roblow101 0 Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 hey guys my brother and i have booked a 16 day trip with return flights to osaka. just after some general advice on how to plan the trip exactly. we plan on snowboarding for about 5 days in Hakuba and travelling n doing touristy things for the rest. i understand that a JR ticket is gonna cost me about AUD$550 for 2 weeks which seems a lot of money (a little less than wat we paid for flights!), particularly if we will be staying in hakuba for 5 days and wont be using the pass that much. my question is: is it worth buying the 2 week pass or should we only buy a 1 week and then pay for the rest of the travel separately. ive tried to do calculations based on the JR site but its a little confusing and im sure some of you would have a better idea about it. im thinking if we DO buy the 2 week pass then i'd wanna be using it a hell of a lot. keeping in mind: * we dont mind the order of doing things * we hope to go to tokyo, kyoto, hiroshima at the least * buying only a 1 week pass will leave 9 days of paying for separate travel alternatively there is the option of extending how long we stay in the snow, but it is our 1st trip to japan and intend to explore the country and experience the culture in the short time we have. any advice would be greatly appreciated, cheers! Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 assuming you do only buy the one week pass, 1 week between Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima doesnt leave you much time in those places. Round trip tixs between Tokyo and Kyoto are roughly 22,000 yen and roughly the same between Kyoto/Osaka and Hiroshima. Guess it depends on how long you really wanna spend in those places as to if the 1 week pass is enough time for you. Link to post Share on other sites
roblow101 0 Posted October 8, 2008 Author Share Posted October 8, 2008 thanks creek boy. yeh 1 week does seem quite short. this is my proposed itinerary if i was to buy the 2 week pass: 3days osaka 2days hiroshima 3days kyoto 3days tokyo 4days hakuba/nagano hows that sounding in terms of getting my money's worth of travel? would u guys recommend spending more/less time in any of these places, or going to other places? Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 what do you want to do in Osaka? Honestly, if you have time to kill, fine stop in. But, I really dont see why you would want to spend 3 days in Osaka. Instead, add a day to go to Nara, or another day in Hiroshima or Hakuba. Dont waste your little time in Osaka - Id spend it somewhere else Link to post Share on other sites
roblow101 0 Posted October 8, 2008 Author Share Posted October 8, 2008 yeh thats wat others have told me aswell. is hiroshima worth 3days??another day on the slopes sounds good, i mite do that instead Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 A day on the slopes is ALWAYS better than a day in a city Link to post Share on other sites
skidaisuki 0 Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Hi robbo, Hiroshima's a nice city but I don't think you need 3 days there - you could do Miyajima in the morning and Peace Park etc in the afternoon and that's about it. I'd allocate one day & one night max. Sorry Osakans, but from a tourist's perspective I think Osaka's a bit of a dump as well - unless you want to go to Universal Studios Japan or see one of the festivals. Better to spend the time in Kobe which is a much more compact and beautiful city, and from there you can do Kyoto (bear in mind Kyoto is only a matter of minutes from Osaka and Kobe by shinkansen, which, with the rail pass, you have unlimited use of (except for the fastest "Nozomi" trains). My suggested itinerary would be as follows (assuming a 2 week rail pass): a. Osaka Tokyo (transit) Hakuba - 12 days skiing Tokyo (transit) d. Osaka ....only kidding.... a. Osaka train to Kagoshima (Kyushu) - 1 day Kagoshima to Nagasaki - 1 day Nagasaki to Fukuoka - 1 day Fukuoka to Hiroshima - 1 day Hiroshima to Kobe - 3 days in Kobe / Kyoto to Tokyo 1 night in Tokyo to Nagano & Hakuba 5 days Hakuba to Tokyo - back to Osaka (or from Hakuba you could go via Nagoya i/o Tokyo I think) d. Osaka The bits to drop (if you want more than one night in Tokyo for example) would be either Kagoshima - right down south, dominated by a huge volcano, Sakurajima, in the bay - or Nagasaki. I think that Fukuoka, Hiroshima and Kobe should definitely be higher priorities than Osaka. I'm afraid you'll have to work out the economics of the 1 or 2 week pass decision, but friends who recently used them calculated that a weeks pass paid for itself just based on one return trip from Tokyo to Kyoto, so you'll probably find a 2-week pass is well worth the money and will enable you to change your plans anytime as well. Hope this helps SdS Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 I got a Kyoto trip in November. Arriving in Osaka, we're gonna keep our eyes shut until we get to Kyoto. not my idea of course. Link to post Share on other sites
spenshal-Mechanic-triplet 0 Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Is that fun or work? Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 fun, but not my idea of fun. Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Well.... have fun!!! Link to post Share on other sites
roblow101 0 Posted October 9, 2008 Author Share Posted October 9, 2008 thanks for your help sds! that sounds like a pretty full-on itinerary but seems like a great option to see plenty of japan. quite certain we'll be gettin the 2 week pass. based on wat most people have told me it seems the way to go. has anyone got a rough idea of how long it would take from osaka to kagoshima or nagasaki? Link to post Share on other sites
skidaisuki 0 Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Kyoto in November'll be a lot nicer than Kyoto in summer. You won't miss any skiing, so what's the problem? Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 it's not my definition of fun. But that's just me..... and a few hundreds of millions. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Kobe is not a beautiful city! Its more attractive than Osaka and Nagoya, but that is not saying much, especially since it is much smaller and there is less to do. A number of smaller Japanese cities are much nicer than Kobe. The way Kobe people go on, you'd think it was Vienna or Florence! Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 > a. Osaka train to Kagoshima (Kyushu) - 1 day Kagoshima to Nagasaki - 1 day Nagasaki to Fukuoka - 1 day Fukuoka to Hiroshima - 1 day Hiroshima to Kobe - 3 days in Kobe / Kyoto to Tokyo 1 night in Tokyo to Nagano & Hakuba 5 days Hakuba to Tokyo - back to Osaka (or from Hakuba you could go via Nagoya i/o Tokyo I think) d. Osaka It'll take you the better part of a day just to get to Kagoshima so why bother? Really. I think Fukuoka/Nagasaki are nice places but 1 day each? I would never wanna do 1 day city trips in my life. To get to Kagoshima from Osaka would probably take you round 6 hours or more. You wouldnt get much outta a day trip vacation IMHO. Better off spending a bit more time in a select few areas and really take them in. Unless you dont like relaxing....or if youre single and wanna party in Fukuoka The girls there are Im sure youll have a great trip regardless Originally Posted By: spenshal-Mechanic-triplet Is that fun or work? X2 >The way Kobe people go on, you'd think it was Vienna or Florence! Yeah, kinda like the way the food can be expensive but the quality shite sometimes. I sometimes laughed at the restaurants in Ashiya who thought they were so posh but dished out dogfood Still tons of great restaurants though. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts