. But I think the 14-day pass is right even if you meant Gifu city, because all of that is 8 days.

It's not the "Love Train". You are referring to the "Romance Car". That is an Odakyu train, not a JR train. You'd use your 14-day JR Pass to get to Odawara and then use the Odakyu train to get to Hakone Yumoto (or take a bus from Odawara).

mrwunrfl

Your first Friday, if it means anything other than Gifu city, is not ridiculous but it is pushing it.