Itinerary Advice
 

Hi All,

I am going to Hong Kong and Japan for my honeymoon in Dec2009-Jan2010. This is a basic rundown of what we would to do etc I will need to depart back from NRT to HKG on the 20th of Jan.

I will depart HKG for NRT on 3rd Jan having spent new years at HKG. So I will arrive in Tokyo around afternoon, spend the rest of the day there. I plan to spend another night in tokyo, so effectively 2 nights in Tokyo so far. I would like to explore more of tokyo as I like the city "thing" etc. So I was thinking to finish off my japan trip by spending the last 4 nights in tokyo.

So 3rd,4th in Tokyo.
5th Jan I depart for Kyoto??? or Hokkaido/sapporo??? I can't decide to go north first or south? I understand sapporo is quite a way by shinkansen? How many hours? Also will it be safe to catch a flight to hokkaido during Jan, just worried about the weather conditions?
Was thinking of a 7 day or 14 day JR rail pass?
I was thinking arriving back at tokyo on 16th jan.

Can anyone assist me here ? :)
I plan to visit, kyoto,nara,osaka,hiroshima,himeji,miyajima,mount fuji would like to try onsen (either in kyoto or hakone?) or any others you recommend me or I should leave out ? note I would like to have a relaxed schedule not too hectic :)

I won't be going back to japan anytime soon as have financial commitments and family :)

Cheers,
Kenn.

Unless you really, really like snow or want to go skiing at one of Hokkaido resorts, stay away from Hokkaido in January. Especially if you're Australian and have just come from Hong Kong and have never experienced temperatures far below freezing.

Also, forget actually going to Mt. Fuji in the winter. You can't climb it at that time of year (well, you probably could, illegally, but it would be bitterly cold and possibly snowy). At that time of year, when the air tends to be dry, the mountain that the English-speaking foreign students at my university called "the Fooj" is often visible from tall buildings in Tokyo and/or the north side of the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto. It's visible for a good long time, too.

It sounds as if you'll do enough traveling for a JR Pass, but whether to get a 7-day or 14-day pass depends on...how long you plan to stay.

By the way, you should definitely get a guide book and do a search on some of the previous posts here.

Thanks for the reply. Do you recommend frommers or lonely planet books or any others?

Also yeah I would like to see snow and maybe try a bit of skiing, that is why I wanted to have a look at Hokkaido...

Start with Wikitravel ;)

http://wikitravel.org/en/Japan

You don't need to go as far as Hokkaido for that, Japan's all mountains and there are tons of ski resorts accessible from Tokyo. Nagano (Winter Olympics ring a bell?), Yuzawa (with its own Shinkansen station), etc etc.

Since you have quite a few days visiting during winter and want to enjoy onsen; I suggest you investigate Wakura Onsen and Kanazawa. It's about 2 hours by train from Kyoto. Not bitter cold but you should see snow.

We stayed at a ryokan called Kagaya and it is very nice.

Thanks guys. The reason I had Hokkaido/Sapporo in mind is because my relatives said it's a must go :) But I wonder what clothing do I require to bring for that weather? :)

As an alternative, you could do a "triangle" tour

(1) Fly HKG to CTS direct - Do some skiing
(2) Fly from CTS (or another airport in Hokkaido) to FUK (or another airport in West Japan)
(3) Travel by from Fukuoka to Tokyo with stops in Hiroshima, Kyoto and other places of interest.

... and then fly home from NRT.

The appropriate clothing for Hokkaido in winter is a thick coat, sweater, gloves, warm hat etc. The full winter getup. (What did you expect?)

Triangle flight with no back track is always good... but it is always remotely expensive :P

Actually as OP is from Australia, It makes most sense that he stop by HKG in terms of frequency and cost. (No one beat Singapore / hong kong / Thai for Kangaroo route I guess)

Though OP can consider HKG --> CTS // CTS --> HND // NRT --> HKG instead if he will do visit in Hokkaido

Basically all CX CTS ticket can openjaw to exit from any Japan port
Also OP can consider HKG --> NRT // FUK --> HKG (or KIX --> HKG), it may add 1K HKD to the ticket but brings you way more convenience

Jetstar Airways has very cheap Australia to Japan flights.

I don't understand what "remotely expensive" means. However, with the available air passes, the itin that I suggested need not be more expensive than the OP's original plan.

