Kavey April 2016 Japan Itinerary Planning
 

I've been working further on my itinerary, which as usual, has no resemblance to what my original paths of enquiry. I think I may have said on my previous thread that we decided to leave Tohoku for when we also do Hokkaido - and I came to realise that Hokkaido made most sense either in winter or in summer, rather than spring or autumn. I may be wrong on that, but that's how I felt about it. Tohoku of course, would work in the spring or autumn, but I want to pair it with Hokkaido.

Also, the more I looked at Chubu the more I realised we had plenty plenty plenty to see there.

And I think we will indeed go back to Kyoto for a week.

So far I have:

Day 1 Land early morning Haneda, either overnight in Tokyo or Yokohama
Day 2 Overnight in Tokyo or Yokohama
Day 3 Hakone, couldn't get Hakone Ginyu or Gora so holding 2 nights in a suite at Manatei Hakone (booking.com)
Day 4 Hakone
Day 5 Nagoya
Day 6 Rental car drive to Miho museum, overnight at Otsu, holding a night at Heihachi Tea House (this is very spendy so I need to review and see what I can find out about it, it's cancellable, booking.com)
Day 7 Drive to Kyoto or somewhere else we want to see in the area that needs a rental car
Day 8-13 Overnight Kyoto or environs
Day 14-17 4 nights in Kanazawa (not at all happy with hotel I'm holding, wanted Trusty but showing as booked, as are most options in the right location, but will try nearer the dates, have also emailed Kim in Japan)
Day 18-28 Still To Be Planned -- looking at Suganuma and Ainokura, the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, Matsumoto, Nagano/ Obuse, Karuizawa, Osenkaku Ryokan at Takarawaga Onsen and Nikko. Would also like to visit Chichibu for Ichira's Malt Distillery.
We fly home from Narita on the morning of Day 29.

Thoughts?
x x x
Kavey

I envy your leisurely visit to Kanazawa. :-) Consider finding time for a visit to, and tea ceremony at, Gyokusen-en or Nomura-ke (or both!) -- delightful!

Enjoy!

Kavey, you could contact Hotel Trusty directly at [email protected]. They helped me with the reservations I tried to make through their website. It's possible that you're trying to book way too early for their calendar.

Thank you both!!

4 nights in Kanazawa.. wonderful! and another week in Kyoto! This sounds like a great trip.

Does anyone have any thoughts on Manatei Hakone?

Is Nagoya worth that one night stop?

Anyone come across Heihachi Tea House? It looks lovely but it's pretty spendy so am keen for any feedback.

Kyoto, I'm considering a self-catering apartment but depends on whether I can find one in a good area. I loved being by Sanjo / Kawaramachi last time, so could look in that area again.

Or split and do a couple of nights nearer to Arashiyama?

But where I need the most help is Day 18-28!

:-D

Everything I've read about Matsue sounds really interesting. If you haven't been already, you could stop at Kurashiki on your way there.

Nagoya is an excellent base. There's not a lot of interest in the town itself, apart from the Atsuta Shrine (same building style as Ise--you are not allowed to see the buildings at Ise itself). However, it's very convenient for visits to Ise, Meiji Mura, Gifu (cormorant fishing), Hikone (one of the 12 original castles, plus noted garden and tea arbor) and other stuff around Lake Biwa, Ishiyamadera (where Murasaki wrote the opening chapters of Genji Monogatari), and Kiso valley. There's a nice train route between Nagoya and Kyoto via Lake Biwa. Most of the local trains are Meitetsu so a Japan Pass won't work.

Matsue and the san-in coast are really attractive and interesting. Far more so than the places usually mentioned here. Matsue itself is full of interesting sights, then there's the Izumo shrine and then Hagi which (along with Kagoshima on Kyushu) is where the Meiji restoration began and there's an excellent museum/shrine to Shoin Yoshida and the Choshu five as well as the splendid Toko-ji.

On the way from Okayama to Matsue you go through Bitchu Takahashi, which has the oldest and highest of the original 12 castles (it's perched on a hilltop) and some fine temples and gardens.

>>Is Nagoya worth that one night stop?

Not for Nagoya. I stayed there as a base to visit Inuyama, Ise Jingu, and Gifu. Nagoya castle is just ok. A day trip from Nagoya to walk the Nakasendo would be possible. I think there is a Toyota factory tour east of the city. The grand sumo tournament is in July. They have a big league baseball team, the Chunichi Dragons.

Inuyama is about a half-hour from Nagoya on a Meitetsu train.

Inuyama castle is a gem:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3351.html

It is an easy walk from the station to the castle.

