Hi Daniel,
Appreciate your sharing on the rail travel in Japan.
This is currently my itinery which should still be able to do some slight tweaking:
I reach early morning 8AM to Tokyo, and will have last 2 days in Tokyo without JR pass and leave at night unless I do not activate my JR pass on the
2nd day but on 3rd day instead.
I'm planning to take the shuttle bus to Tokyo Station from Narita Airport which should be the most economical option as compared to NEX.
I'm planning to get the 21 days Ordinary JR Pass for my travel but have undecided yet whether I should be getting local passes for Tokyo/Osaka/Kyoto and Sapporo. Can you provide any advice and comments on my itinery if possible?
(JR Pass day 1 - activated on 2nd day) Tokyo (18-19 Apr) – Tokyo City/Fujikawaguchiko Sakura
(JR Pass day 2) Tokyo – Nagano (20 Apr) – Nagano town/Matsumoto on 2nd half upon reaching Nagano?
(JR Pass day 3-7) Nagano - Kanazawa (21-24 Apr) – Jigokudani/Shirakawago/Takayama/Toyama/Tateyama Alpines
(JR Pass day 7-11) Kanazawa -> Kyoto/Osaka (25-28 Apr) – Nara/Osaka Aquarium/Dotonbori/Kyoto City
(JR Pass day 11) Kyoto - Tokyo (29 Apr) – stay nearby Tokyo Station for transit.
(JR Pass day 12) Aomori (30 Apr) – Aomori Town
(JR Pass day 13-15) Aomori - Hakodate (1 – 4 May) – Hirasaki on 1 May and then to Hakodate for Fort Goryukaku/Mt Hakodate/Onuma Park Sakura
(JR Pass day 16-19) Hakodate - Sapporo (4 – 7 May) – Maruyama Park/Hokkaido Shrine/Hiraoka Park Sakura/Sapporo City
(JR Pass day 19-21, last 2 days without JR pass) Sapporo - Tokyo (7 – 11 May/or 1 night in Sendai before back to Tokyo) – the rest in Tokyo city eg: Tsukiji/TokyoTower/Imperial Palace/Shinjuku/Odaiba/Shibuya/Akihabara.
Questions
1) For my trip to Fujikawaguchiko, will it be worth the time if if I take JR Train from Shinjuku/Tokyo Station to Otsuki Station and waste more time travelling using JR Pass as I might not be saving a lot compared to the express bus from Shinjuku or Tokyo Station and since this is Sakura peak season, how difficult or packed will it be to get express bus tickets on Apr 19?
I'm planning to mostly visit the Fujikawaguchiko lake area for Sakura and Chureito Pagoda.
Or should I leave the activation to 3rd day when I start goin to Nagano? And get a regional pass instead?
2) For my Tateyama Alpines trip, I'm basing off from Kanazawa and going up from Nagano side. While this is backtracking, I'm thinking to take the first train from Kanazawa to Nagano and first bus from
Nagano to Ogizawa. As going this route, I'm thinking I will save time on queueing especially if I go up from Tateyama side via the cable car. Is this a feasible idea?
3) For 1 day of my Kanazawa itinery, I'm planning to take a bus to Shirakawago and then 2nd half of the day to Takayama and then take the train back to Toyama and Shinkansen back to Kanazawa.
4) This question is for Golden Week especially from Kyoto to Tokyo and the from Aomori (Hirasaki to Shin-Aomori) to Hakodate to Sapporo and back to Tokyo
Will I get the chance to get to reserve a seat on the Shinkansen on my wanted times right few days or 1 day before I take the train?
What is the estimated time I need to reserve before that, else will there be a long wait for unreserved seats at the station before I am able to get onboard the Shinkansen or will I be able to even get on the shinkansen?
5) How does the itinery generally look? Will it be too rushing to pack all these in?
Thank you,
Lai
