Japan Itinerary
Assume a meals budget of $25 each per day every day unless otherwise noted….plus additional expenses as noted.
Please check every place I mention in your guidebook to make sure you want to do it, and to think of other options and scenarios.
I've tried to provide LINKS where I could so you can click on the attractions I'm referring to.
March 22
Mom and Dad arrive 4:50pm. We travel to Sendai for (hopefully) a good night’s sleep.
Budget: $30 each for the non JR train ride from Narita to northern Tokyo (Ueno).
March 23
School Day. I have 2 second year classes and one first year class scheduled….no plans as to what we’ll do in the classes…yet! After that, probably a quiet evening at my house. Maybe watch a movie or something. There’s a good neighborhood Chinese restaurant where I am a regular that we may want to try, or maybe the conveyor belt sushi place if you’re feeling more adventurous.
Budget: Nothing special today. You’ll be eating school lunch with the students. If you’re not feeling adventurous, we can pack a lunch.
March 24
Another school day. This day there are no classes, just the closing ceremony. This isn’t much of a ceremony and Mom and Dad may want to skip as it’s pretty long and BORING! But I must attend! May be a good day to catch up on your jet lag fully.
Party at Yamada Sensei’s house that night.
Budget: Minimal subway costs to get to Yamada Sensei’s place. ($5 per person should cover it)
March 25
First day off. We will hit downtown Sendai. See a few sights in town…Maybe have dinner with a few ALT friends at our favourite restaurant.
Budget: (Dinner = $35 per person –strange that I am used to paying over $30 for dinner, huh?) Sightseeing costs - $10-$20 per person.
March 26
Day trip: Matsushima. A beautiful area about 30 minutes out of town from here, accessible by train, but we’ll probably take a short ferry in from nearby Shiogama, I’m told it’s much prettier coming in on the ferry. We’ll see. Maybe we’ll be able to meet Yaguchi sensei and his family.
Budget: Perhaps a nice meal in Matsushima would be good. Budget $30 per person. Train costs hould be covered by your pass, but maybe additional sightseeing costs of about $20 per person.
March 27
Day trip: Yamadera. Beautiful temple nestled in the middle of a mountain. Bring your hiking shoes as there are a ton of stairs. After, we’ll enjoy some Soba noodles at one of my all-time fave restaurants in Japan.
Budget: Not much of note here. Train costs are covered, the meal is inexpensive, and I don’t think there’s an admission fee for the sights.
March 28
If the weather is good, I’d like to get to Michinoku park one of those days. It’s quite far out of town and not accessible by train, so I’m not sure if we’d get there. It’s a national park, but a very bizarre (and fun) place where I’d like to have a picnic and a wander. I don’t know if this one will come together due to travel constraints, I’ll check if there are any direct busses from Sendai.
Park costs: $5 per person. Additional travel costs $20 per person. (I’m guessing by bus.)
If not, I think we’ll spend another day in and around Sendai. There are many things to do, and places to visit that I’ve never seen before, so it will be a good chance to check out the city.
These three days: the 26th, 27th, and 28th are very weather dependent days….so keep your fingers crossed!!!! If the weather is bad, we will likely be heading out to an onsen (bath house) on at least one of these days…depending, of course, on how all participants are feeling about it.
NOTE: These 3 days will be a pretty leisurely pace. The next 2 will be VERY BUSY (I think), but very fun, of course ;)
March 29
Time to hit the road….Stop #1 is the bustling megacity, Tokyo. We’ll get an early start…maybe catch a 7:30 bullet train from Sendai to arrive in Tokyo by 10.
There are obviously a ton of things we can do in Tokyo. I hope you’ll check your guidebook and we can mix in some things you want to do. I have a few ideas:
The first place I’d like to hit is the suburban Ueno park. It’s Tokyo’s largest park and home to 4 national museums. I figure we can spend the morning in the museums, and have lunch in the park. From there we can either spend the afternoon in the museums or head deeper into Tokyo.
Budget: Costs here are minimal. About $5 each for Museum admission in the main museum… *I think* the other museums are free. Lunch will be standerd $10 fare.
Tokyo is a pretty modern city with pretty modern delights. One of the places I want to check out is an art-meets-modern-media gallery called the Intercommunication Centre. The cost is about $10 per person and I think we’d spend at least an hour or two. It’s right in the heart of Tokyo.
