Hello!
My wife and I have visited Japan before – we spent three weeks, visiting Tokyo, Osako and Kyoto, and had a fantastic time. I speak some Japanese, but don’t read Kanji well. I also plan to get mobile internet, to make it easier to navigate. This trip, we are taking our god-daughter to Japan, for her graduation gift, and returning in mid-June. She’s heavy into Hello Kitty!, so we plan to visit Sanrio Puroland and Tokyo Character street. I really wanted to visit Hokkaido in the winter, but I am settling for a summer visit. I plan to rely heavily on our JR passes and get a Pasmo in Tokyo.
I want my family to experience a hot spring, stay at a ryokan when possible, and take some time to go paddleboarding. Here’s my pass at our itinerary: Tokyo -> Sapporo -> Noboribetsu -> Hakodate -> Sendai -> Tokyo, June 17 – 30.
June 17 – arrival in Tokyo and orientation
June 18 – visit Ginza and Akihabara for shopping and nightlife (Pachinko and Karaoke!)
June 19 – Sanrio Puroland
June 20 – Odaiba and Tokyo bay (updating my 2008 picture at Tokyo Teleport station)
June 21 – Chiba ward and food tour
June 22 – Shinkansen to Sapporo, Toyohiro ward sightseeing
June 23 – possible day trip to Furano to see the lavender fields
June 23 – Sapporo food tour and cooking
June 24 – sightseeing
June 25 – Train to Noboribetsu, stay at a ryokan with onsen
June 26 – Train to Hakodate, stay at a ryokan
June 27 – Shinkansen to Sendai, sightseeing
June 28 – Go paddleboarding
June 29 – Shinkansen from Sendai to Tokyo
June 30 – Depart Tokyo via Haneda
I admit, it’s a fair amount of train time, but I don’t think it’s too excessive. **My primary concern is: On our last day, is it safe/reasonable to expect to be able to travel from Sendai to Tokyo with little or no disruption to the schedule?** My wife asked to stay longer in Sendai, then take the train a few hours ahead of our flight. I know trains run on-time, but is this a good idea or just reckless? I can see on-time percentages for the lines in question, but it’s hard to feel highly confident in the accurate of this data (some of the data is in Japanese and web translations don’t appear very accurate).
Any comments or suggestions are welcome!
2 comments
I strongly encourage flying up to Sapporo on June 22. The train takes the whole day, whereas domestic flying in Japan is very civilized (no need to arrive hours in advance at the airport, staff are universally polite) and there are many low-cost carriers keeping fares low.
The train is very reliable HOWEVER some delays are unpredictable, for example because (tw) someone jumped in front of the tracks. Imagine the stress if this causes you to be late for a transpacific flight, last minute rebookings are very expensive.
If your flight on June 30 is in the evening then I would be comfortable catching a morning train to avoid a hotel change, I would not take the “last possible train” to arrive at the airport in advance of check-in.
>June 22 – Shinkansen to Sapporo, Toyohiro ward sightseeing
Is there a reason why you prefer shinkansen over a flight?
>On our last day, is it safe/reasonable to expect to be able to travel from Sendai to Tokyo with little or no disruption to the schedule?
I personally wouldn’t do that before an international flight. I’d arrive in Tokyo the night before to be on the safe side. Shinkansen disruption is rare but you’d be taking other trains as well to get to the airport, and people sometimes delay those trains by jumping into train tracks.