27 days itinerary transport

Hello Everybody, my name is Martin!

Im travelling with my girlfriend to Japan on January-30th, to 1st of march, since we are from Argentina we will arrive on February-1st, we have already made out the cities that we would like to visit in this time, she is in charge of the things to do in them and im in charge in the transportation between them, the itinerary that we planned is this one (also i made a map to help myself planning it, http://imgur.com/a/aVz6C , the ones in yellow are still in question to visit)

We will arrive at :
- Tokyo - Probably 4,5 days - Nikko

- Hakone-Lake Kawaguchiko 1day

- Nagano-Shirakawago- Kiso Valley - Matsumoto - Tsumago - Nagoya, where is a good place to stop between these spots? Im planning to do it in 2 days, is it possible, or it may take 3?

- Kyoto- Probably 4 days

Kinosaki Onsen Town - 1 day stay overnight

Osaka - 3 days

Nara - Mount Koya - Where is a good place to stay overnight near mount koya? 3 days

Kyoto again, we will fly from here to Seúl and will come back to Tokyo, then BA :(

Im in a doubt for Sapporo, is it worth it to visit during winter? I searched for places to visit between tokyo and Sapporo but none of them really caught our attention, if we do it we'll probably go after the first days in tokyo. We have already discarded Hiroshima.

So the main question here is, is the JR pass worth it for this itinerary? If so, which pass ? 7-14-21? if it's not worthy, can you lend me a hand to the best efficient way to travel between these cities?


Am i missing a great spot between those places?

In beforehand, thanks for anyone who is willing to help, this forum was a great help planning this one, and continues to.

I can't really answer your main question on the JR passes, so I'll try my luck at your other questions ;-)

- Nagano-Shirakawago- Kiso Valley - Matsumoto - Tsumago - Nagoya, where is a good place to stop between these spots? Im planning to do it in 2 days, is it possible, or it may take 3?

Matsumoto and Tsumago or Magome (those are the two villages you will want to hike between) would seem to be good locations to stop.

Nara - Mount Koya - Where is a good place to stay overnight near mount koya? 3 days

You can do Nara as a day trip from Osaka or Kyoto, if you want to limit the times you need to change hotels. I personally like Nara a lot, and would even favour staying there for two nights and explore Nara, but that is obviously up to you.
Regarding a place where to stay "near" Mt Koya, I would strongly suggest to stay IN Mt Koya, i.e. in one of the temple lodgings. They are a special experience. Take them with the dinner included, as it is one of the best culinary experiences in Japan.

Im in a doubt for Sapporo, is it worth it to visit during winter? I searched for places to visit between tokyo and Sapporo but none of them really caught our attention, if we do it we'll probably go after the first days in tokyo. We have already discarded Hiroshima.

The attraction (or at least one of it) of Hokkaido in winter is the Snow festival in Sapporo: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5311.html
You will need to book your hotel really early, specially if you go on a weekend. There are other snow festivals in other cities in Hokkaido as well.
Obviously skiing is a typical Hokkaido winter attraction as well as the frozen sea of Okhotsk. While the snow festival has established dates, the frozen sea is less easy to predict when it will be at it's best, but February should be a good time: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6868.html

However Hokkaido is COLD in winter. Specially as you are coming from down under, be prepared! The rest of Japan is still cold, as it is winter, but not freezingly cold (except in the mountains).

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

- Nagano-Shirakawago- Kiso Valley - Matsumoto - Tsumago - Nagoya, where is a good place to stop between these spots? Im planning to do it in 2 days, is it possible, or it may take 3?

Will you be driving or taking public transportation? That will affect this area quite a lot. Shirakawa-go and Tsumago/Magome are not very far apart, so if you're driving it would be easy to go directly between them, but there are no direct public transportation routes. In any case, it will be quite difficult to see all of these in two days even under perfect circumstances.

I would go directly to Matsumoto first from Tokyo and stay there, see Tsumago/Magome on the second day and stay in Matsumoto again, skip Nagano City and instead go to Takayama and stay there for a night, then the day after that go to Shirakawa-go and then go to Nagoya from there. Alternatively, you could go to Kanazawa from Shirakawa-go instead of Nagoya and head to the Kansai area from Kanazawa.

Thank you Gigi and LikeBike for your replies!

I will be taking public transportation, is there a line of buses/trains that operate in that area?
For what Gigi said, we will allocate 3 days for those places then, and move like this:

Tokyo- Matsumoto- Tsumago/Magome - Takayama/ShirakawaGo - (i checked kanazawa and its beautiful, specially in winter to my eyes) Kanazawa. But i have a question regarding this plan, will the back and forth from these locations make me lose time ? Is it better to start from above and keep going down, or since the distances are so short (well, for an argentinian 800km is like a normal trip to everywhere) it does not matter what direction you go?

