https://picasaweb.google.com/stuartt...ihoMuseumIMPei


You will find plenty to see and do in Kyoto during a 5-6 day stay. Most enjoyable.

Just booked the flight over. Used Alaska airline miles to fly American. They had a 50,000 mile one way in First class...so why not. So arriving on Thursday 10/23/14. Part 1 is done. Yay

Now have to make ther big decision of 2 vs 3 weeks. Can't book return yet anyway so there is time to review all of what y'all have said. But everyone keeps telling me that I do not know "expensive" until I get to Japan. Is it comparable to Manhatten?

Thanks for all the thoughts. Keep them coming.
PS. anyone planning a trip around the same time?

Thanks Kavey - your sample itinerary gives us some great thoughts about places and timing. Seems like we would not regret 6-7 days Kyoto

IME, there are ways to keep the costs of traveling in Japan down. Stay in inexpensive accommodations, with maybe just one or two "splurge" nights to experience a ryokan or temple stay. One can certainly eat affordably. (There again, you might plan a splurge or two so you can experience kaiseki cuisine.) I thought it much easier to keep the costs affordable than a trip to Manhattan (or Switzerland, for that matter!)

Kja - Having been to Zermatt 4 times, that is a good reference that I can relate to. How does one judge accommodations? Is trip advisor a good resource?

As to budget, I think I have just discovered that I will be spending for some nicer accomodations as I just realized that we will be there on my wife's 65th birthday. NOw I know what my gift is :-)

Tower - Thanks I will write that down

We will fly in to Tokyo but out of Kyoto so Whatever time we have in Tokyo will be in the beginning (in October) and Kyoto time will be at the end (in November).

On the rail pass, is it only 7-14-21 days or is there midway number? If we started with 4 nights in Tokyo, then began train time and ended up with 6 nights in Kyoto it would seem like a 10 day ticket would be just right. But if only 7-14-21 then I guess 14 day?

People talk about Nara. Should that be before Kyoto or in the middle? Depending on how long it takes to get somewhere on a day trip from Kyoto, My wife prefers to not have to repack her bags if it can be helped so the more I have a number of home bases along the way the better. But I also hear Kyoto is very expensive in NOvember so maybe a few nights elsewhere before we end there is best. I figure we might do a Ryokan for 2 nights (advice- same or different ones is best?). Any suggestions as to where we should schedule those? I have been told that some of the nicer ones book a year in advance for NOvember.

Anyway, enough questions for this post

The other thing I have heard from my Japanese neighbor is that the

For hotels, I find trip advisor useful (especially when themes are repeated) and I also use booking.com Just remember not to believe everything you read!

For a ryokan, check out japaneseguesthouses.com The only ryokan I stayed at was one of the most affordable ones -- Momiji-so on lovely Miyajima.

I also did a temple stay on Koyasan and highly recommend Shojoshin-in.

I was glad to spend 2 nights in Nara, as I found a great deal to do there that I enjoyed. That said, many people visit it as a day trip from Kyoto.

For information about transportation, rail passes, and basically anything you want to know, I will again send you to japan-guide.com Seriously -- please check it out. :-)

For our trip the rail pass was not cost effective, so do add up what your rail costs will be without the pass and compare to the price of the pass.

Also, if you have any hotel points, Japan is the place to use them. We got the Hyatt credit cards with gave us 2 free nights anywhere in the world and I had a bunch of Hyatt points, so our 6 night stay in Kyoto was free. It's hard to beat free!

we are going to get two hyatt cards and use them for either Tokyo or Kyoto based on comments here.

NOw that there is a start date, I am seriously reading up and have tentative plan for 20 nights in Japan starting with 4 in Tokyo and ending with 6 in Kyoto plus possibly 2 pre-Kyoto nights for Nara. Pretty sweet that by mere luck I will be in Kyoto for my Wife's 65th so those will defineitly be the upscale Ryokan nights

>>But if only 7-14-21 then I guess 14 day?

That is a good guess, at this point, for budgeting. It depends on what you do with the rest of your time in Japan. There are other rail passes and discounts (or no pass) that might work better for you, as well as special domestic air fares for foreign tourists.

The Kyushu Basho, the grand sumo tournament in Fukuoka, is scheduled for November 9 to 23, 2014. You would be in Kyoto at that time with your current plan.

Thanks for the Sumo tip. I see That is on the Island south of Hiroshima so it would require some rethinking but time for seeing if I can make that happen. I suppose I could break Kyoto in to two parts to make that work. Let's see, take my wife to Sumo for her 65th or take her to Kyoto for her 65th hmmm? Sumo probably a better story:-)

You could move up your Kyoto stay, tho having it at the end is a good idea.

The Sanyo Area Pass is an option as it gets you to Fukuoka, Hiroshima & Miyajima, Himeji, Okayama, etc:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2361_04.html

Like kja, I also enjoyed Momijiso ryokan as a ryokan experience without a huge price.

That splurge ryokan does not, of course, have to be in Kyoto. There are many options elsewhere. I have read about a very highly regarded ryokan in/near Yufuin, for example.