The “electronics city” Akihabara is always a hit with me. But I have been there many times and realize you guys may not get as much out of it as I do…it’s mostly just shopping, and browsing electronics, which for you is likely about as appealing as going dress shopping with mom would be for me so file that one as a maybe….
Budget: Free…just shopping and browsing.
We can still head to Shinjuku to see rush hour, but we're a little ways away in downtown Tokyo.
We can head out to the busy streets and watch the world go by during rush hour. It really is amazing to see so many people. We can do this on the ground near the train station’s busy entrances as well we can go to a free observation room on the 45th floor of a nearby skyscraper…After a little bit of that we can grab dinner somewhere in this incredible neighbourhood, and call it a day.
We’ll want to be in bed early as I have a 6am start planned for March 30.
Hotel: Hotel Kazusayanear downtown Tokyo. The location is great as it's not far to the fish market the next day and pretty close to Ueno where we will be coming into Tokyo. Dad and mom have a twin, I think, and I have a cot in the same room. Since it's Tokyo and in downtown Tokyo, it's a little expensive, and I'm betting it will be small. Cost for the three of us: 18000 yen = $220 or 6000 yen per person ($75 per person.)
March 30
Another early start. The Tokyo fish market gets going before 5am(I've read that if you get the first subway in at 6, you don't miss much of the action) and it’s supposed to be an incredible place. Lots of action and sights that you cannot see anywhere else in the world. This is something I’ve been dying to do since I’ve heard about it. We’ll see gigantic tuna that sell for over $10,000 for one fish. It’s all done by the barter and auction system and apparently it is very animated and entertaining. I really want to do this. I don’t think there is any admission price for this attraction.
It seems like a breakfast of fresh sushi would be appropriate. ($20 a person.)
From there we may want to go to the famous Tokyo tower…a total rip off of the Eifel Tower, or see some other Tokyo sights. It costs about $10 to go to the observation level and an addition $10 to go all the way to the top.
In any event I figure sometime in the late morning/early afternoon it will be off to Kyoto for us. This kind of tears me up. I want to go to Mt. Fuji, but it’s not open, and I really don’t think there’s much to do there when it’s not open, so we will pass by it, and see it from our train…way off in the distance….but that’s as close as we’ll come.
I think Kyoto will be a welcome relief from the 2-day bustle of Tokyo (even though it’s a huge city).
When we get to Kyoto, in the early afternoon I’m guessing we may be tired (from our early morning start), so I think we should get checked in to the hotel, have a relaxing dinner somewhere in the neighborhood and perhaps an early night. (There’s also lots of easy convenient foreigner friendly shopping if we are feeling up for a wander downtown.)
Hotel: A triple room at Kyoto Garden Hotel in Central Kyoto. Another very good location here. Close to the subway. Not far from Kyoto Station. Really a very good central location. Rooms look pretty good too. Although I noted the bed is only 190cm, which means my feet will hang off a little. Dad and Mom will be OK. Cost: 13,500 yen. About $160, or $55 per person.
March 31
Our first full day in Kyoto. There are just so many temples and shrines to see here, it’s incredible. I think we may get a slow start (for once) and try to get to some of the eastern shrines before noon.
According to my guidebook, the highlight of any trip to Kyoto is the walk from Kiyomizu-dera to Ginkakuji. Both the starting and ending points are especially beautiful. I had a tendency in Kyoto to “wear out on temples”. They start to blur together after a while, so we may want to skip some of the mid-point temples on this walk, but the beginning and end points aren’t to be missed. (Grabbing lunch along the way).
Maybe tonight would be a good night to go to a classier Japanese restaurant. We’ll have to consult the guidebook as I really don’t frequent classy establishments.
Hotel (same as the 30th): A triple room at Kyoto Garden Hotel in Central Kyoto. Another very good location here. Close to the subway. Not far from Kyoto Station. Really a very good central location. Rooms look pretty good too. Although I noted the bed is only 190cm, which means my feet will hang off a little. Dad and Mom will be OK. Cost: 13,500 yen. About $160, or $55 per person.
April 1
I’m hoping for a leisurely day this day.
