Hi,
I will be travelling to Tokyo arriving on 15th April in the afternoon and departing on the evening of the 29th April.
I have bought a JR 7 day pass and booked a hotel in Tokyo for the first 3 nights.
Please can you help me with an itinary for the 7 day pass the get the most of it and see lots of Japan. Our interests are photography, beautiful scenery, getting a feel for local life rather than being indoors at touristy places, museums and we don't mind spending a while in transport to get to the most beautiful places.
My wife has to see the snow monkeys, even if there's not much snow lef in April, this can be using the JR pass on a separate day trip from Tokyo depending on what route we take.
My very basic itinary so far:
Day 1-3 Exploring Tokyo itself - suggestions welcome
Day 4-10 Activate rail pass and see as much of Japan as possible- Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima? - please suggest a route where we can get the most from the pass in line with our interests. There is probably other beautiful locations I havn't listed but I understand Kyoto is a must. Southern Islands or up to the North as well or instead? We are very open to suggestions on where to go for these 7 days.
Day 11-14 Back in Tokyo as base to do day trips to surrounding sites after JR pass runs out- snow monkeys, Mt Fuji - please suggest ideas for these days or whether this could get expensive doing it this way. We are on a backpackers budget but can assign more to Japan as we know it's expensive!
As you can see I am not very prepared for Japan yet, I am travelling the world with my wife, almost 3 months into our tip, having been across Canada in the last 3 weeks and 8 weeks in S America before. We usually plan 24-48 hours ahead of our next location but understand Japan needs more thought to get the most and hotels need to be booked sooner as its peak season.
Please help!
Ryan