Wow, did not know about that experience in mount koya, yes as you can see i have days that have not been allocated, that's because when we are actually there we will decide how many days we will stay in every place, gives us freedom!

Hmm so i do not know about the JR pass, since the places we want to visit are close, but it takes you away the fuss of having to book every train separately!

Yes, I think that route looks good. But between Matsumoto-Kiso Valley-Takayama-Shirakawago you will be taking a combination of JR and buses, so I'm not sure if a JR pass will be worth the money on those days; save it for the days when you use a shinkansen.

So which jr pass should i take 7 or 14 one, between the other cities i can travel via shinkansen ?

It depends on whether you decide to go to Hokkaido or not - if you buy a pass, you have the option of taking the shinkansen to Hokkaido, although it will be slower than flying. Also, you can find a JR route to take you where you need to go but often it will be slower than taking a direct bus in that area (for example, you can take a bus from Matsumoto to Takayama for 3150 yen but if you have the JR pass you will need to take the train to Nagoya and then travel from there to go to Takayama, takes much longer.) If you do buy one, maybe it would be good to get the 7-day one and use it for the portion of your travel in between the Kanto and Kansai areas.

A good FAQ about JR Passes:

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/asia-north-east-asia/jap...

The shinkansen is the fastest train route in Japan going to a limited number of areas, mainly connecting Tokyo with the cities along the East coast (Nagoya, Osaka, Himeji, Hiroshima, with smaller stops), the ends of the country (Hokkaido and Fukuoka) and a few cities along the West coast on the Hokuriku line (Toyama and Kanazawa). Shinkansen tickets are quite expensive and being able to ride it as much as you want is an advantage, but unless you will take the shinkansen more than a couple of times the passes may be not worth it, as you might pay less just buying individual tickets.

Oh okay that was very clarifying, so i will probably take the 7-day one to move the first days between Tokyo and the west and then since the distances are short i will start looking for the buses/trains between the other cities
E.g Nagoya-Kyoto,
Kyoto-Kinosaki,
Kinosaki-Osaka,
Osaka - Nara (will decide whether its a 1 or 2 days stop)
Nara - Mt. Koya
(I believe that to be the best route)

Thanks for your time and your help.

Yes, that sounds like a good plan - good luck with your trip planning!

Thanks Gigi!

Some of you locations are known for hiking. But not in winter. So do a little research on whether it will be woth a visit or not in winter.

Hello Hakata,

Which locations are you referring to?

Thanks!

Hello Everybody,

Me again, first of all, before starting, i made a full research for the trains to take between these cities, for me its totally not worthy buying a JR pass, by far. Just wanted to know if there is any page like Hyperdia for trains, but for BUSES, (i know hyperdia has integrated the highway buses) but i believe i am missing some info to travel probably in a cheaper way between some cities/places

Then, i found that these are the cheaper, fastest ways to travel if anyone wants to check them/make a correctio, you are free, if not, im just sharing the info (i have searched too for the most fast ways, but obviously the price is higher, if anyone wants it too, ask):

Tokyo- Matsumoto: (JR)
4000 JPY 5 hours aprox , 3 transfer
TOKYO( JR Chuo Special Rapid Service for Takao - TAKAO- JR Chuo Line for Kobuchizawa- Kofu- JR CHUO Line for Matsumoto)

Kanazawa-Kyoto
4000 JPY , 4 hours aprox (JR), 2 transfer
Kanazawa (JR Hokuriku Line for FUKUI) - Fukui (JR Hokuriku Line for TSURUGA) - Tsuruga (JR Special Rapid Service for HIMEJI)

Matsumoto-Takayama
6 hours aproximadamente, 5080 JPY, 3 transfer
Matsumoto (JR Chuo Line KOBUCHIZAWA) - Shiojiri (JR Chuo Line Nakatsugawa)- Nakatsugawa ( JR CHuo Line Rapid for Nagoya) - Tajimi (JR Taita Line for Gifu) - Minoota (JR Takayama Line for Inotani) - TAKAYAMA

Takayama-Nagoya/Kanazawa
4 hours, 3000 JPY, 2 transfer,
Takayama(JR Takayama Line for MINOOTA)- Minoota (JR Taita Line for TAJIMI) - Tajimi (JR Chuo line for NAGOYA)

