Hello,

My wife and I will be in Tokyo for a little over three weeks. We leave next weekend. I will be working, she will be site seeing during the day. This is the first time in Asia for both of us.

We were thinking of visiting other Japanese cities during my weekends off, like Kyoto, Osaka, etc. What recommendations do you have for some nice one- or two-night trips outside of Tokyo?

Also, is Mt. Fuji usually a one-day excursion by bullet train?

I appreciate any advice.

Steve

This is the perfect season to enjoy Japan. The only challenge is that places within easy reach of Tokyo can get incredibly crowded at the weekends. So try to make reservations as early as possible - especially for the weekend of Oct 8,9,10, which is a three-day weekend. (National hol. on Mon).

mytrip.net is a pretty good website for finding hotels in any part of Japan - it has an english site.

Mt. Fuji
This can be a one day excursion - Some tours include a bullet train, but there is actually no need to take a bullet train. You can get the Odakyu "Romance Car" train from Shinjuku station. You can make a two-day trip of that too, if you stay at a hot spring in Hakone. (Alternatively go to the fuji five lakes area - best to rent a car - get out to the WEST of Fuji to Lakes Sai and Motosu, which are less developed than Lakes Yamanaka and Kawaguchi).

Other day trips
Nikko and Kamakura (Two wonderful towns within an hour or so of Tokyo).

Two-day trips

-- Kyoto (two and a half hours by train. Many people have written about what to do there on this forum).

-- Izu peninsular

-- Foliage trip
At this time of year, I would recommend a foliage trip. Towards mid-late October, the mountainous areas of the Tohoku region (North part of the main island) will be spectacular. Probably you should aim for Miyagi prefecture or Yamagata prefecture. Great hot springs in those areas:
http://www.outdoorjapan.com/section-onsen.html

To reach those places from Tokyo, take the bullet train to, say, Sendai and then go inland on the local trains.

If you make that trip to the Tohoku region, then you will get great value from a "JR East Flexible Four Day Rail Pass". The pass is valid in the JR East region only, but it has the tremendous advantage over other passes that you can use it on four non-consecutive days (e.g. two weekends). That might work well for you.

Flexible Four Day Rail Pass - for travel in JR East Region
http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/eastpass/prices.html

However, if ya want to climb it, the season ended August 31st. By now, it is a freaking freezer up there, and the first snows are coming soon, and unless you are a very experienced climber, you'll have to wait until next year.

Yokoso Flyertalk flymanxxx!

I'll be in Japan the same time as you and will be taking my family to the Kiso valley area, which might make a nice weekend trip. RichardinSF (who contributes here periodically) has been there and warned that the villages were more touristy than he expected, but, to me, this isn't surprising. Tsumago and Magome are old mountain post towns that formed part of the Nakasendo Highway (an important artery between Tokyo and Kyoto for hundreds of years). When the first rail link between Kyoto and Tokyo was built, it bypassed these villages so that they declined, becoming ghost towns. However, a movement in the 1970s sought to preserve these villages as reminders of life in the feudal era and restoration work began. Now they are among the only places in Japan where the electricity and telephone lines are hidden from view, and where the electrical street lights are at a minimum, and no neon frontages. The drawback is that these are tourist destinations, tourism is after all, their only business. The foliage here is supposed to be beautiful in late October, and there are numerous hiking trails to be explored. If I were to go on a weekend, I'd probably spend much of the day hiking in the forested mountains whilst the tour buses of Japanese descended on the villages, and savour the hamlets in the evenings, staying at one of the ryokans/minshuku.
I found out about the place thanks to this part of the the Quirky Japan website, and this inspired me to hunt down a fictionalised history of Magome and the Nakasendo Highway by local writer Shimazaki Toson (Before the Dawn). It's such a beautiful and moving book that I'm afraid I'm inordinately excited about my forthcoming (midweek) visit.
Although most of the travel sites will send you here via Nagoya, you can get a train from Shinjuku to Matsumoto (Ltd Super Azusa: 2hr 38min - 6,710yen) and then a scenic wideview shinano train to Narai (40mins, 570yen) or Nakatsugawa (2hrs, 1,850yen). I'd suggest breaking the journey at Matsumoto which has a lovely castle and interesting architecture. You could always return to Tokyo via Nagoya if you prefer.
Japanese Guest Houses Group have some members in the area link here.

Another recommendation much closer to Tokyo is a day trip to Mount Takao - just an hour west of Shinjuku (and less than 800 yen return) One day here and another in nearby Kamakura and you'll feel as if you've travelled miles away from Tokyo.

There's a GORGEOUS restaurant at Takao San. Links to: description , to directions and to photos (this last in Japanese only)

For a weekend trip away from Central Tokyo I would recommend Hakone and Nikko.

