Good Day Trips from Tokyo
 

Hi All,

I will be in Tokyo for two nights this weekend. My sister, who is there on a three-week assignment, has not had much a chance to venture out of Tokyo (although she did go to Mt. Fugi) and I thought it would be fun for the two of us to take a day trip somewhere. Looking at my guide book, Kamakura seems interesting and not too far. Has anyone been there? Is it worth it? Any other reccomendations? I have been to Kyoto and consider it too far for a day trip.

Thanks!

Kamakura's a good choice but it's on the coast and given their recent typhoons, might not be a good idea. Nikko, where the third Tokugawa Shogun is buried, is about 2-2.5 hours north of the city by bullet and then local trains. I would HIGHLY recommend Yokohama (30 mins to 1 hour away by train, depending on where in Tokyo you are), especially the waterfront (if the weather cooperates), the view from the Landmark Tower observation deck (again, depending on weather), Chinatown, and the Motomachi shopping district.

Have fun!

Typhoons, including the ones in the past few weeks, rarely make it as high up north as Tokyo (which, for what it's worth, is also on the coast) so this is no reason to avoid Kamakura.

While I like Yokohama, I don't think it's all that much different from Tokyo, and either Kamakura or Nikko would make a better 'escape' from the city. Nikko in particular, being quite far away, is set in a lush forest that should be turning beautiful autumn colors pretty soon now, esp. if you escape the planted evergreen cedars of the shrines and head to Lake Chuzenji.

Some recommendations for both, mostly written by yours truly:
http://wikitravel.org/en/article/Kamakura
http://wikitravel.org/en/article/Nikko

Thanks for the info!

Great article on Nikko. If you update it, you might mention that for the past few years, the Shinkyo bridge has been totally encased in opaque wooden scaffolding while it is apparently refurbished (very slowly). Since it's Japan, however, they have plastered on the front of the scaffolding a large photograph of what the bridge WOULD look like if you could actually see it.

You can easily spend all day poking around Kamakura. We hiked it and had a great day visiting various shrines and the of course the Buddha!

The scale of the area isnt all the great so if you like to walk you can go from the train station up to the shrine area, down to the buddha, get lunch at one of the many restaurants down the way, walk to the beach, head back into town do a little shopping and then take the train back while you rest your feet...

Been there done that

I think there IS one basic difference between Tokyo and Yokohama: In Yokohama the seashore is both visible and accessible while this is not really the case in most parts of Tokyo. Also, don't forget the Chinatown and other cosmopolitan touches, like the foreigners cemetery. ;)

I have only fading memories of Kamakura which I visited with the family of a Yokohama friend 10 years ago, but to me it offered enough peace and tranquility compared to the hustle in the capital.

Anyway, what happened to the Mirai project? (Landmark Tower etc.) Bust or still going strong?

Kamakura and Nikko
 

I went to both Kamakura and Nikko last week - the typhoons didn't do enough to have any impact on whether or not you should go there - everything is fine.

Of the two, I prefer Kamakura.

True, which is why I always recommend Odaiba for any visitors to Tokyo. :D Quite seriously, this is the only place I know in Tokyo where you realize that Tokyo is actually also a seaside city.

There's also supposed to be a memorial statue to the first cow slaughtered on Japanese soil by foreign barbarians somewhere in Yokohama, anybody know the address? But my favorite place in Y-town is the inimitable Ramen Museum!

It's certainly still there, and has picked up a little steam now that the subway tunneling underneath it is finally open (only took ten years). I gather the finances of the project are a big taxpayer-subsidized mess though.

I was in Kamakura two weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Besides the big budda (sp?), the rear garden at the shrine which my guide book says was ranked the best in town (I can't remember the name now) is quite a site. My wife and I were also surprised by the size and range of stores on one of the main streets in Kamakura that goes to the train station. We walked there after taking the train to Kita-Kamakura.

It is quite a change of Tokyo and feels more tranquil and less modern though I was actually able to pay for lunch with a credit card, a rare treat in Japan.
When will they catch up with the rest of the world and have 24 hour ATMs that accept foreign bank cards (at least u.s. cards) and businesses that accept credit cards?

I also recommend a day trip to Nikko. I believe that it was about 50 minutes or so from Tokyo Station via the shinkansen to the connecting station for the local train to Nikko. The local train takes about 40-45 minutes or so from there to Nikko. A very nice day trip.

Even better though might be a day trip to/through the Hakkone Region. You begin in Odawara. The Shinkansen from Tokyo to Odawara is about 35 minutes. At Odawara station you can buy a Hakone pass (a two day pass a few weeks ago cost us 3400 yen pp and was a fabulous deal). The pass allows you to travel through the region on just about all of the various types of transportation. From Odawara, you connect to the Hakone train. That's a short ride to the connecting station where you hop aboard a tram. That's an interesting ride that snakes through the mountains. Then from there you change to a funicular which takes you further up into the mountains. Then from there you hop aboard the ropeway (think ski-lift gondola/tram) that literally takes you from mountain peak to mountain peak, along the way providing magnificent views of Mt. Fuji and the surrounding area. Along the journey, you can get off and on at whatever stops you like, to check out the sights. I recall that one stop in the mountain-tops had thermal sulfur springs (sort of like at Yellowstone Park in Wyoming). The ropeway ends down near a big lake. From there you take a replica of a galleon ship (looks like a pirate ship and is a bit cheesy looking, but it is nevertheless fun) across the lake. When you get off the ship there are buses there that will take you back to Odawara station. The whole circuit is set up quite nicely so that it is designed to be simple. All of the connections might sound a bit intimidating, but trust me, it is very simple. You can do the circuit as quickly or as slowly as you like. The entire circuit took us about 4.5 hours from Odawara, but we were on a very leisurely pace and stopped at a few points for snacks, shopping, and just soaking up the sights. That day trip is one of my fondest memories of Japan.

When they fix the banking system so that the banks there don't charge merchants incredibly high fees for clearing credit card charges -- something that so far has failed to happen despite banks in Japan being, IMO, the worst in the world.