It’s April fools day and we are going to visit the monkeys. We’ll go to “Monkey park” in Arashiyama. It’s in a beautiful western suburb of Kyoto, and I’m really interested in seeing it. We’ll even get to feed the monkeys. (We’re also able to rent bicycles and ride around the bamboo lined streets of this suburb…maybe an option.)
After lunch, we’ll visit one last temple, Kinkakuji. This is the most famous temple in Kyoto, and for good reason, it’s made out of gold. Real gold. I didn’t see it on my first trip to Kyoto and was chastised for missing it, so I won’t be making the same mistake twice.
Apparently there are free Geisha performances during the month of April, so I’d like to take one in, as I still haven’t seen a Geisha in my whole time here. (Not surprising as they only live in Kyoto.)
That night it's off to Nara. Kyoto hotels were all booked up, but it's just as well.
Hotel: Couldn't find a good English link, but it's called Superhotel Nara Ekimae. I anticipate it being about the level of a Super 8 Motel in Canada, but they are pretty popular among budget travellers. We have a triple room the first night: 7800 yen. Oh Yeah! $95. Or 32 bucks a head. That's more like it. But it doesn't last....:(
April 2
Spend the day in Nara as mentioned before.
A day trip to Nara. Nara is a short train ride away. (Probably under an hour). It looks like we can spend a whole day in the park at the center of Nara, many museums and temples to see.
This may be the best time/place to go to an…EEEP…onsen (bath house). We’ll see how we’re feeling at that point.
We will sleep in Kyoto…no need to check out of our base of operations.
No we won't. It's Nara for the night.
Hotel: Same as last night...BUT...we couldn't get the triple room. Bye Bye budget...three single rooms....YUCK....4800yen per person. About $55 bucks a head. I don't know what is up. But on April 1st, hotels in Japan just went to heck.
April 3
Another day trip. This time to Osaka. I’ve been told that if Tokyo is Japan’s New York, Osaka is Japan’s L.A. – with a more laid back culture than Tokyo, it’s a big city I’ve been wanting to see.
At this point we will likely not have seen any of Japan’s historic castles. Osaka has the most famous castle in Japan: Osaka-jo. We’ll definitely hit that ($10). I loved seeing the castle in Kyoto last year, and it’s really not famous at all, so I’m expecting big things from Osaka-jo.
I’d expect we’d finish at the castle in time for lunch and an afternoon of exploring. Maybe we can take in some of Osaka’s more modern sites. They have a very famous aquarium, and also Universal Studios…okay, maybe we won’t visit Universal studios, but it’s an option. In any event we’ll have plenty of time to check the guidebook and decide what to do in Osaka.
Again, we will head back to our home base in Kyoto to sleep.
Wrongo...back to Nara...actually much more convenient from Osaka.
Same hotel as last night. 3 singles...yuck...4800 per person...yuck. Seriously, I will try to change this, but I proabably tried 30 hotels in and around Kyoto/Nara and this was the best I could do.
April 4
Potential change of plans. We could get up early. Head to Nagoya for the expo. Takes about 1hr and 30 minutes....so not too bad if we get an early start, we could be perusing by 9 or 10.
We'd leave sometime after dinner, and could arrive at our hotel in about 3 hours, so 9 or 10. Not too bad.
We’ll have to pack our stuff in the morning, and I think our best bet is to spend most of the day in Kyoto, going to sites we missed along the way. (There really is so much to see, and lots of places I went to the first time around and loved, that we are not planning to see this time.)
Early in the afternoon we’ll catch a bullet train to Tokyo and a shuttle to Narita, where we will stay in a nearby hotel so we can get up early to catch our flight to Singapore.
Hotel: Hotel Sky Court Narita. Seems pretty standard. We are in a triple room at a cost of 13500 yen. So 4500 per person or $55-60 per person. Very convenient to the airport.
That’s it for the Japan leg. We’ll have to work on the Singapore leg together at a later date, although it sounds like, with Doreen’s help, we’re off to a pretty good start.
**I know I had mentioned Hiroshima, but it really doesn’t work well. I was thinking about it instead of the Nara and Osaka day trips, but I don’t know about that. It’s quite a long way from Kyoto, and it’s not much more appealing than Nara or Osaka. We can do it if you guys want, but my preference is Nara and Osaka as I’ve already seen Hiroshima.
