First trip in japan

Hey Everyone

few questions about our stay in Japan.

We arrive at Tokyo on Thursday 3 of octobre at 7 am, and have to reach Naoshima for a woofing of 10 days, then we want to enjoy our time for 10 days around Kyoto.

Please is it possible to explain us the différent way to reach Naoshima.
wich kind of package do we have to take for the train!

Tanks for your help

;)

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5476.html

Personally, if it was me and I was starting from one of the Tokyo area airports, I would see if there are any direct flights between my Tokyo Airport and Takamatsu. From there you can take the ferry to Naoshima.

Good luck!

As rkold wrote, there are two international airport in Tokyo, Narita and Haneda. If you are landing at Haneda, you can go to Shinagawa rather easily and then catch the bullet train Shinkansen to Okayama and then take train to Uno and then ferry to Naoshima. You can also take flight to Takamatsu or Okayama. From Narita, you must go to JR Tokyo where you can catch Shinkansen to Okayama. You can also take flight to Takamatsu or Okayama, but the frequency of the flight from Narita is less than that from Haneda. Therefore could you specify the name of the airport? In general flight is cheaper than Shinkansen considering your travel pace.

Thats a lot of woofing :) I like Naoshima but 10 days is a very long time on a small island. There are a huge number of wonderful places to visit in that area if you are not spending all 10 days on the island. From what I can see on Kayak.com the flight from Haneda to Okayama is £76 or roughly 11000 yen https://www.kayak.co.uk/flights/TYO-OKJ/2018-10-03?sort=bestflight_a
You could then work your way back to Tokyo by train. A others have said a rail pass doesnt really work for you.

I'm still going to go with flying to Takamatsu if it works out. When I was thinking about going to Naoshima, none of the ferries between Uno and Naoshima seemed to be timed for trains arriving in Uno and you end up having to spend around 40+ minutes in Uno. If you have extra time to spare in Takamatsu, it has Ritsuin and a cute shopping street, plus other sights I've missed. Heck, if I had 10 days in the Naoshima area, I would make sure to visit Ritsuin and Korakuen in Okayama, but I am a garden person. You could also start in Takamatsu, then take the ferry to Naoshima then take the ferry to Uno before going to Okayama to get to Kyoto and make a larger loop and get to see slightly different things in each direction to Naoshima.

I flew into Narita in June, and even just getting to Osaka, it would have been faster to fly, (there are no direct flights to KIX from my location) but I opted for train because I have a picky eater with me, and a train would let me get food in Tokyo. While using Haneda will shave off close to 40 minutes of travel into Tokyo vs. Narita, Okayama (and Takamatsu) are more than 40 minutes further from Tokyo than Osaka. So I still think flying probably makes the most sense and is the most cost effective since you should be able to do it for less than a train ticket:

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2364.html

Good luck!

@Rkold when I visited from my base in Okayama the ferry seemed to match up quite nicely but they may well have changed the schedules since then. I see that a flight to Takamatsu is currently showing as cheaper than one to Okayama at £54* (approx 8000 Yen) with Jetstar and of course the ferry departs from there so I concede that Takamatsu is probably the better choice :)

* I included a piece of hold luggage in the cost but note that the weight limit is 15Kg which is less than main carriers.