14day itinerary advice, bikes, JR pass

Hi, it's going to be my first time in Japan with 3 others. The four of us hope to spend around 2 weeks in Japan to be able to get the most out of it. We are most interested in Tokyo, hiking Mt. Fuji, biking around, experiencing Japan's history in Kyoto, temples, funky technology, exciting our taste buds, and experiencing some Japanese shopping.

We don't mind staying in hostels or sleeping in trains.

Our trip is to take place between July 24-August 7 which is semi-flexible. Our itinerary is still completely open to change. We're trying to budget as much as possible and are having trouble deciding which JR pass to purchase. Is buying a 7 day JR pass and then maybe purchasing single day passes a good option for us?

Our current drafted itinerary is:

Day 1: Arrive from airport and settle in Tokyo and do some light sightseeing. Plan to book a hostel like K House, open to suggestions?

Day 2: More of Tokyo .. maybe a tour

Day 3: Day trip to Yokohama from Tokyo

Day 4: (Day trip to or should we completely move/sleep in Kamakura?) Kamakura from Tokyo

Day 5 (and maybe another day?): hike Mt. Fuji in the evening and see the sunrise. Resting in a hostel? again. Is bike rental available?

Day 6: Takayama

Day 7: Osaka

Day 8: Hiroshima

Day 9-11: Kyoto for biking around and seeing sights. Also staying in a hostel.

Day 12-14: More Tokyo


We are open to cutting out places, adding more nights in suggested places, moving the order of places to visit around etc in order to make using a 7 day JR pass doable .. but would it be worth it? Should we just go for the 14 day pass?

About how much is getting around Tokyo in a day cost? And Kyoto?

And has anyone been able to rent a bike during their travel?

Yes a 7 day JR Pass, starting day 6 from Tokyo to Takayama and ending day 12 back in Tokyo, is a very good deal at Yen 28300 compared for example Tokyo - Hiroshima - Tokyo single ticket bought in Japan Yen 38000.
Kamakura is one hour by train from Tokyo, so it�fs a daytrip.
Make the trip to Fuji san by direct bus from Tokyo, easier than via Kamakura.
Another day trip from Tokyo can be Nikko.
For Kyoto or Takayama think about one night at a ryokan and not a hostel. Takayama, Kamakura and Kyoto is good for biking, I would not recommend for Tokyo and Yokohama.
On day 12 you can leave Kyoto early, go by shinkansen till Odawara, leave luggage there at a locker, buy Hakone Free Pass, make the roundcourse, finally from Odawara ( and with luggage ) by shinkansen to Tokyo in the evening.

Your trip sounds remarkably like my first trip to Japan, in August of 2006 with 4 of us trying to see as much of Japan as possible, including Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima. If you plan on traveling that much, a rail pass is a good idea, but you're probably better off with a normal rail pass (as opposed to Green). If you'll be in Kyoto, I HIGHLY recommend a day trip to Arashiyama. Also, getting to Mt. Fuji from central Tokyo can take upwards of 6 hours (we found that out the hard way and couldn't make it to the top as a result), so be sure to plan accordingly. A bus from Shinjuku might be a better idea. I love talking about my trip, and if you want any more pointers or details or any other kind of help, I'd be happy to help. Hope you have a great trip.

wow, what helpful advice!

I think we'll be using our JR pass between Day 6- Back to Tokyo.

Is getting around Tokyo expensive or difficult? Do you recommend JR, subway, buses, taxis?

Do you recommend any ryokans in particular?

And Brian, I'd love to learn more from you especially regarding your traveling around those 2 weeks and recommended sites? Was it too rushed? Were you happy with the amount you saw?

I'm really looking forward to climbing Mt. Fuji so we will definitely plan that carefully. Do you recommend staying an extra night there? Is a day trip good enough?

And we'll look into Arashiyama as a day trip also. We haven't planned the small but important details (sites to visit, where to sleep) within the day schedule yet, so any recommendations would be much appreciated!

It is very easy to go around Tokyo using mostly the JR Yamanote line, an elevated loop line that goes around the downtown area 23 main neighbourhoods (Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, Ginza, Akihabara, Ueno etc.) in about 1hr. One train goes around downtown clockwise, another goes counterclockwise. Check google for details on the Yamanote. You can use subways from the loop line stations to a couple of other places like Asakusa, Roppongi and use an automated LRT or a boat to go to Odaiba. all these fast transit systems have signs using the Latin alphabet. Cabs are not that expensive but are often stuck in traffic and then the fare goes up. Few drivers speak English. Buses are also stuck in traffic and it is not not easy to figure where the lines go.

