If u have some times try to rent a car and drive outside of tokyo, even yamanshi ken or nagano ken. It is beautiful up in the mountains there

Sakura season - April.

I think the last 2 questions you can try this: www.google.com

Hi guys, can provide some comments to improve on my itinerary below? Is it okay? Thank you in advance...will be travelling there 20 april till 2nd may next year.

Day 1: Arrival at Narita Airport
• Morning  afternoon : Meiji Shrine, Harajuku
• Evening  night : Shibuya area: Shibuya-crossing, Hachiko statue

Day 2: Tokyo  Kyoto (Day 1 of JR Pass)
Assuming depart at 8, reach Kyoto at 10 am.
• Morning  afternoon: Kyoto Station’s Ramen Street, Fushimi Inari
• Afternoon: Nishiki Market
• Evening  night:

Day 3: Kyoto (Day 2 of JR Pass)
• Morning  Afternoon : Arashiyama District – Senryuji temple (Yukata), Tenryuji temple, bamboo groves, Nonomiya Shrine
• Afternoon: Kinkaku-ji (Closes at 5 pm)

Day 4: Kyoto (Day 3 of JR Pass)
• Morning  afternoon: Hanamikoji Dori (Kimono, Geisha), Gion, Kiyomizu-Dera (like JiuFen)
• Others: Ginkakuji
• Can consider going to Osaka

Day 5: Osaka (Day 4 of JR Pass)
• Morning: Osaka Castle (optional)
• Afternoon  night: Shinsaibashi, Dotonbori  Nipponbashi  Namba (Don Quijote, Donqi)
• Others: Shinsaibashi (Shopping), HEP Five mall, Ferris Wheel (near Umeda Sky Building), Pokémon Centre

Day 6: Osaka (Day 5 of JR Pass)
Whole day: Universal Studios

Day 7: Osaka  Nara (Day 6 of JR Pass)
• Take Kitetsu line from Osaka
• Morning  afternoon: Nara
• Afternoon  night: see Others (Day 5)

Day 8: Osaka (Day 7 of JR Pass)
• Morning: Kuromon market
• Afternoon: See Others (Day 5)
• Afternoon  Night: Train back to Tokyo

Day 9: Tokyo – Ikebukuro
• Lumine, Seibu, Tobu, Animate, Sunshine City, Pokémon Centre, TOKYU Hands, Donqi, Matsumoto Kiyoshi, UNIQLO, NAMJA Town & J-World

Day 10: Tokyo – Shibuya and Shinjuku (can play around with itinerary: Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku)
• Morning: Shinjuku Area – Shinjuku Gyoen, shopping @ Lumine Est., NewoMan, Keio Departmental Store
• Afternoon: Harajuku Area (To do: Visit Kiddy Land (Sanrio), Calbee Plus, cheap accessories at WEGO)
• Evening  night: Shibuya (Shopping, Café) – Shibuya 109

Day 11: Tokyo
• Morning: Asakusa Area – Kaminarimon Gate, Sensoji, Nakamise shopping street, Suzukien x Nanaya Level 7 Matcha Ice Cream
• Afternoon: Tokyo Sky Tree (may see Fuji in the distance), Tokyo Salamanchi
• Evening: Ameyoko Shopping Street Ueno (Minatoya Takoyaki, Niki no Kashi Candy Store), Akihabara (Electric Town)

Day 12: Tokyo  Malaysia

Hi, I hope it's okay if I ask for some confirmation about transportation - specifically on bus ticket reservation from Shirakawago to Takayama.

Just a bit of context: my trip is going to be Tokyo -> Kanazawa -> Shirakawago -> Takayama -> Tokyo.

So far, I've managed to book bus tickets online to get me from Kanazawa to Shirakawago. The website that I've booked from is https://japanbusonline.com/.

However, I've been looking for bus tickets that get me from Shirakawago to Takayama, and I can't seem to find this route option for online booking. I was wondering if this option memang is not available for reservation?

From what I've read online, I believe it should also be possible to get bus tickets on the day itself (probably just need to get to the counter early to buy the tickets?), but I would be more comfortable being able to make reservations.

You've done your research, it's good.
There's a lot in Tokyo that you'll miss due to the stay'/ travel in Osaka-Kyoto.

Tokyo Sky Tree - I won't place my bet on that to view Mt Fuji. Not sure about the observation deck, but all the best.

Shirakawa-Go back to Takayama? We took a bus from Shirakawa-Go and it will drop you off at a bus station. From there, we took another bus to Takayama train station. We used the seishun 18 kippu for all the travelling from Nagoya >> Takayama >> Shirakawa Go >> Takayama >> Nagoya.

your Day 9, 10, and 11 can slightly change and add in more places.
Ikebukuro is very small only, assuming u go morning 9am when shop just started opening, im guessing u could be done with Ikebukuro by around 1-2pm or earlier. then u can take train to Yokohama and hang out there and come back shinjuku or shibuya for dinner. or perhaps u can go Yokohama in the morning then come bak to Ikebukuro when u r done.

day 10 perhaps u can go disney sea since u already in japan? else u can go ginza shopping too instead of shinjuku and shibuya, also u can head over to odaiba for some view.

day 11, akihabara i suggest u go in the morning or afternoon as shop there pretty much close around 8pm so dun go during evening

hi guys, thanks for the feedback. Appreciate it.

