Hi,
I am travelling to Japan over 3 week and below is what my itinerary looks like. Keen to get your thoughts whether 21 days JR pass would pay off?
I am flying in & out of Narita airport:
Tokyo - 4 Nights
Hakone - 2 Nights
Takayama - 2 Nights
Kanazawa - 2 Nights
Kyoto - 5 Nights
Hiroshima - 2 Nights
Osaka - 3 Nights
Tokyo - 2 Nights
Thanks in advance.
0
Comments
It would be far better and you'd get a lot more value if you left Tokyo and returned in 14 days on a 14 day pass.
You can run the numbers yourself on:
http://www.japan-guide.com/railpass/
For Hakone, take the bullet train from Tokyo and get off at Odawara Stn., then to save money, buy a Hakone Free Pass.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2358_008.html
After seeing the area, return but go to Mishima Stn., then catch the next bullet train to Takayama via Nagoya. The Hakone Loop Course
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5210.html
is a common way to see the area.
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 could also go and see Kobe.
Instead, I suggest you take at least half a day and see Nara - it was also a former capital and has some of Japan's best sights. Nara is often neglected by some tourists, which is a shame. Missing the Todaiji Great Buddha would be a tragedy. Nara Park has a lot of other great places, such as Kasuga Shrine, Kofukuji Temple, and feeding the many deer in the area.
Seeing Iwakuni, which is just beyond Miyajima in Hiroshima, is also well worth seeing.
If you use the 14 day pass, a cheap way to/from Narita is the 1000 yen bus.
http://accessnarita.jp/en/home/
You can see previews of some of the best places to see in Japan on:
https://www.youtube.com/user/thejapanfaq/videos