Help me with my itinerary, please!

Hi Olson,

Well first of all you are doing very well! I see that you are already well informed about travel possibilities in Japan!
I don't have much to remark on. If you can I would stay the night at Mount Koya in a Temple. It may be a little pricey but the experience is well worth it!

Once you arrive in Kansai (Kyoto or Osaka) and you would love to visit an onsen, consider a trip to Kinosaki-Onsen to stay the night there. It can easly be reached by Ltd Express train from either Osaka or Kyoto.

Also you can use the JR-Pass to travel to Kansai Airport from Osaka so no problem there!

Have a wonderful trip,
Daniel

Hello Daniel,

Thanks for your useful comments, I will adjust my itinerary accordingly.

Some more questions, when using JR pass do we reserve seats? And can that be done online? What if we don't have time, can we still take a train? I suppose there is an extra charge, right?

Thanks again,
Olson

Hi Olson,

You can make reservations anytime you have the JR-Pass and are at the station. You can do so by visiting a Ticket Centre or ''Midori no Madoguchi'' in Japanese. With the Rail-pass seat reservations are free so make them when you can. If you don't have a reservation for any reason you can still take the train and sit down in one of the so called unreserved seats.

For the most part you cant make seat reservations online with the JRPass but you can make then days in advance if you already have the pass.

Hope this helps!
-Daniel

Hi Daniel,

Thanks, that is very helpful. Have a wonderful day!

Olson

Hi Daniel,

Sorry to bother you again. I took your suggestions and added to my itinerary. Please confirm few things especially on transportation which I must say is quite over whelming. This is my itinerary now:

Day 1: Arrive Tokyo in the evening and see our way to the hotel in Shinjuku area. Use Suica & N'EX transport
Day 2-5: Need help: Is Suica for transportation sufficent or do you have other suggestions? Do we also need a Kamkura pass
Day 6: Depart for Nikko, will start using JR 14-day Pass from Apr 6-19. Stay overnight. Do we need the World Heritage Pass
Day 7: Proceed to Hakone and stay overnight. Is Hakone Pass necessary?
Day 8: On to Takayama and stay overnight
Day 9: Continue on to Kanazawa, stay overnight
Day 10-11: Hiroshima, stay two nights -- I gathered it would take longer to travel from Kanazawa. Visit Miyajima. Is it possible to go all the way to Nagasaki?
Day 12-: Go to Toyooka Kinosaki-Onsen stay overnight
Day 13-16: Kyoto and area, Need more info in terms of transportation, please!
Day 17: Koyasan, spend the night at a temple.
Day 18: Osaka --
Day 19: We depart from KIX

We have received our 14-day JR Pass. All hotels and/or Ryokan are booked. Need more info on transportation as stated above.

Appreciate your help

Olson

Hi again,

Suica will get you around pretty well for your days in Tokyo and can easily be recharged with a minimum amount of 1000 Yen. Also consider buying a One Day Metro pass if you plan on traveling a lot.

For Kamakura
I assume you are referring the Enoshima Kamakura Free Pass(1,430 yen), this is the most economic option to travel to Kamakura but can take up quite some time. The local JR-line is faster and costs ¥890 for 1 way.

For Nikko and the World Heritage pass,
You can use the JR-Pass to travel to Nikko, so I would not recommend buying the World Heritage pass.

The Hakone pass,
This depends on the amount of traveling you will do in the Hakone area. Generally if you only plan on staying around your accommodation it is not very economic but you can start saving money with it quickly once you start exploring the area.

For Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
It takes about 250 minutes by train from Kanazawa to Hiroshima and 480 minutes to Nagasaki, I feel it would be a little too much if you plan on seeing both in just 2 days.

For transportation in Kyoto:
I would refer to this website information about transportation in Kyoto, it is not a very big city and getting around is relatively easy compared to Tokyo and Osaka. If you are unsure how to get somewhere you can always ask the tourist information at the station, who are very helpful.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

Hello Danial,

Thank you again for the information. Thats wonderful and helps not only saving money but also understanding more about the Passes!

How do I get a map on this website to add the areas that I will visit?

Olson

Hi Olson,

For the map go to www.jrpass.com/map.
In the top right you can search by place name, once you find the station you are looking for click on Pin to Map.
Once you have added all the stations you like you can generate a link clicking on Share on the right side of the search bar and save the map for later reference.

-Daniel

Brilliant! Many, many thanks Daniel.