I went last Spring but this is daughter's (13 yr.)1st trip. We are going to be in alot of different hotels; this makes the most sense to me but please let me know what you think. Don't like to pack too much into each day, prefer time to explore rather than see it all. I used a recent JR paper schedule for some train times; will need to get updated schedule in March to finalize times, but these usually don't change much.

April 7- depart Dulles 12:20 pm, nonstop to Narita on ANA
SAt. 4/8- arrive 3:20 pm; ATM and JR office (reservations and provide date of activation of JR pass for 4/16); limobus to Westin Ebisu (hotel points).
Sun, 4/9: Harajuku, Yoyogi Park/Meiji Shrine, maybe Hanazoo Jingu Shrine market in Shinjuku; Westin Ebisu
Mon, 4/10: Ghibli Museum a.m.; Nakano Mall; maybe Shibuya in evening; Westin Ebisu
Tues, 4/11: check out Westin, check in somewhere near Akasaka, store bags if can't check in early. Asakusa, Sumida river cruise, Odaiba
Wed. 4/12: check out early a.m., go to Nikko (on Tobu line from Asakusa). Nikko, and Edo-Mura. Stay somewhere in Nikko.
Th., 4/13: A.M., Nikko for few hrs.; depart for Disney. Check-in to a Disney hotel, get evening pass to Disneyland
Fri., 4/14: day/night Disney Sea, same hotel
Sat., 4/15: depart for Tokyo sta., train to Odawara; Open Air museum and Yunessun; stay at Ichinoyu.
Sun., 4/16: JR pass activated; Early Kodama Shin. train from Odawara to Kyoto, departs about 8:30 arrive about noon. Check into hotel in Central area, Kyoto Okura (10% discount w/membership). Phil. Path, Higashiyama
Mon., 4/17: Kyoto: craft making, time to explore or baseball in Osaka, Miyako Odori at night.
Tues., 4/18: Kyoto, Arashiyama and Sagano
Wed., 4/19: early a.m. train to Takamatsu, Shikoku. Check in or store bags at hotel close to JR station, possibly ANA (20%discount w/ANA club hotel membership). Ritsurin Koen, Shikoku-Mura. Shopping.
Thurs., 4/20: early a.m. appt. to visit Noguchi sculpture museum. Check out hotel, train to Himeji castle on way back to Kyoto.
Fri., 4/21: Kyoto, Toji market, fox shrine
Sat. 4/22: Kyoto, start early- maybe Kibune/Kurama hike or Ohara. About 4:30, Shin. to Tokyo (7:15), last NEX 8 p.m., arrive Narita 9 p.m. Hotel in Narita w/shuttle to airport.
Sun, 4/23: leave hotel 8 or 8:30 am, depart 11 am

If I provide the 4/16 activation date at JR office in Narita, so I still have to get it activated at Odawara on a.m. of 4/16? Odawara office doesn't open early on Sunday.

Luggage issues: We shop. I'm thinking of each of us taking a wheel piece, & also 1 extra empty suitcase that we can fill in Tokyo- then when we leave Disney Sea on 4/15 have that piece sent to Narita to be stored at luggage place til we get to Narita to depart. Then send our original two suitcases to Kyoto hotel from Disney hotel on 4/15, and just take a zip-up duffel w/overnight stuff to Hakone on 4/15. But I have a problem w/Kyoto-Takamatsu. In order to get luggage to Narita in time for early a.m. Sun. departure, would need to send it to Narita on 4/20, and I am in Takamatsu then. I have terrible visions of dragging all our stuff AND extra bag we will have to buy for Toji market stuff to Narita. Maybe I should go to Takamatsu on 4/18 and 4/19 and send luggage to Narita from Kyoto on 4/20? Still will have Toji stuff to deal with getting to Narita.

Last few nights in Kyoto, planning on staying close to station to be close to Toji, fox shrine, and be abel to store bags at hotel after checking out on 4/22 and make fast departure late in day to Tokyo.

Hikari 365 leaves Odawara at 9:10 AM and arrives Kyoto at 11:20, 20 minutes or so before the Kodama you mentioned.

The Shigetsu is an oft-recommended ryokan in Asakusa that has both western and Japanese beds and has a Japanese bath that you and DD can share.

No, you wouldn't have to do anything about your JR Pass at Odawara. It will be like you are expecting: the pass will be stamped with 16/04 as the activation date and when you show it to the JR person they will see that it is active that day and give you your reserved seats and let you thru the gate.

Getting the pass activated on day 1 seems to be going a bit out of the way of that day's biz (arriving, ATM, limobus). I think you could get it validated at Ebisu. Or Tokyo on the 15th.

testing to see if this posts- i have tried several times to post and my answer hasn't posted each time

Ok. Thanks for the Hikari tip, I missed that and it is MUCH better.