Thanks guys for the replies. If I had to fly HKG-NRT-HKG is Sapporo still doable? What will be the disadvantage of this route?

I was thinking either NRT -> CTS and spend 2 nights or so there and then fly back to NRT and work myself southwards and then back to NRT with the bullet train and then NRT->HKG. The other method i was thinking was arrive at NRT and work southwards and then fly from KIX->CTS->NRT??? I will be using 2 sector japan oneworld airpass I guess since CX is oneworld.

Thanks,
K.

I think you just need to check the times of the various flights and trains and see what works best for you. (Probably best to do this with a map in front of you). If you were to post a specific itinerary, people might have suggestions to improve it.

Reading your post, I get the impression that you're planning to be travelling in and out of NRT a bit more than I would prefer. But to be honest, I'm a little confused about the options you're considering.

Worth noting that there are domestic flights from many airports - Your options for domestic connections are not just KIX / NRT / CTS.

Hi,

Sorry my rough itenary is as follows:

3rd Jan - Arrive Tokyo
4th Jan - Tokyo
5th Jan - Kyoto
6th Jan - Kyoto
7th Jan - Kyoto
8th Jan - Himeji
9th Jan - Hiroshima?
10th Jan - Hiroshima?
11th Jan- Osaka
12th Jan - Osaka
13th Jan - Osaka
14th Jan - Sapporo
15th Jan - Sapporo
16th Jan - Tokyo
17th Jan -Tokyo
18th Jan - Tokyo
19th Jan - Tokyo
20th Jan - Back to HKG

As you can see I like the modern japan, i.e. spend a bit of time in osaka and tokyo.

Can anyone suggest the transport method for the above route or if you can minimize or maximise the amount of days I should spend? I would like to spend around 5 nights in tokyo if possible... Also I don't like to rush things unless I have no choice.

Another option is to go to sapporo at the beginning of the itenary, but I will leave that to the experts :)

Cheers,
Kenn.

As I wrote previously, I think you need to check the times of the various flights and trains and see what works best for you.

Hyperdia is a good resource for finding out what's possible in terms of domestic travel by rail and air.

Depending on the arrival time of your flight from HKG, you might want to look at the possibility of connecting at NRT to a domestic flight. There aren't many domestic flights out of NRT, but it's possible to get to CTS, FUK, and HIJ, for example. I think that any of those places would be quite a handy start point for the trip you're planning. (Alternatively, it might make sense to end your trip in one of those places - and get a flight to NRT that lets you connect with your international departure).

Another thing that you might want to consider is using a JR pass for some of the more expensive rail trips you might make - That means bringing together some of the expensive train journeys into one period.

I'd also recommend grouping the time that you allocated for the Osaka/Kyoto region (rather than sandwiching Himeji annd Hiroshima between Osaka and Kyoto) and leaving your plans flexible so that you can change your mind if you find one place particularly interesting. (Osaka/Kyoto/Nara/Kobe are close enough together that you could use Osaka or Kyoto as a base to explore the whole region).

Time to hit the timetables....

As others have said, you're bouncing around the map like crazy and will waste a lot of time backtracking. Visit the places you want to go to in order, Tokyo -> Kyoto -> Osaka -> Himeji -> Hiroshima, and then fly/train it back. Or, better yet, look into an open jaw so you can fly into NRT and out from KIX.

And why would you want to go to Sapporo? What are you expecting to find there? :confused:

Last but definitely not least, you're missing something very important in your itinerary: the countryside. Head up to the mountains, go for a hike, stay in a hot spring ryokan or a temple. This is a completely different side of Japan.

Or the reverse. Before I decided against getting involved in trying to help clean up this itinerary, I was going to suggest just flying into HIJ and then work back east - Hiroshima-Himeji-Kyoto/Osaka/Nara-Tokyo and then leave from there to eliminate the criss-crossing. There are some flights direct from HKG-HIJ and others that connect HKG-NRT-HIJ.

I'm with you. Sapporo in January on a honeymoon seems a bit strange. To each his own, I guess.

Hi All,

Thanks Guys. I will have a look at the pricing if I flew straight to CTS from HKG.