Kanazawa-Kyoto
4000 JPY , 4 hours aprox (JR), 2 transfer
Kanazawa (JR Hokuriku Line for FUKUI) - Fukui (JR Hokuriku Line for TSURUGA) - Tsuruga (JR Special Rapid Service for HIMEJI)

Kyoto- Kinosaki (JR)
2590 yenes, 3 hours aprox, 2 transfer
Kyoto (JR Sagano Line Rapid Service for SONOBE)- Sonobe (JR San-In Line for FUKUCHIYAMA)-Fukuchiyama (JR San-in Line for KinosakiOnsen)

Kinosaki- Osaka
aprox 3350 JPY, JR, 4-5 hours aprox, 2 transfer
KinosakiOnsen (JR San-In Line for FUKUCHIYAMA) - Fukuchiyama(JR Fukuchiyama Line for SASAYAMAGUCHI)- Sasayamaguchi ( JR Takarazuka Line Rapid Service for Osaka)- OSAKA

Takayama- ShirakawaGo:

Direct, 1660 JPY, 1 hora y 40 de viaje
Takayama (JR Takayama Line for MINOOTA)

Tokyo-Nikko
Barato: 1940 yenes, 2 transfer, 2 horas y media de viaje
http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi/en/search.html?dep_node=TOKYO&arv_node=NIK...

Nara- Mount Koya
2 hs 15 mins, 2 transfer 2600 JPY

Nara (JR Yamatoji Rapid Service for OSAKA) - Shinimamiya (LTD. EXP KOYA 11) - Gokurakubashi (Nankai Koyasan Cable for Koyasan) - Koyasan

Please feel free to correct any of the given trains/connections, +

THANKS HYPERDIA FOR THIS

In my past three visits to Kyoto, in the past three years, google maps has been less than reliable. May 2016 for a few days everything except the numbers came out in Hirigana or Kanji, This was NO help with busses.....eventually it righted itself. .same thing happened in May 2015 according to internet postings . November 14 I was on a tour but even the IT guy said it was 'weird' in Kyoto This year, 2017 in Kyoto....it was OFF...meaning...wrong platform given, ,that meant going wrong direction. Sometimes the map was East-West flipped. sometimes the walking directions were off. Sometimes it neglected to show a train change.
My wife and I would chuckle because we said you could tell the Americans because they were walking around in circles using google maps.
I asked 7 Americans this trip and 6 had problems. But, most European I asked were fine.
It does say "beta' for Japan and even though they had an upgrade to "improve function in japan" last winter, in Kansai it was sketchy.
Also a few times in Tokyo it was "off". Example gave me wrong direction to Tsukigi market and although I could see the Samurai Museum from a few blocks away, google maps pointed me elsewhere. I double checked with my friend who has Japanese phone and hers was spot on. Once I was two blocks away from a huge garden Maps said to make left....garden was to the right. Police officer confirmed.
Interestingly, my Ipad was more reliable and I bought them both a year ago. All are up to date on software.
I eventually did three things...asked google maps....asked train staff whose English is usually not too good but they try and give a map, then asked a commuter...in my travel/survival Japanese...if 2 of 3 were the same. I went that way.
Yes, I do know how to use google maps, language settings etc.
I hope this helped in a way...sorry if it was too long.

Wow FrankNJ, thats some insight, i do not love to use google maps when i travel, i do make maps in beforehand to use it offline, but thanks will take this into mind!

The prices are lower because they are always taking local/rapid/special rapid type trains instead of Limited Expresses. So really, like everything else it comes down to your budget and what is more important, speed or budget? Do you want to spend 3000 yen more for a 3 hour Limited Express from Tokyo to Matsumoto or take 5 hours? I know what my answer is.

Personally, going from Matsumoto to Takayama I would see about a whether there were any buses running since the bus takes 2.5 hours and costs under 3200 yen. Also you can't reach Shirakawa Go via train. It's only accessible via bus/car so I am not sure why you have taking the train to Minoota under that heading unless that is in reference to something else.

If you don't have a rail pass and want to go from Takayama to Kanazawa you are much better off taking the bus and doing it post visiting Shirakawa Go,

It's important to remember that some of these transfer and local trains do not run terribly frequently. In general, a lot of the trains around Takayama are just not that frequent. If you miss a connection it can mean a very long wait in a tiny station with not much to do. I say this as someone who missed the Hida to Toyama from Takayama and had to wait 1.5 hours for the next Hida. There wasn't a local train that would get me to Toyama any faster than the Hida 1.5 hours later.

But again, it is about what is more important to OP. If staying within a certain budget is more important, then take more local trains. However, I would be cautious of lots of transfers in more remote areas and make sure to check the interval of trains so you don't have a problem if you somehow miss a connection.