Single traveller first time to Japan

Hi friends,
I am new to this website. I am a Chinese living in Sydney. This is my first time to Japan, and I will travel by myself and staying in hostels (buget traveller). I will travel from Sydney to HK(1wk) to Japan (2.5wks) to HK(2.5wks) back to Sydney.

1) 6/5 or 7/5 arrival to Japan?
I want to go to Japan from HK on either 6 or 7/5/09. I know that 6/5 is a public holiday (Golen wk). Should I avoid arrival in Japan on 6/5?

2) Arrive in Osaka or Fukuoka?
I will buy the 14 days JP pass. I would like visit Japan from south to north. From HK, I can arrive in Osaka or Fukuoka airport. Should I arrive in Osaka airport and spend few days in Kyoto and start use the JP pass from D5-D18? Then, I can travel south to Hiroshima few days, then to Nagoya, Takayama to Tokyo few days then to Sapporo few days.
Or should I arrive in Fukuoka airport, and spend few days in Fukuoka/Hiroshima?

3)Visit Hokkaido or not?
I heard that Hokkaido is a beautiful place to visit. I know that it will take 17 hrs (long hours) by night train from Tokyo to Sapporo. I wonder whether I should visit Hokaido this trip?

4) Attractions in Hokkaido
If I decide to spend 4 days in Hokkaido, what are the attractions/must visit places that you will suggest?

5) Towns to stay overnight
I will stay in hostel(e.g. YHA) and I know that the check in time is around 4pm. I don't want to move between hostels too often as I will lose time on sight seeing when moving hostels (packing, looking for hostels in new town, etc). I rather stay in the same hostels for few nights and using my JP pass to travel 2 hrs between towns. Which towns/how nights will you suggest to stay? E.g. Kyoto, Hiroshim/Fukuoka, Tokyo, Sapporo? How many nights? Any suggestions for cheap accommodation? YHA is about 3300 yens/night.

I am very interested to visit Japan for my first time. I have been reading till 3-4am few nights, however, still not sure how to plan my trip. I hope that you can help me by telling me your suggestions/advices. Looking foward to hear from you!

Regards,
Kylie

1) If you can, it may be wise to avoid May 6th; people will be returning home from their holidays, so the airport will be relatively crowded.

2) For an idea for your itinerary, you can use this function on this website:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2400_osaka_15.html
Unless you are interested particularly in Fukuoka or Kyushu, I would suggest Kansai/Osaka.

3) Rail travel to Hokkaido is quite time-consuming. Unless you are keenly interestsed in Hokkaido (skiing in winter or flowers/summer resort in summer) I might suggest skipping Hokkaido this time altogether, particularly seeing that it's the first time for you in Japan.

4) You can stay overnight in Kyoto to see Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, and Himeji maybe; you could do a day trip from Kyoto to Hiroshima, or you could stay overnight in Hiroshima. So that's for the western part of Japan.
You can stay overnight in Tokyo and do day trips to Nikko, Kamakura, etc. but you will need to come up with a rough itinerary to work out the details.
For budget travel suggestions, please also refer to the different sections of this website for more information - there are reasonably-priced guesthouses and backpacker's hostels. Have fun planning!

Thanks for your answers! They are very useful for me to plan my trip! Are you a Japanese staff who working on the website to answer questions?

Some are Japanese in Japan, others are from various nationalities and live in Japan or abroad. Some are very familiar with Japan, others less. We aren't staff, just travellers who help other travellers. Did you read the section A-Z at the very top? this is what I first read to learn everything about japan before my first trip to Japan, years before I started writing on this blog.

Thanks to all respondants! This is a great and helpful website! You told me that people who answer the questions are travellers. However, there must be some staff working in the website (from Japan) to screen questions, put onto the website, answers questions, etc.
I am looking at this website now because I plan to travel to Japan and would like more information. For people (local or travellers) who have already visited Japan or living in Japan, not planning to travel to Japan again yet, will they look at the questions and answer others' questions? If yes, I am very thankful for travellers to contribute their time and energy in helping new travellers. I love loggin to this website to learn more about Japan! Kylie

KylieChan,

You told me that people who answer the questions are travellers. However, there must be some staff working in the website (from Japan) to screen questions, put onto the website, answers questions, etc.

There are people (I don't know who they are) who created this site and put in all the information on Travel, Living, etc. all those sections, of course. For the Questions forum, yes, the same people who created this whole site must be the administrators (who don't appear on the threads themselves) who screen the questions and answers, and ensure the usefulness and the good atmosphere of this forum, for which I am grateful. But people who (like myself) post answers on this "Questions" forum based on their own knowledge/experience are just visitors to this siste - maybe other travelers, or residents of Japan, myself included :)

Yes, thanks to all who spend time and energy to answer questions (travellers, residents, website workers, etc). This website is great, it has a great impact on promoting Japan! I really love this website! What about other people??