Please look at my itinerary

hi everyone,

we are couple in mid 20. we love culture and history, we realy enjoy visiting castle, temple onsen and ryoukan. we are planning to have 15 day in japan in june-july

day 1 narita-tokyo (arrive early morning

day 2 tokyo (day trip to nikko)

day 3 tokyo (day trip to kamakura)

day 4 tokyo (day trip to fuji Q and kawaguchi lake)

day 5 tokyo – hakone (arrive late evening)

day 6 hakone- kyoto (arrive late evening)

day 7 kyoto

day 8 kyoto (day trip to nara)

day 9 kyoto – osaka-mt koya (arrive late morning)

day 10 mt koya -osaka

day 11 osaka (day trip to himeji)

day 12 osaka-takayama/kanazawa/shirakawa go (arrive late morning)

day 13 takayama/kanazawa/shirakawa go- tokyo (arrive late evening)

day 14 tokyo

day 15 narita

in day 12, i cant decide which one is better between takayawa/kanazawa/shirakawa go

it is possible to go through all 3 places in one day? which one should i choose?

which railway pass should i use? shouls i use japan railway pass for 14 days or 7 days and combine it with the other railway pass? which one is more cost wise? do you have any other suggestion?

I'd appreciate it if you could have a look at what I've put together and give me your opinion.

thankyou

day 1 narita-tokyo (arrive early morning) Welcome to Japan!
day 2 tokyo (day trip to nikko)
day 3 tokyo (day trip to kamakura) Should also check out nearby Enoshima if you stay all day or could do morning Kamakura and Yokohama in the afternoon. Depends on your speed and what you want to do.
day 4 tokyo (day trip to fuji Q and kawaguchi lake) I love Kawaguchi Lake! I easy spent all day here so I am not sure you can do both FujiQ and still go around the Lake area to enjoy Fujisan.
day 5 tokyo – hakone (arrive late evening) I am assuming a Ryokan and onsen stay here.
day 6 hakone- kyoto (arrive late evening)
day 7 kyoto Love Kyoto!
day 8 kyoto (day trip to nara) I did half day in Nara but fast pace so slower pace all day would be better. Also watch out for those deer!
day 9 kyoto – osaka-mt koya (arrive late morning) Temple stay I am assuming
day 10 mt koya -osaka Donft forget to go to Namba and Eat!
day 11 osaka (day trip to himeji) You can finish Himeji Castle within a few hours. Last time only took almost 3 hours at a slow pace to go through the Castle.
day 12 osaka-takayama/kanazawa/shirakawa go (arrive late morning) This part will seem to rushed for me. Takayama defiantly can be all day including the temple walks. Shirakawa-go is very small so you can finish within 2-3hours and Kanazawa could get away with just having Morning and afternoon before leaving in evening for Tokyo.
day 13 takayama/kanazawa/shirakawa go- tokyo (arrive late evening)
day 14 tokyo
day 15 narita

Assessment:
If you want to do Takayama, Shirakawa-go and Kanazawa, itfs probably better to have more time like this: 1) Leave Osaka Morning/Takayama Afternoon-Evening 2)Shirakawa-go Morning/Kanazawa afternoon-Evening 3) Leave Kanazawa Morning/Tokyo Afternoon-Evening

Kawaguchi – You only probably have enough time for only FujiQ and will need more time if you want to go around the lake area is well.

Himeji Castle can be done within 3 hours so you could maybe have Himeji Castle with half day Osaka as one day.

The only other one is if you go to Kawaguchi for Mt Fuji Views, you donft need to go to Hakone

And then also if you are going to Mt Koyasan for the Temple stay with Onsen Ryokan, then you also donft need go to Hakone as well. In fact probably Mt Koyasan you can cross out three things at the same time (Temple stay/Ryokan but it is veg meal though/Onsen)

Finally, is there enough days for Tokyo itself for you? Not sure what you will be doing.
As for the Japan Rail Pass 14days should pay off but just keep in mind it will not cover Hakone, Otsuki to Kawaguchiko, Mt Koyasan and any private lines you take.



Hope this helps!!
Have Fun!!!

There are many private lines serving the places that you are planning on going, and the JR Pass will not work on private lines.

I would look into using some of the passes at:

Nikko
Kamakura
Hakone
Fuji Five Lakes Area
Mount Koya

Here is the Japan Guides rail pass page:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2357.html

I would suggest buying two individual Shinkansen tickets, one from Odawara (Hakone) to Kyoto, and one from Nagoya back to Tokyo. I would use the Takayama-Hukuriku Tourist pass to go from Osaka to Kanazawa, Shirakawa-Go, Takayama, and then to get to Nagoya to catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2361_takayama_hokuriku.html

It might be better to get a Kansai Thru Pass to go to both Mount Koyasan and Himeji. You should be able to cover the rest with an IC card.

For the individual shinkansen tickets, you might want to look at a Kodama discount ticket:

http://www.jrtours.co.jp/kodama/en/?scid=jtt_kepEng001

For the Odawara to Kyoto ticket, you may have to purchase a Shizuoka to Kyoto ticket, and just get on in Odawara. I am not sure about this.

I hope this helps.

many thanks for all the suggestion.
we decide to change the itinerary
day 1 narita- tokyo-nikko
day 2 nikko-tokyo-kyoto (we plan to use overnight train to kyoto)
day kyoto
day kyoto (day trip to nara)
day kyoto
day kyoto-mt koya --stay at temple (start using surutto kansai ticket for 3 days)
day mt koya – osaka
day osaka-himeji (day trip) to tokyo- (we plan to use overnight train to tokyo)
day tokyo-hakone (use 3 day fuji-hakone pass)
day hakone-fuji 5 lake
day mt fuji-tokyo
day tokyo – kamakura (day trip)
day tokyo
day toky0
day tokyo-narita

i think it is better to focus on tokyo-kyoto-osaka and keep takayama-kanazawa-shirakawa go for our next trip to japan

i also plan to stay at night at ryoukan and which 1 do you guys think is better? nikko, hakone or kyoto.