How does this itinerary look...any suggestions?

[atan64]

Originally Posted by Wagamama

Hey man i like ur plan it has alot of good spots in it.But personally i feel ur being a tad too ambitious with it ,ur pretty much spending lot of time traveling which is something i 'd hate,Plus ur travelin in such a big group it could be abit taxing while doing so.Just my 2cents i think its very reasonable to do Tokyo + Kyoto + Osaka within ur time,even still transport is still gonna be costly.u could hit himeji when ur staying in kyoto/osaka its not that that far.Doable.
hope this helps=).Kobe isn't a must go now because its not nicely decorated like it always is during december.Nara is a nice place for the family especially for the kids(deer feeding)

Hi Wagamama, thanks for your input, I appreciate it. I scaled this itinerary back from my original plan. I was going to see Takayama and Kanazawa as well, but I figured that was a bit much....so I took that out of my plans.

We figured it would be better to not bounce from one hotel to another and stay for longer durations in one city rather than hauling our luggage with us everywhere. Just take some day excursions. Regarding your comment on transport costs, are you talking about travelling around outside of our Rail pass that we would have?

I guess the good thing with day trips is that we are not obligated to do them if we feel exhausted from travelling so much. I understand what you are saying...we need to find a happy medium and see what Japan is all about without getting burnt out, because I don't particularly like that type of travel myself.

Regarding Himeji, you figure I should see it when we are settled in Kyoto? I thought it would be better to have a quick visit on our way to Hiroshima. But then again it would be easier to see it after we have dropped of our suitcases off at a hotel in Kyoto. Speaking of hotels, we are thinking it may be a good idea to look into apartment rentals since we are staying there for 7 days...most are minimum own week rental. Anyone have any good suggestions?

[atan64]

Originally Posted by Blitzwing85

Sounds like a good plan to me. Obviously a lot of travelling involved but i just did a similar thing in Egypt last week and although tiring, it didn't spoil the holiday.

I'm not sure how long it takes to Japan from BC, but i live in the UK and it takes about 20 hours, plus a 9 hour time difference meaning i lose an entire day.
So i'm looking at going for 3 weeks and spending some time with a Japanese family in Kyoto.
Obviously in my case it'll just be myself and my partner and i've never been and have no relatives there so i feel it's the best way for me to experience the culture.

Hotels seem reasonable to be honest. I expected them to be more expensive. I usually stay in 5* accomodation, and the 4* and 4.5* hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka seem very reasonably priced. On par with Las Vegas, which i visit frequently and find luxury accomodation is cheap. (compared to the Uk at least).

Anyway, i'm jelous...i wish i was going. But i've just got back from holiday, and have Vegas in June. So it'll be 2011, maybe even 2012 before i visit Japan!!

Greetings! Awesome that you're going to Japan as well!

Regarding travel time from BC, it's about a 10 hour flight. Our body clock will be wacked out for sure because I thing Japan time is about 17 hours ahead of ours.

Cool that you are going to Vegas, I love going there...been there a few times. Actually you can get some terrific deals on hotels in Vegas, right on the strip. Vegas is one massive playground for adults It is hard to take it all in at times...kind of like drinking water from a fire hose, if you know what I mean

[Wagamama]

Originally Posted by atan64

Hi Wagamama, thanks for your input, I appreciate it. I scaled this itinerary back from my original plan. I was going to see Takayama and Kanazawa as well, but I figured that was a bit much....so I took that out of my plans.

We figured it would be better to not bounce from one hotel to another and stay for longer durations in one city rather than hauling our luggage with us everywhere. Just take some day excursions. Regarding your comment on transport costs, are you talking about travelling around outside of our Rail pass that we would have?

I guess the good thing with day trips is that we are not obligated to do them if we feel exhausted from travelling so much. I understand what you are saying...we need to find a happy medium and see what Japan is all about without getting burnt out, because I don't particularly like that type of travel myself.

Regarding Himeji, you figure I should see it when we are settled in Kyoto? I thought it would be better to have a quick visit on our way to Hiroshima. But then again it would be easier to see it after we have dropped of our suitcases off at a hotel in Kyoto. Speaking of hotels, we are thinking it may be a good idea to look into apartment rentals since we are staying there for 7 days...most are minimum own week rental. Anyone have any good suggestions?

I do not know much how about these rail passes works(the trains that are good for etc) and how much it costs,But i do know that the daytrips i took,from osaka to himeji for example was pricey for me.Exactly how do u intend to make a quick stop on ur way to hiroshima at himeji?will u be on a shinkansen or something?wouldnt u have ur luggage with u?

[atan64]

Originally Posted by Wagamama

I do not know much how about these rail passes works(the trains that are good for etc) and how much it costs,But i do know that the daytrips i took,from osaka to himeji for example was pricey for me.Exactly how do u intend to make a quick stop on ur way to hiroshima at himeji?will u be on a shinkansen or something?wouldnt u have ur luggage with u?

We can get a 2 week JR rail pass for around $700 cdn per person, which will give us unlimited travel throughout Japan. As far as seeing Himeji, we are going to store our luggages in the lockers at the Himeji train station.

[Blitzwing85]

Originally Posted by atan64

Greetings! Awesome that you're going to Japan as well!

Regarding travel time from BC, it's about a 10 hour flight. Our body clock will be wacked out for sure because I thing Japan time is about 17 hours ahead of ours.

