Hello! I'm visiting Tokyo with my husband for the first time ever at the end of March 2009. We get in Sunday evening and plan to depart on the following Saturday (5 full days).

In addition to spending a few full days in Tokyo, I plan to make a trip to the Ghibli Museum. I'm wondering if it also makes sense to try to visit an Onsen Ryokan near Hokane to experience the hot springs and see Mt. Fuji.

Also, is a week enough time to split up part of the trip and visit Kyoto? I have a few friends who live in Nagoyo as well.

Thank you!

hello, my name is benny, i m 19 years old, a chinese i m from malaysia, recently in japn now..i just arrive here on the 12 of dec 2008, my purpose of coming to japan is for futher study, i gonna study here for five years,so is kinda long, although my days in tokyo is not so long, but i had been a lot places,the places that i gonna introduce u is, the three mian city in tokyo, tat is ikebukuro, shinjuku, and shibuya, this three area is the most busy area in tokyo u can shop there, u can eat a lot of things there..hope u can go those places and enjoy~~
er...
one last thing, u should start learning japanese now...cos...people here doesnt speak english!
so...gambateh!

Hi

My wife and I went to Tokyo a couple of years back and here is my trip report with pictures and links http://gardkarlsen.com/Bangkok_trip_report_2007.htm . Maybe you can find some useful info there to start with. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Hi

Sorry, not sure what happened...but here is the correct link: http://gardkarlsen.com/japan_tokyo.htm

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Makes sense to me. At least up to the point where you also considered Kyoto and Nagoya. You can visit (but I don't recommend it) all of those places but would not see much of the cities with that limited amount of time.

By "visit an onsen ryokan" I suppose that you mean spend the night. It is also possible to vist a ryokan to take a dip in their hot springs bath and not stay the night.

Maybe cost would be decisive:

A trip from Tokyo to Nagoya would cost about 20,000 yen roundtrip per person.

Tokyo to Kyoto would be about 26,000 yen roundtrip per person. Could include a stop in Nagoya at about the same price.

Tokyo-Hakone is about 4400 yen rt pp.

Thank you everyone!

I would love any recommendations for an onsen ryokan (perhaps around Hokane) that we can either spend the night at or drop by for a dip on a daytrip perhaps from Tokyo.

I'm also getting overwhelmed by the amount of ryokans in tokyo. I'd like to find one that is reasonable priced, perhaps with its own bathroom, and located in or near a fun area.

Thanks!!

I stopped for a soak at Tenzan. It is described here:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5209.html

I had started the day in Moto Hakone, took the tourist loop back to Hakone Yumoto and then the short bus ride to Tenzan. Then bus back to M-H.

Thanks for posting a link to your Japan trip report Gard, I really enjoyed it. I'm in the early stages of planning a trip to Japan. So far I've only booked the plane tickets (Nov).