Updated Japan itinerary with questions
 

My itinerary has certainly changed since I first posted regarding my Apr/May trip. There were some casualties – namely Hokkaido and Kanazawa – but I think with the exception of a couple of busy days this will work well for us. Please feel free to comment and make suggestions. I do have some specific questions where advice is most welcome.
Apr 21 – Arrive Narita (staying at Courtyard Marriot Ginza)
Apr 21-28 – Tokyo – activities include tour w/ Junko Matsuda, exploring neighborhoods (walking tours), sumo stables
Apr 28 – travel to Ise Peninsula – evening in Yukinsato Ryokan in Toba
Apr 29 – sightseeing around the peninsula depart afternoon to Nagoya
Apr 29 – May 1 – Nagoya Hilton – activities include Nagoya Castle, possible trip to Kobe
May 1 – depart Nagoya to Gero (1.5 hrs JR train) staying at Yunoshimakan Ryokan
May 2 – depart Gero (by 10:00 am) to Shirakawa-go (45 minutes) sightseeing in area
Depart Shirakawa-go about 2 pm going to Takayama (about 1.5 hours?)
May 2-4 – Takayama – one night at Sumiyoshi Ryokan and one night at Rickshaw Inn – we are interested in learning more about Sake and tasting, morning market and local crafts
May 4 – depart Takayama about 2 pm returning to Nagoya Hilton (2.5 hrs by JR train)
May 4-6 Nagoya Hilton – hope to take in a baseball game on the 4th or 5th and hiking in the Kiso Valley
May 6 – depart by 8:30 am on Nozomi going to Miyajima (3 hrs)
May 6 – sightseeing on the island, spend the night at Kinsuikan Ryokan
May 7 – depart for Hiroshima by 9:00 am – sightseeing in Hiroshima (Peace Park…)
depart by 1pm for Himeji (1.25 hrs by JR train)- sightseeing – Himeji Castle
depart Himeji for Kyoto Okura Hotel
May 7-14 – Kyoto – activities include walking tour with Johnny Hillwalker, Geisha district walking tour, Arashiyama, and other walking tours

Considerations for this trip:
Our son, who is teaching in the outback of Hokkaido will be joining us at some point but we do not know exactly when but probably sometime during Golden Week.
Most of our busiest travel days are during Golden week – just how it worked out.

Questions regarding travel in Japan
1. Can I activate my JR Pass upon arrival for a future date? For example I arrive on the 21st of the month but want to activate it for travel beginning May 1. Will I be able to make our train reservations at this time?
2. I am wondering if Hakone is worth a day trip from Tokyo. The reviews I have read are mixed. We will head to the Ise Peninula from Tokyo and Takayama/Shirakawa after that. Also, if we do go to Hakone it would be the Friday or Saturday before the holiday on Apr 29. Will it be insanely crowded at that time?
3. I am undecided on the length of JR Pass and whether it should be a JR Pass or a JR West Pass – certainly a 7 day probably beginning May 1. I think the Nozomi from Nagoya to Hiroshima will be worth the time time saved. Our travel around Tokyo and Kyoto will be local areas. I’ve even laid all this out on a spreadsheet for our major travel but I am unsure what to budget for on the local trips around Tokyo and Kyoto. I assumed a Suica Pass for Tokyo unless 14 day JR proves a better value. By my calculations we would have to expend $157 each in train travel around Tokyo in 7 days to justify the 14 day vs 7 day pass. Am I looking at this correctly?
4. I've received some very nice recs regarding a yakitori restaurant in Ginza,a Kobe steak restaurant in Kobe, and sushi in Tsukiji. Still looking for others - anything goes. Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima?

Thanks all!
Suzanne

Suzanne - I really don't have any comment as I haven't been to most of those places - just Tokyo and Kyoto.

I just wanted to point out that you cannot take the Nozomi train with a JR pass.....

Your trip will be wonderful, I'm sure :)

Yes you can activate the JR Pass for a future date. I think you can get your free reserved seats at that time because you have actually done the exchange. Once upon a time you could book seat res before going to Japan and you'd pay the 500 yen res fee which was refunded when you did the exchange of the voucher for the pass. But in your case you would actually have the pass when you made the res. I am sure I have done this just don't remember for certain.

That's a lot of time in Nagoya.

I think you are flying home from Osaka. Is that correct?

If flying out of Osaka I would get a 14-day JR Pass ending on May 7. If flying out of Tokyo Narita Airport I would get a 21-day JR Pass ending on the day of travel to that airport (the 14th or 15th).

Your route is Nagoya- Gero- Shirakawago (via Takayama)- Takayama- Nagoya- Miyajima

What is the 45 minutes? The time you have for sightseeing in S-go? Not enough.

A better route, imo, would be:
Nagoya- Gero- Shirakawago- Takayama- Kanazawa- Miyajima

Correction:

A better route, imo, would be:
Nagoya- Gero- Takayama- Shirakawago- Kanazawa- Miyajima

Yes, we are flying out of Osaka. The 45 minutes was the time I think Hyperdia said it would take to travel from Gero to Shirakawa-go by train.
It is a lot of nights in Nagoya, a place that does not exactly score high as a destination. However it did appear to be a midway point for our excursion down the peninsula and up to Takayama. We will also take in a baseball game (#1 on my husband's to do list), go to Kobe and Kiso Valley from there.
I appreciate the suggestion regarding the Gero, S-go, Takayama route. I wasn't sure of the best way to approach this after I took Kanazawa off our list. I saw us spending about 4 hours in Shirakawa-go then traveling to Takayama, arriving about an hour and a half before dinner at our ryokan. I have yet to find a map that shows all of these to get a lay of the land.

