Looking for Advice (Trains, Theme Parks, Museums)

14 comments

1. This is based on my experience but since by the sounds of it you’re only there/free for a limited time the more you can do in Tokyo the easier the trip will be for you. The bullet trains are fast, but they still take time to get to places. It takes about 2 hours-ish to get to Kyoto and another 2 ish to get back. So I dunno if you really want the hours traveling when there is quite a bit to do in Tokyo.

   Shinjuku I find to just get yourself lost in it and you’ll find things that’ll interest you.

   As for food…….eat everything lol

2. Huge train nerd here.

   TL;DR Just go to one in Omiya. And maybe Tokyo Subway Musuem.

   Is one museum hugely better than the other? Depend. The one in Nagoya has Maglev. The on in Kyoto don’t. You can take a steam locomotive in the Kyoto one. If you are planning trip around taking train, I would go to all three (Kyoto – JR West, Nagoya – JR Central, Omiya – JR East), but unless you actually know the Japanese railway system in depth, I don’t think you will anything better than the other.

   As for Seikan tunnel, if you are just taking Shinkansen through, no I don’t think it’s worth it.

3. dont travel in may unless the olympics are canceled

4. >I’m generally a junkie for transportation, infrastructure and 20th century history.

   Same, my friend! 100%!

   But it seems like you don’t even have one full day free? Just two half days and 1+ nights?

   If I were you, and I wanted to experience that list of things, I’d really try to get my company to fly me out earlier or push my return flight later. And if I couldn’t, I’d pare down expectations. SkyTree and exploring Asakusa at night can be done on a night of the conference. JAL123 exhibit you can see if you arrive or depart from Haneda at a time corresponding to when the tour is offered; if not, that will take a half-day. Saitama (Omiya) rail museum is a half-day at minimum (the ones in Kyoto/Nagoya are futher), DisneySea is a half-day at minimum (Fuji-Q is too far away from Tokyo to fit in a half-day) , a shinkansen round trip with lunch and nothing else is a half-day… so given that you have two half-days, the only way to finish your “really want-to-do” list is to cut off things or to get more time. You definitely would not have time to go to Hokkaido/Seikan Tunnel but that’s OK, as — even for a rail fan — riding the shinkansen through a tunnel is not especially interesting.

5. Fuji-Q was awesome! 100% recommend if you can fit in your trip

6. SkyTree should not be a problem later in afternoon just check the schedule and night view can be really nice, I’ve been on top of other tall building at night, and I prefer it over day.

   Don’t expect to have much time an energy to do much on the day of your arrival, so at the end, you do not have much time. I would highly advise you to fly in on saturday and back on sunday, so you would at least have two full days to visit. If not possible, you should reconsider your plans and try to avoid places that take over an hour of transit to reach.

   So with your limited time, I woul choose a closer train museum, such as Omiya and go on saturday as it seem to be the only time tou have free time in the day. And as silly as it might sound, if you absolutely want to ride the shinkansen, you can use it to go to Omiya station from Tokyo station. If you really want to ride the shinkansen, you can also just take a 30min to 1 hour train in any direction from Tokyo and go back. There is shinkansen that run late, so it might not be impossible to do on a week day depending of your conference schedule.

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   So if you are able to have a full day, then yes, you can think about these other options.

   I went trough the Seikan tunnel when there before and after the shinkansen, and appart from being able to say “I went”, that was nothing really special for me, and would not have been worth 10 hours of my time. I think there is thinks that are more interesting than that for people who like train. For example, I would absolutely prefer to ride one of the joyful train ( [https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/joyful/index.html?src=gnavi](https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/joyful/index.html?src=gnavi) ) than passing in a tunnel.

   I did the Ban’etsu monogatari. The SL was under maintenance, so did ride a DL, but it was really fun. Of course it depend on the schedule if it run when you go, but on the flyer I got, they show that it’s possible to take the shinkansen to Niigata at 7 AM, then return to Tokyo at 10PM. Between the two rides on the SL train, you can spend about 2 hours in Aizu Wakamatsu or almost 3 hours in Kitakata. It would also be possible to go to Koriyama and take the shinkansen back to Tokyo from there too. So if you have a full day available, I would recommend that over the tunnel a million times.

   Fuji Q is a bout 2 hours from Shinjuku, so a bit more to Haneda. Probably not the right place to go on the day you fly out of Japan. The Kawaguchiko area is interesting, so If you want to gamble on a chance to see Mount Fuji, I think it would be worth going, but considering the 4 hour transit to go, I would probably make more sense to properly spend a day there.

   Actually, if you really want to do Hiroshima, it’s possible to take the train at 6 in the morning an be at Hiroshima before 10. However, I do not think it is worth the cost of the train ticket and the long hours spent in the train, I don’t even think that Kyoto would be worth as a day trip from Tokyo.

7. >Arrive Monday afternoon depart Saturday afternoon. I’ll have Monday night, Friday afternoon and evening and Saturday morning and afternoon free.

   That is almost literally zero time. You basically have an afternoon and a morning–THAT’S IT. I definitely wouldn’t leave the Tokyo area at all. In fact, even if you had a full week of free time, I would strongly urge you to stick to one region. If you ride the Shinkansen at all I would do it just for the experience and I would just do it over a short section (e.g., to Odawara or Omiya). Japan’s transit system is good, but until they develop a teleportation device, this itinerary is impossible…hell, even if they did, it would be too much.

   >Shinkansen trip Tokyo Sky Tree One of the Railway Museums Japan Air Safety Center (JAL 123 exhibit) Either Fuji-Q Highland or Tokyo Disney Sea

   Okay….when? Several of these things are full day activities and you don’t have a single full day. Skip the theme parks entirely–spend what minuscule amount of time you have actually seeing the country.

