Previous threads.
Initial ideas, here: http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...e-planning.cfm
First itinerary drafts, here: http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...y-planning.cfm

Here is where I'm at now:

Day 1 Land early morning Haneda, 2 nights in Tokyo or Yokohama (holding cancellable 2 nt hotel booking in Yokohama only)
Day 2 Overnight in Tokyo or Yokohama - may visit Kamakura during the daytime, as a friend is asking his aunt/ uncle whether they could show me around their surimi-making business, in which case I may need to review where we overnight these 2 nights.

Day 3 Hakone Ginyu (booked)
Day 4 Hakone Ginyu (booked)

Day 5 Nagoya or Hikone overnight (holding cancellable hotels in both locations)

Day 6 Rental car 1 drive to Miho museum. May also include Ninja Mansion in Koka and/ or Shigaraki ceramics producer. Overnight booked in traditional grass hut in Miyama, via AirBnB so locked in, however I need to check this - my understanding from AirBnB listing is that we book the house exclusively but found another website that implies otherwise.

Day 7-13 (Return rental car 1 on arrival into Kyoto, or outskirts). Overnight Kyoto (Holding cancellable hotel booking, good location but boring hotel, had perfect apartment booked via AirBnB but was taken off market and refunded. No activities booked except one confirmed dinner invitation/ reservation for evening of Day 8)

Day 14-17 4 nights in Kanazawa (booked Hotel Trusty directly via email)

Day 18 Pick up rental car 2 on leaving Kanazawa. Wajima (booked into Hotel Route-Inn Wajima)
Day 19 Hyakurakuso (holding option on either 1 or 2 nights booking, ocean view room, at Hyakurakuso)

Day 20 POSSIBLE Overnight near Namerakawa to see the Firefly Squid at night, finding it very hard to find anyone who's done this. Have website link for museum, where one books night fishing boat excursions, but nothing else.

Day 21 Overnight in Karuizawa (booked into Hoshinoyo resort, can't be moved)
Day 22 Overnight in Karuizawa (booked into Hoshinoyo resort, can't be moved)

Day 23 Visit Mashiko (pottery producing town) during day, overnight in Utsunomiya, for gyoza. (Holding cancellable hotel in Ustunomiya)

Day 24 Overnight in Nikko (booked into Kai Nikko, can't be moved)
Day 25 Overnight in Nikko (booked into Kai Nikko, can't be moved)

Day 26 Prob Tokyo (nothing booked)
Day 27 Prob Tokyo (nothing booked)
Day 28 Either Narita or Tokyo
Day 29 morning flight out of Narita

QUESTIONS
============

Would it be handy to keep the rental car in Nikko, especially given that Kai Nikko is down by the lake, not up by the temples etc? Or would trying to find parking near those attractions be an impossibility? We could either look to return the rental car once we get in to Nikko, or keep it until finish in Nikko, in which case I think we'd return it and train into Tokyo. Can't imagine wanting to drive into Tokyo, ever!!!

My first two nights are completely undecided. I had thought Yokohama, because we've not been.
Then I have an uncomfirmed invitation to visit a friend's aunt and uncle's surimi production business, traditional and sounds interesting, that's in Kamakura, where we've also not been.
Or I could stick to Tokyo, as I do have more I want to see there, though we have 2, potentially 3 nights there at the end.

I think Day 5 overnight stop is pretty much decided on Hikone over Nagoya (fodorites rock), which will put us closer to Day 6 daytime activities including Miho, plus making our way to Miyama for Day 6 overnight.

The Firefly Squid thing is proving tough to find out much about. For example, I'd like to know whether one can easily drive to / walk onto the beach along most of the bay, so one could see them washing up even if we fail to get onto a night boat excursion. But I saw a suggestion somewhere that much of the beach is walled off. Can't find that reference now and struggling to find much else. Lots of internet photos but very little info.

Then it's where to return rental car 2 before, during, or after Nikko. Depends on whether it's useful in Nikko environs, or not. And if we did keep it, where best to return it before heading into Tokyo.

And last one is whether it's worth splitting the last 3 nights to have one in Narita, or better to stick to Tokyo 3 nights to give me more time in Tokyo. I'm leaning towards the latter as thinking to visit Ghibli museum which would take one full day and there's other Tokyo stuff left on my list too.

Appreciate your thoughts, as always!
x

Kavey, sorry I can't answer any of your questions, but I am wondering where you got good info on Hyakurakuso (room specifics). I can only find the hotel website in Japanese. Thanks, I'm still considering Noto Peninsula for our May trip.

Hi From DC,
I used booking.com - means I can cancel without penalty and I don't pay until the stay.
For a Japanese-Style Superior Twin Room with Ocean View with Half Board:
* For the 2 night booking, I got it for Y43,200 per night.
* For the 1 night booking, it's Y44,280.
As soon as I've worked out whether we can / will try to do Toyama Bay for the firefly squid I'll cancel one or the other of the Hyakurakuso bookings.

To the top -- grateful for further input on any of the questions outstanding...

Hey Kavey,

Mark and I are tenatively planning a trip to Japan in 2017, sailing out of Vancouver to Tokyo. Neither of us has ever been there, so we'll be very interested in reading about your experiences.

Good to see you on Fodors. Do you ever get to San Francisco?

Betsy

Hey Betsy
Lovely to see you here. So happy to read you'll be visiting Japan, I'm sure you'll adore it as much as the little gang of Japanophiles here in this corner of Fodors Asia board!
I haven't been to San Francisco for well over a decade, I'm afraid. Do drop me a line if you're ever in London though!

