Hi everyone,
My boyfriend and I will visit Japan for our very first time this November. We have a few questions; most of them I’ve tried to Google myself, with no avail. I hope you can help us out!
Our plan is the following (dates are written DD-MM):
1. sa 04-11 Arrival – Tokyo
2. su 05-11 Tokyo
3. mo 06-11 Tokyo
4. tu 07-11 Yudanaka
5. we 08-11 Kanazawa
6. th 09-11 Takayama (via Shirakawa-go + Gokayama?)
7. fr 10-11 Takayama
8. sa 11-11 Kyoto
9. su 12-11 Kyoto – day trip Arashiyama
10. mo 13-11 Kyoto
11. tu 14-11 Kyoto – day trip Nara (or Kyoto – Osaka via Nara?)
12. we 15-11 Osaka – day trip Himeji + Okayama?
13. th 16-11 Osaka
14. fr 17-11 Osaka – day trip Mt. Koya + Wakayama?
15. sa 18-11 ??
16. su 19-11 Hakone
17. mo 20-11 Tokyo – day trip Kamakura (or Hakone – Tokyo via Kamakura?)
18. tu 21-11 Tokyo – day trip Nikko
19. we 22-11 Tokyo
20. th 23-11 Tokyo – Departure
Our interests are food, historical architecture, buzzing trendy neighbourhoods, parks/gardens and anime (Gundam, Ghibli amongst others) and JRPG. We much rather explore ‘street culture’ and eat street food than go for fancy experiences.
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The questions I have are:
1. We have one day unplanned. Where would you advice we stay another day?
2. We’re travelling in November: are there highlights we can’t visit (Mt. Fuji seems to be closed, for example) or close much earlier? Or highlights which are especially nice in November?
3. For the day trips to Nara and Kamakura I’m wondering if it’s better as a day trip (from Kyoto and Tokyo respectively) or if it’s better as a ‘transfer’. So from Kyoto, via Nara, to Osaka and from Hakone, via Kamakura, to Tokyo. In the latter scenario I’m wondering if there’s luggage storage/lockers at the train stations.
Bonus questions (I’m meaning to look up more about this myself, but maybe you can help me out?):
1. Japan rail pass will almost double in price per October 2023. Will it be worth it?
2. I heard some towns will have one day per week where everything is closed. Which towns and which days?
3 comments
You can buy the jr pass from klook earlier is its a exchange and you have 3 months to exchange it so you can get the cheaper price
>we 15-11 Osaka – day trip Himeji + Okayama?
th 16-11 Osaka
fr 17-11 Osaka – day trip Mt. Koya + Wakayama?
Those day trips are going to be mostly sitting on trains, I think. Doing Himeji only from Osaka is probably fine. That would be about three hours or so roundtrip. Adding on Okayama adds more than 2 more hours of train time on that day. Similarly, Osaka to Koyasan is over 2 hours each way. Adding Wakayama to that is really pushing it. You won’t have time to really see anything while there. Why not just use a hotel/hostel in the places you want to visit on day trips?
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>We have one day unplanned. Where would you advice we stay another day?
I’d advise you to decompress some of the day trips into that time or add a night to Hakone.
>We’re travelling in November: are there highlights we can’t visit (Mt. Fuji seems to be closed, for example) or close much earlier? Or highlights which are especially nice in November?
What do you mean by closed? You can’t climb Mt. Fuji in November, but you can certainly visit the surrounding area and view the mountain. Otherwise, depending on the area, you might see some of the autumn leaves. You will probably be a bit early to see them in Kyoto, where some temples have really vibrant Japanese maple trees, but you could get lucky.
>For the day trips to Nara and Kamakura I’m wondering if it’s better as a day trip (from Kyoto and Tokyo respectively) or if it’s better as a ‘transfer’. So from Kyoto, via Nara, to Osaka and from Hakone, via Kamakura, to Tokyo.
It depends on how much you plan to do on those days. If you do them as day trips, you need to leave time to travel back each day. I’d probably do them as transfers to reduce the backtracking and overall time spent on trains.
>In the latter scenario I’m wondering if there’s luggage storage/lockers at the train stations.
All major train stations have luggage lockers. They can sometimes fill up, though. My advice would be to pack light. One 30-40 liter backpack should be all you need for such a trip. Alternatively, you can use the Yamato luggage transfer service to send your luggage from one hotel to the next.
>I heard some towns will have one day per week where everything is closed. Which towns and which days?
In my experience, this isn’t determined by a town, but by each business owner. If there are must-see or must-eat places on your itinerary, I suggest you research ahead of time to see what their days and hours of operation are and plan accordingly.
Use your unplanned day as an extra day in Nikko. You’ll go and wish you’d had more time there, it’s stunning in November and there’s too much to comfortably see in a day, especially if you’re planning to see Chuzenji lake and Kegon falls.