Between Inuyama station and castle is Jo-an, a nice tea house in Urakuen garden.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3352.html

I didn't visit the Meiji Mura in Inuyama.

The Nagoya Hilton is nice and has a shuttle to the shinkansen side of JR Nagoya station. There is a Marriott Associa hotel on top of the station.

@ someotherguy -- Thanks for the great info. :-) I'll keep it in my for my next trip to the area!

I did visit Meiji Mura -- I'm a sucker for places like that. The thing I liked best about it was seeing the entryway and lobby of the Frank Lloyd Wright hotel that had been in Tokyo. I'm also a sucker for FLW. ;-)

Oh, and seeing ukai in Gifu was very cool, IMO.

I missed tea at Urakuen, but thoroughly enjoyed the garden itself. Unfortunately, I was just a tad too late to actually see Inuyama's castle :-( but I enjoyed the walk there from the train station -- riverside, and then rather gently uphill.

Thanks everyone,

I have emailed Trusty Kanazawa directly. Hope to hear back soon.

The info on Nagoya and nearby sights is very helpful, I'll investigate those further and work out what we will do with our time there.

We would drive rather than train from Nagoya to Kyoto so that we can visit Miho Museum more easily and stop in Otsu overnight on the way.

I'm keen to know about any other attractions between Nagoya and Kyoto that we can also visit while we have that rental car.

I'm not sure where Matsue comes in, it seems very very far from anything else we're visiting?

Questions I'd love help with:
==============================

* Any thoughts on visiting / staying in Yokohama? We could either land and go straight there for two nights, land and stay one night in Tokyo and then one in Yokohama or just do both in Tokyo?

* Has anyone got any info / feedback on either Manatei Hakone or Heihachi Tea House in Otsu?

* Other potential attractions and / or overnights between Nagoya, Miho, Otsu and Kyoto.

* How to pull an itinerary together for Days 18-28. On my list are Suganuma and Ainokura, the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, Matsumoto, Nagano/ Obuse, Karuizawa, Osenkaku Ryokan at Takarawaga Onsen and Nikko. + visit to Chichibu for Ichira's Malt Distillery. We are happy to train or drive, I just can't seem to pull a sensible plan together.

* We fly home from Narita on the morning of Day 29. Happy to stay in Narita overnight on Day 28.

Choose Yokohama or Tokyo, not both. Yokohama has a few sights to see and/or Kamakura for a day. I stayed at the Sheraton which is a short walk from Yokohama station. I think a Haneda airport bus stops there. Or the Narita Express. It is a bit more travel time to get to places in Tokyo.

Staying near Shinjuku station has an advantage because you can shuttle/walk to the station and take the Odakyu train to Hakone-Yumoto.

I did take the bus from Narita to Yokohama, in traffic, in the dark, and thought it was never going to end.

Yay, Trusty came back and confirmed a booking for a non-smoking superior double room, so I'm really pleased. Thanks folks, especially internetwiz for the email address and tip!

Still not a clue on the Kyoto piece (where to stay, whether to do a week self-catering or split the stay into blocks) and of course, the Eastern Chubu bit is still completely up in the air...

Reeeeeeeeaaaaaaally odd. When I booked Heihachi Tea House via booking.com last week or whenever it was, I am certain it was showing on their map as close to Otsu. That is why I chose it, I spent some considerable time working through the booking.com map and ratings and then cross-referencing to other sites before selecting and booking Heihachi.

When I look again today, I see the location is now showing as north of Kyoto, nowhere near Otsu!

So I'll need to look again for the overnight accommodation after our Miho visit. Of course, we could continue straight into Kyoto, rather than stop by the lake at all...

Thank goodness you noticed the discrepancy well in advance!

I've also been tripped up by new and corrected info, and / or multiple places with similar names, before -- so I always check and double check and check again....

Yes, Kja, what's weird is that it's obviously been quietly corrected and I didn't get any notification. I am pretty sure I'm not going mad here as I carefully looked at the booking.com maps, then opened my Google Map into which I'd saved the various places such as Miho Museum and cross-checked there.

Anyway, not to worry, I'll find somewhere I'm sure. Thought I'd found a gorgeous place to book instead but then realised I had entered search dates a month later by accident, and it's sold out for my dates. There's availability by their own website but I think that requires payment in advance and I can't find any cancellation terms.

Yay! Hakone ginyu have come back with availability! I'd asked to be put in a waiting list and been told by ryokan collection that such a thing didn't exist so I'd figured to just give up at this point. And then I got the email this morning, and entered credit card info to guarantee it. We have a sora room for the two nights we wanted!

Wonderful news, so glad the wait list worked. You'll really enjoy it.