to rent a car or to go by train?

Hi;
We plan a family trip to Japan; & our itinerary is:
Tokyo; Kyoto; Osaka; Nara; Hokaido; Kanazawa & Takaima.

Since we are 5 people - parents + 3 kids; I wonder what is the best way for such a trip.
Is the prices of car rent for 5 people are better then buying train tickets for 5?
Are the children pay the same fair for train tickets like adults?

What is best depends on your preferences.

If a low price is most important to you, using highway buses is likely to be the best option, but it is slow and tiring. And a flight to Hokkaido.

For comfort, I recommend to use the trains in combination with a flight to Hokkaido.

A rental car is recommended in Hokkaido if you explore the countryside. Except if you go in winter and have no winter driving skills.

But on Honshu, a rental car is not recommended because of the large distances and the problem of parking in the cities.

Are the children pay the same fair for train tickets like adults?

Generally speaking, people aged 12 and above pay adult fare. Children between 6 and 11 pay half price. And children below the age of 6 travel for free (unless they occupy reserved seats).

I recommend the following route:
Tokyo - (train) - Takayama - (train) - Kanazawa - (train) Kyoto/Nara/Osaka - (air) - Hokkaido

When I last rented a mini-van, the non-highway-toll costs were \13,650 for a non-overnight day (8 AM to 7 PM) and \3,108 for gasoline (Morioka - rented to take students to the tsunami areas back in 2012). You might need a mini-van for 5 since you'll also have luggage.

Another time, when I drove with 3 others from Nagoya U. to Hokkaido and back down to Kyushu, besides gasoline, the highway tolls were well over \100,000 (luckily it was grant money). Even using the toll highways, it seemed like we spent most of our time driving between places although we got to many places we couldn't get to otherwise using trains or buses. We also had to pay for the ferries to Sado Island and back and to/from Hokkaido which weren't cheap (car and driver is one price and each passenger pays for their own ticket).

I would go with Uji-san's recommendation and if there's someplace you'd like to get to that isn't covered by public transport, do a local car rental for just a day or 2.

Absolutely as per the poster above.

If you've just sticking to cities, stay on the trains. If/when you want to have a day or two in somewhere more rural, then get the train to the nearest station (or get the train to the nearest shinkansen station) and maybe rent a car from there (although local buses can also be useful).

The shinkansen and the fastest non-shinkansen trains go so much faster than cars, and go from city centre to city centre. Local trains tend to go a lot slower, and to stop in a lot of places, and so in terms of time the slower train journeys tend to become time-neutral when compared to car rentals.

For example, we were looking to go to Kinosaki onsen from either Kyoto or Himeji. It would take about 2 to 2.5 hrs on the train, and (according to route planning software) about the same sort of time in a car, so in time terms it is neutral.

In cost/preference terms, all sorts of other factors come into play:

- will you have a rail pass (in which case the train journeys are free)?;

- do you want to stop off in any small places en route, or to take a roundabout route in order to see some other places (in which case a car will do this but a train will probably not do this)?

- how comfortable are you with driving (driving in Japan is fairly easy, but speed limits on small roads tend to be very low compared to my home country - so journeys can take some time.

- do you love or hate the idea of driving on holiday? Some people do enough driving in their working life and strongly prefer to relax on a train when on holiday.

Car hire in Japan is quite easy (there's good guidance on the main japan-guide website, as well as links to firms where you can book in English), and it can be pretty cheap. There's also the possibility of hiring cars which you may not have in your own country. For instance, we hired a Cube car last year and I LOVED it. We just don't have those type of cars where I live, and it was fun to have one for a couple of days. I would also love to drive one of the big Japanese minivans - although I would not enjoy it so much on any really narrow country roads and I'd probably not enjoy trying to park it - but that's more due to my driving skills than anything else ;0)