Ok, go here:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/rtg/index.html
bookmark that.

Go to the Chubu section and click on the Takayama & Shirakawago guide. Look at the top of page 3.

Also on that webpage see other guides for Kiso Valley, Nagoya, etc.

Suzanne - On your other thread with the list of helpful websites, I saw the one for the Tokyo guide, Mr. Oka. I took a tour with him when I was in Tokyo in '04. I learned a lot and really enjoyed my time with him. I never saw anyone else mention him here.....

Thank you for your input.
Mara, it is nice to hear about someone that has experience with Mr. Oka. Perhaps we will use the services of both Junko and Mr. Oka so that we can compare and report back. Thank you.

It appears you are staying too long in Tokyo when you can visit your son in Hokkaido by flying cheap (~10,000 yen) on Air Pass like JR Pass and use JR Pass within Hokkaido. Be aware. If you use JR pass to Ise from Nagoya, you will be asked to pay ~500 yen by conductor on board due to track sharing with a private line. Naigu & Gaigu in Ise city are great places to visit in a day. Total the JR fares & days of travel and decide the length of JR pass options. It may be cheaper just to buy tickets when you want to travel or rearrange your plans, i.e. skip Gero, Nagoya, Kobe.

Thanks for your input amazinga. Actually our intinerary originally included flying to Hokkaido and spending a week there. We changed it because our son would very much like to visit warmer, more populated areas and would prefer to join us rather than vice versa. This suits me fine as well. We live in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, in the country, adjacent to a national park. Visiting the cities will truly be a change of scenery for all of us. I also lived in Japan as a teenager and look forward to seeing how it has changed.

My other major concern about this trip was the timing. I've read nothing but warnings about travel in Japan during Golden Week. This is why I have been so compulsive about ensuring we a plan regarding our visit.

Who am I kidding - I believe in planned spontaneity!

The only comments I can add are:

Kobe is much closer to Kyoto. I won't make it as a day-trip from Nagoya.

I agree that you seem to be spending lots of nights in Nagoya. While it's a convenient hub for Ise/Gero/Kiso valley, I would cut down on 29 Apr-1May bit.

4-6 May Are you planning hiking along Magome/Tsumago?

6May You may want to take note that you won't be able to use Nozomi on JR pass.

Yes - regarding the Magome/Tsumago question. I actually got the idea from "CleoB" on this forum. he/she provided a great report of their trip. I plan on doing this on the 5th.

My plan is to arrive back in Nagoya on the 4th in time for the baseball game that evening. Hiking on the 5th and then depart going south early on the 6th. I will have to reconsider Kobe.

I do know that Nozomi isn't covered by our JR pass. I considered nozomi on all of our longer legs but found it made little difference (15 minutes) with the exception of this leg where there was an hour (3 hrs vs 4 hrs)difference in travel time.

Any suggestions regarding robatayaki dining? How about Hida beef in Takayama? I have read and saved many suggestions regarding sake tastings but more are always welcome.

as mrwnrfl says yes you can activate your jr pass for a later date. I don't think you can get the reservations at the same place that activates passes though I may be wrong. You have to go to the ticket windows in the station for that.

I usually take my pass back to my hotel who has a travel agent in the lobby. I then give them my printed out hyperdia schedules with my ticket reservations highlighted.

Using the agency in my hotel is a lot easier imho to use than the reservation agents in the train stations who understand little or no English, and the service is free with your jr pass. I come back a few hours later and pick up all my reservations and am ready to go.

Aloha!

I am not sure when you say there is much time difference using Nozomi or Hikari. Hikari Railstar is as fast as Nozomi(except the new N700 model) unless it has more scheduled stops.
Have you visited http://www.japanrail.com/
It gives the detailed time table & fare for every JR trains.

Thanks HT - that is very good advice.

Regarding Nozomi - I meant for my particular trip I only considered Nozomi for what I considered to be the longer travel distances in my itinerary. I did this because I knew I would have a JR pass and the pass would not be usable for Nozomi but I was interested in considering the time savings that it could potential provide. I'm certainly no expert at reading Hyperdia tables but for the two routes/times I considered one hada time difference of 15 minutes and the other an hour. I will travel 15 minutes longer and use my JR Pass but will consider buying a Nozomi ticket and "saving" an hour's time. That is all I meant - not that there is generally no difference between the two. Sorry if I was unclear about that. I could easily be mistaken as well.

jmsvss,

It looks like there are bus services between Gero and Magome via Nakatsugawa station. I'm doing a search for my own travel planning in March for Gero/Takayama/possibly Magome loop. I'm trying to do this as I cannot find direct rail link, and would rather avoid travelling back/forth to Nagoya to make connections.

It's via a company called Nohi Bus (sp?) so I assume I won't be able to use JR pass... I'm trying to ask a Japanese colleague to decipher timetable. I'll post in this thread if I find anything that may be of use.

If you use mrwnrfl's earlier link you can take a look at page 6 for time schedules of Nohi bus from Takayama to S go
The Nohi phone numbers are also there

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/rtg/pdf/pg-409.pdf

Aloha!

The fare for Nozomi non-reserved seating is the same as Hikari non-reserved and less than Hikari reserved seating. For this reason I have been pushing Japan Tourist organization to negotiate with JR to open up Nozomi free seating to JR Pass holders. Aside from busy Golden Week or other national holidays, I often make a seat reservation but I go to non reserved seating cars because usually I have two seats to myself. If too crowded, I can always go to my reserved seat. But so far I didn't have to. People come & go.