Our trip did feel a little bit rush, but I think that was mostly just because we underestimated travel times by a lot. Without going into too much detail right now, our trip went something like this:
Day 1: Land at Narita Airport around 3 or so, get the train straight to Kyoto, arrive at our ryokan around 8 or 9, and go right to bed.
Next, we spent a day each seeing Nara, Osaka, Eastern Kyoto, and Arashiyama.
Got up early the next day to get the shinkansen to Hiroshima and saw the Genbaku Dome and Peace Museum, but all 4 of us felt the strains of exhaustion (sore back, sore feet, headache, and fever) at this point and we had to cut our sightseeing short to get to Miyajima that night.
Saw the giant Torii at Miyajima the following morning and almost immediately left for Matsuyama. All told, that leg of the trip (ferry, train, streetcar, other ferry, bus) was probably close to 8 hours, so we couldn't do much there other than the public baths.
Left early the next morning for Himeji. Took most of the day getting there, cause Matsuyama is very out of the way, so we didn't actually go to the castle until the following morning. From Himeji, we went to Tokyo, where we spent the last 4 or 5 days.

We did all that in about 2 weeks, and it sounds to me like you're not going to Matsuyama, so I see no reason you can't do all the other things you want to do. My personal advice is just to leave yourself one day to relax, whether it's just taking a walk around downtown or spending half the day sleeping.

If you want to get an idea of travel times yourself, the two sites I use the most are JR Hyperpedia and Jorudan. I may have spelled those wrong, but if you do a Google search for those you should be fine. And as far as lodging goes, we've only stayed at ryokans, so I don't have an opinion on hostels, but if you do opt for a ryokan, we do all of our booking through japaneseguesthouses.com.

I think I covered the most important basics for before you get there, but if you want to talk more, you can also email me at pagano dot brian at gmail dot com (sorry for spelling it all out, but I'm paranoid about spybots sending me junk mail).

Brian, can I ask about your trip from Miyajima to Matsuyama. Taking the ferry etc. is exactly what I have been contemplating doing. Obviously it was a very long trip, longer than I have been anticipating. I know the ferry trip is 3 hours but don't quite see why it took as long as it did. Was it waiting for transfers between the various types of transportation.

Do you think it was worth it and was the trip on the ferry itself pleasant? I thought it would be a nice change from catching trains. At least we wouldn't be rushing straight off like you. We would probably spend 3 nights on Shikoku before moving on. Any info you can give me would be appreciated.

thanks so much again. wow, i love this forum :)

I checked out Hyperdia again and I'm starting to get the hang of how to use it! I wonder why it was so complicated to me in the beginning.

I will definitely plan on sleeping in/taking it easy while we're there. I can totally imagine us sore and exhausted within a few days.

Did anyone make it to the seaside? I wanted to somehow work in experiencing some of Asia's most beautiful seascapes.

Are our day trips to Kamakura or Takayama recommended or should I replace 1 with Nikko or resting/taking it easy in Tokyo?

Sadly, I didn't get to spend too much time in Tokyo, so I can't offer too much in the form of what are the really good spots to see. However, I would recommend Tokyo Tower, as it is likely going to be closing down in the very near future with TV going from analog to digital.

As far as the Miyajima to Matsuyama trip goes, our travel time was a result of both bad timing on our part and wanting to save a little bit of money as it was near the end of our trip and we wanted to have some extra spending money left by the time we got to Tokyo. Our first problem was just getting off Miyajima. There is a high speed ferry you can get from Miyajima to Hiroshima in about 50 minutes if I remember right, but we missed it about about 15 minutes, and the next one wasn't for another 3 or 4 hours. So instead we had to take the ferry to Miyajimaguchi and then the local train back to Hiroshima, and then the streetcar to Hiroshima port, which came to about 2 or 3 hours anyway. We had to wait about another hour from when we got to the port to when our ferry left for Shikoku, and we chose the cheaper 3-hour ferry over the more expensive 1-hour ferry. From there, we were waiting for a bus for probably at least a half hour, and the bus ride was I think around 45 minutes more to the hotel itself. I honestly thought the ferry from Hiroshima to Shikiku was fine, but if you can, I definitely recommend the high speed ferry from Miyajima to Hiroshima. It will save you lots of time, and if you're traveling with tons of luggage like we were, you won't want to be carrying it around for 8 hours on local trains and buses. It's just no fun.

Many thanks for the info Brian. I hadn't appreciated that we actually need to go to Hiroshima Port to take the ferry to Matsuyama. Taking the fast boat straight across sounds a lot less complicated, even if we have to pay for it. I had a quick look at the ferry times from Miyajima to Hiroshima and the seems the first we can catch is not until 10am. So we won't be catching an early ferry over to Shikoku. Obviously it is all going to add up time wise. Does the ferry take you past lots of the little islands on the way? In other words was it a nice trip sightseeing wise, or is it just a means of transportation to the island?

Sadly, when we went there was a typhoon (monsoon? I always confuse the two) going through, so we stayed inside the ferry and didn't get to see much of anything. But, just knowing that there are little islands everywhere in Japan, I would be very surprised if it didn't take you past some great views on the way. Of course, that's not to say the high speed ferry wouldn't go past the same sights. If you have the money, you may not be missing much by taking the high speed as opposed to the slower ride from Hiroshima to Shikoku, especially if you're not taking the high speed ferry from Miyajima to Hiroshima for the first leg.

Brian, once again thanks for your help. We will have to look into the logistics a bit more and see what works best and weigh that up against having the free travel with our JR Pass. I do still like the sound of a ferry trip though.