I highly recommend Hakone though, you can purchase the free pass from Odakyu Shinjuku station, and do the traditional circular path, train - cable car, a boat ride around Lake Ashinoko and bus back to the station, spetacular place to spend a day or two.

Nikko and Kamakura also provide excellent excursions outside of Central Tokyo.

Also Yokohama (about 30minutes to the south of Central Tokyo) is a good place to spend the evening away from Tokyo possibly on the return trip from Kamakura if you decide that path.

A little dated, but I recommend the book "Weekend Adventures Outside Tokyo" by Tae Moriyama. I just checked, and it can be purchased from online booksellers.

It lists 20 destinations, including the Kiso area recommended by LapLap, and Kamakura, Hakone, and Nikko recommended by both jib71 and railroadtycoon. One of the destinations that I've been to several times that I would like to recommend is the small onsen (hot spring) town of Yunishigawa. It's kind of out of the way, half an hour by car/bus from the famous hot spring resort area of Kinugawa. But that's part of the charm.

History has it that the area was populated by the remnants of the Heike clan, a previous ruling family of Japan that were defeated by the Genji clan, escaped, and hid in this secluded area now called Yunishigawa. The accommodation of choice here is a fabulous Ryokan called the Bankyu Hotel, supposed started by one of the clan (and is still run by decendants today), and is one of the few places where the style of traditional open-hearth cooking called "ochiudo ryori" can be found.

http://www.bankyu-hotel.co.jp/en/index.html

Must do trip, especially in the fall.

Yokohama is just another city, unless you have some connection to it (like I did) it's not worth the 30 min train ride. Heck, even with my history there it was barely worth the ride.

Kyoto is considered a must-do trip in every tour guide, it's an easy 1 or 2 night overnight trip and it's easy to get around once you're there.

In fact, if you want to take the easiest route, Sunrise Tours has package tours down to Kyoto and back.

Thanks to everyone for the responses. I have been trying to research all the links and information you've given me. I'm running out of time, but it's a good problem to have.

Thanks again for all the suggestions. Keep'em coming!

Steve

Thanks for the ideas and the links. Very informative. I'm looking into the lodging sites you mentioned.

All the above suggestions are excellent and I'd like to add one more- the town of Takayama, in the "Japanese Alps". The Old Town is just like it was in the Shogun era, there are sake breweries to tour and buy from, and out of town a little ways is a folklife village with older houses and many displays. You catch the train up there from Nagoya station, and the trip up into the mountains is a sight in itself.

Just back and I picked up English copies of the various "free pass" options offered by the Odakyu line, which leaves from Shinjuku station. The Hakone freepass, which pretty much covers wherever you would want to go, is Y4,700 on weekdays (good up to 2 days) and Y5,500 on weekends and holidays (good up to 3 days), but they do cheat and charge a Y870 supplement each way if you want to ride the limited express train called the "Romance Car" apparently because Hakone is a popular honeymoon destination.

There's a more expensive Fuji-Hakone pass for Y7,200 valid for up to 3 days, but I don't think anyone would need this.

Odakyu will also sell a package including a hotel stay.

There was a new one day Enoshima/Kamakura Odakyu freepass, at least new to me, for Y1,430 (extra Y600 each way for "romance car"). It sort of goes around the back way to Kamakura but includes free rides on the wonderful old trolley, the Enoden line, and will end up cheaper than JR.

All of these can be arranged at the Odakyu tour window inside the West entrance of Shinjuku station where you might even find someone who knows a bit of English -- and will almost certainly find the English pamphlets.

For a first-time visitor, the top choices are Kamakura (part of the megalopolis, but still worth seeing for its history and ambience), and Nikko, which gets you out into the countryside.

The town of Narita is also worth a few hours. I stopped off there for the first time after all these years and really enjoyed it. It was great to spend my first day in Japan strolling through wooded temple grounds instead of rushing around in the concrete jungle. (Don't get me wrong. I'm actually very fond of the concrete jungle, but when one is jet-lagged, the wooded temple grounds are much easier to take.)

All,

I'm not sure if you're going to see this, but I'll go ahead anyway.

THANKS SO MUCH!!!!

My wife and I had an incredible time in Japan. So much fun to see, taste, and experience. We fell in love with Tokyo and want to go back next year.

Here are a few of my thoughts:
Again, thank you all for the excellent advice. This was truly the best (working) vacation we've ever had!

Steve

Nice report!

It's always nice to see the feedback, particularly good feedback.

JR

Yes! Lovely report back!

And lots of sensible advice and useful observations too. Wonderful!

I'm so pleased you enjoyed your trip, and I'm looking forward to your next report! I'm sure you'll be even more adventurous next time!