Will do, Kavey. Do the same when you get back to San Francisco (note I didn't type "if").

Don't know anything about rental car drop-off, but if it were me I would just stay in Tokyo for 3 nights, rather than Tokyo and Narita. How early is your flight?

Hey HNL
Yes I'm leaning to 3 nights in Tokyo now too - I liked the idea of exploring Narita as we were flying from there. It's a 10.55 am flight out of Narita airport.

Betsy, of course!

I think that some of your questions really come down to your personal preference. But here is some input, FWIW.

1) the firefly squid
You said that you haven't found much info about it. I'll classify sites in Japan in three categories: a) international interest (World Heritage sites and other major attractions, b) national (Japanese) interest - places that are mainly promoted to Japanese tourists, and c) local interest (like a water park).

The squid are not at the international interest level. Your lack of finding info might indicate a lack of national interest (or the info is all in Japanese for Japanese to read but that kind of place is sometimes over-hyped to some extent IME). So, I think it might be a place of local/regional interest. Which might mean that it is underwhelming to you OR you might just enjoy/love it as doing something like a local. Someone once asked me what I liked most about visiting Japan and my instant reply was "the people". You might have a sweet experience or it just might be boring. You can be the pioneer for us.

2) I would probably spend the last night in Narita to make it oh so easy to get to that morning flight. If you haven't squeezed out all of the juice after 27 days, what is 1 more night in Tokyo going to get you? Well, that night can get you an easy evening in Narita for one thing. I stayed at the Narita Hilton overnight while connecting from LAX to Thailand. I took the loop bus into town and went to the onsen which was better than I expected and had an inexpensive meal (they also offer massages). Pretty laid back evening and then a no-brainer to get to the airport next day after a nice breakfast at the hotel.

I can't answer your questions unfortunately but can you please share how you were able to book Hakone Ginyu? It seems like they are always fully booked.

Yes keep your rental car during and drop off when you leave Nikko. Nikko is all uphill and with your arthritis much better to be driving to the venues than climbing those hills. The shogun made Nikko his summer palace for a reason. It is in the hills above Tokyo at slight elevation and cooler than Tokyo in the summer. Keeping the car also gives you freedom to do the Ironazka(sp) highway onwards to Lake Chuzenji easily and without waiting for buses.

Yokohama! If you've never been is good for your first two nights with good food opportunities along with the sights. Chinatown there is worth a half a day walking, shopping and of course eating . The Sheraton is nicely located and across the street from the JR station that the NEx stops at. Also can get for few SPG points IIRC.

mrwunrfl has it right about the firefly squid. Be our trail blazer and report back whether it was worth the hassle or not

Looks like a good time. Gambatte!

Aloha!

Alisa, I booked it a while ago and I kept trying!

MrWunrfl and HT, the photos make the squid look like such an impressive site, I'm surprised it's not more tourist-friendly to visit but you may be right, there's just not enough interest. I've still not booked that so I'll keep investigating. (I have both a one night and a two night booking held at the place I'd stay beforehand).

I am leaning towards Narita for our last night, though not booked yet. Our flight is 10.30 am so it'd be an early rise regardless, but a little less early from there.

For Nikko, we did indeed decide to keep the car until leaving - I asked the lady who booked me into Kai Nikko, and she in turn asked friends in the area whether I'd be able to use the car to get around (I was curious as to whether parking would be full all the time but they said not, we'll see). So I'll return it at Tobu Nikko before we leave to go back to Tokyo.

Yokohama I'm again leaning towards, we've not been before, it looks interesting, we could potentially go to Kamakura as well before heading on to Hakone. The hotel I've held is Sotetsu Fresa Inn, which I think is a good location.

Kavey, just curious if you ever found more info on the nighttime firefly squid viewing. Hoping that you can fit it in so that you can tell us all about it!

No, I've given up on it, truth be told.
Was proving so difficult.
I thought about just booking a night in the nearest hotel and then on arrival trying to buy the boat tickets from the museum to go out at night.
My problem is that if we find the boat trips aren't running, or have sold out, or some other problem, there isn't other stuff in the area we really want to see.
I tried via a specialist Japan holiday company but they didn't want the booking unless I booked my whole trip via them (I was looking for them to do the one night hotel and the excursion).
So I reluctantly decided to just give up on it.

That's too bad. At least the firefly squid will be a component of some delicious meals at this time of the year. That's some consolation!

when you get to Japan inquire at travel agents or hotel concierge about the firefly squids for your next Japanese adventure.

Aloha!

We're going to miss out on a TR about firefly squid because Kavey is worried about having one boring night on a 4-week trip?

I hope we can avoid that. We're talking about a Special Natural Monument of Japan!

Good idea from ht. Inquire at a TA or concierge about the squid for this Japan adventure. You could do that before you leave Kanazawa.

>>Day 20 POSSIBLE Overnight near Namerakawa
The correct spelling of the place is Namerikawa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namerikawa,_Toyama

That wiki page gives you the Japanese for the FFS: ほたるいか hotaru-ika

This Toyama-ken tourism page mentions the hotaru-ika:
http://foreign.info-toyama.com/en/sp...4&ret_list_p=9

and a link to the Namerikawa tourism webpage:
http://namerikawa-kankou.jp/hotaruika/

Marine tourism dedicated dial phone 076-475-0100, hours 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

Here is a link to the reservation application (an MS Word doc): http://namerikawa-kankou.jp/hotaruik...a_list2016.doc

Here is a link to a translated version of the application form: http://tinyurl.com/jntzue8

There is a FAX number on the form.

The e-mail address is on this info page:

http://translate.googleusercontent.c...6FLaejSXE7_tsQ