Please check every place I mention in your guidebook to make sure you want to do it, and to think of other options and scenarios.
I've tried to provide LINKS where I could so you can click on the attractions I'm referring to.
March 22
Mom and Dad arrive 4:50pm. We travel to Sendai for (hopefully) a good night’s sleep.
Budget: $30 each for the non JR train ride from Narita to northern Tokyo (Ueno).
March 23
School Day. I have 2 second year classes and one first year class scheduled….no plans as to what we’ll do in the classes…yet! After that, probably a quiet evening at my house. Maybe watch a movie or something. There’s a good neighborhood Chinese restaurant where I am a regular that we may want to try, or maybe the conveyor belt sushi place if you’re feeling more adventurous.
Budget: Nothing special today. You’ll be eating school lunch with the students. If you’re not feeling adventurous, we can pack a lunch.
March 24
Another school day. This day there are no classes, just the closing ceremony. This isn’t much of a ceremony and Mom and Dad may want to skip as it’s pretty long and BORING! But I must attend! May be a good day to catch up on your jet lag fully.
Party at Yamada Sensei’s house that night.
Budget: Minimal subway costs to get to Yamada Sensei’s place. ($5 per person should cover it)
March 25
First day off. We will hit downtown Sendai. See a few sights in town…Maybe have dinner with a few ALT friends at our favourite restaurant.
Budget: (Dinner = $35 per person –strange that I am used to paying over $30 for dinner, huh?) Sightseeing costs - $10-$20 per person.
March 26
Day trip: Matsushima. A beautiful area about 30 minutes out of town from here, accessible by train, but we’ll probably take a short ferry in from nearby Shiogama, I’m told it’s much prettier coming in on the ferry. We’ll see. Maybe we’ll be able to meet Yaguchi sensei and his family.
Budget: Perhaps a nice meal in Matsushima would be good. Budget $30 per person. Train costs hould be covered by your pass, but maybe additional sightseeing costs of about $20 per person.
March 27
Day trip: Yamadera. Beautiful temple nestled in the middle of a mountain. Bring your hiking shoes as there are a ton of stairs. After, we’ll enjoy some Soba noodles at one of my all-time fave restaurants in Japan.
Budget: Not much of note here. Train costs are covered, the meal is inexpensive, and I don’t think there’s an admission fee for the sights.
March 28
If the weather is good, I’d like to get to Michinoku park one of those days. It’s quite far out of town and not accessible by train, so I’m not sure if we’d get there. It’s a national park, but a very bizarre (and fun) place where I’d like to have a picnic and a wander. I don’t know if this one will come together due to travel constraints, I’ll check if there are any direct busses from Sendai.
Park costs: $5 per person. Additional travel costs $20 per person. (I’m guessing by bus.)
If not, I think we’ll spend another day in and around Sendai. There are many things to do, and places to visit that I’ve never seen before, so it will be a good chance to check out the city.
These three days: the 26th, 27th, and 28th are very weather dependent days….so keep your fingers crossed!!!! If the weather is bad, we will likely be heading out to an onsen (bath house) on at least one of these days…depending, of course, on how all participants are feeling about it.
NOTE: These 3 days will be a pretty leisurely pace. The next 2 will be VERY BUSY (I think), but very fun, of course ;)
March 29
Time to hit the road….Stop #1 is the bustling megacity, Tokyo. We’ll get an early start…maybe catch a 7:30 bullet train from Sendai to arrive in Tokyo by 10.
There are obviously a ton of things we can do in Tokyo. I hope you’ll check your guidebook and we can mix in some things you want to do. I have a few ideas:
The first place I’d like to hit is the suburban Ueno park. It’s Tokyo’s largest park and home to 4 national museums. I figure we can spend the morning in the museums, and have lunch in the park. From there we can either spend the afternoon in the museums or head deeper into Tokyo.
Budget: Costs here are minimal. About $5 each for Museum admission in the main museum… *I think* the other museums are free. Lunch will be standerd $10 fare.
Tokyo is a pretty modern city with pretty modern delights. One of the places I want to check out is an art-meets-modern-media gallery called the Intercommunication Centre. The cost is about $10 per person and I think we’d spend at least an hour or two. It’s right in the heart of Tokyo.
