Obon festival travel
Is travel difficult in Japan around the Obon Festival in mid August? Mainly concerned with taking a train from NRT into Tokyo. Also may be taking a train from Tokyo to Hiroshima. Should I go ahead and book the train tickets? Any other ideas? Thanks!
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It is one of the three busiest travel seasons in Japan, so yes.
Taking the train NRT-TYO should be alright. Catching a train out Tokyo on the 11th or 12th of august may be a bit more difficult. If you can stay clear of 11,12,15 and 16 of august, it should be easier. Will you be using the JR pass? As long as you are sticking to JR east (which is Tokyo and further north) you can reserve seats here http://jreast-shinkansen-reservation...ion/Guide.aspx But getting to Hiroshima involves JR central and JR west too, and I don't think they have online reservation from abroad. Once you are in japan and have your JR pass, you can go to any JR office and make the reservations. |
You do not have to worry whatsoever about NRT-Tokyo.
Fly to Hiroshima; it's a lot faster and you can book your tickets starting now for mid-August. This is flyertalk, not traintalk. :) p.s. I am not sure how busy this period really is because there are no public holidays in August. Avoid the weekends, I suppose. |
Well now I'm confused. GH Tokyo concierge told me that the Obon festival at Roppongi Hills is the weekend of Aug 24th - which seems wholly inconsistent with what I read about Obon being in mid August.
Anyone have any idea if perhaps the RH festival is just later in the month for some reason? |
Originally Posted by gnaget
(Post 18764306)
Fly to Hiroshima; it's a lot faster
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Originally Posted by ainternational
(Post 18764796)
Well now I'm confused. GH Tokyo concierge told me that the Obon festival at Roppongi Hills is the weekend of Aug 24th - which seems wholly inconsistent with what I read about Obon being in mid August.
Anyone have any idea if perhaps the RH festival is just later in the month for some reason? |
Originally Posted by ainternational
(Post 18764796)
Well now I'm confused. GH Tokyo concierge told me that the Obon festival at Roppongi Hills is the weekend of Aug 24th - which seems wholly inconsistent with what I read about Obon being in mid August.
Anyone have any idea if perhaps the RH festival is just later in the month for some reason? |
The peak of obon season should be Aug 9-11 leaving Tokyo and returning 13-15
It really depends this year (because of electric shortages) companies are moving around the dates |
Originally Posted by ainternational
(Post 18764796)
Obon festival at Roppongi Hills
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Originally Posted by gnaget
(Post 18764306)
p.s. I am not sure how busy this period really is because there are no public holidays in August. Avoid the weekends, I suppose.
As others have said there shouldn't be any problem travelling from NRT to Tokyo. You should be fine as long as you reserve a seat in advance for Tokyo-Hiroshima. |
Jorudan conveniently shows flying as an option. Shibuya to Hiroshima eki shows that you save an hour by flying using a random 11:16 am departure time tomorrow. And it's not fun sitting on a train for 4 hours.
And Jorudan allows for only 11 min connecting time at Shinagawa but 45 min at HND. I also didn't realize that Hiroshima airport has no train connection, which adds to the total travel time. But you still save an hour. But importantly for rtb it's easy to book a flight. Are there any commercial flights to the old "downtown" airport, HIX? Ok, a quick search tells me that JAL stopped in 2010.
Originally Posted by jib71
(Post 18764801)
For a city center to city center journey, there's not much in it. Depending on the start and finish points, the train can be faster. Nozomi Shinkansen gets you from Tokyo station to Hiroshima station in just under 4 hours.
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One more thing. The reason that I said there is no holiday in August -- it's true in Tokyo. July 16th is a holiday in Tokyo; I didn't know the reason for it. Obon is apparently celebrated in July in Tokyo but August in rest of country. Are all you people "country folk"? :)
http://sgholiday.com/calendar/japan-...holidays-2012/ |
Originally Posted by gnaget
(Post 18765789)
One more thing. The reason that I said there is no holiday in August -- it's true in Tokyo. July 16th is a holiday in Tokyo; I didn't know the reason for it. Obon is apparently celebrated in July in Tokyo but August in rest of country. Are all you people "country folk"? :)
http://sgholiday.com/calendar/japan-...holidays-2012/ I think this description from Japan-guide.com is pretty accurate. |
Originally Posted by gnaget
(Post 18765752)
Jorudan conveniently shows flying as an option.
Or do you mean that it's convenient that Jorudan shows flying as an option? That's true. However, I would also point out that Jorudan doesn't calculate connection time at Hiroshima airport, which isn't convenient.
Originally Posted by gnaget
(Post 18765752)
And it's not fun sitting on a train for 4 hours.
Originally Posted by gnaget
(Post 18765752)
Shibuya to Hiroshima eki shows that you save an hour by flying using a random 11:16 am departure time tomorrow. And it's not fun sitting on a train for 4 hours.
Originally Posted by gnaget
(Post 18765752)
And Jorudan allows for only 11 min connecting time at Shinagawa but 45 min at HND.
Originally Posted by gnaget
(Post 18765752)
But importantly for rtb it's easy to book a flight.
Originally Posted by gnaget
(Post 18765752)
Are there any commercial flights to the old "downtown" airport, HIX? a quick search tells me that JAL stopped in 2010.
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It's a relatively long hike at Shinagawa from Yamanote line to Shinkansen. 11 minutes is probably minimum equivalent to arriving at HND 20-25 min before departure. I.e. cutting it tight.
So 50 minutes is not enough time to go from the airport to downtown upon arrival? That's a bit of a hassle. For NRT they figure worst case scenario for bus schedule. Something like 110 minutes when it really takes 70 min. |
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