Another pass option is: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2361_07.html

So you could by a shinkansen ticket Tokyo-Kyoto for about 13,000. Visit Kyoto, then use one of those passes. Visit Himeji (if the castle is open by then) then stay in Hiroshima/Miyajima, go on to Fukuoka. Day trip to Beppu or overnight in Yufuin. Fly home from Fukuoka.

Regarding the JR Pass, you don't really need it while you're IN Tokyo unless you're taking day trips on trains to other destinations (such as Nikka or Hakone).

You can get a SUICA card to load money onto and use for local subway and local trains (and it works for Tokyo, Kyoto and elsewhere in Japan as well).

Use Hyperdia.com to work out costs of your main train journeys on various dates and then see if you can work out the 7 or 14 or 21 day pass to bring cost down.

On our first trip the pass was very worthwhile, on the second trip not at all given the reduction in number of train journeys and how far apart the main two were in days.

In Kyoto, for a special ryokan stay, I can recommend Shiraume - http://www.kaveyeats.com/2013/03/her...n-me-into.html which I booked directly via their website. In Nara, we loved Kankaso, which I booked with Japaneseguesthouses.com http://www.kaveyeats.com/2013/01/kai...o-in-nara.html

I think 6 nights in Kyoto is great - you have plenty to do in the city itself and there are lots of day trips you can take too, if you want to do even more.

I would say that Koya-san is probably not worthwhile as a day trip, but that's just my feeling. We did that as an overnight ourselves, so haven't experienced it as a day trip. But the point for us was the temple stay as part of the experience.

Mr. Wunrful..thanks for the mere mention of BEPPU..always brings a flood of memories for me as a rifle-toting 17-18 year-old back in 1946...a bombed out former kamikaze base back then...now one of the most popular onsen destinations in the country (I re-visited amidst local fanfare in 2007).
stu

gfeibleman - I'd nail down your itinerary a little further before considering what JR pass to get. You may find a combination of pass and separate tickets work best.

I'll give you our itinerary, although you have more time than us overall:
Kyoto - 5 nights (could easily have done 6 nights, and that is without Nara.) We passed on Nara our first trip - it sounds worthwhile, but we didn't want to 'temple out.'
Takayama - 2 nights;
Nagoya - 2 nights (great science museum, nearby hike)
Okayama - 2 nights (base for a cycling trip, or we could have daytripped to Hiroshima if it poured)
Tokyo - 3 nights plus a late night flight out made it virtually 4 nights. Could still have added a night easily.

Also worthwhile - Kanazawa - sounded lovely, but we had but 14 nights and didn't want to lose time in the other places.

Point being, had we expanded our trip to include Kanazawa and more time in Tokyo, we'd be up to 18 or 19 nights easily. So 21 nights gives you maybe one more destination - perhaps Hakone?

Sorry for the silence this weekend. Booked the return flight for 11/10/14 so now the dates and time are set. Arrive Tokyo at 4:15 pm on 10/23 and depart Osaka on 11/10 at 2:30pm so neither day is much of a tour day. 20 days gone but only 18 nights and 17 full days in Japan. So that is what I will be working with in planning this trip.

I was looking at Sue's sample itinerary in reverse but realized that we really want to spend time in Hiroshima as part of our trip.

Does any one have a preference of day trip to Hiroshima but stay in Miyajama or the reverse?

Our first itinerary (above) was 17 nights, and did include Hiroshima though we were only there a few hours, with a wonderful overnight in Miyajima. That was perfect for us.

Stay in Miyajima!

I stayed in Hotel Granvia in Hiroshima and made day-trip to Miyajima, and felt just as happy. Hotel Granvia (booked via booking.com) was not only convenient but also mighty comfortable. I know Shelleyk commented that her room at Hotel Granvia was small, but I don't recall feeling my double room was small at all.

Although i felt my room was small, I would stay at the Granvia again. I agree with Reading54's comment about the convenience of the hotel if one wants to visit Hiroshima and Miyajima as a day trip, as we did.

I was a walk-in at the Hiroshima Granvia and negotiated the rate down a bit. Very basic room, extremely convenient to the shinkansen side of the station.

The Sheraton Hiroshima was a great deal on SPG cash&points. Nice, large, corner room with a bird's eye view of the station. Only 3 minutes less convenient than Granvia.

The Rihga Royal is a good choice for staying in the city. Both times had nice views over the park and Hiroshiima castle (which I did not visit those times). Terrific rates using their translated Japanese webpage. Short walk to the baseball park, Genbaku Dome, and the covered shopping street. From the station take a streetcar and then walk a couple of blocks (above ground or via an underground mall). Or taxi.

One fodors poster had a good plan which involved taking a boat (nnt the ferry) back, late afternoon, from Miyajima and then a short walk to a Hiroshima hotel. IIRC, the boat stopped there before going to the main port, and the location was convenient to a streetcar for getting to the station. Would have liked to have seen a trip report on that. You might be able to figure out the details of such a plan using the Hiroshima & Miyajima guide here: www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/rtg/