For Tokyo, anymore interesting place that can recommend/must go? Where else would be better to get nice view of Mt Fuji? Still deciding whether to do TOKYO-OSAKA-KYOTO-TOKYO or just stay in Tokyo for the duration of my trip. The reason why not considering disneysea is because plan to go USJ already. Do not want too much theme park in single trip.

There's a lot in Tokyo. Places such as Ueno, Nakano, Odaiba, Ginza, Tsukiji, Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Station, Imperial Palace, Sengakuji, Mitaka, Yokohama, Nikko, Kamakura etc. You can do a lot of side trips from Tokyo as well.

Common places to view Mt Fuji - Hakone and lake Kawaguchi. There's a higher chance to see Mt Fuji from Kawaguchiko.

It's not really higher chance, just a closer look (and, IMO, better view) if the weather permits. The chance is the same both both actually.

Definitely clearer and bigger like you mentioned

However friends who has been to both agreed that it's higher chance to see it in Kawaguchiko. Nothing is absolute though, still depends on weather.

Hi guys,

can u check out my itineary (2 pax) for upcoming trip to osaka in january 2018?
will be staying nearby Nippombashi station/Namba Nankai station (10-15 mins walk) for the whole trip.

Day 1 - KL to osaka, reached by 9.30pm, Nankai train - KIX to Namba
Day 2 - Namba >Kyoto >Arashiyama > Shijo > Gojo > Namba :
Places to visit: Saga Arashiyama/Nishiki Market/Pontocho/Gokouyu sento
Lunch: nearby Kyoto station (Sukiya karasuma & Lawson Karasuma) / Nishiki Market
Dinner: Pontochou or any recommendation at kyoto?
Day 3 - Namba > Inari > Uji > Nara > Nippombashi
Places to visit: Fushimi Inari/Byodoin/Nara Park
Lunch: Unagiro kawahara at Nara
Day 4 - USJ
Day 5 - Namba > Shin-Kobe > Sannomiya > Rokko > Namba
Pass : Hankyu 1 day pass
Rokko tourist pass
Places to visit : Kobe Nunobiki Herb Garden/Kobe city hall/Mount rokko at night only
Lunch: Tor road steak aoyama
Dinner : maybe at mount rokko
Day - Nippombashi > Morinomiya > Osakako > Umeda > Nippombashi
Pass: Osaka amzing pass
Places to visit : Osaka castle/Tempozan ferris wheel/umeda sky building/dotonbori
Lunch: Kyuushu ramen ko near osaka station
Snacks: Okonomiyaki kiji near umeda sky / umeda hagakuera near osaka station
Dinner : dotonbori
Day 7 - around namba, ebening Namba> KIX
Places to visit : Kuromon market for maruzen butcher
Snacks: Takyaki wanaka / Tempura danshi
Evening ; KIX > Namba

Also, can advice whether should i take pocket wifi or sim card instead?

Thanks in advance!!!

This post has been edited by HyeMoon: Dec 13 2017, 11:12 AM

Do we need to buy travel insurance?If yes, where and how much?

if travel solo : sim card
if travel in more than 2 pax : pocket wifi

Thanks for the reply. I take it that you bought the bus ticket in Shirakawago on the day itself? Seishun 18 doesn't include the bus, right?

Hi there..Anyone bought Japan Rail Pass from Klook before? A tad cheaper compared to JTB or HIS

D2 -> go to Arashiyama from Umeda(Hankyu Kyoto Line) is better and faster, then only from arashiyama to city center(Hankyu Line) to kawaramachi and then walk to gion shijo
D3 -> Its quite packed, since most of the shop closed very early(around 8-830pm), especially nipponbashi, suggest you to put to another day if you cant make it before 5, giving yourself 1.5 hours to do shopping. And I think you missed out the transportation time, from namba to inari takes around 1 hour from inari to Uji takes another 30 mins then from Uji to Nara takes another 40 mins. Would suggest you to take lunch in inari,(Nezameya), not bad their unagi don, although cost you around 2k yen. Then only take another meal when you reached Nara.
D5,D6 -> Never did that, no comment
For D1 -> remember to inform the hotel staff for late check in.
Others are ok.

Yes seishun 18 kippu only inclusive of train rides. There's a trade off. While it's cheaper, we're limited to only Rapid and Local train; meaning it's a longer ride to our destination with cheaper price. And Seishun 18 Kippu ticket isn't like JR pass. It's calculated by number of usage per ticket.

"This ticket package includes five days worth of travel for only 2,370 yen per day. One person can enjoy the Seishun 18 for five days, or it can be split for use by up to five people."

http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/seishun18.html

Just back from Tokyo trip last week and I had clear view of mt fuji while visiting Hakone. : )

Nice, very lucky to have a good view. You'll see some Chinese nationals praying to the mount if they're there

Yeah been lurking forum threads and saw few sifu here suggested to go counter clockwise and visit during early morning, combine with good weather (suggest to check weather forecast before going) and tada an awesome view. Not sure about Chinese praying to the mount