Itinerary Travel Planning

Hey Everyone,

I've got a trip coming up with my girlfriend in March. We are starting to try to plan out transport and I'm not really sure where to look or how to find an easy way of combining our transport options into one place to make it easier to plan our trip so we know where and when we need to get trains to make sure we travel around the country the easiest way without wasting time or missing trains due to conflicting timetables.

Our Itinerary looks like this:

28th Feb - 4th March - Tokyo
4th March - Travel to Yamanouchi for 1 night
5th March Travel to Kanazawa for 1 night
6th - 8th March Takayama
9th - 13th March Kyoto
13th March - Fly home from Osaka

Our plan is to enjoy Tokyo for our first 4 nights, exploring as much as we can within those first 4 days
Yamanouchi we have booked a ryokan onsen to enjoy some hot springs and also visit the snow monkey park
We booked a night in Kanazawa as it was recommended to us that is would be easier to travel from Yamanouchi to Kanazawa and stay a night and then continue the following day down to Takayama with a visit via Shirakawa go Village
Takayama our time was to be split between a trip to Shirakawago and then also 1 day exploring what Takayama has to offer
Finally there is lots planned for Kyoto and surrounding areas such as Nara, Himeji Castle etc.

If anyone knows the train timetables well and is able to help out with our planning. Or if there's a simple website that allows me to plot out our trip and set out train times to get between places that would be greatly appreciated.

We plan on getting a JR Rail pass for all our Shinkansen Travel, but realise that some of our travel will also be via other rail or bus companies.

Gooday, that looks like a great trip. Allow youself enough time in Kanazawa to see Kenrokuen, it is nice in any season.

At Takayama there is a beef restaurant near the red bridge which has brilliant beef bowls and beef sashimi and ramen, it has the chalk dragons on the walls - give it a go. We have been to Takayama a few times now and never have lunch anywhere else.

Look at Hyperdia for your train travel. I think it will be touch and go whether JR passes work out - I never get them but they are pretty convenient.

Also look to stop at Hikone on the way from Takayama to Kyoto. Hikone is a nice little townb with a great original castle.

To answer your question the best way to look at train schedules is through Hyerdia.com. Its a website that shows almost all public transportation in japan. The times are specific and exact to the dates you enter. You can also look at the JR sites for maps to see the routes. I also get good info through Google maps as they show all the trains and train lines and even have the transfers in the directions.Just tap the public transportation icon (its like a subway car) when getting directions, its at the top. Once you figure that out then you can start looking at other accommodations on sites like Agoda, Japanican, booking.com, hotels.com etc. Search around as prices can widely vary. I'm in the midst of planning my own trip in June but headed further north into Hokkiado.
Best of luck

The transportation section on this site will give you lots of tips on how to use hyperdia and also tell you about other travel options.
Also on this site, if you look up eg Takayama youfll find a section on the most common routes to and from the place you want to go, with links (particularly useful for somewhere like Takayama where youfre possibly going to either arrive or leave by bus).
For the Tokyo metro, use google or spend a small amount on a dedicated metro travel app. Lifefs too short to work out metro connections on your own on holiday, IMHO, and there are often several options to get you from A to B, using different metro lines, local trains, etc. A good app will give you all the options, as well as info about entrances and exits, which car to get on for the quickest connection between lines, etc.

I normally just use google maps for planning. But be aware that GM underestimats the time you need to walk from a to b. Both just normal walking as well as when changing trains. You can achieve the google maps walking times only if you are a reasonably fast paced walker AND donft need a minute to orientate yourself AND donft find any obstacles in your way (traffic light, people, nice things to briefly look at...). So always calculate a few minutes more for walking. This is obviously more important if you need to catch a specific train. Within Tokyo city as transport is frequent itfs less of an issue.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!