itinerary help
 

I was hoping you could give me some tips on the following intinerary.
Day 1 Arrive Osaka evening.
Day 2 Train to tokyo. arrive mid afternoon
Day 3-5 Explore Tokyo.
Day 6 day trip - Hakone or Nikko?
Day 7 Train to takayama, arrive midday
Day 8 Train to Kyoto arrive mid afternoon
Day 9 + 10 explore Kyoto
Day 11 Day trip Nara
Day 12 train to Hiroshima/Miyajima arrive morning
Day 13 Train/Ferry to Naoshima Is. arrive morning
Day 14 Ferry to Takamatsu, Train to Kansai Airport. Depart Japan evening.

This leaves me with a spare day somewhere in between. Perhaps take an extra day to see Himeji or just an extra day in Kyoto. Or is there somewhere else great that's not too far from these places?

If anyone knows of any budget accommodation in Takayama it would be great also.

Thankyou!

Day 6 - for a single day trip (of the two choices) I'd say Nikko.

Day 8 - I suggest arriving at Kyoto as late as possible (as long as you're not booked into a ryokan with evening meal included) so that you can spend more time in Takayama. It's a huge detour you're taking to get to Takayama, you may as well spend some decent time there.

Day 13 - I'd take out Naoshima. Miyajima is a large island with lots of undeveloped parts. Stay at a Ryokan on Miyajima and take it easy for a day - or use the cable cars to explore the upper parts, or just hike.

I propose - Day 12, arrive at Hiroshima, stay night on Miyajima. Day 13, explore Miyajima a little more and stay night on Miyajima or at Kurashiki (near Okayama). Day 14, vist Himeji castle before returning.


As for anything else.. I have reservations about suggesting MORE destinations for your itinerary, but if you are planning on going to Takayama from Tokyo, the town of Matsumoto is a lovely place to stop off at. Give it a minimum of 3 hours to get a brief glimpse of its main attractions, including its wonderful black castle (like entering a landlocked wooden battle ship).


And, of course, yokoso flyertalk, moniw!!!

If you go to Matsumoto, by far the most scenic way to get to or from there is via Nagoya on the limited express, which goes through the lovely Kiso Valley. This is the fastest way to get between Kyoto and Matsumoto anyhow.

You can do Hiroshima/Miyajima as a day trip from Kyoto (expensive without a JR pass), but staying overnight in Miyajima might well be a great idea. It only takes about 3 hours max to see Himeji castle, by the way -- it's walking distance from the train station.

Last trip, we had a JR pass and starting and ending in Shinjuku, did Matsumoto castle and Himeji castle a day apart (with the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto in between as well, you do stuff like that when you have a JR pass!). I watched the Kiso Valley scenery while my kid watched old episodes of "Scrubs" on his video iPod.

The two castles are different, but I am not sure it is really necessary to see both on a first trip to Japan. The only other 'famous' tourist attraction in Matsumoto is a well preserved old elementary school, but I wouldn't make a detour just for that.

And also let me say, WELCOME TO FT!

I was actually thinking of Nawate street as an 'attraction' (a street of merchant's buildings along a canal) which is on the way to the castle. http://isc.shinshu-u.ac.jp/gallery/nawate-e.htm

The street map here: http://www.city.matsumoto.nagano.jp/...Map/index.html is very good.

We asked a shopkeeper why frogs are so prominent on this street. It's the reason described by Mokurai in this thread: http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/que...ay.html?0+3706

There are loads of nice rubber stamps to collect on Nawate street (all frog related) and in and around Matsumoto castle (which look more like woodcuts - really pretty). Take a blank A5 notebook along with you if you want some.

Once again, we have a first trip to Japan that strikes me as being a bit overly ambitious. A few random thoughts:

Since you will be ranging from Tokyo to Hiroshima, with a lot in between, consider whether you can route your air travel to arrive in Tokyo (NRT) and depart from Kansai (KIX) outside of Osaka. That would save you up to 3 hours on trains and a hundred or more dollars in train fares. As Richard points out, Takayama and Matsumoto are much more accessible from Nagoya or even Osaka than from Tokyo.

Rather than 3 days in Tokyo and 2 days in Kyoto, I'd go with 2 in Tokyo and 3 in Kyoto - or even use that extra day you mention to make it 3 and 3. Don't cut Kyoto short.

Hiroshima/Miyajima is certainly worth more than one day combined. Consider a day in and around Hiroshima and another half-day on and around Miyajima.

Since you are going right past, I concur with Lap Lap's suggestion to see Kurashiki, but I would recommend Okayama for a stay. It is only 10 minutes by local train from Kurashiki but has a better hotel selection and some quite nice things to see, including a castle and one of the finest Japanese gardens. Kurashiki took me about a half day before I was ready to leave. I happily spent more than a full day wandering around Okayama.

