1-day or overnight train trip from Tokyo
 

Been living in Tokyo for a year now, never taken the shinkasen. I have a weekend where I am all alone, thought I'd take a train ride. Colleagues suggest Hiroshima or Kyoto. Wonder if anyone has anything more useful. I prefer to take photographs (so like nature or architechture) but want to stay in a western hotel preferably - if its an overnight journey.

What do you think is the best itinerary ?

Its an open question, many great places can be reached by Shinkansen and you can spend a day in any of them.

Pretty much what you'll find on most places you can get to.
Kyoto is fantastic place to go to, but so is Hiroshima for historical reasons, Osaka has a lot of architechture as well. Kobe is a nice port town, Himeji has a fantastic castle, Okayama has a rebuilt castle, but a fantastic garden, lol I think I can go on forever with places that are nice one day trips and reachable by Shinkansen.

All of them have hotels of different shapes and sizes.

I would look into going to Kyoto or Osaka, since it would be a little cheaper to go out to from Tokyo, but again there are many fantastic places to spend a day in. lol, not sure if that helps or not.

How about a shinkansen ride to Osaka (that way you can experience the bullet train) and from there get to Mount Koya (which involves travelling through beautiful scenery and a ride in an extremely steep cable car).
Overnight in a temple at Mount Koya (http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com/d...koya/index.htm) I know you said a western hotel but....


Alternatively, get a shinkansen to Nagano. From there get a train to Matsumoto (a lovely place to spend a couple of hours). From here get a train to one of the restored post station villages in the Kiso region such as Narai. Not sure about wesern hotels in Narai, but there are plenty of other options in the region (Matsumoto will have quite a few...)
You could also do this itinerary and return within a day if you want. The rail journeys around here are in mountainous country and the views are beautiful.

There is a non-shinkansen train that goes from Matsumoto to Shinjuku/Tokyo which you could take on the return (assuming there's daylight - it gets dark quickly in Japan) and I really enjoyed that journey too.

I can provide more detailed info and lodging suggestions if you are interested in either of these routes.

I agree with LapLap on taking the shinkansen to Osaka (or Kyoto). If you do, try to get the E window seat on the right side of the train (facing in the direction of travel). About 30 minutes from Tokyo if you're lucky, you may see Mr.Fuji in all its splendour.

Kyoto / Osaka / Kobe (Keihanshin) and Nara area offers a lot of options as they're all within about 1 hour or so from each other on the regular trains. By now the trees may have shed all their leaves so the scenery may not be as spectacular as during autumn. Still, there's quite a lot of good places to see. (Then again I'm biased on this point as I live in the area...:cool: )

The following sites might be of help in selecting what places to see:
For Kyoto:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2158.html

For Osaka:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2157.html

For Kobe:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2159.html

For Nara:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2165.html

A shinkansen day trip, although there isn't THAT much to see, could be done to Nagoya. Go visit the castle or maybe tour the Toyota plant (if they do that, I have never been).

They do! I've toured the Fremont, California NUMMI plant and touring the Toyota-Shi stuff...plant and museum is way up on my list. Likewise, there is a Toyota Museum in Torrance, California, available by appointment only. The Toyota website doesn't offer much information about the Toyota-Shi stuff, in Eigo, but the Nihongo info is pretty thorough. I've always thought this all would best be accomplished with a Japanese friend.

LapLap's assessment of the scenic Koya-San train ride is correct. I'm in the minority who find it acceptable to make Koya-San a day trip.

What is more convenient for the Tokyo-Osaka trip, shinkansen or plane? As I see, trains are very expensive even with the JR pass. The factor of novelty doesn't apply, because after dozens of TGV trips I find high-speed trains rather boring.

Please see this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=527891

for a full debate on the topic.

LapLap, thanks for the link, though these opinions are confusing. :eek:

Hiroshima it is, will stay at the Rihga Royal. Apparently kyoto is too much to try in a day and Hiroshima always affords a trip to the temple in the lake should time permit. As usual insights much appreciated.

I'm afraid this topic has been done to death on this forum.

The concensus is that it's easier and more practical to go by shinkansen.

Perhaps you could shave off half an hour or so by flying, but there are so many stages you need to get through to achieve this that it just isn't worth the hassle for most people.

If you want to go into this topic further, or just don't like the idea of going on the train, then please feel free to find one of the many threads discussing this and join the frey. :) You'll find plenty of people willing to argue that flying is the best way - this is FT after all...

Just booked two round-trip ANA tickets for 47K yen. It's more fun for us to go thru all the hassle instead of sitting for 3 hours on the train :)

Of course once you're in the air flying is faster (1hr flight time I think), but add in check in time, security checks, travel time to/from Haneda/Itami Airports by bus or train, you're spending about the same amount of time it takes by Shinkansen.

edit: ah, I missed the link, but yes its been discussed a lot.

Yes, I know, but you don't sit all the time, i.e. your experience is less boring.

Nope, its just more hasseling and annoying to fly. I actually think flying is more boring than the train, and its not about the novel about the high speed, from the slowest local tram to the fastest shinkansen, gives me a brief glimpse from outside the window that I wouldn't be able to see from a plane, nor ever have time to visit on my trips.

I wouldn't fly Tokyo-Osaka, I would fly for the Tokyo-Sapporo route.

But alas, we've discussed this before...