Also can I ask why is it strange to go to Sapporo in January on a honeymoon? Sorry I'm new to this, so I had to ask :)

The reason I wanted to go there was that I will not be returning to Japan for a long time due to commitments etc. So I thought may as well drop by if I had some spare time.

edit : Just checked one way fares they are very expensive. Looks like I may need to get a return HKG-NRT-HKG.... So I am just checking which route will be best for me to still visit sapporo...doing plenty of research!

Thanks,
K.

There are cheaper "charter" flights, leaving at awful hours in the middle of the night, that go HKG-HND-HKG. I think ANA has one daily roundtrip and JAL has one, so it isn't really a charter. Haneda is more convenient than Narita. But if money is tight, these flights are worth considering.

Hi,

Thanks. If memory serves me right is a limo bus from NRT to tokyo town centre, is it like 90mins ride? I can't recall exactly? If it is I am willing to put up with it?

Yeah that's about right, could be a bit shorter depending on where (Tokyo doesn't have a specific place that is "town centre" really), or a bit longer if there is heavy traffic.

That question has already been answered:
Now you owe it to yourself to answer this one:
Sapporo is a long distance from the rest of the places you're planning to see - so you're likely to feel disappointed unless you have some reason to make that side trip. (And you're going to want a better reason than "to see snow" because there's snow in lots of places that are quicker and cheaper to reach).

Ok thanks. Can soemone tell me why would one go to sapporo? What are the attractions?

In the spring and summer, all of Hokkaido is really beautiful and highly recommended for a visit. In the winter, they have the Ice Festival for a short period and quite good skiing. If you aren't going to make the Ice Festival, the skiing is what is left and you can do that much closer to the rest of your planned route for much less money and transportation hassle.

Think of it kind of like Alaska. In the spring and summer it is almost mind-numbingly beautiful. In the winter, much of it approximates the ancient Norse legends of h*ll.

Do flights to and from CTS get cancelled/delayed often in the winter? Is it safe for flights during Dec/Jan/Feb?

I just checked on CX.com with the following booking data and they provide

HKG --> CTS // NRT --> HKG as per your schedule for HKD 9217 all-in, it's one of the penalty caused by super early bird ... HK people tend to do last minute travel arrangement.
HKG --> NRT --> HKG now showing 5537 all-in

After you confirm your itinerary, I will suggest you to take advantage the better package price available later. So for the meanwhile concentrate on the decision of going where first...

Random Travel Package Information

http://www.anaskyholiday.com.hk/eng/haneda_sapporo.html (reference only)
http://www.cxholidays.com/chl/r/package/CS9SPK02HKG (Less than HKD 7K per head with 2 nights at Sapporo, can book now)

Does it snow in Gero?

I went to Nikko, about three hours north of Tokyo and found it stunning. (One train a day makes the trip in about two hours.) There are a number of temples there. When we went it was filled with Japanese tourists, but very few westerners. We stayed at the Kanaya hotel. We wanted to rent a car to get into the countryside, but International Drivers Permits for Japan were required.

It can be done as a day trip from Tokyo. I would highly recommend it. I found it much lovelier than Kyoto and we've been to Kyoto twice.

If you mean Gero Onsen, yes, most likely, since it's in the Japan Alps, but I went through it on the bus nearly 25 years ago in the summer, so I can't vouch for how accessible it would be in the winter.

Both JR and Tobu lines go there. Must be more than 1 train a day. JR I think is via Utsunomiya and Tobu line is more direct. I can't remember the stn on Tobu line, about two or three stations before Nikko, the train dwindled down to two or three cars, then bunch more people got on. This is almost in the middle of nowhere and Tobu employees pushed passengers into the cars and we were packed in like sardines until the Nikko stn.

Coming down from the upper lakes area was a series of switch backs. Looking out from the bus is just straight down. It would be interesting driving it.

Thanks guys. I asked a travel agent here in SYD about Onsen and they recommended the Gero Sumeikan. They didn't say anything about accesibility during winter but I did tell them I am going in Jan... I might give Sapporo a miss if I can find snow on my other route............

Well, I looked up Gero on the Internet, and it seems that there's a train from Nagoya, so accessibility shouldn't be a problem.

Ok thanks. Are the snow monkeys worth viewing?

No. They just sit around scratching their ar$es and picking flees from each others backs. If you want to see that kind of thing, you ought to come to a Mabo Nemawashi.

The food is good, though. :cool:

Thanks :)