Hey, making the trip to Japan Mar 1-8 as a group (4 guys, mid 20s), and getting everything prepared to lock in ASAP. Looking to stay in Asakusa but open to other options. We’re looking at Akihabara, Hakone, Shibuya for day trips and maybe a night out in Shinjuku. Wanting a nice mix of city bustle, nerd culture, shrines and nature.
My main concern is we’re considering a 1 night trip in Kyoto for the shrines and ryokan, and wondering if its too much hassle/money to buy a JR Pass for 1 night. It would be towards the end of the trip so we don’t have to organize a second hotel back to Tokyo, as we need to start/finish there for our flights.
Heres a rough outline of what we have planned so far. Days are planned around visiting 1 major area.
Day 1 (1/03): Flying and arrival
* Arrive in Narita at 6:30PM
* Sort Suica card
* Train out to hotel (likely Asakusa)
* Grab dinner nearby, have a wander
Day 2 (2/03): Asakusa
* Senso-Ji Shrine, Asakusa-Jinja
* Check out Tokyo Skytree, Pokemon Center
Day 3 (3/03): Night out in Shinjuku
* (insert thing to do during day)
* Train to Shinjuku, explore the area
* Omoide Yakucho Izakaya dinner
* Drinks at Deathmatch in Hell, Bar Psy
* Wander around Kabukicho, check out the lights
* Train/Taxi? back
Day 4 (4/03): Shibuya
* Sleep in, recover
* Train in, check out all the statues around the station
* Visit Meiji-Jingu Shrine, Miyashita park
* Shibuya Crossing
Day 5 (5/03): Akihabara (big gamers/anime nerds in the group)
* Train in, spend morning perusing Super Potato, Mandarake
* Grab easy lunch, check out the Arcades & claw machines
* Find somewhere nearby and nice for Food, drinking and karaoke?
Day 6 (6/03): Hakone
* Train to Hakone (need rail pass?), get Hakone free pass
* Visit Hakone Shrine
* Explore Hakone, Lake Ashinoko cruise, Fuji spotting
* Owakudani?
* Train back
Day 7: Kyoto (?)
* Big train trip
* Check into ryokan, drop off luggage
* Visit Fushimi Inari Shrine
* Evangelion Kyoto Base
* Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
* Visit Onsen
* Return to ryokan
Day 8: Kyoto -> Tokyo, leaving
* Check out of Ryokan (what do we do with the luggage? D:)
* Train back to Tokyo, Train to Narita (arrive early)
* Depart from Narita 8.05PM
Is this doable? Should we buy JR rail passes or will the Suica do us? Would you add/remove/reorder anything?
Thanks!
2 comments
It’s not a good use of your time/money to go to Kyoto for just a night. Instead, consider staying the night in a place like Nikko that also has a lot of temples/shrines or spend the night in Hakone so that day isn’t so rushed. Kawagoe or Kamakura are also good day trip options with a traditional feel.
– [Nikko 1 Night or Day Trip Itinerary](https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tochigi/in-nikko/article-a0003340/)
– [Hakone Navi: Trip Itineraries](https://www.hakonenavi.jp/international/en/course)
– I’ve used a combo of thr sample itineraries below to plan visits to these locations. It’s pretty easy to pick and choose which places you’re most interested in.
– [Live Japan: Kamakura Day Trip](https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-kanagawa/in-kamakura/article-a0003564/)
– [Truly Tokyo: Kamakura Day Trip](https://trulytokyo.com/kamakura-day-trip-itinerary/)
– [Enoshima isn’t far from Kamakura and this itinerary is spot on.](https://trulytokyo.com/enoshima-island-day-trip-itinerary/)
– [Kawagoe ‘Little Edo Tokyo’ Day Trip](https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-saitama/in-saitama_suburbs/article-a0005134/)
If possible, best to do these day/overnight trips on a weekday as there won’t be as many local Japanese tourists as there will be on the weekend.
Without even looking at the itinerary, I do not think it is worth the time and money to go to Kyoto for a single day. There is plenty of ryokan in the Tokyo region and as a bonus many of them have onsen, for example in Hakone, Kawaguchiko, Nikko and Izu peninsula. There is also plenty of temples and shrines in Kansai, yes, they might not be the famous temples of Kyoto, but still. Kamakura could be a nice day trip for that.
You can get the Narita Express discount round trip ticket from Narita if you go to more central Tokyo, if you stay around Asakusa, then get on the Keisei Sky Access. Also if you get on Keisei, might as well get a Pasmo from them instead of a Suica from JR (both card can be used the same way).
If you want to party late into the night in Shinjuku, you will have to take a taxi back as the train stop around midnight. If you want to avoid paying for an expensive taxi, just make sure you catch last train or just stay around Shinjuku and walk back to your hotel.
Hakone, you do not need a rail pass, at least not if you do not go to Kyoto (and as I said I think it is not worth the time and money to barely spend a day in Kyoto). If you go to Hakone, there is two main way to do it. Using the Romancecar from Shinjuku or using the Shinkansen to Odawara. If you stay closer to Shinjuku, then the Romancecar will be the better and cheaper option, but if you stay for example in Asakusa, it can take close to 1h longer to go to Hakone (but would still be cheaper). In this case, you can get the Hakone Free Pass from Shinjuku and pay the extra for the romancecar. On itself, going to Odawara by shinkansen would cost something like 3000 yen one way, so you could do this 10 times before getting to the value of the 7 days pass, so you bet it’s not worth getting the JR pass.
Instead of going back to Tokyo on the day you go to Hakone, just stay there and do the onsen and ryokan in Hakone.
Actually Kyoto is really not known for onsen, so it make no sense to go there for onsen when you could do it in Hakone. Also Hakone is a know spot for Evangelion fans as it’s the fictional location of Tokyo-3 and they have (or at least had) an Eva shop there.
Because you plan on a night in Shinjuku and a trip to Hakone, I would say that staying somehow close to Shinjuku would make a lot of sense for you, for example Shibuya would also make sense.
For bamboo, you could go to Kamakura and for torii gates, it’s not as famous but you could check Hie-jinja, as the Sannoinari shrine right next to it have a staircase with lot of torii.
You could leave your luggage in Tokyo during your night in Hakone, just ask the hotel to keep it for a night.
​
So I would say do not go to Kyoto, do not get JR Pass, just Hakone free pass and all the rest on Suica/Pasmo.