Originally Posted by
LapLap
Hello enya, welcome to Flyertalk and to the Japan forum. Quite a few of us are female and pretty used to travelling around on our own.
Looking at your itinerary, and knowing that very little actual touring typically happens on arrival and departure dates, your list tells me you plan to spend:
4 days (2.5 + 1.5 days) in Tokyo
3 days in Osaka
3 days in Kyoto
&
2 days in Hakone
Without knowing what your plans are in each area, I couldn’t tell you whether it’s OK or not. From my personal point of view, it seems rather lopsided, with both Osaka and Hakone given rather more time given the sum of their sights and attractions than Kyoto and Tokyo, which are generally considered to offer far more. But you may have particular interests or goals at Osaka and Hakone that would make this the right choice for you.
As for your question about the 14 day JR Pass, no for this itinerary it wouldn’t make sense to buy it. If this is the itinerary you want to stick to it would make more sense to buy a 7 day pass to activate on the 7th and use it to get to Hakone on the 13th. From Hakone to Shinjuku station it only costs about ¥1,100 yen (or ¥2,330 if you get the faster “Romancecar”). Depending on your itinerary you might want to get the Hakone Free pass for travel within the area anyway - this page will explain your options there, a JR pass for this part of your itinerary would not be particularly useful:
Hi! Thank you so much for your help!
Okay, so honestly I don't have any specific ideas for any of the cities as of now. I usually just like to keep enough time to properly explore a place. I want to experience a bit of everything, the cultural sites, historical sites, city areas, one ryokan experience maybe and lots of yummy food
And of course i am going during cherry blossom season, so want to make the best of that too!
As of today I haven't booked any hotels, hoping to do so by tomorrow, so I can still change the dates if you have any suggestions for sure!
I thought there were some day trips worth doing from Osaka? So thought the number of days were fine. But is you suggest it is too much, i can maybe stay longer in Tokyo instead?
On the 4th i arrive at Tokyo early morning, 7 am. So hopefully I won't be too tired and will have most of that day too. Plus most check ins seem to by only post 3 pm, so will move about in the day after depositing luggage as well.
As for the Hakone two nights, when i was looking for the trains from Kyoto, it showed me that i would arrive in the afternoon around 2 pm. So by the time i reached the hotel it would be evening already. So exploring mt. Fuji and other sites would happen on the next day only. The train back to Tokyo was in the afternoon as well from what i understood, so wouldn't have the day to explore. Therefore I decided to stay that night and leave the next morning. Do you have a more efficient way to go about this? Or any other suggestions?
For the JR pass, it isn't very necessary in Tokyo while moving about? Local subway tickets are worth it instead right?
Thank you once again for the help and sorry for barraging with so many queries!
