Golden Week travel - Tokyo - Iya Valley - Kyoto

Hi there,

For the best use of the JR Pass. Try to return on 5/9 to Tokyo. As it would not be cost effective to use a JR Pass and then buy a one way ticket to Tokyo from Kyoto. Consider taking a late train from Kyoto, say around 6-7 pm. This way you would not have to cut your time in Kyoto short and you could still use the JR Pass to its max. It takes about 3 hours to Tokyo and you can buy an Ekiben (station bento box) to eat on the train.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

Thanks so much! I think that's what we're going to do.

I thought of another question:

When we go from Tokyo to Tosa Iwahara Station, we will likely have three transfers:
Nippori --> Tokyo
transfer
Tokyo --> Okayama
transfer
Okayama --> Awa-Ikeda
transfer
Awa-Ikeda -->Tosa Iwahara

Because we are traveling during Golden Week, do you think we need to reserve seats ahead of time for every leg of our journey? If so, is there any way to see seat availability before we book tickets?

Thanks!

Hi there,

I would for sure book the Shinkansen, this will be the longest route and will be good to have secured.

There are Japanese websites that show seat availability but none that I know in English. If you know your way around Japanese, then you can use:
http://www.jr.cyberstation.ne.jp/vacancy/Vacancy.html

There are also monitors at the JR Ticket windows that show availability for currenty day.

Thanks again, Daniel-san!

It looks like we'll have to reserve our seats in person (there doesn't seem to be an English website for booking tickets on JRWest lines in advance) -- do you think it will be difficult to reserve seats 2-3 days before our departure date (May 3) given that it's Golden Week?

Hi there,

No, I do not think you'll have any problems. Given that you really do reserve 2-3 days in advance :)

Personally I never had problems traveling alone, it is when you are traveling with larger parties that seating together may become an issue.