Hi there,
My wife and I are going to spend 12 days in Japan between 22 December 2016 and 2 January 2017. Because of the holiday period some must-see attractions (as indicated below) will be closed between 28 Dec and 1 Jan and thus we were forced to include Nagasaki and Hiroshima on specific dates as I do not wish to miss any of the two.
We came-up with the following itinerary:
Thrs 22: Tokyo
Fri 23: Tokyo/Kyoto
Sat 24: Kyoto
Sun 25: Kyoto
Mon 26: Osaka
Tues 27: Osaka
Wed 28: Nagasaki/Hiroshima
Thrs 29: Hiroshima (Miyajima Island)
Fri 30: Tokyo
Sat 31: Tokyo and Lake Kawaguchi
Sun 1: Tokyo and Yudanaka (Snow monkeys)
Mon 2: Tokyo
The choice of visiting Nagaski before Hiroshima is merely to avoid a night stop over there and put our luggage in Hakata station instead. In addition, Nagasaki A bomb museum will be closed on 29 Dec.
We were thinking of activating a 7-day JR pass on Friday 23 Dec to make the most out of it.
Is our reasoning/itinerary correct/feasible? How can we plan which trains to take in advance? In addition, is it necessary to book JR pass trains in advance considering that Japan is quite hectic at that time of the year?
Many thanks for your help. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Best regards
Silvan