Sicne we arrive at 3 pm I thought I'd do what I did last time and just deal w/JR then. Also, I think I will try eki-net for the Kyoto to Tokyo trin sicne that is a Sat. in mid-April and it is the last train of the day that connects to NEX.

No Shigetsu, as they have no access to rms. from 10 til 3 pm and I want to be able to drop off Senjosi shopping goods before heading to Odaiba.

Any feedback on the luggage issues?

Hope CA is all sunshine for you.

emd:
Looks like an aggressive schedule...hope your feet are up to it this time around
How do you get a 10% discount in Hotel Okura in Kyoto? We are planning on staying there and wouldn't mind an additional 10% if it's possible..
Aloha!

hawaii, go to their nice website:

http://www.kyotohotel.co.jp/index_e.html

Click on "Reservation GDS"; Click on Okura CLub International and menu w/info on perks will come up, click on "Join Now"

The 10% only covers part of the darned taxes, but it helps. It looks like a fine hotel w/great location. WHat kind of room are you getting? Please report back on it.

And this time I am wearing compression hose on the plane and am watching my hip posture very closely!

Anybody have comments on the luggage?

emd - I followed your trip last year both here and at japan-guide.com particularly as I was planning a trip to Kyoto in April as well which I had to cancel unfortunately.

Anyway just curious as to why you are staying in so many different hotels in Tokyo - because of points? I hate to waste time packing/unpacking and checking in and out. I thought Nikko and Disney were day trips.

I stayed at the Annex Katsutaro in the Yanaka area of Tokyo after reading about it here probably from Florence. I don't know about day time access to the room but they do have a closet to store luggage so that may work. It is near the JR Yamanote line and a subway line in the other direction.

I always wear my compression stockings on the plane. My legs are still bothering me from a trip to Switzerland last week (from NYC).

Good question- I'm concerned about the hotel changes too. Westin Ebisu is way all the way over on west side of Tokyo- on Yamonate line but it's a long trip around that loop. We want to do overnight at Nikko because there is enough there that interests us to do so (Edo Mura, Tobu World Square, and all the Nikko sites) so we have time the next morning to do some of that. It doesn't make sense to me to go all the way back to Westin Ebisu on 4/11 after spending day at Asakusa and Odaiba, because the Tobu train to Nikko leaves from Asakusa, and Westin is all the way around the Yamonate loop from there. So I figured we'd just stay in Asakusa and get right on the Tobu train on morning of 4/12.
And I do want to stay onsite at Disney. Westin Ebisu is a l-o-n-g train ride from Disney, and I want the convenience of being onsite at Disney since we are spending one evening and one full day at the park, then heading to Hakone.

Make sense? Believe me, this is a concern of mine too. Last trip we only had two hotels (Westin Ebisu and westin Miyako in Kyoto) adn I was so happy not moving around and doing day trips. But this time it just makes mroe sense to do it this way due to what we want to do.

And this is exactly the kind of feedback I want. I am so sorry you had to cancel your trip, Mara. I followed your plans as well.

Anybody have ideas on the luggage issues?

and yes, I confess that I do have enough Starwood points that I coudl stay first 4 nights at Westin Ebisu and under the Starwood program if you stay 4 nights on points then the 5th night is free, as in not only no yen but no points either. So my first rough itinerary had the 1st 5 nights at Westin Ebisu then check out on Thurs. am to go to Disney area hotel, but then when we decided to go to Nikko and stay overnight it changed things.

Akasaka is very close to Ebisu, so I think you mean to stay in Asakusa? The subway only takes about a half an hour to go from Ebisu to Asakusa so if I were you I would stay put at the Westin.

You could store your Sensoji stuff in a train station locker or Shigetsu would probably let you leave stuff for a few hours.

On 4/21, put all your stuff in a box or two and send it to Narita (airport or hotel). Use your rollaboards to haul your Toji booty on the shinkansen and N'Ex.

mms: Hi there. I apprecaite your input bc I know yo uahev also stayed at the Westin. It is Asakusa, sorry (I always do that w/those two). But my expereince was that it took longer to get to Asakusa from Ebisu. From hotel to JR, then JR around the loop to Uneo (40 min.) and then switch at Ueno to Ginza line for Asakusa was about 50 min.total Are you saying the subway that goes from Ebisu towards Roppogni to Ginza and then swings eastward til it swings back around to Akibahara and Ueno, then switching to Ginza line for Asakusa is only a half hour? That's the only subway line I see but it looks like more than half hour to me. If it is about a two hour round trip to get from Ebisu to Asakusa on 4/11, and then another hour to get back to Asakusa to get the Tobu line on the morning of 4/12, that is 3 hrs., which is what I am trying to avoid.
Am I wrong about the timing of this and overestimating? Please set me straight if that is the case.

