That's good to know. I'll probably just tack on another day in Tokyo in the beginning and make my way directly from Okayama back to Narita on my last day. I have a reservation locked in for the Courtyard in Ginza for two nights, and Sat-Sun is booked solid for pretty much everywhere and will probably have to change hotels.

Side note: I found this strange but do many Western Hotels sell blocks of rooms to 3rd party booking agencies? In multiple cases I've seen availability on 3rd parties e.g. booking.com but going directly to Marriott/Hyatt/etc there are no rooms available. Kinda annoying since you can't take advantage of elite status if you have any. This also seems especially prevalent on the weekend :td:

That's what I was thinking, staying in the city wouldn't work out well with such and early flight. Not a fan of getting up at 3/4am. Should be cheaper for a hotel out by the airport anyways.

I appreciate the help a lot. I would probably never end up at any of these places without everyone's help.

As you have an 8:45am departure from Narita

This option would depend an awful lot on you, but there's the choice of a sleeper bus from Osaka Namba station leaving at 9pm and getting to Yokohama at 5:05am. From Yokohama the train to Narita Airport is 1 hour 40 minutes - earliest departure 5:40am arriving at around 7:20am
Alternatively, if you can get to the Yokohama YCAT terminal there are direct buses (particularly useful if your coach from Osaka gets you to Yokohama early).
http://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/pla...hes/index/1/23

The seats are a lot better than the usual Coach seats (scroll down to see NEW PREMIUM Seats, when extended it is angled at 146degrees) and the journey costs about 9,000yen.
http://willerexpress.com/st/3/en/pc/bus/seat/#.#

If you are considering Kyushu, you could hop on a domestic TYO-KOJ or TYO-FUK flight and then hit a bunch of cities.

This post explains the places I hit in five packed days- Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Beppu, Nagasaki, and Kagoshima. A very high-paced trip that I wouldn't necessarily recommend you replicate, but gives you an idea of what Kyushu has to offer.

My Beppu experience was very tourist-trap-y (still enjoyed), but I'm sure you could do it differently and hit quality onsens there and in neighboring Oita.

Nagasaki is one of my favorite cities in Japan- easily top 3.

That's an interesting idea, but I would rather shower before I get on a 14 hour plane ride. I don't have any source of lounge acess and rather not pay for it. I already feel super crappy on the plane when I do. I would potentially do a night bus another time if I needed to get somewhere and wanted to skip on a hotel though.


Is there anything really good in Yokohama? I need to book Sat-Sun and pretty much everywhere in Tokyo is sold out. I have an excellent rate through work at the IC though and was considering that option. It seems about an hour from Haneda so it might be faster at this point to just take the Shinkansen to Okayama rather than flying though.

I spent a week in Shikoku earlier this year. Did not enjoy Takamatsu. Kochi and Matsuyama were much more enjoyable to me.

Want a shower at NRT before boarding?

No status - no problem!

http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/guide/service/list/svc_37.html

Just goes to show we are all different. Matsuyama left me cold but I really enjoyed spending a few days stalking photos at Ritsurin-koen. I will agree that the city of Takamatsu is pretty forgettable but the views from Yashima are glorious.

Seems obvious to me that neither abmj-jr or mapleg are keen udon connoisseurs :)

I don't mind udon. I can enjoy a nice tendon or unadon. I just prefer soba and the occasional bowl of ramen. My lack of appreciation for the city of Takamatsu is based on the ugliness of the city proper once you get outside of Ritsurin-koen. I might also be a bit biased from a poor hotel experience.

I don't know that Takamatsu is any uglier than any other Japanese city that has only one main attraction.

Abmj: Have you been to Shodoshima? If so, how did you like it? It's kind of a romanticized place for Japanese people, because of various dramas and books that are set there and because of the olives and the pilgram tour and such. It's been on my mind, but it's out of the way (although easy to get to from Takamatsu) and I've never been. Despite it being romanticized, there does not seem to be too much to do there.

No, can't help there. I've only ever seen it in TV shows.

Ok. None of my family's ever been, either. I've been semi-fascinated by this island without knowing much about it. We'll be in western Jpn later this year but, as usual, we'll probably end up giving it a miss.

Dutch pancake's one of my favorite food. Supposedly one of Jpn's two pannekoeken restaurants is on Shodoshima.

You probably have pegged me correctly !

OP, well you already got lots of advice from FTers who probably know more than i do. I have been many times to Japan but only once to Shikoku and nevertheless that was one of the trips (well, actually 2;-) i enjoyed most. There is certainly the best concentration of the original castles (though none to rival Himeji) as well as an incredible landscape. Some of the places i enjoyed most were Matusyama and Kotahira (ok, i can't resist anything that goes uphill, even if there are steps;-)