I've been browsing the threads and have a pretty good idea of places I want to see, but I still wanted to get a general feedback on my trip and see if I could make any changes.

7N/8D trip.

11/2- Arrive NRT, Check in NRT area hotel around 5pm and see the town/rest after 20 hr flight.
11/3- Stay in NRT, activate JR Pass, take a day trip to Lake Kawaguchiko for Mt. Fuji viewing AND/OR Kamakura
11/4- Check out from NRT in the morning, move to Tokyo
11/5- Tokyo
11/6- Tokyo checkout in the morning, then train to Kyoto and see Kyoto in the evening
11/7-Kyoto + potential day trip to Nara/Kobe
11/8-Day trip to Hiroshima/Miyajima (might stay here for a night)
11/9-Osaka KIX departure is at 10pm , so I have one full day to explore Osaka and being the last day of JR Pass, I can still travel around cities and get to the airport.

Few Qs
1. Is a day trip to Lake Kawaguchiko for Mt. Fuji feasible/worth it from NRT? Can I do Kamakura on that day too? I'm getting two free nights at NRT airport hotel so I figured I could stay the second night there as well and save $.

2. I tried to roughly calculate the train tiks but given my rough schedule, JR Pass makes sense. Right?

3. Can Nara and Kobe be seen in half a day from Koyoto? If you had to pick one..?

I haven't booked the hotels yet but I'll end up staying at Hilton/Hyatt/IHG hotels to burn some points or use C+P. Sheraton at Hiroshima Station sounds like a good one night option since it's right by the station and around $100/10K points.

This by no means will be my one and only trip to Japan, it's more to get a flavor of the country so I can explore more in depth on my next trip in a few months.
- Solo traveler, going with one bag pack and a small 4-wheel carry on suitcase.

Any suggestions?

Thanks ^

This looks like a very very rushed schedule. My thoughts...

11/7 - Spend it in Kyoto. You're not doing it justice with only an evening spent there.
11/8 - Day trip to Nara or Kobe (definitely not both). Skip the Hiroshimo/Miyajima leg (which seems like a big detour for one day).

I recall someone mentioning that the JR pass is only worth it if you are doing Tokyo-Kyoto return. Since you're going one way, it might be worth it to calculate if it's really cheaper than buying individual tickets (especially if you choose not to do a day trip to Hiroshima). HyperDia will give you the exact costs. Remember with the JR pass you can't take the Nozomi, only the Hikari.

http://www.hyperdia.com/en/

Since you said this is not your one and only trip, you can always see the rest of the country on future trips. It's good to spend a little more time in the big cities.

Thanks, SQ319.

I'll look into hyperdia but Hiroshima/Miyajima is something I really want to do. So, if time is of the essence, I rather skip a day trip to Kamakura or Nara instead. And that's the reason I was getting the JR pass. Narita-Tokyo-Kyoto-Hiroshima-Miyajima--Kyoto-Osaka (with a day trip here n there) warranted one IMO.

Since I'm traveling solo, I have the luxury of setting my own timings and schedule and exploring on my pace. But I'll look into this. Thanks

Spending two nights in Narita and using the day inbetween to visit either Kamakura or Mt. Fuji doesn't make any sense. You have to cross Tokyo to get to either of those places. Just because you have enough points for (presumably) the Hilton Narita doesn't make it a good idea.

If cost is the issue there are plenty of business hotels in Tokyo with reasonable rates. Especially if you're traveling solo. If cost is really the issue, the Asakusa/Kuramae area has some nice hostels with private rooms available for very low rates.

Just go to Tokyo as soon as you arrive.

If you are confident in returning over the coming years, then why is the itinerary so rushed and cramming in so much stuff? I would stick to Greater Tokyo and do a few day trips if you desire (but there's so much to do in Tokyo itself in what sounds like your first trip) for the first half and then move onto Kansai for the second half to knock off Kyoto and maybe a day in Osaka (but Nara is probably a better bet).

You also state in a later reply that Hiroshima & Miyajima is a must do so perhaps the first half of the trip can be spent in Tokyo (and a day trip if you desire) and then I'd fly to Hiroshima to save time and spend the two days/one night at Hiroshima and Miyajima. You can then hit Kobe on the way back as the start of a long day before your ten pm flight out of KIX. In this case, Kyoto and Nara will have to wait till your next trip.

As txflyer77 indicates, using a Narita hotel as your base to explore Kamakura or Mount Fuji is not what you want to be doing. It'd be like staying by Dulles Airport to go visit Baltimore.

Agree with txflyer. Go to Tokyo as soon as you get to Jpn. If you're visiting NYC for 4 nights, you wouldn't spend the first 2 nights next to EWR even if the hotel were free, would you? In particular, staying put in NRT to do a day trip to/from Kawaguchiko or Kamakura makes no sense.

You could do Kawaguchiko or Kamakura as a day trip from Tokyo, but not both. You could probably do either Nara or Kobe as a half-day trip, as long you're not intent on trying to see everything. Each could easily justify a whole-day trip. Personally I love Kobe, although I'm sure many on here would choose Nara.

