Hi,
We are doing a 10 day trip, arriving in Tokyo on 15th October night and leaving on 25th evening.
We plan on spending 1 day sightseeing within Tokyo, one day of a day trip from Tokyo to either Kamakura or Hakone and possibly adding another day trip to one of Nikko, Ichinomiya beach or Hitachi seaside park.
Then we plan on heading to Hiroshima and also doing Miyajima.
Then we plan on spending 5 days (6 nights) in Kyoto - covering Himeji Castle (day trip from Kyoto), Arashiyama, Golden and Silver temples, Gion, Nijo Castle, Kiyomizudera and Fushimi inari shrine.
Then we will head back to Tokyo on the 25th for our return flight that evening.
I am thinking of getting a 7 day JR pass that we will activate when we go from Tokyo to Hiroshima (should cover those 7 days) and also a 3 day Tokyo-wide pass for the initial few days in Tokyo. Does this seem like an economical plan? Will the JR pass help in visiting the places we have in mind and will the Tokyo-wide pass also help with the day trips we are considering?
Thanks!
Arthi.
0
Comments
A 7 day pass from Tokyo down to Hiroshima and back would give you tremendous savings. For the Tokyo day trips, the Tokyo Wide Pass is also a great idea and still comes up cheaper than the 14 day pass.
Since you are already seeing Tokyo, you can largely skip Osaka during the day. After the temples of Kyoto close down around 5PM, you can zip over to Osaka for the evening. At night the city comes alive and has some great places to see, such as Dotonbori, plus the night views from the Umeda Sky Bldg and Abeno Harukas Bldg are wonderful.
On another evening, you can also go see Kobe.
You should also spare at least have a day for Nara, which has some of Japan's best sights.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2165.html
There are some good previews of the places you plan to see on:
https://www.youtube.com/user/thejapanfaq/videos