Rather than shotgun so much into your one visit, I think I would take a more leisurely, in-depth look at the country. Perhaps arrive NRT and 4 days Tokyo/Nikko, 1 night in Nagoya to set up a daylong trip to Takayama and then on to Kyoto, 4 days Kyoto/Nara, 2 days Hiroshima/Miyajima, 1-1/2 days Okayama/Kurashiki, 1/2 day Himeji on the way back east, 1 day Osaka and depart via KIX.

My best advice is to avoid trying to do so much and go so many places that you miss the little things and lose the flavor of the country. Spend time wandering the "small-town-feeling" back streets and alleys. Walk into a ramen or soba shop and order whatever looks interesting. Roam the shopping arcades and temple grounds. Ride the subway, getting off someplace unexpected - I found the best senbei rice crackers I have ever had at a little sidewalk stand in Nezu when I was half lost finding my way back to the station. Don't spend all of your time on trains and checking off tourist sites.

JR

If the OP plans goes to Matsumoto at all and is starting his trip from Tokyo, then Matsumoto is readily accessable from Tokyo via Shinjuku Station. However, considering time constraints I'm not sure if the OP should visit Matsumoto but spend more time visiting Takayama. Which in that case I would go to via Nagoya Station from Tokyo.

I think we stumbled onto this by accident walking back to the train station from the castle (we took some kind of local shuttle bus around to the back of the castle from the station when we arrived). It was pleasant, but by no means spectacular -- if we did end up on the right street.

Thanks for your info! I definately want to go to Naoshima, I am interested in modern art and architechture and I love the idea of an island devoted to this.

Perhaps I should take out Takayama altogether, save it for another time (hopefully), and spend more time around Kyoto/Hiroshima/Miyajima.

It would add too much cost to my budget to fly in and out of different cities, the reason I am using Osaka airport is that the flights are a lot cheaper to there than Tokyo. I will have a two week JR pass so the train fares wont make a difference.

Its difficult when you research a place, you find out about all these different and amazing parts to visit, to keep your itinerary simple!

I haven't been to Naoshima and hadn't understood your bias. Perhaps Takayama would be better served on another trip - next time, stay longer and combine with visits to other towns and villages in the region.

Just in case you're tempted, I'd advise against the Hakone Open Air Sculpture Museum - IMO: Modern Art for the kind of people who like Monet tea towels. Big disappointment.

For architecture, I suggest you don't overlook Osaka (Namba area has some great buildings).

On another future visit, these places may also be of interest: http://www.sapporo-park.or.jp/moere/ and http://www.miho.or.jp/english/

And you might get a lot out of http://www.meijimura.com/english/index.html in Inuyama. It does a beautiful job of showing how Japan went from the kind of buildings you see on Nawate Street/Kurashiki or at the Nihon Minka En to what you'll see here:http://www.naoshima-is.co.jp/english/first.html

Well....if you are a fan of contemporary art, I'd say, skip Japan. Lots more going on in China these days!

Budget is another reason to prefer Nikko to Hakone. You can get to Nikko on a JR pass, you can't get any closer to Hakone than Odawara with that JR pass.

Also, I believe that the JR ferry to Miyajima (which costs only a few hundred yen anyway) is the only ferry included on the JR pass.

But I have to ask this question: If by flying into Tokyo and out of Osaka, you can get by with just a one week JR pass instead of a two week one -- which is entirely feasible on the itinerary you are thinking about now -- it might be economic to pay a bit more in air fare. You need to consider your entire budget, not just air fare.

A bit on going to Nikko from Tokyo.

JR has a direct train from Shinjuku Station to Nikko, however this train is in joint service with Tobu Railways, so if you use a JR Pass on this direct train you will have to pay a supplimental fee (1000+ yen or so? not too sure) for the Tobu Railway portion of the trip.

Otherwise, for the "free" way take the Tohoku Shinkansen to Utsunomiya Station, then change to a local JR Line to JR Nikko Station.

Yeah - the elementary school is a weak follow-on to the castle.

But the Ukiyoe museum.... and the scenery (Japan alps) all around... those are attractions that I really enjoyed

(... and IIRC, some of the less "impressive" attractions include... a museum showing the hard life of women in a silk factory in the 19th Century... and a restored law court of some kind with some painful looking thumb screws and so on).

... if you make it to the thumb screw display, it's time to move on.

There aren't very many of these trains, and I bet the supplement is closer to Y2,000 -- each way. From Shinjuku, with a JR pass, take a Saikyo line express to Omiya and switch to a shinkansen to Utsunomiya, then follow as above. It is worthwhile to check out the local JR line schedule to Nikko in advance to avoid up to an hour layover in Utsunomiya. That JR local line is really slow, but when combined with the shinkansen, total time to Nikko is about the same as a Tobu line limited express.

If you are interested in architecture I would recommend the Miho Museum, although it is a bit of a bus trek from Kyoto and I think you would need to allow a half day for the visit. The collection was small, but exquisite and the museum is one of the most brilliant I've ever seen - from the use of the natural light to the physical setting it was all perfection.