bqycc

Hello!
My family (my husband and 2 sons 18 and 15 years old) and I are travelling to Japan and China in about 15 days.
Could you help me check the itinerary?

Day City
D0 Tokyo arrival at 3 pm @ Narita (Friday February 1st) ticket is already bought.
D1 Tokyo
D2 Tokyo
D3 Tokyo / train to Kyoto
D4 Kyoto
D5 Kyoto
D6 Kyoto
D7 Osaka
D8 Mt. Koya
D9 Flying out of Osaka – flight to China around 3-5 pm (Sunday February 10th). It has to be that day to avoid the crowds during the Chinese holidays.

We are still deciding what to do in each city, looks like you could stay for a week in each of them, so we will only have a flavor of them. I wanted to stay the whole time in Japan, but my husband and sons wanted to go to China, despite the transport time, and they won by majority no matter how much effort I put into the alternative of staying in Japan for the whole trip.

We will be moving around with the shinkansen (Japan Rail Pass for 7 days) where possible. We are thinking about beginning D1 or D3 (day 3), depending on the trip to Mt. Koya (I think is not valid to go there).

Based on your experience, could you help us with these questions?

We would like to have:

• one night in a ryokan with onsen
• and one night in a temple.

Q1: Where could we have our ryokan night around our route? Nice one, not too expensive. We would love to have a 1-night price of 350-450 USD (40 – 50 thousand yens JPY). Would the price make sense for a nice traditional ryokan for the 4 of us (3 adults and one 15 years old)

Q2: Given our time constraints, would it make sense to have the temple night in Mt. Koya? We know it takes 4 hours to reach it from Kyoto and maybe 2-3 hours from Osaka. I am also thinking about the luggage, I have read that you should travel light to Mt. Koya.

Q3: What would be the best way to allocate 5-6 days between Kyoto, Osaka, and Mt. Koya (or another place for the night in a temple). I have read that Kyoto is more interesting if you like history, and at the same time, I read that Osaka is closer to Mt. Koya and Nara and Hiroshima (we may do a day trips to Hiroshima and to the Meiji castle, another to Nara).
We will be flying out of Osaka or Nagoya to Beijing on Day 9 or 10.

Q4: Any of those cities is not enjoyable in February because of winter? or any sightseeing?

Thank you in advance for your help!

B

Mara

For that itinerary you don't need a JR pass....only going one way from Tokyo to Kyoto is about ¥14,000 and a pass is ¥29,000 approximately.....

kja

Yes, you should travel light if you go to Mt. Koya, but don’t worry about luggage – you can take advantage of Japan's excellent luggage-forwarding option so you only need to take an overnight bag with you. Luggage-forwarding is called takuhaibin; here's the info:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2278.html

I loved my one night on Mt. Koya – a highlight of a highlight-filled trip! -- but my understanding is that the satisfication that accompanies one’s stay depends very much on one’s choice of temple. I stayed at Shojoshin-in, which still gets great reviews and is recommended by a number of Fodorites. Another temple that seems to get very positive reviews is Eko-in. I wouldn’t stay separately in Osaka just to reach Koyasan, but I think you are wise to research your options. Another option would be to spend a night (or two) in Nara, which would have the advantage of giving you even easier access to its remarkable sites than you can get from nearby Kyoto and might, perhaps, have a ryokan that suits your interests. BTW, I trust that you realize that Mt. Koya will be COLD in February!

For ryokan, particularly up-scale ones, consult japaneseguesthouses.com

And if you haven’t already seen it, I strongly recommend spending time with japan-guide.com

Hope that helps!

bqycc

Thank you Mara. What about the other trips?
We will probably need to go from Kyoto to Nara, Osaka, Hiroshima, and back to Osaka to take the flight.
Do we need another pass? I read something about regional passes. Is that what we would need?

thursdaysd

You need to price your train trips at hyperdia.com - make sure you include the seat reservation fee. Kyoto to Nara, for instance, is cheap and best done on a non-JR train.

I entirely agree with kja about the importance of picking the right temple at Koya-san - I can't recommend the one I used, Rengejo-in. It is a trek to get there, although the train ride up from Hashimoto is scenic. I took my luggage with me, but I travel light.

Why do you have a night in Osaka before Koya-san?

kja

Once you price your trains trips on hyperdia, as thursdaysd suggests, check japan-guide.com for a description of all the regional passes and determine whether any make sense for you.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2357.html

bqycc

Yes, thank you! What happens if we go to Mt. Koya on the night before our flight to China, do they deliver to the airport too and leave it on a locker?

About the ryokan, that was the price for the four of us, not per person, I got the idea that the nights at ryokan are really expensive and that the price I have set in my mind will give us not an upscale ryokan but yes a nice one with lots of traditions, or maybe it´s a low budget and I should increase the budget for it?

