JR Pass 7 days itinerary

Hi all,

I'm trying to find a good options for my itinerary with the 7 days JR Pass. There's so much information that i'm lost. I'm staying at Hotel keihan asakusa.
JR PASS 7 days itinerary:
Day 1: 01nov odawara castle (JR)
hakone mt fuji (hakone freepass \4000)
Hotel keihan asakusa, tawaramachi station, kanda station, tokyo station. Tokyo Station Tokaido Shinkansen line to Odawara Station, which is included in the JR Pass. Odawara Hakone Tozan train to Hakone-Itabashi Station 2.5hrs.

Day 2: 02nov Himeji (姫路城) & kokoen garden JR 3.5 hrs Asakusa station/line, sengakuji station keikyu line, shinagawa station, keikyu line gate takanawa exit west 80m shinagawa station tokaido sanyo shinkansen himeji station.
Day 3: 03nov nikko日光2.5 \500 bus pass
Toshogu Shrine (東照宮, Tōshōgū)
Taiyuinbyo (大猷院廟, Taiyūinbyō)
Shinkyo Bridge
Kegon waterfall
Ashikage flower park 2.5h
(the garden of illuminating flowers night show 15.30 - 21.00)
Day 4: 04-11 nagoya
Nagoya castle名古屋&Inuyama Castle 犬山城
From tokyo station by tokaido shinkansen 1.40hrs. From nagoya station to inuyama 30min. Meitetsu inuyama line. Nagoya is 52min from Osaka, so if we have time we can go to Osaka.
Day 5: 05-11 KOBE神戸市 kyoto (no schedule yet)
Day 6: 06-11 Chureito pagoda 忠霊塔fuji

Do you think this is a good and convenient itinerary and possible with the shinkansen? I'm stuck with day 1, 3 & 6...
Day 1 first odawara castle then hakone mt fuji.
Hakone shrine shore of lake ashinoko, mototsumiya shrine with komagatake ropeway. Sighseeing pirate cruise covered by hakane freepass, Hakone open air museum
Symphonic sculpture, old tokaido&hakone checkpoint, a look of edo era walking to tea house amazake chaya.
Day 3 is it possible to go to Nikko and then to Ashikaga flower park illuminating with the shinkansen?
Day 6 is chureito pagoda worth it?

Thank you very much!

Emily

Hi!

I'm getting your trip to Himeji is more like 4 hours each direction. Are you sure it doesn't make more sense if you want to go to Kobe or Kyoto to not just stay one night in the Kansai area vs. doing both of these very long trips as day trips?

It might make sense to do:

Day 2 Nikko
Day 3 Hakone and from Hakone go to Nagoya (night Nagoya)
Day 4 visit Nagoya and then go to Kyoto (night Kyoto)
day 5 visit Himeji and then visit Kobe (night Kyoto)
day 6 visit Kyoto and night Tokyo
day 7 kawaguchiko if you want it

You will be paying additional for kawaguchiko, since part of the trip is on private tracks.

Do you think this is a good and convenient itinerary
No. I think it is a crazy schedule to stay based in Tokyo and doing day trips to all those far flung places. If you wanted to spend the majority of your time in Japan on a shinkansen then maybe, but doing four to eight hours a day travelling is not a good option. (With the JR pass you cannot use Nozomi services, so you have longer travel times and extra transfers for places like Himeji and Kobe.)
You have some Tokyo based places (Hakone, Nikko, Kawaguichiko) and some Kansai area places (Himeji, Kyoto, Nagoya, Kobe), so split your accommodation between those two and gain an extra 16 hours (or more) actual sightseeing. Also, if you are only in Japan 7-days, then you don't get time in Tokyo.

You times are all incorrect. You suggest much lower than in real life. It is a horrible itinerary.

If you wanna do Nagoya, Himeji and Kobe, stay in Nagoya at least.

The Pagoda is a long way to go for one location. 4 hours of train travel.

Thank you very much for all the advice!
I have reflect and adjusted it. So I can better drop the Himeji and Kobe.

