I am working on the itinerary for our honeymoon trip to Japan this fall and I would love another pair of eyes on the transportation aspect. This will be our first trip, it feels relatively straightforward, but I'd love some more experienced folks to chime in if you have the time for the questions below or to point out any glaring issue I may have missed. I really tried to do my homework, but please be kind if I've made some mistakes. Also, I don't need any advice on the order of cities or length of stay in each as these are fixed for this trip!
1 night in Tokyo: Land at HND, taking limo bus to Shinjuku Sta., staying at a hotel right near Shin-Okubo Sta. for one night.
2 Nights in Hakone: Departing from Shinjuku Sta. via the romance car to Hakone. Will get off at Hakone-Yumoto Sta., take Hakonetozan line to Chokokunomori Sta, which is near our hotel.
2 Nights in Osaka: Take Hakonetozan line to Odawara, then Sanyo shinkansen to Shin-Osaka, then Midosuji line to Namba Sta. which is a short walk to our Airbnb.
2 Nights in Hiroshima: From Shin-Osaka we'll take the Sanyo shinkansen to Hiroshima Sta, which is right near our hotel. (Hoping to do a trip to Miyajima via the ferry one of the days.)
3 Nights in Kyoto: From Hiroshima Sta. we'll take the Sanyo shinkansen to Shin-Osaka, then X to Kyoto Sta., then a bus to Kojin-guchi, which is close to our Airbnb.
4 nights in Tokyo: We'll depart Kyoto Sta. via X to Tokyo Sta., then take public to Asakusa Sta near our airbnb. (Possibly stop in Yokohama on the way there from Kyoto.)
Finally, we'll take the limo bus back to HND.
*X = TBD (see note 2 below)
A few notes/questions:
1) I know the romance car to Hakone isn't worth it to everyone, but we'd prefer to take it and will likely try to book the observation seat tickets. From what I gather, we can use the Hakone Freepass (figured I'd get the version for the Hakone area only as it looked like the other with transport from Shinjuku would be redundant with the romance car, but please correct me if I'm interpreting that incorrectly?) and then buy the limited express ticket for the romance car separately.
2) The regular JR Pass didn't seem worth it for this trip, however, the Kansai-Hiroshima Area Pass sounds like it would be. If that's the case, we would likely just pay for the shinkansen from Odawara to Shin-Osaka, then activate the pass on our last day in Osaka. Use it to get to and in Hiroshima and Miyajima. Then when we go to Kyoto, it sounds like the shinkansen wouldn't be covered so we could take one of the other options included (or pay out of pocket for the shinkansen) instead for that section, same for Kyoto back to Tokyo. Hoping I'm understanding that correctly?
3) We'll have IC cards for the rest.
4) Lastly, I was curious if anyone has taken some of the special trains like the Hello Kitty shinkansen (I think this would be included in the KHA Pass), Kintetsu Aoniyoshi limited express, the Sagano Romantic train, or any others that you may recommend incorporating.
by alwayskayr