The “electronics city” Akihabara is always a hit with me. But I have been there many times and realize you guys may not get as much out of it as I do…it’s mostly just shopping, and browsing electronics, which for you is likely about as appealing as going dress shopping with mom would be for me so file that one as a maybe….
Budget: Free…just shopping and browsing.
We can still head to Shinjuku to see rush hour, but we're a little ways away in downtown Tokyo.
We can head out to the busy streets and watch the world go by during rush hour. It really is amazing to see so many people. We can do this on the ground near the train station’s busy entrances as well we can go to a free observation room on the 45th floor of a nearby skyscraper…After a little bit of that we can grab dinner somewhere in this incredible neighbourhood, and call it a day.
We’ll want to be in bed early as I have a 6am start planned for March 30.
Hotel: Hotel Kazusayanear downtown Tokyo. The location is great as it's not far to the fish market the next day and pretty close to Ueno where we will be coming into Tokyo. Dad and mom have a twin, I think, and I have a cot in the same room. Since it's Tokyo and in downtown Tokyo, it's a little expensive, and I'm betting it will be small. Cost for the three of us: 18000 yen = $220 or 6000 yen per person ($75 per person.)
March 30
Another early start. The Tokyo fish market gets going before 5am(I've read that if you get the first subway in at 6, you don't miss much of the action) and it’s supposed to be an incredible place. Lots of action and sights that you cannot see anywhere else in the world. This is something I’ve been dying to do since I’ve heard about it. We’ll see gigantic tuna that sell for over $10,000 for one fish. It’s all done by the barter and auction system and apparently it is very animated and entertaining. I really want to do this. I don’t think there is any admission price for this attraction.
It seems like a breakfast of fresh sushi would be appropriate. ($20 a person.)
From there we may want to go to the famous Tokyo tower…a total rip off of the Eifel Tower, or see some other Tokyo sights. It costs about $10 to go to the observation level and an addition $10 to go all the way to the top.
In any event I figure sometime in the late morning/early afternoon it will be off to Kyoto for us. This kind of tears me up. I want to go to Mt. Fuji, but it’s not open, and I really don’t think there’s much to do there when it’s not open, so we will pass by it, and see it from our train…way off in the distance….but that’s as close as we’ll come.
I think Kyoto will be a welcome relief from the 2-day bustle of Tokyo (even though it’s a huge city).
When we get to Kyoto, in the early afternoon I’m guessing we may be tired (from our early morning start), so I think we should get checked in to the hotel, have a relaxing dinner somewhere in the neighborhood and perhaps an early night. (There’s also lots of easy convenient foreigner friendly shopping if we are feeling up for a wander downtown.)
Hotel: A triple room at Kyoto Garden Hotel in Central Kyoto. Another very good location here. Close to the subway. Not far from Kyoto Station. Really a very good central location. Rooms look pretty good too. Although I noted the bed is only 190cm, which means my feet will hang off a little. Dad and Mom will be OK. Cost: 13,500 yen. About $160, or $55 per person.
March 31
Our first full day in Kyoto. There are just so many temples and shrines to see here, it’s incredible. I think we may get a slow start (for once) and try to get to some of the eastern shrines before noon.
According to my guidebook, the highlight of any trip to Kyoto is the walk from Kiyomizu-dera to Ginkakuji. Both the starting and ending points are especially beautiful. I had a tendency in Kyoto to “wear out on temples”. They start to blur together after a while, so we may want to skip some of the mid-point temples on this walk, but the beginning and end points aren’t to be missed. (Grabbing lunch along the way).
Maybe tonight would be a good night to go to a classier Japanese restaurant. We’ll have to consult the guidebook as I really don’t frequent classy establishments.
Hotel (same as the 30th): A triple room at Kyoto Garden Hotel in Central Kyoto. Another very good location here. Close to the subway. Not far from Kyoto Station. Really a very good central location. Rooms look pretty good too. Although I noted the bed is only 190cm, which means my feet will hang off a little. Dad and Mom will be OK. Cost: 13,500 yen. About $160, or $55 per person.
April 1
I’m hoping for a leisurely day this day.