I am reviewing the page you send me and also other posts, and I got the idea of doing all the trip from Kyoto and take trains to Osaka, Nara, etc. I still don´t know if it would be better for us. I feel (from the research I did some months ago) that doing some of the trips from Osaka, we will need one more hour to each place.

bqycc

Thank you thurdaysd. I will go to Hyperdia. To make the comparisons, which trains should I not consider if reviewing the Japan Rail Pass?

About the night before Mt. Koyasan in Osaka ... I´m still deciding how to allocate these days (since leaving Tokyo on day 3 (or should it be on day 4 until leaving for Beijing on Day 9).
I think it would take one more hour to reach Mt. Koya from Kyoto than from Osaka, and we do want to go to Osaka for the food. We could also go from Kyoto or from Nara to Mt. Koya and leave Osaka night for the last day (or discard it as a base). Still deciding, too much information to look for. I´m getting overwhelmed by the notion of the research time I have to make, since we are going to so many cities.

bqycc

kja, you are my hero, you help me in every nice trip I take . I will do that

kja

You will find answers to most of your questions -- how luggage forwarding works and the requisite timing, how long it takes to go from place to place, etc. -- on japan-guide.com. Once you get that information and make your decisions about how to spend your time, only you can decide whether it makes sense to move from Kyoto to Osaka or to stay in Osaka.

I believe that booking.com has an option for limiting your search to ryokan.

I'm glad you've found my input useful.

billirandall

• Kyoto Itinerary (4 days)
• Day 1 – Higashiyama, Kyoto
• Day 2 – Arashiyama and Kinkaku-ji
• Day 3 – Fushimi Inari, Manga Museum and Markets
• Day 4 – Nijo Castle or Daytrip to Kibune or Nara
• Day 5 – Bullet Train to Tokyo
• Tokyo Itinerary (5 day s)
• Day 6 – West Side: Shibuyu and Harajuku, Tokyo
• Day 7 – East Side: Asakusa and Ueno
• Day 8 – Tsukiji Fish Market and Shinjuku
• Day 9 – Day Trip: Disney or Hakone
• Day 10 – Choice: Entertainment, Shopping or Hakone

This was my itinerary Hope you will like it....Enjoy Folks

mrwunrfl

I think you should swap the Koyasan and Osaka nights. It will just be easier to travel from Osaka to Kansai Airport. You really don't to fly out of Nagoya.

That day trip to Hiroshima comes at some cost. It is about JPY 20,000 round-trip from Kyoto. As Mara mentioned, your Tokyo-Kyoto cost is about JPY 14,000. But you would get a 7-day pass for 29000 to cover both trips. So, Hiroshima would cost upwards of 15000. You would get more value out of the pass, say 5000. But that still means that Hiroshima costs 10,000 x4

Your ryokan budget of 50,000 would be good for two people. You could have a traditional ryokan experience for four at that price, I think, but not fancy. But think more like $150 pp;.

Mara

Concerning your planned trip to Koyasan please note the below link - the cable car will be closed from the end of November to the end of February so there is a substitute bus.....I would be a little worried about having to get to the airport....maybe it's just me but I always prefer to be in the city of the departing airport the night before....
181126substitutebustokoyasan_en.pdf
Maybe you can re-post your itinerary - when I made my post towards the top of the thread I did not see you were planning to go to Hiroshima...sorry...

kja

Good info, Mara!

mrwunrfl

I'm not sure I would want to be on top of a mountain in Japan in February.
I'm certain that I would not want to travel down a mountain on my way to an airport in Japan in February.

bqycc

billirandall thanks for sharing your itinerary.
mrwunrfl: we changed the nights, first Koya-san , then Osaka. Thanks!
Mara: so, we are going to allocate more time to get in and out of Koya-san. Thank you!

The itinerary is almost the same, I just changed these two days.
D7 Mt. Koya (we are going to the Shukubo Koya-san Eko-in Temple)
D8 Osaka

One more question, which zone would be good for staying in Osaka?
We will arrive end of the morning / beginning of afternoon (after the activities on the temple and transportation time) on Day 8 and leave to the airport (Kansai KIX) at around 11 am for our 3 pm flight to Beijing.
We are interested in trying Osaka food and getting to know the hightlights of Osaka, we won´t have time for more.
I read the zone of Kita (Umeda?) or Namba would be good to be close to food, transportation to airport (also transportation coming back from Koyasan?). Which one would you suggest?
We are spending in Osaka the night of February 9th and it seems that it is a long weekend with a ¿monday? festive day, so hotel prices are very high.

I will begin planning the days in each city

Thanks for your help!