Multiple or one main hotel?

I've been to Japan once before (stationed on Okinawa for a 2 year period) and I'm planning on going to Japan next summer (End of June time frame) to Osaka, Japan (first spot) I am going to be using the JR Pass to get around the country to visit places like Kyoto, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Mt. Fuji etc. As I'm going to be traveling around the country a lot to see all the sights and exploring the culture, should I book a single hotel in Osaka as a 'I can come back here and know I have my luggage and stuff here' or should I book hotels based on where I travel to?

Some people don�ft mind changing hotels almost every day, and others find it cumbersome. If you are the latter, you could consider basing yourself for example for one week in either Osaka or Kyoto to spend time in Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, and possibly Hiroshima too, and for another week in Tokyo to visit Tokyo itself, Yokohama, Kamakura, Nikko, Mr. Fuji area. If you look at the map, you�fll know what I mean. Enjoy planning your trip!

It depends on your itinerary and budget. For example: Between Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara it is less than one hour by train, so you may want to stay in one place and not be bothered by check-in/out process. Tokyo is a bit far from Osaka/Kyoto/Nara, so moving hotel makes sense. If you buy a rail pass, the transportation cost is already paid so you can make long distance day trips. But, personally, I would not want to spend too much time on the train, the time you could be spending exploring new places instead. 2 hr ride day trip is the most I would consider, which is 4 hr a day for round trip �gwasted�h on trains.

Best to plan according to your itinerary. To have a day trip to Tokyo from Osaka would be wasting a good 6 hours on the train, you might not want to do that.

1: A rail pass might not save you money for all of your trips because some are quite short/cheap. Do the maths to check (and look at a map - distances).
2: Some of those distances are not normal day trips (like Tokyo), but they are doable and many people on this forum and over at Trip Advisor recommend days with longer travel than that.
3: Time wasted on a train depends if you are a train person or not - I've had complaints that a five hour train trip was over too quickly. At the opposite end I met someone last year in Tokyo that thought more than 10 minutes was TOO LONG - I still don't know how she traveled anywhere.
4: Normally, people will base themselves in different areas - like a hotel in Osaka, or Tokyo or Kanazawa. You can't really do a sensible round trip Osaka to Takayama for example.

You�fre doing your planning backwards.

- work out an itinerary
- check out travel times between the places on your itinerary
- ditto for travel costs
- THEN think about whether rail pass pays off, and whether it�fs best to change hotels or not

I think the main thing to think about is whether you want to see Tokyo for more than 2 days or not.

If a day in Tokyo is enough for you, traveling back to Osaka makes sense. But a lot of tourists prefer to spend at least 2 or 3 days in Tokyo, since it's a big city with lots to see, and you can also do day trips from Tokyo to places such as Nikko or Hakone.

Keep in mind that it's also possible to leave a big suitcase to the receptionist in Osaka, and bring a smaller backpack and valuables to other further destinations.

My wife and I now travel quite a bit in the more rural areas which means changing accommodation pretty much every other day, so we travel light (carry on sized suitcase and small backpack each). As long as you travel light, there is absolutely no drama changing hotels frequently. Check in takes a few minutes, though they are very rigid with check in time, there is no point getting there early unless it is just to drop off luggage.

Another trick is to take shirts and unmentionables that dry quickly. You need that in summer as you will probably be changing your shirt a few times a day.

Hi!

I'm one of those people who has done some long day trips.

I've done Hiroshima as a day trip from Kyoto multiple times. It's not that part.

The day trip that seems really hard to me is Kyoto or Osaka to Kawaguchiko. If you catch the 7:45 Hikari to Mishima from Kyoto you don't get to Mishima until 9:55. You can then take the non rail pass covered bus at 10:10 to arrive at 11:45. If you stay until 18:30 and the last bus, you won't be back in Mishima until 20:13 to catch a 20:20 train to Kyoto and arrive at 22:58 at the earliest. And this is all ignoring whatever transport you need to do within Kyoto unless you are staying walking distance from the Station. if you come from Shin-Osaka you can add on another 20 minutes per trip of train time and again this assumes staying walking distance from the station. If you're trying to get to somewhere near Osaka or Umeda you're looking at closer to 30 minutes more.

Also June isn't known for its Fuji-san views, it's rainy season. Though I got a spectacular view via plane on the 18th.

Good luck!