I will be traveling with my son to Japan for his 16th Birthday and could use some help with recommendations on hotels. Our schedule is as follows:

Tokyo-April 2,3 & 4th
Takayama-April 5th
Ise-April 6th
Shima-April 7th
Osaka-April 8th
Kobe-April 9th
Kyoto-April 10 & 11th
Kayasan-April 12 & 13th
Flt from Tokyo April 1th at 10:45 a.m.

In addition to hotel recommendations I would appreciate any recommendations on restaruants as well as my son is a vegaterian.

Thanks in advance for your time and your recommendations.

Joe

Hi, Joe -

Japan is wonderful! What a lovely birthday plan!

In Takayama, I ate at Suzuya, which serves some amazing local mountain vegetable dishes.

Most (all?) temples in Koyasan serve only vegetarian food. I stayed at Shojoshin-in and loved it. A good source of information about places to stay there (and elsewhere) is JapaneseGuestHouses:

http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com/index.htm

BTW, you might consider staying only one night in Koyasan.

Have you checked into the option of flying out of Kansai instead of Narita? It would save you time and money by avoiding the return to Tokyo.

One other thing: It appears that you are planning on spending very little time in Kyoto. Have you considered adding any time there? It hold so many treasures!

Hope that helps. . . .

Hi

My wife and I went to Japan for 2 weeks in 2005 and we did Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima etc. Maybe you can find some useful information in my Japan trip report with pictures and links http://gardkarlsen.com/japan_tokyo.htm . Get in touch if you have any questions

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

Hi kja,

Thank you for your restaruant advise we will certainly try it out.Did you have any other recommendations for hotels and or restaruants? It is always nice to hear back from people that have had personally stayed at hotels and restaraunts.

Thanks Again,
Joe

Hi again, Joe -

I didn't go to all of the places you are planning to visit, and unfortunately, I don't remember the names of all of the restaurants I went to in Tokyo and Kyoto. I do remember that I ate very well in Japan! My one real splurge meal was in Kyoto at Misoguigawa, and that was absolutely wonderful. According to their Web site, they do offer vegetarian meals:

http://www.misogui.jp/eng/index.html

I'm sure you can find other restaurant options and information about hotels by searching this board. Also, for hotels, have you checked tripadvisor?

http://www.tripadvisor.com/

Hope that helps!