Hello Asia Travelers,

I will be traveling with two other friends, one of which is living in Komoro near Nagano. I think a 7 day JP pass will work for most of our rail travel. Wanted to get your feedback on this itinerary.

March 18 - Arrive Narita 4 pm
Travel to Komoro

March 19 - Sight see via car in Komoro area

March 20 - Travel from Komoro to Hiroshima
Overnight Hiroshima

March 21 - Miyajima
Overnight Miyajima

March 22 - Travel from Miyajima to Koyoto

March 23 - Koyoto

March 24 - Koyoto

March 25 - Koyoto

March 26 - Travel from Koyoto to Narita
Depart Narita 3:40 PM

Thanks for any comments or suggestions...

Brenda

Do you have to go to Miyajima? It's a long way from your other sites. From Komoro, a Hyperdia search shows the fastest train connection will take about 7 hours via Tokyo; and with a JR Pass it'll take even longer as you can't ride the Nozomi trains.

No, we don't have to go to Miyajima but I thought it was fairly close to Hiroshima.
Maybe that is just trying to do too much.

As for the Komoro - Hiroshima day... I know it is going to be a long day. My friend really wants to see the Peace Memorial...I hope it is not a let down.
Would you suggest visiting some other area instead?

It's just that Hiroshima/Miyajima are pretty far west. But if you and your friends have mind set already, then go ahead. Otherwise, there are lots of places between Tokyo and Kyoto to visit.

Based on some feedback and further reading we have decided to skip the Komoro part of our trip and spend the time in Tokyo. Here is our revised schedule. Do you think it is doable to travel from Kyoto to the Narita airport on the day we fly back to the US?
Based on the train schedules it looks possible but???
We have purchased our 7 Day JP rail pass and RT Air to/from Narita.

March 18:
Arrive Narita Airport 3:40 pm
Travel via Limo bus or Narita express to Tokyo
Stay in hotel near Tokyo Central Station, near Imperial Palace ?

March 19:
Tokyo

March 20:
Tokyo - Hiroshima
Travel via Shin- Oska on Hikari Train leave 8:36 am arrive Hiroshima 1:30
Overnight Hiroshima ??

March 21:
Hiroshima - Miyajima
Overnight Miyajima

March 22:
Miyajima - Kyoto
Leave Late afternoon
Hikara train takes about 1 1/2 hours from Hiroshima

March 23:
Kyoto

March 24:
Kyoto

March 25:
Kyoto

March 26:
Kyoto - Tokyo
Travel via Hakari Train to Tokyo 8:20 am arrive 11:13
Narita express to airport 12:05 - arrive Narita 12:56

Would love to hear any thoughts...

Wallybrenda,

Since I do not know your travel interest, I cannot really say your planned itinerary is good or bad. But here are my thoughts.

Hiroshima’s Piece Memorial and Genbaku Dorm are interesting places. But it would not be a meaningful place unless you know the background and its history very well. Otherwise you are just looking at bombed out building and its park. So, if you are going, do some reading on the history on this issue – it will help enhance/appreciate your visit there.

Why so many days in Kyoto? Yes, Kyoto is lovely place and you must not miss this place when visiting Japan. But you can see and enjoy only so many temples and other historical sites one after another. I’m afraid that your memory would get blurred unless you have specific goal to see particular temples or Japanese gardens.

If I were you, I will have one additional day in Tokyo and lose one day in Kyoto. Tokyo is diverse, vibrant city. The combination of high-tech world and old world Japan is very intriguing. If you are in Tokyo, I recommend visiting Tsukiji Fish market. You have to get up early (around 5 pm) to get there. But it is a fascinating place.

You may also want to think about Onsen (hot spring) experience while in Japan.

Sorry, I meant 5 am.

I guess it would depend on why you want to stay in Kyoto, the time of your flight in the morning and whether you are a morning person on not -- this would kill me.

I took the advice of the people here though and I am staying in Kyoto and taking off the next day but in my case, I want to go to the flea market the day I leave AND my flight is at 10 pm.

Thanks for your feedback. We are interested in Japanese culture,(present and past), history, gardens, food and visiting some onsens. We are all big walkers.
I thought that by basing ourselves in Koyto for several days that we could do day trips from there, such as Nara.
Maybe we would be better off to do Hiroshima as a day trip from Kyoto.
About our return:
Perhaps there is someplace between Kyoto and Toyko, such as Hakone that we could spend our last night at. I would love to do some hiking or off beat type excursions.

I would actually add a day in Kyoto. I was there for 13 days and still didn't see all the places I wanted to see. Miho Museum, Nara, Uji and Himeji Castle are all wonderful day trips from there as well.

If possible, try to arrange customized tour with local associations (not tour company). Japan is not really considered as vacation destination place. So, Japanese (myself included) feel honored that you foreigners chose Japan as your vacation destination.

Although Japanese are not known to have good command of English (again, myself included), local people in Japan will do their best to communicate with you and they will be more than happy to show their town, or temples their family worship. I think that type of experiences will help makes one’s trip special.

glorialf - Excuse my quick hijacking of this thread, but did you post a trip report - if so, could you top it. Also I am planning a week in Kyoto (1st visit) and am torn between day trips to Himeji, Miho Museum and Nara. How would you rate them if you could only do one? I know, a real stupid question, but thanks.....

