I'll be taking the shinkansen from Kyoto to Kurashiki on April 11. Along the way, I plan to make stops in Nara and Himeji for a few hours each.

My girlfriend and I are travelling with suitcases. Is there some place in both cities (perhaps at the JR Station?) where we can securely store our suitcases for a few hours?

Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks for your help!

There are lockers at the JR stations. There also are lockers at Himeji castle. You definitely don't want to be hauling your bags around Himeji castle.

You could consider shipping your bags from Kyoto to Kurashiki. You'd be going across Osaka from Nara to Shin Osaka with one stop at Tennoji or Osaka station. From Shin Osaka you get the shinkansen to Himeji. From Himeji, you could take JR Sanyo line to Kurashiki or a (not frequent) shinkansen to Shin-Kurashiki and then Sanyo line from there to Kurashiki station.

A vote here for sending ahead, if I was going to be in 4 diff. places and several diff. stations in one day (and trying to get quickly and efficiently from one to the other). We had 21-22" roll ons and it was $20 apiece to send them. I know Kurashiki is relatively close to Kyoto but since you are going to diff. places in one day it would alleviate alot of hassle. If you've never done it, the process is easy, your hotel will take care of it. I was nervous about it but it is customary in Japan and it worked great.

Remember Nara isn't on Shinkansen route. From Kyoto you either take JR Nara line (about an hour) or faster Kintesu private line. It's usual to return to Kyoto for onward connection to Shinkansen, as connection via Osaka/Shin-Osaka takes longer. What I often do is to send the main luggage ahead by delivery service (takkyubin) for around 2,000 yen, and just take a small daypack for sightseeing trips en-route. You can use the small 300-yen lockers at every major station to store your pack while sightseeing, and just take your guidebook, camera and valuables.

Anothor vote here for using a takkyubin service. Lockers at the train stations are seldom big enough for western-style suitcases.

Himeji-jo is about a mile from the station. You'll be supplied with slippers (sized for Japanese feet) to wear inside the castle and given a plastic bag to carry your own shoes. Be prepared to climb near-vertical wooden ladders in the slippers and carrying your stuff and your shoes. Okayama is between Himeji and Kurashiki and is worth a stop: the Korakuen is considered one of the three finest gardens in Japan (though it's more like a Western park than most people's idea of a Japanese garden) and the views of the Black Crow castle (a reconstruction) contrast nicely with those of Himeji.

Nara is not on the way to any of this. Using the JR line to get there from Kyoto, it's well worth stopping off on the way to see the Fushimi Inari Taisha (by the Inari station) and the Byodo-in (in Uji). There's plenty to see in Nara itself, but the great 8th-century temples (Horyuji, etc.) are outside the town and require another hour or so by local train and bus.

Thank you everyone for your prompt replies. By making stops in Nara and Himeji, I definitely agree sending the bags ahead will be convenient.

So I like the idea of the takkyubin service, but I'm not staying at a large hotel in Kyoto. Instead, I'll be staying at the Ohto Ryokan on my last day there. Because it's a smaller ryokan, I'm not sure if they'll have the staff to handle my baggage and route it to Kurashiki but I will ask upon arrival.

Does anyone know if the Kyoto JR station have a takkyubin service? And if so, will our bags be waiting for us in Kurashiki or Shin-Kurashiki?

Finally, is the Himeji Castle really worth visiting? I've heard varying endorsements from reading similar questions on this forum.

Thanks again for your help.

It is a World Heritage Site. Yes, it definitely is worth visiting.

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildi...ji_Castle.html
http://www.jgc.co.jp/waza/a5_himeji/castle01.htm

Your ryokan will know the nearest takkyubin pickup point. It's often a 7-11 or similar. This link explains it quite well and also what goes on the label (the guy will fill it in for you, but you need to be able to convey to him where you want it to go etc.).

http://metropolis.japantoday.com/tok...cultureinc.htm

They'll deliver it to your hotel. I've never tried same-day delivery. Someone else might know more about that.

As for whether Himeji is worth visiting: it's certainly an excellent castle, one of the few that isn't a concrete reconstruction, and is very photogenic (especially if the cherry blossoms are still out). Personally, I enjoyed it more than Kurashiki. Nara is second only to Kyoto (some would say better) and is worth several days.

I didn't go to HImeji, just went by it on the shin. to Hiroshima. But as I was leaving Japan I took pictures of the posters in Shinagawa station- posters of Himeji w/cherry blossoms in full bloom, so I'd have that as my last picture and remember to go see it on a future trip when the blossoms are blooming. It's an awesomwe picture.

and sum days I can spel and some days I caint.

Thanks again for all your helpful responses. I'll give it a go with the takkyubin service and make a stop in Himeji since I'll be getting the Sanyo-area JR West pass anyways. Might as well get some mileage out of it.

Best way from Nara to Himeji would probably be via Osaka station to Shin Osaka. If you were able to get the shinkansen from Kyoto, then going that way might be better. But with the Sanyo Area Pass you can't use the shinkansen between Kyoto and Shin Osaka. You would have to transfer at Shin Osaka from the limited express or local train to the shinkansen.