Quote:
Originally Posted by sarasi
I'm kind of confused that you say that you have paid for 2 weeks at the Shinjuku Washington hotel but are going to Hokkaido, Kyoto and Yakushima during your two week trip- how does that work? Hokkaido and Yakushima can't be done as day trips...
As far as I know, the ferry from Kagoshima to Yakushima is not covered by the JR pass, so unless you have paid for it already, I think that 800 pounds is not going to be enough. That would be a bare minimum for a 2 week trip without including Yakushima really. If you could bring 1000-1200 pounds you would have a lot more leeway.
Incidentally, you can get a big bowl of noodles for closer to 400-500 yen.
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I can see how that would confuse you! The hotel was included within the package deal, although we don't intend on staying there EVERY night. We'll use it as kind of a "base camp". The intenton, particularly with regard to Yakushima and Hokkaido was to stay in youth hostels for a night or 2 at the very most, and take advantage of free accomodation where possible (mountain huts etc.). I'm pleased to say i've mustered up £1200 spending money, so as you said, we'll have a lot more leeway
I've done the route planning for Yakushima, and you're absolutely right - the JR pass doesn't cover the ferry. I'm expecting to pay around 14.000 yen return for a hydrofoil.
The JR pass covers the entire train journey:
Tokyo - Okoyama or Shin-Osaka - Hakata = 6 - 7 hours
Hakata - Shin-Yatsushiro roughly 100 minutes
Shin-Yatsushiro - Kagoshima: roughly 45 minutes
Ferry to Yakushima - 2 - 4 hours
We'll find a youth hostel upon arrival at Kagoshima, explore, sleep, explore some more, ferry to Yakushima, find a youth hostel in Yakushima, explore, ferry back to Kagoshima and a long train journey back to Shinjuku.
Still finalising Hokkaido..
Thanks for the tip about the noodles!