Japan August 2-week Itinerary! Please Help!!
 

Hi everyone! I, along with 3 of my friends, are planning our second trip to Japan. We have our itinerary roughly planned out here, and want your opinions:

Arrive Tokyo, spend 2 full days in Tokyo

Head to Nikko, spend 2 days

Travel North to Yamagata, bus to Dewa Sanzan to hike Hagurosan, stay the night atop Hagurosan and the next day hike Gassan.

After Gassan, head to akita prefecture to stay at Tsurunoya Onsen.

Head back south to Tokyo, take train to Takayama, 3 day stay.

Back to Tokyo for 2 days, then leave!

Does this sound plausible? And is this order the most efficient? Also, are these places awesome/ worth going to? We've been to Tokyo and Kyoto before, but this time, since we're all artists, we wish to explore more of the natural wonder of japan.

Also, luggage-wise, is there a way we can store our luggage when head north? I hear they clear luggage lockers after 3 days, and we're north about 5 days.

We want to get a JR pass, but is it worth getting a 2-week one with our locations? I'm sorry for all the questions, we just want to make this trip amazing!

Thanks so much in advance guys!

August? This August? A couple of weeks away?

Anyway, yes, these are awesome places, and well-chosen in light of weather at this time of year.

Most of your travel outside of Tokyo is covered by the JR East Pass, including Tobu rail in Nikko. There are various options: 10 day, 5 day, 4 day flexible. Sit down with your itinerary and figure out which might work for you. There's an enormously helpful web site called japan guide which will be of enormous help. There's also lots of detail at the JR and JR East web sites.

As for whether this is the most efficient route, I'm assuming you've already booked lodging, correct? In which case you're more or less locked in to the route in question.

Luggage...

How much luggage have you got? If you're staying at the same hotel in Tokyo, you can ask them to hold it for you. There are also luggage shipping companies in Japan that are very widely used and not too expensive (considering) that can take care of delivering it to your next destination.

Or you could just bring less stuff and not worry about it at all. Many Japanese hotels have laundry facilities, so it's easy to do laundry en route. If you're touring for a day you just use a locker for the day, retrieving your bag on your way out of town.

Looked up the fares and routes between Tokyo and Takayama (on Hyperdia--if you don't already know how to use it you should get busy figuring it out), and the round trip is considerable, so JR (not just JR East) looks to be worth it. To make sure, just use Hyperdia to price point-to-point tickets and compare for yourself. Limit your searches to non-nozomi.

You'll be able to use the pass in Tokyo on JR lines (including Yamanote, very useful) and also for the N'Ex, so you'll plenty of use out of it.

Figure out how days of actual train travel you need and where you are going to see what pass or passes you may need. Here is a good list of all passes and what they are good for:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2357.html

You won't need a pass in Tokyo your first two days or in or to Nikko if you take advantage of this:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2358_002.html

Luggage:

Therese is right about storing in your hotel. Here are some other clues for you:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2274.html

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2278.html

Aloha!

My first question would be when in August--the middle weeks are the Obon peak travel season.

Akita/Tsurunoya-Tokyo-Takayama is a lot of travelling, especially the latter part. I recall going via Nagoya, probably took like close to 5hrs btwn Tokyo-Takayama. I think there's also an option of "high-way bus" between Takayama and Tokyo. Another alternative to work the otherway around in the northern loop--fly from Tokyo Haneda to Akita, then travel southbound via Nikko etc. (Probably will need to check how to travel between Akita/Yamagata).

Takayama is in JR Central, so a JR East Pass would not work for that travel.

I think that the route for your trip is good. At first I thought that a loop might be better, going from Tokyo to Takayama and then heading north. There would be a few transfers and think it might take too long.

W9's recollections are right. Tokyo to Takayama by rail goes via Nagoya and takes about 5 hours. There is a bus from Shinjuku that goes into the mountains east of Takayama. I don't know if it goes all the way to Takayama. I saw it on a bus as I was heading east from Takayama. Pretty sure that I saw it west of Kamikochi, at a ski slope.

Kakunodate to Takayama would be about 9 hours.

What do you plan to do in Takayama? Are you considering hiking in Kamikochi?

> Also, are these places awesome/ worth going to? . . . since we're all artists, we wish to explore more of the natural wonder of japan.

You've probably already considered it, but I thought Kanazawa had an outstanding museum of Japanese crafts and a stunningly beautiful landscape garden. Might be worth considering dividing your planned time in Takayama with Kanazawa. . . .

mrwunrful's correct, the trip from Kakunodate/Tazawako/Nyuto Onsen to Takayama would be a slog, but I got the impression the OP was planning on stopping in Tokyo before continuing on to Takayama.

If you subbed Nikko for Takayama you'd be able to do it all within JR East range, and also avoid that fairly long round trip. A long stay in Nikko would give you the opportunity to do a lot of hiking and also enjoy the culture/history side of things.

I've taken the bus from Shinjuku to Takayama about a couple of years ago. You hit the flat plains for awhile, but then you start rising into mountains, passing a dam, and stopping off at a couple of onsen resorts (by my recollections) before arriving at the bus station at Takayama.

I only travelled during the day, so expect the bus trip to eat up most of a day.

Now, kanazawa gives a new twist. Maybe it's easier to travel Tokyo-Nikko-Akita-Yamagata-Kanazawa-Takayama. There is direct express train connection Kanazawa-Takayama.

bigmac996 hasn't checked back since his/her initial post, so we may be talking to ourselves.