Mochi,
Great idea..I would love to see Japan thru the eyes of a local. What an honor it would be to spend a day with someone from Japan.
How would I find such an Association in Kyoto ?
Brenda

Mara-- they are all wonderful. If you have any interest in architecture I would put Miho Museum first -- it can be done in half a day if you are rushed. Nara for old temples. Himeji is great but I would put the other two above it.

I have not done a trip report as the trip was taken before I knew about this forum.

In Kyoto you might try for a Goodwill guide. They need to be booked in advance, it is free except for admission charges and meals for your "guide." Guides are volunteers, and tend to be retirement aged people with time on their hands and a desire to practice English (or whatever other language they might know a bit of). They undergo a bit of training before they are allowed to guide, but not much...don't expect anything like a professional tour guide or in depth information, but it can be interesting. Contact numbers for them can be found in the JNTO web pages. www.jnto.go.jp

Konnichiwa,

I am starting to reseach hotels in Tokyo and am looking for somewhere centrally located as we really only have one fully day in Toyko.
What do you think of this hotel and it's location?
Do you think this is a good rate?
SHIBA PARK HOTEL
Triple room for 2 nights from 18 Mar. 2006.The room rate is JPY24,255 (include tax and service charge)

Arigatoo...

Tokyo is huge...but when you say centrally located I assume you mean somewhere with easy transportation access and near Shinjuku or Shibuya.

The Shiba Park says it is an 8 minute walk from Hamamatsucho station...translated to mean you will need to take transportation no matter where you want to go. The rate doesn't seem bad, but not special either.

You might decide what you want to see in Tokyo, and choose somewhere near at least one of those places. If this hotel is where you want to be, then it's fine I think. But if what you want to see isn't in that area, you might keep looking.

Hi KimJapan,

We would really like to see the fish market, a kabuki play, and perhaps walk the Ginza area, Imperial Gardens or take a river cruise.
Which area would you recommend we stay in. I would like to be close to the main train station as we can depart there for the rest of our trip.
Do you have any suggestions on what websites to use for better hotel rates?
Thank you so much for your help!
Brenda

I'm not a big fan of booking sites, though others here love them. I actually did use a booking site for one night in Thailand this year, and it worked fine, but I didn't like paying in advance, and the price wasn't better.

In Japan, it's been my experience that the booking sites actually charge more than a direct booking. At various times I've checked rates on asiarooms.com, precisionreservations.com, hotels, com, expedia.com...and while it may not be true all the time, in my experience that rates have been double or triple the ones offered by the hotel. Trick is, though, the hotels in Japan seem to offer their best rates on their own websites, in Japanese, for internet booking only. Direct hotel rates in English are higher than anywhere else. Exceptions to this are Hilton, Starwood (Sheraton, Westin), Marriott, Hyatt...the international chains seem to have uniform pricing. One thing you may want to check is special rates directly with the hotel...phone them and ask for specials. Hiltons have these all the time, and they are publicized just in the hotel, not on the corporate website. Hyatt too. You can get some good deals. We stay at Hiltons all the time when we travel, and consistently pay under 20,000/night with breakfast for 3 of us (daughter is 8).

Right around Tokyo station I'm not familiar with any hotels that are nice and within walking distance. When I've stayed in Tokyo, I've stayed at the Hilton in Shinjuku. For us, the location was fine...a 10 minute walk to Shinjuku station, or the Hilton ran a shuttle. Friends of ours stayed in the very nearby Hyatt and liked it as well.

With what you want to see, it seems like any hotel you like that is within the Yamanote line ring might be good for you. The subways and the Yamanote line are easy to use.

Be aware that in Japan, using trains and subways involves climbing up and down lots of stairs. Escalators often go only in the up direction, and can be difficult to get to in a crowd as there is usually only one per platform. You will need to carry your luggage down stairs. So, you should pack accordingly...not too big, not too heavy, and you should be able to carry it down at least a double flight of stairs, and probably up that much too.

So, with your luggage of reasonable size and weight, you can choose a hotel just about anywhere and not worry about being near Tokyo station. That opens up a lot of nice options. The time you are there in March shouldn't be too highly priced either.

Since there are 3 of you, you'll either need two rooms or an extra bed. With the upper end hotels, the rooms will be large enough to hold an extra bed and still leave you space to walk around a bit. Business class hotels may provide an extra bed...we had one once..but it will take about all of the available floor space...we were glad it was just the one night. The charge for an extra bed averages around 5000/night, so really a single and a twin in a business hotel might be better if that is your budget. Otherwise, you'll probably be happier in a nicer place.

People have said nice things about the Mansions at Rappongi...you might check those out, as a serviced apartment might serve you better for the money than a hotel, depending on their rates.

If you are looking for business class hotels, check APA hotels, Tokyu, Toyoko Inn...and after you are done in English, muddle through on their Japanese pages to get the rates. APA and Tokyu both have higher rates in English. Toyoko does not, that I've seen at least.