I'm a big advocate of minimizing the number of times you check in/out of hotels. If it were me, I'd do the following:
Nights 1~4: Tokyo hotel - spend 3 full days in Tokyo, or use one of those days to take a day trip to Hakone, Nikko, Kamakura or Kawaguchiko.
Day 5: Get to Kyoto mid-day.
Nights 5~7: Kyoto hotel - you have 3.5 days to play with. Spend 1.5~2.5 days in Kyoto; if 1.5 days in Kyoto, then you have time to go to Nara or Kobe. You then have 1 day remaining to go do a day trip of Hiroshima+Miyajima.

I do think you have time to do Hiroshima+Miyajima, and it's well-worth it. But, particularly with your tight schedule, I recommend it as a day-trip. It'll be a long day trip, but definitely doable without feeling rushed. I've done it a couple times from Kansai, no problem. Plan on spending ~3hrs in Hiroshima, 5~6hrs in Miyajima.

If you want to book with points, you may have better luck finding a hotel in Osaka rather than Kyoto. Those cities are close together, and they'll both serve as a good base for visiting Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, etc.

Thanks guys!

Txflyer- Point well taken. I'll avoid staying in NRT and go straight to Tokyo.

Kevin- I was trying to get a general feel of the country so I could focus more on the cities I liked on my next trip. I know one can easily spend even 3 weeks in Tokyo (or Kyoto) and still not see everything but with 8 nights in Japan, I still wanted to see the 3 places I've always had an interest in visiting... Tokyo-Kyoto-Hiroshima. I guess I can skip the side trips for next time.

Evergrn- Your suggestion sounds good. What I was thinking is I could easily leave my bag (even though its a small carry on) at the Kyoto/Osaka hotel and stay one night at Sheraton Hiroshima (just take my bag pack for the night) and come back to my Kyoto/Osaka hotel the next day. That way I won't have to worry about going back that night (after a day long trip) and since Sheraton is right across from the station, I can spend the night there and come back to Kyoto area the next day. And call me weird but I actually like checking into different hotels and that's why I travel light. I like the idea of reviewing hotel chains and checking out different properties. If I had family traveling with me, I'd think twice of switching hotels, tho.

You won't have any problem returning to Kyoto that night... probably gets dark by ~6pm at Miyajima, so no point in staying past that there, and then the trains run frequently and it's <2hr from Hiroshima to Kyoto. Not too much that's unique about Hiroshima beyond the Peace Park which you will have already seen in the morning. But, if you actually enjoy experiencing different hotels, then that's different. And you may be able to save some $ on hotel by replacing a night in Kyoto with one in Hiroshima.

Thanks, Evergrn. Ya, I rather stay by Hiroshima station (Sheraton) that night to avoid taking the train back, and in turn saving some $/time along with getting to check out a new hotel. There's no point returning that day just to sleep at the (more expensive) hotel in Kyoto. Knowing I'd be spending the night in Hiroshima, I can even get a late start in the morning from Kyoto (and squeeze in a place to see in the morning) and still cover both the Peace Park and Miyajima during the day.

I have a similar set of priorities that evergrn appears to have. In particular, I work hard to minimize base-moves - but I can tell that's not a priority for you, and may even be a counter-priority, so I'll resist piling on on that front .

For a first trip, when you feel likely to return, I'd shade the number of side-trips downward. There is so much to see and do in Tokyo and Kyoto that it's hard to even get a feel for them if you rush through. They are also both so tourist friendly that (IMO) you can kind of live in a tourist bubble the whole time without realizing it if you go too quickly.

I'd be inclined to include Miyajima and Kamakura as my day/side-trips and leave the rest out for this visit. Peace park/museum is a real mixed bag as far as a destination to visit. It's the location of a critical piece of human history but it's also a bit of a downer. Kamakura is a nice, easy daytrip from Tokyo.

With eight nights, and a plan to return in the future, I would find an Airbnb or similar weekly rental and spend all eight nights in Tokyo, with day trips to Kamakura, Fuji and maybe Nikko (though Nikko is better as an overnight).

Kamakura and Nikko will give you a taste of Kyoto (and they're frankly less crowded anyways, at least during the week).

I actually leave for Tokyo tomorrow to do just this with a group of friends. My seventh visit to Japan, their first but we only have 7 nights. We're spending the entire time in Tokyo with day trips to Kamakura and probably somewhere up in the mountains a bit (TBD).

Thanks! I definitely have Miyajima on my schedule. Figured I could spend 2-3 hours in Hiroshima as well.

My departure is out of KIX, so I have to travel to that side anyway. Safe travels, Txflyer77.

What you are thinking of is the equivalent of staying at EWR and taking a day trip to Easthampton.

Consider doing Hiroshima and Miyajima as a day trip on your last day. We took the 7:20am non-stop from Kyoto station, left our luggage at Hiroshima station, spent the early part of the day hiking on the island and the afternoon walking around the peace park and the museum. This eliminated a check-in/out cycle, and the day didn't feel too rushed even though we were leaving.

Granted, we flew out of HIJ instead of KIX, but you could catch a 5:15 Shinkansen from Hiroshima and be at Kansai by 8:00.