I'm staying from 30 October till 14 November in Tokyo. The only thing is my cousin and auntie are coming from 9-11/14-11. They are not the temple or nature types and more for shopping. So we will stroll around Tokyo like Meiji shrine, Kotohira gu shrine, Gotokuji temple, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukoro, Harajuku, Ginza, Diver city tokyo plaza, Sanrio theme park, Akihabara, Shinjuku etc.

But before that i will like to use the 7 days JR Pass or go to the following places:
Day 1: 30oct arrive narita exchange money, JR PASS & Icoca. Go to hotel keihan Asakusa, eat, asakusa temple night walk
Day 2: 31oct sighseeing Asakusa like Sensoji temple, Sumida river, tokyo skytree & checking Shibuya halloween

Hotel keihan Asakusa
Starting JR PASS 7 days trips
Day 3: 01nov odawara castle (JR)
hakone mt fuji (hakone freepass \4000)
Day 4: 02 nov nikko日光
(Tokyo to Nikko approx. 105mins by Nasuno Shinkansen & JR Nikko Line)
Day 5: 03nov Ashikage (JR)
Banna-ji Temple, Ashikage school, Ashikaga Orihime Jinjya, Ashikage flower park (the garden of illuminating flowers night show 15.30 - 21.00)
Day 6: 04-11 Nagoya castle (JR 2.5h) & Inuyama castle (maybe kyoto byodo-in 1.5h?)
Day 7: 05-11 not sure where to go yet Kotoku-in kamakura or kyoto (i've been to arashiyama, gingkakuji, kyomizudera, fushimi inari) only missing Tofuku-ji Temple, byodo-in i think.

Day 8: 06-11 Chureito pagoda 忠霊塔fuji
Day 9: 07-11 sighseeing Ueno temples etc
Tokyo 1-Day Ticket \1600
Day 10: vrij 8-11 Yokohama ��濱
(Maybe Kotoku in kanagawa Buddha or back to tokyo sighseeing?)
Day 11: 9-11 Naritasan shinsoji temple
Cousin&auntie arrive 18.05 in Narita

Will the above days pay off with the JR Pass? And is this a better itinerary? I'm really sorry for asking so much.

Emily

Hi Emily,

I get the trying to work through varying interests to make a trip work.

I think you are going to have a hard time doing Nagoya and Uji in one day. If you leave Tokyo Station at 8:03 am you won't get to Inuyama until 10:50 (assuming you pay out of pocket for the private Meitetsu line instead of using JR.) You then need to walk around 15 minutes before you get to the castle. If you spend 1 hour there, it's now 12ish by the time you get back to the station. It's going to be close to 13:00 when you get back to Nagoya proper. Plenty of time to still sightsee in Nagoya but I honestly, don't know how you would fit in Kyoto as well, since it's another 45 minutes to 1 hour from Nagoya Station. It's another 30-40 minutes to Uji. Many temples close by 17:00, I'm just not seeing how this is going to work.

Personally, if it were me I would get a refund on my full JR Pass and would instead purchase the JR East Nagano-Niigata Pass. At least in my home country, I was just sent an email voucher for my JR East Tohoku Pass and I expect the same is true for the Nagano-Niigata Pass. It's only 17,000 yen, so more than 10,000 yen cheaper than a full JR Pass. And with the 5 day flex feature you can move days around depending on the weather.

I would spend your Nagoya day instead visiting Matsumoto. It has an original castle and a small but lovely art museum.

The next day, I would use the pass again to go to Nagano. You can see the temple there or go to Togakushi slightly further out and see their shrine and then Zenkoji in Nagano. You would only be back tracking about 30 minutes each way because it takes 1 hour to get between Matsumoto and Nagano vs. 90 from Tokyo Station to Nagano. (Though you could catch the train in Ueno and not Tokyo.)

You would still have 3 more pass days to use when you wish. The Pass would not be useful for Hakone, but you could just get an Odakyu train and pass from Shinjuku directly there. However, you could use a pass day still for Nikko, and could use 1 more to go to Narita and and 1 for Ashikaga. You can take a bus from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko, since the amount you have to pay additional to get from Otsuki to Kawaguchiko Station is 1140 yen each way and the bus is 1950 yen each way.

Good luck!