Japan Itinerary

After using this site and consulting a variet of other sources, this is my itinerary. There will be three of us, all 21 travelling from the 26th June - 17th July. We plan on using the three week Japan Rail Pass. We will be mostly in hostel in the major cities. We will be doing certain day trips and visiting some temples along the way. However, being young we plan to do a bit of exploring on our own and see what happens.

Thursday 26th June (Day 1)

-Fly from Melbourne to Tokyo (arrive 6:55pm) Stay overnight in Narita.

Friday 27th June (Day 2)

-Travel to Haneda Airport in the late morning and catch domestic flight to Sapporo.

Saturday 28th June (Day 3)

-Spend day in Sapporo sightseeing. Planning on attending Beer Museum tour in the late afternoon and head outafter for a big night.

Sunday 29th June (Day 4)

-More Sightseeing during the day, catch a sleeper train from Sapporo to Tokyo in the evening.

Monday 30th June (Day 5)

-Arrive in Tokyo in te late morning. Train to Kawaguchiko and check in K's House Hostel.

Tuesday 1st July (Day 6)

-Sightseeing in Kawaguchiko

Wednesday 2nd July (Day 7)

-Day at leisure. Head to nearest 5th station and climb Fuji late at night for dawn at summit.

Thursday 3rd July (Day 8)

-Travel from Fuji to Tokyo in late morning to check in to hostel. Spend day at leisure.

Friday 4th July (Day 9)

-Sightseeing in Tokyo region. Possibly day trip to Yokohama

Saturday 5th July (Day 10)

-Sightseeing during the day. Another day trip possible. Attend Urawa Reds v FC Tokyo J League match in the evening in Saitama. Head to Roppongi late at night to party!

Sunday 6th July (Day 11)

-Travel on train from Tokyo to Kyoto in late morning. Check into hostel in Kyoto. Day at leisure around Kyoto exploring.

Monday 7th July (Day 12)

-Sightseeing in Kyoto

Tuesday 8th July (Day 13)

-Sightseeing in Kyoto.

Wednesday 9th July (Day 14)

-Day trip to Nara

Thurday 10th July (Day 15)

-Travel to Osaka in the morning then on to Mt Koya in afternoon. Stay in temple lodgings for evening.

Friday 11th July (Day 16)

-Travel from Mt Koya to Osaka in late morning. Day of sightseeing in Osaka

Saturday 12th July (Day 17)

-Day enjoying exploring in Osaka, head out at night.

Sunday 13th July (Day 18)

-Day trip to Hiroshima, back to osaka in the evening.

Monday 14th July (Day 19)

-Early morning train 6am from Osaka to Oboke for Happyraft 1.5 day tour. Stay evening at Happyraft.

Tuesday 15th July (Day 20)

- Leave Oboke around 2 in the afternoon and train to Tokyo. Arrive in the evening.

Wednesday 16th July (Day 21)

- Explore Tokyo and relax.

Thursday 17th July (Day 22)

Enjoy day in tokyo, then head to Narita airport in the late afternoon and catch flight home to Melbourne.

Any comments or suggestions that may be of use? We are aware that the trip to Oboke requires very accurate timing in order to get there by 9am.

I would appreciate it if anyone could give me some feedback regarding my itinerary. Any suggestions to streamline or improve would be welcome?

I have done 3 trips like what you have planned but stayed in places like Sapporo, Tokyo and Kyoto longer. I used them as bases to explore places within easy reach of the shinkansen as well as extra time to spend in the cities themselves. 5 days in Kyoto was hardly enough for me though. One suggestion: instead of going to Tokyo from the Fuji area, go on to Kyoto and either tack on the Tokyo days at the end of the trip or split them between Tokyo and Kyoto. At the end of the trip you may want a couple of extra days to decompress from a fairly vigorous travel schedule before heading home. Sounds like a fun trip.

The biggest problem with staying in Hostels on a Japan Rail Pass is there are not too many within walking distance of a JR station. The best one are Sapporo House Sapporo, Tokyo International Hostel Tokyo and Shin Osaka Youth Hostel Osaka. I have not stopped in the last one. What is handy to many JR Stations are Capsule Hotels. They are great value for money but most only cater for men. Make sure you visit a Onsen also.

Thank you both for some constructive feedback. My only reasoning for spending some time in Tokyo before Kyoto was seeing the paticular soccer match at the Saitama Stadium on the 5th of July. I will give it some thought before I finalise all accommodation

I was under the impression that the JR Pass would allow me to travel to basically all stations in the major city networks. The hostels I had decided on are as follows:

Sapporo - Ino's Place located near Subway Shiroshi Stadium (10 min bus from JR Shiroshi Station)

Kawaguchiko - K's House. Train or bus to Kawaguchiko Station

Kyoto - K's House located 10 min walk from JR Kyoto Station

Tokyo - K's House Tokyo, 1 min walk from Kurumae Station

I haven't decided on a hostel in Osaka yet.

The JR Pass does not allow you to travel to all station in all cities. It is only valid on JR trains going to JR stations. The night train from JR Sapporo to JR Tokyo-Ueno is not free for JR Rail Pass ( plus 12 000 Yen ), the day trains and shinkansen are. Did you check flight costs Sapporo return? You can make use of the cheaper 14 day JR Rail Pass when starting day 9, arrival single ticket, Sapporo flight, Kawaguchi and Fuji-san by bus from Tokyo-Shinjuku. Kawaguchiki and Fuji-san is non JR area, even with JR Pass you would need extra transport.
Tokyo K House Kuramae station is a nonJR subwaystaton, nearest JR station: Asakusa bashi station

I was aware that I would be required to pay the limited express fee as well as possibly a few additons regarding the overnight sleeper train. I was planning to travel by train not plane to firstly get value of my JR Rail Pass and secondly, enjoy the experience and scenery of the ride.

I was also aware of the need to buy a pass to travel in and around Kawaguchiko.

I will ensure I find maps of the Jr Lines in each city to compare distances. We won't mind paying the odd taxi or extra fare to get from point a to point b.