Planning a trip way in advance, both because we know it’s when we’ll be available and in the hopes that things that changed because of the pandemic will be more back to normal by then. Tickets for that far out should be going on sale soon, but it seems like even 11 months in advance, it might be hard to get a business class award.
Background: I’ve been to Japan a few times, and passed JLPT level 2 when there were only 4 levels. Mom has never been and doesn’t speak any Japanese, so she’s worried she’ll be completely dependent on me. Because I’ve already been, there may be some “obvious” things to do that we’re skipping because I’ve already done them and she doesn’t want to.
# Day 0, 16 Oct (Mon): Arrival
My flight from SFO arrives at HND around 3pm; her flight from YYZ arrives around 3:40. We activate our 14 day Japan Rail passes with the first active day being the 17th, then take surface transport (maybe limousine bus) to our hotel, probably in the Maihama area.
# Days 1-2, 17-18 Oct (Tue-Wed): Tokyo Disneyland/Sea
We’re planning to do one of the parks each day. My plan is to start with Sea because it’s the most different from other parks, but I could be talked into doing Land first on the day we’ll be most jet-lagged.
# Day 3, 19 Oct (Thu): Hakone
Shinkansen to Odawara, then Hakone Tozan railway ($) to Hakone. The single thing my mom is most interested in is the Pirate ship, which will require taking the ropeway. I assume we’ll do the open air museum on the way. I originally thought we’d go out the way we came in, but it seems like instead of taking a round trip on the pirate ship we can just get on a bus to Mishima, which may be better for getting on a Hikari rather than a Kodama. Either way, we continue on the Shinkansen to Osaka where we spend the next 3 nights.
# Day 4, 20 Oct (Fri): Osaka
Main targets are Osaka Castle and the Museum of Housing and Living. We’d definitely go to the Bunraku Theater if there’s something showing while we’re there, but we might be a few weeks too early.
# Day 5, 21 Oct (Sat): Nara day trip
Osaka Loop Line to JR Nara in the morning. Most of the interesting stuff in Nara is in Nara Park, but I would like to see the Heijo Palace which is quite a bit west of it; may end up being a day-of audible based on how we’re doing time-wise. Return to Osaka on the loop line in the evening.
# Day 6, 22 Oct (Sun): Himeji
Shinkansen to Himeji in the morning. Tour the castle, then go to the Floating Rock Temple in Takasago. Shinkansen to Hiroshima in the evening, and overnight there.
# Day 7, 23 Oct (Mon): Hiroshima
Mazda factory and museum tour in the morning. (They stopped offering the tour in English with the pandemic; hopefully they will have restarted by October for my Mom’s sake.) Miyajima in the afternoon. I’ve been to the Atomic Bomb museum and my mom isn’t interested in going, so we won’t. Shinkansen to Kyoto in the evening.
# Day 8, 24 Oct (Tue): Kyoto
Thinking of a loop route like Fushimi Inari Taisha, Kiyomizudera, Imperial palace, Nijo castle, Railway museum, Toji. Will stay in Kyoto again, so there’s a chance of doing something at night if it’s well-lit, but we will want to be up early in the morning.
# Day 9-10, 25-26 Oct (Wed-Thu): Takayama
Taking the Hida express to Takayama–probably the 8:30am direct from Kyoto for convenience, even if it’s slower than taking the Shinkansen to Nagoya and catching one of the more frequent departures from there. On arrival take the Sarubobo bus to Hida Folk Village. (Will probably have ekiben for lunch on the train to maximize time there.) Considering the time of year, it will probably be dark by the time we finish so any further sightseeing will be difficult, but eating Hida beef counts as a tourist activity. In the morning, see the morning market, Old Town, Jinya, and maybe the local history museum. In the afternoon, take the Hida to Toyama and transfer to the Hokuriku Shinkansen west to overnight in Kanazawa.
