Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report trip report: Japan November 13-December 1

I realize that if this trip report is going to be written at all, it will have to be perhaps in segments and definitely under the influence of fairly serious jet lag so I apologize in advance for possible wordiness and disjointedness. Also our trip was shadowed by the unexpected death of a much loved pet just 5 days before we left, which shadowed both our subjective experiences and our ability to make good decisions in timely ways.

That said, we were very fortunate in many ways. An old and close friend of my father's shepherded us and treated us to a number of eating experiences in Tokyo and he and his wife hosted us to a night in Mitsui's excutive inn in Hakone, where there was still fall color and we were lucky to have sunny clear views of Mt. Fuji all of an afternoon and through the next morning. We had an exquisite dinner at the most beautifully set table I have ever seen. I am sorry that I was too shy to ask to take a photograph.

Our experience of Tokyo also was somewhat limited by the wonderful hospitality we received: because Yoshi-san drove us everywhere and stayed in the car waiting, we felt always the pressure of his kindness and spent very little time walking through neighborhoods or wandering through the National Museum. We did spend a wonderful hour at the Hakone Open Air Museum--which merits more time but our host could not walk well and was again in the car waiting.

We loved the Park Hotel Tokyo. Although by objective standards our standard room was somewhat small, it was so beautifully arranged and decorated and with a queen sized bed, chair, small table and ottoman and a knockout wall-sized window view of the Tokyo skyline, we did not feel cramped at all and were not even certain that we had a standard room and not a small deluxe (it was standard--we checked). Amenities included robes, really nice toiletries, newspaper, a coffee maker, teamaker and minibar tastfully tucked away in an alcove. There was an office sized but attractive work desk, nice artwork, a good western and Japanese breakfast, a moderately price Japanese restaurant and a tiny expensive but very good French restaurant. Service was very pleasant, efficient and knowledgable, we were given a 1pm checkout andd for all this made just over $200 a night (Expedia) including taxes. As you can see, we cannot say enough good things about this hotel.

And I love Washlet toilets!

Unfortunately, I can't say even one good things about Sunrise bus tours and highly recommend heeding advice of Kim Japan and Hawaiian traveler. We took a half day bus tour of Tokyo (no choice about this, we taken by our host) and a whole day tour of Nikko. As Kim said, we spent a lot of time in the bus with a lot of people, got only the most superficial experience of the places we stopped and arrived at Nikko at the most crowded possible time. I know it was not Sunrise tour's fault that the falls were totally covered with mist and thus literally invisible, but our overall experience was so bad that we blamed this on them too.

Speaking of people's advice, we are really glad we followed Hawaiian traveller's advice to splurge on two nights at the Iwaso ryokan in Miyajima, glad we followed (I think)Mr. Wunnerful's advice about not trying to leave Miyajima and fly back to San Francisco out of Kansai airport on the same day. Retrospectively, we are sorry we did not take Hawaiian traveller's suggestion to spend our last night in Hiroshima instead of reuniting with our luggage for a final night in Kyoto. This would have allowed us more time in Miyajima, which was exquisitely beautiful and not very crowded even though we were there on a Friday and Saturday night.

On the other hand, we do not regret at all the 8 trains, a cable car, and boat and two taxis that we took getting from Koya-san to Miyajima. We do wish we had spent another night in Koya-san (also in Hakone), which was magical and loved the spectacularly beautiful Fukuchi-In Buddhist monastery and onsen where we stayed. Our room was exquisite with wood beams, beautiful scroll, black and gold lacquered wall patterns on wall opposite the scroll alcove. It was ornate without being fussy.The $300+ price for the two of us with dinner and breakfast seemed very reasonable. We would not, however, go to the 6am prayer services both days. We had a good inexpensive lunch of pasta, salad and dessert in the small International Cafe which had been recommended by 2 Japanese girls we met on the train. We spent the afternoon at Kongobugi Temple, which we liked better than Frommer's did, who gave it only one star. The next morning we enjoyed a walk in the rain through Okunoin masoleum before embarcing on our marathon trip to the Iwasu on Miyajima.

The Iwaso was great, one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in. In addition to the onsen and beautiful nearby hiking, I would highly recommend the very moderately priced massage in room (4,000 yen for 40 minutes) and liked the blessedly short nighttime boat tour under the famous shrine.

What I do wish, though, is if it had been possible not to eat two kai-seki dinners there. To my chagrin, I find that overall I prefer simple California Japanese food to Japanese Japanese food and having grown up in the Midwest on beef, potatoes and frozen vegetables, I discovered that even after 30 years in the Bay Area, there are still many things I am squeamish about eating. Also spending money on food is not a high priority for me when traveling.

I knew this might be long, even very long. I will save Kyoto, Nara and Hiroshima for another day and just say thank you to all you Fodorites for now and also that the koyo (autumn color) was GORGEOUS everywhere in Japan, even in Hakone and Koyasan, which had peaked earlier. We had worried that the second half of November might be too late but we couldn't have chosen better (special thanks to Hawaiian Traveller for checking weather potential for us)

Oyasuminasai!