Hi Daniel,
We are going to Japan in a little over a week (it was a spur of the moment decision as we had the airline miles to pay for flights) and we are very excited! However, we don't speak a word of Japanese (we're from New York) and we haven't had a lot of time to research details of traveling around Japan by train (though I did purchase Japan by Rail and am hoping that will clear up some of my confusion as will your help here).
- We would like to know if a 7 or 14 day rail pass would be best for the following itinerary: On Days 2-5 in Tokyo and Days 8-11 in Kyoto, we don't have strong preference as to which days to go on the day trips, so if it would be worthwhile to rearrange the days to better fit a 7 days pass, we'd be happy to do that.
Day 1: Arrive Tokyo, plan to use Narita Express to get to Tokyo
Day 2: Tokyo
Day 3: Tokyo w/ day trip to Nikko
Day 4: Tokyo w/ day trip to Kamakura
Day 5: Tokyo
Day 6: Tokyo to Takayama
Day 7: Takayama to Kyoto
Day 8: Kyoto
Day 9: Kyoto w/ day trip to Nara
Day 10: Kyoto (w/ possible day trip to Osaka or Mount Koya)
Day 11: Kyoto
Day 12:Kyoto to Miyajima (the itinerary I consulted said to stop in Hiroshima first, but we would prefer to skip it in the interest of time)
Day 13: Miyajima to Tokyo to Narita (flight back home is around 1:30 pm - is this feasible if we leave Miyajima early in the morning?)
- How do you tell if a trip is covered by the JR Rail Pass or not? I've been reading the forum and it seems like certain trips will require an extra fee, etc.
Thank you very much in advance!