15 days in Japan

Hi there,

Your itinerary looks very doable to me. There's are no train extremely long routes and everything works out well. Everything is covered by the JR Pass except for the last part from Osaka to Koyasan which is 850 yen.

I would personally recommend a visit to Hiroshima, Miyajima and if you have to time Naoshima as well. Hiroshima is not hard to reach from Osaka and you would really make the most of your JR Pass. Once you are in Hiroshima a side trip to Miyajima is not to be missed. Even the ferry to Miyajima island is covered by the JR Pass.

Let me know if there's anything else I can help out with!
Daniel

Thanks for your encouragement Daniel :)

Would it be ridiculous to get a 7 day pass instead and still expect to cover the above mentioned itinerary, including Hiroshima/Miyajima and Naoshima?

Just looking at our options!

Cheers

We did Hiroshima and got a Goodwill Tour Guide who met us there. They are free (usually housewives). You just have to pay their bus fare and buy them lunch if you break for lunch. The guide we had was very knowledgable and could have gone on for hours, but my kids had had enough. (If you're interested you should reserve one before you leave) We also went to Miyajima which was a ferry ride covered by JR Pass. It was nice, but I could take it or leave it. Not a must on the trip. Just seeing the big floating orange torii gate which is in all the Japan tourism brochures was enough for me. There are TONS of souvenir shops, small deer as in Nara and monkeys if you go to the top, but we never made it that far because everyone was busy shopping all day.

Hi Drizzley and Marpatco

You could certainly make a day trip to Hiroshima/Miyajima from either Kyoto or Osaka but Naoshima takes a little longer and it is better to stay for a night at the island. Either way you could do it for sure. I would recommand making a list of what you wish to see in Kyoto/Osaka and see if you can miss a day there.

@Marpatco That's great to hear and thank you for the feedback. I always enjoy reading about peoples experiences in Japan. Also the Goodwill Tour seems great, I will certainly keep it in mind when making recommendations for other travelers. If you ever visit Japan again and would like some advice, you know where to find us!

All the best!
Daniel

Thanks marpatco and Daniel!

Will look into that and decide what we really want to do... Decisions, decisions!

Cheers

I'm actually going to be in Japan from Nov 11-23 so that 14 day pass will cover all my transportation.

Narita Express will cost you about 4000yen one way.

Personally, I enjoyed Miyajima, Osaka is scummy (and I'm Japanese saying this)!

I hope you have a nice trip!!!

Thank geishagirl11!