Mrw: I see from alan64's post yesterday that he stayed at Senjosi and saw people dropping off stuff at the desk whiel they were closed, so that is cool and we will stay at Shigetsu if we stay in Asakusa that night.

I wonder if sending the stuff from Kytot on 4/21 is enough time to get the stuff to Narita for early a.m. 4/23 departure. Last trip the Westin Miyako called Narita (Black Cat luggage service) and the said I had to send stuff on Wed. to get it there for departure on Sat. at noon. Thay said they coudl not assure it woudl get there if I sent it on Thurs.

I meant that alan64 stayed at Shigetsu (need more coffee).

ok, I know I am posting alot, but I just thought of something. What if while I am at Westin Ebisu I send my luggage to the Disney hotel, and just take a zip-up overnight duffel bag w/us when we check out of Westin and go to Asakusa on 4/11. That way I only have an over night bag (and I can have annother zip-up bag in it for purchases) to take to Asakusa and Nikko, and when we get to Disney we will have our luggage.

Then send luggage to Kyoto from Disney on 4/14 (taking overnight bag to Hakone). When I leave Kyoto for Takamatsu on 4/19, send two boxes w/as much stuff as I can get rid of at that point to Narita to be stored til 4/23, and take rollerboards (as empty as possible) to Takamatsu. As mrw. said, this gives me space for the Toji market purchases in rollerboards as I go from Kyoto to Narita on 4/22.

Sound ok?

I too get Asakusa and Akasaka mixed up. In Tokyo one takes the subway sometimes and sometimes the trains depending on where you are going. The Yamanote JR line is convenent to alot of places from Ebisu but there is no reason to go around the circle to get to Asakusa when you can go there in a more direct fashion. Take the Hibiya line which also takes you to Ropongi, Ginza, Tsukiji and Ahkihabara to Ueno than switch to the Ginza line to Asakusa. I could be wrong but my recollection was about a half an hour trip, no more than 45 mintes at the most. Might you also not consider taking the subway to Asakusa than taking the Sumida river cruise to Odaiba, than return to Ebisu from Odaiba instead of doing a round trip back to Asakusa?
I travel alot with my family which probably accounts for my dislike of changing hotels but I do find changing hotels often wastes more time than just about anything I do. There is supposed to be one decent hotel in Asakusa but I am willing to bet it is not as nice as the Westin. A friend of mine is staying there in November on a tour so I will know more about it in December after I return from Thailand.

emd, according to Jorudan http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/nor...norikeyin.html you can make the trip from Ebisu to Asakusa, taking the Metro Hibiya line,changing at Higashi-Ginza for the Toei subway to Asakusa in about 30 mins (give or take, depending on the connection time).

I tend to agree with the other posters that changing hotels so often just adds more time and stress to the whole trip, but your idea of sending your luggage on and just taking overnight bags should make things easier on you.

I don't know if you have a PDA, but I also came across this useful tool - it's freeware, so you can download it and give it a try without having to pay. It is similar to Hyperdia in that you can put in your departure and destination points (but with the advantage you can have it with you and check even on the train), and it will plot the shortest subway trip for you, and also show you the route. http://www.freewarepalm.com/travel/metro.shtml

We're certainly going to be trying it out on our trip.

hyperdia has 37 minutes via Hibiya subway line and Toei Asakusa line. OR 38 minutes via JR Yamanote line and Ginza subway line. That's travel time only.

As far as the luggage thing goes, you also have these options:
1) don't buy much stuff, or get small stuff, or don't shop,
2) mail stuff to USA from home

The thing that is also burning me is that if I spend that night of the 11th at Westin, that is my 4th night on Starwood points (at 14,500 a night for club level it is not cheap for points, that's as high as it gets), and under their rules I would then be eligible for a free night (no cost, no points, nada) on the 5th night, the 12th (and that would be the end of my points). BUt of course I wouldn't be taking advantage of that 5th night free because we really do want to spend the night in Nikko and have alot to do there that will take more than a day trip (both Edo mura and Tobu World look so fun, and all the shrines). So I also thought well, I'll get a moderate place in Asakausa and save my points. Maybe I should just get over it and go back to the Westin that night and have them deal w/sending luggage to Disney hotel for me, I know I can trust them. I will think more about this.

Maybe we can get by w/a day trip to Nikko and just spend less time at the shrines since we are also going to Kyoto. I was looking forward to staying at the nice historic Kanaya hotel in Nikko, but if I have that 5th free night at Westin, I will be strongly pulled to get back on that train to Tokyo...

I have to laugh at mrw's suggestion. I know the biggest shopping day will be at Toji market on the 21st. No way I can resist that, the bargains are too good. This will just make me be really resourceful about the luggage and using the luggage service beforehand as much as possible to get stuff to Narita.

ozgal, I don't have a PDA but would really like to hear how your freeware works out. It sounds very interesting and helpful.