13 days trip in Japan

I want inputs on where to go and eat for the places I will list from below.

The trip will be from May 26-June 7 of 2010. The cities we will try to visit are Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Kobe, Hakone, and then lastly Tokyo.

We want to know all the places we should visit for shopping clothes, good eats, and places that we can't pass up if we are there the first time. Keep in mind that we just graduate from college and some don't even have their first jobs yet so we don't mind to live cheap on some days and indulge ourselves on others.

Right now we bought our RT tickets from SFO-NRT and we are thinking once we land in NRT we will take the shikansen down to Kyoto to check into our hostel. From May 26-May 31st we are thinking of utilizing our 7 day JR-Pass to the fullest by traveling to different cities when we are down in Kyoto. Prefarably speaking, Osaka, Nara, Kobe. Jun 1-7 we will reside in Tokyo by using our last day of the pass to ride back up to Tokyo. And we will pay our fares each ti

The reason why we chose Osaka is because of the 2nd largest aquarium in the world, Minami (Namba), Amerikamura, Glico Man, Osaka Castle (Osakajo), and Kita (umeda)


For Nara we are thinking of visiting Todaiji Temple, Nara national park to pet the deers.

As for Kobe theres Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum, Kobe Harborland, and Nankinmachi

As for tokyo we will spend time in Shijinku, Harajuku, Akihabara, Ginza, Asakusa, Rikugien Garden, Nikko National Park, Shibuya, Tsukiji Fish Market, Meji shrine, and maybe the Ramen Museum that is based in the Yokohoma station.

I picked all these places to go according to this guide. Please give me inputs regarding how many days I should spend on each city and whether or not these places will worth the time to go to. I can delete of the places that are on the trips. And also I will like suggestions on places to eat good sashimi, ramen and everything.

Thanks hope to Hear from everybody soon!

Since you have already picked the places you wanted to see based on this guide, I would suggest looking at the bottom of the pages in this guide for links to the places you wish to visit. These links will provide additional information on each place. As many of the links will be in Japanese, a webpage translator would be worth acquiring. Google and FoxLingo have some good free ones. They aren't perfect translations, but will get you in the ball park.

Use Google Earth's Panaramio photos to get an idea of the places you want to visit. If you turn on "businesses" in the layers, many different restaurants, cafes, hotels, shopping areas will be shown on Google Earth (at a close-in zoom level). Most of these will be in Japanese, but using the webpage translator above, you can tell if it's someplace you would like to eat. Usually there are reviews of the restaurant, too.

After you have done this additional research and you still have questions, I would suggest narrowing your questions down to a single place or subject. I think you will get more detailed answers in a more timely manner.

Just a suggestion.

In Osaka go to SHINSAIBASHI SHOPPING STREET. Also, get off at the Osaka station and there's alot of good stuff to look at. NARA is great, when you get off at the station, you'll walk up a little street, then come to a covered street on your right. Walk into that street and on your left there is an awesome tonkatsu restraunt. Kobe is a great place to spend the night. YOu can eat lotsa cheap food if you just look. Tenya is a chain in Tokyo of cheap tempura, like 5 bucks a bowl. There are lotsa cheap eats, jus gotta look.

Thank You for the responses that people have made. I know that Kobe is famous for there beef so i want to know if theres any good recommendations for a restaurant to try and not entirely too pricey.

I am also concern on how to withdraw money. Some people say they use traveler's check and withdraw it from the post office. Some people said they used credit cards to pay for things that can be used for it. Some people also say that they use their ATM card to withdraw money from the postal ATM machine. Is it better to bring a few traveler's check since if you don't end up using it you can always come back and exchange it for money.

I always used the ATMs when getting cash. You usually get a better exchange rate. I used my local bank debit card and be sure to notify your bank that you will be using your card overseas. Otherwise, they may deny access.