Hi All,

Please take a look at my itinerary please........



Day 1 : Reach Osaka in the morning
Shinsaibashi, Osaka Castle,
Nakanoshima Park, Instant Ramen Museum
Minoh Park & Minoh Otaki Waterfall

Day 2 : Go to Kyoto
Nijo Castle, Kinkakuji Temple, Kiyomizu Templl

Day 3 : Take a trip to Nara
Hep 5, Tempozan Market Place
** company meeting **

Day 4 : Go to Kyoto
Fushimi Inari Shrine, Nanzenji, Saiho-ji,
Kyoto Imperial Palace, Gion,

Day 5 : Book out from company provided hotel in Osaka (Imperial Hotel), and head for Tokyo
Tsukiji fish market, Odaiba

Day 6 : Day trip to Hakone

Day 7 : Rikugien Garden, Disneysea, Roppongi

Day8 : Disneyland, Ginza

Day 9 : Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku

Day 10 : Asakusa, sensoji temple, Namamise

Day 11: Sanrio Puroland, Akihabara

Day 12 : Ueno, Seibu, tobu, Sunshine city

Day 13 : leave for narita airport, end of holiday




My questions are as such :

1) I plan to get the 7 days Shinkansen Pass. Which day should i start to activate it, to maximise cost saving. One thing is i've no idea if it's more expensive to use it for days where i will be going to disneyland and disneysea, cos it's only to and fro trip, or would it be cheaper to use for other days?

2) To get to Hakone, i can use my Shinkansen to Odawara station. If i were to get a Hakone Pass, does it include transport from my hotel Ikebukuro to Odawara? Does it include trip back to JR Ikebukuro? Where can i buy it from? Can i get a organised day trip to Hakone from Ikebukuro, and is it necessary to stay overnight to experience the Onsen???

3) How can i rearrange my itinerary so that it would be most cost effective and convenient, in terms of travelling. Thing to take note is first 4 days in Osaka is a MUST, due to my company's arrangement and meeting.

4) I heard so much about Nara. Is it possible to squeeze a couple of hours during the day to visit it from Osaka? Worth the time?

I really do need a lot of help. I mean, i have read up a lot, but in terms of the finer planning, hope the more experienced travellers or Japanese can help me with this.. Many thanks, and greatly appreciated.

1) Activate it on day 1 (or the morning of day 2), your last 5 days are all within Tokyo. The JR pass is basically useless there because there's three different subway companies running Tokyo, JR being the least convenient. You're better off paying the fair. The most expensive tickets are for Shinkanesen inbetween cities. Though count your trips within cities properly, day passes sometimes are useful as long as you plan your transportation properly.

4) Nara is fantastic, it will kind of take you most of the day to tour it. Though there's not much to do there at night unless it's a national holiday or festival, so you can get away with going there a bit earlier in the morning and getting back in the afternoon to Osaka.

Day 1:
Cut down, you'll be able to visit half those places. Shinsaibashi, Osaka Castle, and Nakanoshima Park are all central Osaka, and Instant Ramen Museum, Minoh Park are both very north.

Day 2 + 4:
Look at a map of the cities you're going to, some of the places you've planned into one day are very opposite sides of the city.

Gion is by Kyoto Kaikan Hall in the map, it's that general area. In the places you've mentioned; Kiyomizu Temple, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Nanzenji, and Kyoto Imperial Palace, Gion are all within central-east limits. Saihoji, Kinkakuji Temple, and Nijo Castle are very central or west of the city. Probably keep the western part of the city the same, but the eastern you'll need to cut down on a couple. Inari takes a good 3 hours unless you just graze the front of it.

Day 5:
When do you arrive in Tokyo? If you arrive later, it's best to plan the night places to go to. Tsukiji fish market closes around noon, it's most interesting very very early in the morning at like 5-6:30am. So I suggest Akihabara which is best at night and Obaida for this day.

Day 8:
Disneyland will probably take you most of the day, I suggest you plan for a night area or thing to do.

Day 9-12
Tokyo can be separated into three different areas. West (Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Minato, Rippongi), East (Ginza, Ueno, Akihabara, Asakusa). I suggest you plan according to these areas, possibly separate each section of the city for 2 days each. You named off districts, but you need to know where to go inside otherwise you'll just be walking around in the city getting lost.

Don't forget, Osaka and Tokyo are all about the nightlife, so don't miss out on that.

Thank you so much for your help. A couple more questions if you don't mind.


1) How do i arrange to visit Hakone if i am staying in the Ikebukuro Hotel in Tokyo??

2) Is disneyland, disneysea and Sanrio on the east or west of Tokyo? I mean, if i want to incorporate things to do at night, after i visit these themeparks, which places in my itinerary would be along the way back from the theme parks?

No idea, I've never been to Hakone though I hear it's beautiful there and have been told if you go there you must go to an onsen, even if it's hot out.

If I'm not mistaken, I always though Disneyland and Disney Sea was basically beside each other. I mean, it'd be smarter if you could possibly incorporate both in the same day though I'm not sure how much each would take. Or choose one. If you choose to do one per day, it's kind of pointless to find a place to go nearby at night cause there isn't much to do near that area except Disneyland. You're better off going back into Tokyo to do something, like Akihabara though everything there closes at a certain time. I remember going there late a night one time and everyone was picking up and closing, pretty lame night.