Japan trip - Dec/Jan

Hi Sam,

Yes you can make savings using the 7 day JR Pass for the first week of your itinerary. Takayama and Kanazawa are some of my personal favorites as well and I am sure that you will enjoy them. In Kanazawa be sure to visit to local castle and Kenroku-en, one of the best gardens found in Japan.

Traveling from Takayama - Kyoto is also a pleasant route to make. While there are two routes you can take, I would recommend taking the Hida wide view express via Nagoya and the Shinkansen from Nagoya to Kyoto. This is a very scenic route to travel and covered by the JR Pass.

The alternative is to return to Kanazawa and take the Thunderbird express from there to Kyoto. This route is also covered by the JR Pass.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

Hi Daniel-san,

Thank you so much for your reply.

I'm also looking at purchasing LCC flights from Osaka to Sapporo. Have you had any experience with this route and with the LCC airlines, particularly at the time is early January?

Thanks
Sam

Hi Sam,

Not domestically within Japan (I prefer the Shinkansen 100%).

That said, I have used Peach airways to fly to countries such as Taiwan and that worked fine.

As always, it pays off to book far in advance.
-Daniel

Thanks Daniel-san for your help.

I'm just rethinking of the option of travelling straight from Tokyo (Narita) through to Kanazawa on shinkansen (and miss the snow monkeys this visit). Do you think this is possible for an arrival into Narita at 1705 on 24/12?

Would like to cover Kanazawa, Shirakawago, Takayama, Kyoto and then Osaka - not sure if this is the most direct route?

Thanks!