It’s April fools day and we are going to visit the monkeys. We’ll go to “Monkey park” in Arashiyama. It’s in a beautiful western suburb of Kyoto, and I’m really interested in seeing it. We’ll even get to feed the monkeys. (We’re also able to rent bicycles and ride around the bamboo lined streets of this suburb…maybe an option.)
After lunch, we’ll visit one last temple, Kinkakuji. This is the most famous temple in Kyoto, and for good reason, it’s made out of gold. Real gold. I didn’t see it on my first trip to Kyoto and was chastised for missing it, so I won’t be making the same mistake twice.
Apparently there are free Geisha performances during the month of April, so I’d like to take one in, as I still haven’t seen a Geisha in my whole time here. (Not surprising as they only live in Kyoto.)
That night it's off to Nara. Kyoto hotels were all booked up, but it's just as well.
Hotel: Couldn't find a good English link, but it's called Superhotel Nara Ekimae. I anticipate it being about the level of a Super 8 Motel in Canada, but they are pretty popular among budget travellers. We have a triple room the first night: 7800 yen. Oh Yeah! $95. Or 32 bucks a head. That's more like it. But it doesn't last....:(
April 2
Spend the day in Nara as mentioned before.
A day trip to Nara. Nara is a short train ride away. (Probably under an hour). It looks like we can spend a whole day in the park at the center of Nara, many museums and temples to see.
This may be the best time/place to go to an…EEEP…onsen (bath house). We’ll see how we’re feeling at that point.
We will sleep in Kyoto…no need to check out of our base of operations.
No we won't. It's Nara for the night.
Hotel: Same as last night...BUT...we couldn't get the triple room. Bye Bye budget...three single rooms....YUCK....4800yen per person. About $55 bucks a head. I don't know what is up. But on April 1st, hotels in Japan just went to heck.
April 3
Another day trip. This time to Osaka. I’ve been told that if Tokyo is Japan’s New York, Osaka is Japan’s L.A. – with a more laid back culture than Tokyo, it’s a big city I’ve been wanting to see.
At this point we will likely not have seen any of Japan’s historic castles. Osaka has the most famous castle in Japan: Osaka-jo. We’ll definitely hit that ($10). I loved seeing the castle in Kyoto last year, and it’s really not famous at all, so I’m expecting big things from Osaka-jo.
I’d expect we’d finish at the castle in time for lunch and an afternoon of exploring. Maybe we can take in some of Osaka’s more modern sites. They have a very famous aquarium, and also Universal Studios…okay, maybe we won’t visit Universal studios, but it’s an option. In any event we’ll have plenty of time to check the guidebook and decide what to do in Osaka.
Again, we will head back to our home base in Kyoto to sleep.
Wrongo...back to Nara...actually much more convenient from Osaka.
Same hotel as last night. 3 singles...yuck...4800 per person...yuck. Seriously, I will try to change this, but I proabably tried 30 hotels in and around Kyoto/Nara and this was the best I could do.
April 4
Potential change of plans. We could get up early. Head to Nagoya for the expo. Takes about 1hr and 30 minutes....so not too bad if we get an early start, we could be perusing by 9 or 10.
We'd leave sometime after dinner, and could arrive at our hotel in about 3 hours, so 9 or 10. Not too bad.
We’ll have to pack our stuff in the morning, and I think our best bet is to spend most of the day in Kyoto, going to sites we missed along the way. (There really is so much to see, and lots of places I went to the first time around and loved, that we are not planning to see this time.)
Early in the afternoon we’ll catch a bullet train to Tokyo and a shuttle to Narita, where we will stay in a nearby hotel so we can get up early to catch our flight to Singapore.
Hotel: Hotel Sky Court Narita. Seems pretty standard. We are in a triple room at a cost of 13500 yen. So 4500 per person or $55-60 per person. Very convenient to the airport.
That’s it for the Japan leg. We’ll have to work on the Singapore leg together at a later date, although it sounds like, with Doreen’s help, we’re off to a pretty good start.
**I know I had mentioned Hiroshima, but it really doesn’t work well. I was thinking about it instead of the Nara and Osaka day trips, but I don’t know about that. It’s quite a long way from Kyoto, and it’s not much more appealing than Nara or Osaka. We can do it if you guys want, but my preference is Nara and Osaka as I’ve already seen Hiroshima.
posted by Tony at 2:09 AM
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