# Day 11, 27 Oct (Fri): Kanazawa
Since all the major points of interest are on the loop bus, it seems like we could probably do almost everything? May pass on the Suzuki and 2oth century museums since I don’t really know who DT Suzuki is and we will have seen a bunch of modern art at the Hakone outdoor museum. In the evening, take the Hokuriku Shinkansen east to Kurobe-Unazukionsen and transfer to the Toyama Chiho railway to get to Unazuki.
# Day 12, 28 Oct (Sat): Kurobe Gorge
Take the Kurobe Gorge Railway to Keiyakidaira, stay until we’re natured out, then take it back to Unazuki, take Toyama Chiho to Kurobe-Unazuki, and take Hokuriku Shinkansen to Tokyo. No particular neighborhood for the hotel stay. This will be a train-heavy day, but at least the Kurobe Gorge Railway will be scenic.
# Day 13, 29 Oct (Sun): Tokyo
General sightseeing with a preference for stuff that could take a lot of time. Mom saw someone’s mention of TeamLab Planets here, and it seems interesting to her. Should we also do TeamLab Borderless? Would be nice if the Edo museum weren’t being refurbished for multiple years.
# Day 14, 30 Oct (Mon): Tokyo and Departure
General sightseeing with a preference for individual quick stops. Things like Sensoji, or neighborhoods of interest. We will be carrying our rolling backpacks since we’ll have checked out of the hotel. Eventually take Narita Express to NRT for flights to our respective homes departing around 6pm.
Hopefully that’s enough detail; I’m happy to fill in anything more in the comments.
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3 comments
The Pirate ship technically do not REQUIRE to take the ropeway, you can reach both Togendai and Moto-Hakone via bus. But unless you have a deep fear of ropeway, it is absolutely worth using it and stopping via Owakudani. You should check but usually doing the whole loop you can save money using the Hakone Free Pass.
I also do not understand why you way Mishima is better, the Hikari stop at both Mishima and Odawara station, it’s just that not all Hikari stop at these two stations.
Heijo palace is “far”, but you can just take the Omiya Street Route bus at Kencho-mae/Nara Park stop next to Kofuku-ji and ride it to Suzakumon-hiroba stop. Will cost a bit 100 yen and 23 minutes. Return from the North side after visiting the palace museum, like Nihocho bus stop to JR Nara station, 27 minutes and 290 yen.
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I know it’s not the same, but Tokyo National Museum in Ueno park is still a really nice history museum, different from Edo-Tokyo, but still really good. Can expect Borderless to be re-open by the time you go, as to know if you should do both teamLab exhibit, from what I heard, they do share a lot in common, I think some of the rooms are practically the same, but they are also quite different. But if you only have barely more than a day to visit the whole Tokyo, I would not spend it in two somehow similar art exhibitions. If you like art, at leas do something different like Mori Art Museum and you can get to Tokyo City View as they are both together on top to Roppongi Hills Mori Tower.
Also if you visit Senso-ji before going to Narita, there is a direct train from Asakusa, it’s the Keisei Skyaccess. Yes, it cost 1310 you would have to pay instead of the free N’EX. Or do senso-ji the previous day and something more centra the day you fly out.
For Kanazawa, you can definitely see the main sights in a day if you skip the museums. Focus on Omicho Market, Higashi Chaya district, Kenrokuen and Kanazawa Castle – this might take you most of the day. The samurai district and “Ninja” temple are only if you have time.
It just occurred to me that we would spend less total time on trains if we took Thunderbird from Kyoto to Kanazawa, then went to Takayama from the Toyama side, then on to Kurobe Gorge, because of how much faster Thunderbird is than Hida. (Also, connecting from Shinkansen to Hida at Nagoya can’t save that time on the JR pass because Hikari is just enough slower/less frequent than Nozomi that we’d never make the connection.) It seems like Hida would be more scenic since it follows a lot of rivers. Is Thunderbird very scenic? It looks like it’s just enough inland from the Sea of Japan most of the time that you wouldn’t be able to see it.
(We would move Hida Folk Village to the second day in Takayama in this version because the crafts center is closed on Thursdays.)