Cool that you are going to Vegas, I love going there...been there a few times. Actually you can get some terrific deals on hotels in Vegas, right on the strip. Vegas is one massive playground for adults It is hard to take it all in at times...kind of like drinking water from a fire hose, if you know what I mean

I almost went with a friend 5 years ago but i was a very fussy eater and it put me off. Thankfully i eat most things now so it's ok. What a silly reason not to visit my dream destination...but i was VERY fussy.

Yeah i think it would be 17 hours. Vancouver is 8 hours behind the UK and Japan is 9 hours ahead of me...that'll really hit you hard!!! But, in my experience the tiredness is overcome by the excitment of seeing a new place...and usually just hits you once you return home.

Yeah it's great there, i went for my 21st and then again when i turned 23. Now i'm going again just before i turn 25. It's becoming a bit of a ritual. I don't gamble though as it happens...weird eh.
I was also looking forward to a good days shopping but the exchange rate is terrible now so i won't be saving as much money. Shame as the UK is so expensive. I've just bought 1 outfit last night (jacket, jeans, t-shirt, belt) and it cost me £240. Isn't it just Women's clothes which are meant to be a rip off??? It was only Superdry and G-star...


Anyway..sorry i go on and on because i'm at work, filling in my day.
By the way BC looks amazing, it's another 1 on my list. So much lovely scenery. I was actually contacting engineering ocmpanies in Calgary Alberta recently hoping i could try to emigrate there but it's kind of hard finding a job in another country!!!

[atan64]

Originally Posted by Blitzwing85

I almost went with a friend 5 years ago but i was a very fussy eater and it put me off. Thankfully i eat most things now so it's ok. What a silly reason not to visit my dream destination...but i was VERY fussy.

Yeah i think it would be 17 hours. Vancouver is 8 hours behind the UK and Japan is 9 hours ahead of me...that'll really hit you hard!!! But, in my experience the tiredness is overcome by the excitment of seeing a new place...and usually just hits you once you return home.

Yeah it's great there, i went for my 21st and then again when i turned 23. Now i'm going again just before i turn 25. It's becoming a bit of a ritual. I don't gamble though as it happens...weird eh.
I was also looking forward to a good days shopping but the exchange rate is terrible now so i won't be saving as much money. Shame as the UK is so expensive. I've just bought 1 outfit last night (jacket, jeans, t-shirt, belt) and it cost me £240. Isn't it just Women's clothes which are meant to be a rip off??? It was only Superdry and G-star...


Anyway..sorry i go on and on because i'm at work, filling in my day.
By the way BC looks amazing, it's another 1 on my list. So much lovely scenery. I was actually contacting engineering ocmpanies in Calgary Alberta recently hoping i could try to emigrate there but it's kind of hard finding a job in another country!!!

Yes, I think we will be on a high when we land there. My wife and I are planning to go to London and Paris next year...so excited about that too! Just looking at the currency conversion now for the GBP. Wow the GBP dropped...I used to remember not too long ago that 1.00 GBP was worth around 2-2.25 cdn dollars....now it's around 1.50 cdn. It would be good for us to travel to the UK right now. The banks here are projecting our Canadian dollar to surpass the USD within the next few months. I think I smell a quick trip over to Vegas and do some shopping. Funny you say that you are not much in to gambling. My wife and I are totally the same when it comes to that...we find it kind of boring and it sucks all are money when we do try. I guess it could change are attitude if we hit it big once in a while. We love going there for the ambience, shopping and the shows. We love checking out the Cirque du Soleil shows, and there are so many of them now.

Good luck with your job hunting...you would love it here! We had a great time here when we had the 2010 Winter Olympics...such a blast

[jbradfor]

Originally Posted by atan64

Oct 29th - take the train from Kyoto back to Tokyo and spend two more
nights before heading back home to Canada. This will give us
about 3.5 days in Tokyo in total to explore.

Oct 31st - Depart Narita Airport.

The only change I would suggest is consider spending all the time in Tokyo in one block, unless you have a need to split it. This will save you one extra pack luggage / check-out / check-in / unpack, which should give you about an extra half day to tour. I assume your flight out of Narita leaves late afternoon (most flights to NA seem to)? If so, you should be able to go from Kyoto -> Narita -> home all in one day. A bit longer than Tokyo -> Narita -> home, but the only real difference is a 2.5 hour train ride.

[atan64]

Originally Posted by jbradfor

The only change I would suggest is consider spending all the time in Tokyo in one block, unless you have a need to split it. This will save you one extra pack luggage / check-out / check-in / unpack, which should give you about an extra half day to tour. I assume your flight out of Narita leaves late afternoon (most flights to NA seem to)? If so, you should be able to go from Kyoto -> Narita -> home all in one day. A bit longer than Tokyo -> Narita -> home, but the only real difference is a 2.5 hour train ride.

We thought about that and we figured it may be easier on us to get settled back in Tokyo and sort of wind down a bit before we take the last train back to the airport. It's 6o minute from Tokyo and it's 256 minutes (4.3 hrs) with 1 transfer from Kyoto according to Hyperdia. We wanted to shorten our return trip home because with having to be at the airport early for International travel (about 3 hours) and then for the long flight home, may be a bit taxing, especially with my parents that are well into their 70's.

But I know what you mean, you still have to haul your luggage back to the hotel and out again.

[jbradfor]

Yeah, I agree it's a trade-off. We're going to do the all-in-one-day way in a couple of weeks (no 70-year-olds, but a 2-year-old). If you want, I'll post how it went.

[atan64]

Originally Posted by jbradfor

Yeah, I agree it's a trade-off. We're going to do the all-in-one-day way in a couple of weeks (no 70-year-olds, but a 2-year-old). If you want, I'll post how it went.

That would be awesome, please do