Hello r/japantravel, a couple of friends and I will be travelling to Japan for 10 days in early April. Would like to see if there’s any feedback for our itinerary if there’s anything unsuitable.
D1
1300 touchdown /
EVENING walk around dotonbori,
Osaka Bar Hopping Night Walking Tour in Namba
D2
USJ
D3
MORNING nara park /
NOON osaka castle /
NIGHT umeda sky building
D4
MORNING osaka->kobe /
stay in traditional hot-spring inn (arima onsen tocen goshobo) /
NOON walk around arima town
D5
MORNING mount rokko hike /
kobe beef lunch STEAK AOYAMA /
NOON walk around kobe port
D6
MORNING kobe->tokyo /
NOON shibuya /
NIGHT shibuya sky
D7
MORNING tsukiji outer markets /
omakase lunch /
NOON walk around ginza, big uniqlo
D8
harajuku?
D9
MORNING teamlabs /
NOON?
D10
akihabara
D11
MORNING tokyo->osaka /
NOON flight
Furthermore, I would like to check the most cost-worthy JR pass option. Due to the limitations of our flight, we have to travel back to Osaka on the last day. I was thinking, is it possible to get the 3 day Kansai Thru-Pass for the first day 3days, to get from KIX->osaka->kobe, then get a 7 day jr pass to get from kobe to tokyo (D4), and back to osaka KIX from tokyo on the last day. Are there any limitations to this? Or are there better cost options? Or is the 14 day JR Pass the way to go here.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you and have a nice day!
2 comments
Unless you’re doing more than a full tokyo osaka round trip on the shinkansen, jr pass is not a money saver. Jr pass also puts you on the slower/ less frequent trains, so you can lose upwards of 30 minutes to 2 hours for each transfer instead of the nozomi/Mizuho lines.
You should just buy direct tickets, unless you’re planning on round trip to kanazawa, hiroshima, kyushu, or hokkaido on one of your days. And even then, just do 7 day jr.
7 day jr pass: $236 = 32100 yen
Osaka to tokyo : 13870 yen each way (27740 total)
Osaka to Kobe: 1520 yen each way (3040 total)
Osaka/nara/kyoto are mostly not jr pass trains (maybe 40%?) And tokyo is about 50/50 subway vs JR.
It is probably about a wash in total money, so I’d strongly recommend buying direct tickets from the shinkansen jr counters or machines when you need them.
The first 3 days are not worth a thru pass. Sometimes people seem to think they have to use a pass…. You don’t. Just get an Icoca, or the tourist version called Kansai one pass (it is not a pass, you will have to pay individually for each trip using the ic card.
The 7 days pass would save little to no money, you might prefer to buy two Shinkansen tickets and use the Nozomi train.