   >For the rail museum, I’m thinking I can either do the JR museum in Kyoto or Nagoya combined with a Shinkansen trip on Friday afternoon or do the JR museum in Tokyo one day

   It will take you more than half a day just to get to Kyoto and back, and it’s patently ridiculous to go all that way for just one thing. I usually recommend roughly 6-7 full days just as a starting point for the highlights of the Kyoto area. And Nagoya is nearly as far.

   >and save Friday to take a rail trip north through the Seikan Tunnel. Is one of the museums hugely better than the others? Am I over hyping taking a 10 hour round trip train ride to go through the tunnel?

   Yes. Completely. The tunnels are literally the most boring part of any Shinkansen trip–and frankly the riding the Shinkansen isn’t all that interesting to begin with after you get over the initial excitement (especially compared to some of the gorgeous scenic train rides in the country like the Hida Wide View or Inaho).

   >Does a half day for FujiQ Highland or Disney make sense?

   No. Skip them. If you had 2 full weeks I would still recommend skipping them.

   >I’m from Florida so really only want to check out a few of the unique attractions if I went to Disney, but leaning towards FujiQ unless Disney is good to go after 5p one day for a few rides and fireworks. Thinking I can do a few hours at either park (like 6) on Saturday before flying out.

   Fuji-Q is like a 4+ hour round trip from Shinjuku, and even longer if you’re coming from somewhere that’s not on the western side of Tokyo…and again, you’re giving yourself no time to actually see the country. Skip it.

   >I’m assuming getting to Hiroshima is a non-starter as a day trip because I’ll get there too late for anything to be open unless I play hooky one day.

   Yes. That would be insane. I think I don’t even recommend doing it as a day trip from Kansai, and the round trip from Tokyo is 6 hours longer.

8. i am not really enjoy skytreestrip tokyo+ bulettrain.
   only place having fun and most rememberable is osaka universal studio.
   you can eat anything there i guess

9. Considering opening times of the exhibits/museums in questions: you would need to visit JAL Safety Promotion Centre on Friday afternoon (exhibit takes two tours daily Monday to Friday, at 11am and 3:15pm).

   For railway museum, JR East’s Railway Museum in Omiya is practically the only reasonable (on Saturday morning).

   Now, for a shinkansen trip, there are only two somewhat reasonable options:

   * take a short trip from Omiya to Ueno/Tokyo station following your visit to the museum
   * following your trip to JAL Safety Promotion Centre, taking a round trip from Shinagawa to Atami or Odawara

10. When it comes to Tokyo Disney Resort, half a day is fine for Tokyo Disneyland (Pooh’s Hunny Hunt and the Monsters Inc ride are a must). But if you want to see Disney Sea I recommend a full day. It has several unique attractions and is quite ho early one of the most u I que and beautiful Disney parks (I say this as someone who’s been to all of the parks outside of Shanghai and Hong Kong).

    Sadly you’ll miss out on the fantasmic show at Disney Sea, but Disneyland has the Electrical Parade which is amazing! Also the hungry bear restaurant in Frontierland has fantastic pork cutlet curry (for an amusement park).

    Edit: in re reading the timeframe you were trying to fit this into I’d recommend skipping the parks. If you had more time I’d recommend it, however I’d stick to exploring Japan more and enjoying more Japanese specific sites instead.

11. I’ve been to ANA’s maintenance center tour near Haneda Airport. You would need to book in advance. JAL also host these free tours, but also need to book ahead. I doubt both offer English guides, but you get to look at the behind the scenes which is pretty cool.

    Skytree, as others said, is doable at night after a conference. Railfan tip here: You can take a short ride on Tobu’s comfy limited express trains (Revaty, Ryomo, Spacia) without additional limited express fare ONLY between Tokyo Skytree station and Asakusa.

    The Tokyo Monorail between Haneda Airport and Hamamatsucho is a great ride. If you happen to fly to Narita, take the Skyliner. Fastest non-Shinkansen ride in Tokyo.

    If you want to take unique trains, try half a day or evening in Odaiba taking the Yurikamome with the nice front view. Or a daytrip on the Saphir Odoriko to Odawara or Atami (Odawara has a castle and is the gateway to a more popular onsen town Hakone and Atami is a seaside onsen town), with the Tokaido Shinkansen on the way back to Tokyo. Another possible daytrip is Nikko, again with Shinkansen and JR Nikko Line on the way there and taking one of Tobu’s Limited Express trains on the way back. Or how about Romancecar from Shinjuku to Hakone.

    The Shinkansen between Tokyo and Omiya is underwhelming because of speed restriction to limit noise to nearby residential areas. You could try the Green Car on the Tohoku/Takasaki/Ueno-Tokyo/Shonan-Shinjuku Line for a comfy ride with an elevated view.

    I say no for FujiQ Disney, and visiting other cities far from Tokyo. Not with this short itinerary.

12. To be honest you don’t have time for around trip I think . You should spend time in Tokyo !
    Fuji-Q is Yamanashi prefecture! It’s far from Tokyo! I recommend TDL (Tokyo Disney Land) or TDS instead of it!
    How about robot restaurant ? It’s in Shinjuku ! I think you might enjoy to watch several shows in there 🙂 I’ve never been there though lol .
    And rail way museum is in Omiya too! It takes about 45 mins by train from Shinjuku ! No transfer ! Super easy !!
    I hope you would have a great time in Japan!!

13. I tried to do a half day in DisneySea on a weekday, and felt like it really wasn’t enough time (only managed one ride).

14. I’m going to japan also in May 2021 only for a week and idk if thats enough time😣