First trip to Japan April 2011

[Nyororin]

I`ll just quietly weep in the corner about how everyone sort of writes off Nagoya even though it`s the 3rd largest metropolis in Japan... Is incredibly easy to get to... And the area that a huge chunk of the most important figures in Japanese history were from...

[godwine]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I`ll just quietly weep in the corner about how everyone sort of writes off Nagoya even though it`s the 3rd largest metropolis in Japan... Is incredibly easy to get to... And the area that a huge chunk of the most important figures in Japanese history were from...

Ha ha, I have nothing against Nagoya, just that it may not have the content that will interest a first time visitor. I like it enough to take my friends there before, but they all gave me hard time as they didn't find Nagoya interesting.

[biwako]

thanks for all the info so far, its a great help with my itinerary planning,

i think i might try and cut down my stay in osaka to one night,

if i manage to get two days and one night do you think i would have enough time to see the following:
Osaka Aquarium,
Osaka Castle
Dotonbori and night life areas,

is there anything else in osaka one would reccommend to a first time visitor to Japan. From what I can gather i am best to spend more time in tokyo and kyoto.
i was thinking of staying at least 3 nights in Kyoto and then one around Mt Fuji before finishing off with 2-3 night in tokyo.

although i dont have any specific plans for kyoto i was thinking of seeing the following:

Nijo Castle
Gion
Kinkakuji
Fushimi Inari Shrine
Monkey Park Iwatayama
Bamboo Groves (Arashiyama)
and a couple of the temples people reccommend,
is this too much to do in say 3 days,
keeping in mind i will be travelling alone and not sitting at the one spot for too long.

thanks again,
any tips are appreciated,

Ben

[biwako]

Nishiki Market looks like a must as well,
i love food and it looks like a great market to see and eat.

am i trying to do too much in kyoto..?

[godwine]

Hey Ben, see my comments below

Originally Posted by biwako

thanks for all the info so far, its a great help with my itinerary planning,

i think i might try and cut down my stay in osaka to one night,

if i manage to get two days and one night do you think i would have enough time to see the following:
Osaka Aquarium,
Osaka Castle
Dotonbori and night life areas,

If you start out early in the morning, yes. You can probably see the Aquarium as it open in the morning, you will be done by around afternoon-ish, then head to the Castle, and finally hang around Dotonbori and nanba at night.

Originally Posted by biwako

is there anything else in osaka one would reccommend to a first time visitor to Japan. From what I can gather i am best to spend more time in tokyo and kyoto.

If you have time, i'd suggest to make a trip to Kobe, a lot of people make Himeji and Miyajima as a day trip from Osaka, but seeing that you have limited time, I'd say to drop these destination, also Himeji is under massive construction now anyways. You may consider the Umeda sky building, it give you a very very good view of the city, best to visit between/after sunset, so you see the best of the city

Originally Posted by biwako

i was thinking of staying at least 3 nights in Kyoto and then one around Mt Fuji before finishing off with 2-3 night in tokyo.

although i dont have any specific plans for kyoto i was thinking of seeing the following:

Nijo Castle
Gion
Kinkakuji
Fushimi Inari Shrine
Monkey Park Iwatayama
Bamboo Groves (Arashiyama)
and a couple of the temples people reccommend,
is this too much to do in say 3 days,
keeping in mind i will be travelling alone and not sitting at the one spot for too long.

Not at all, in fact, you are not doing close to ENOUGH for 3 days. I think you will have time to do alot more, but keeping it this way will give you a more relaxed trip. I will try to fit Sanjusangendo and Kiyomizudera into this as well. The walk up to Kiyomizudera has a lot of specialy store along the way, the temple itself is one thing, but if you want local souvenir, this is the place to be.....

Nijo Castle and Gion is not a place where you will spend a LOT of time in, for the most part, each temple will last you around 45 minutes at most. When you get to Kyoto, outside the Kyoto station is a small bus station, they sell sightseeing bus/subway pass that you should purchase for the 3 days. Take a map, it shows you all the attractions in Kyoto.

[jbradfor]

Ask 10 people for travel advice, and you'll get 10 different answers. All correct, all different.

So here's number 11

The advice on shrine/temple fatigue is very true. To me, the best way to avoid the fatigue is to limit to 1 or 2 per day, and also try to learn a decent amount about each one. That way, each one becomes more special.

Personally, I would not skip Kamakura, and cut back on other places. I think Kamakura had a peacefulness that was lacking other places, even Kyoto.

I like your Kyoto plans. Very easy to do in three days. Both Nijo and Kinkakuji are quite quick; Nijo, as I recall, has a set tour you must take, so you're in and our in about an hour. Kinkakuji is also quite quick, about an hour. You go, are totally impressed by the gaudiness of the Golden Pavilion, and then stroll through the rest pretty quickly. My only suggestion would be to add a couple of places with nice gardens. Also, in Kyoto, if you find you are getting "Templed out" you might want to consider Nara. Go and pet/feed the deer, and there is a lovely garden there as well.

[biwako]

great info guys,
so il have plenty of time to see these things and more, thats great.
i think i know what you mean about the temples, i know when i was in thailand it was great to see the temples but i wouldnt spend too much time there and would probably see a few in a day,
my question is, how big a place is kyoto and how easy is it to get around,
obviously all of the sights i want to see are not going to be right next to each other, so will it take a long time to get around and what is the best way one would do this, i will have a JR pass but wasnt sure if this would be applicable.

Kiyomizudera looks awesome, this is a definate.
I mentioned the Monkey Park at Iwatayama, has anyone here seen this,
i was looking at going to Nagano (mainly to see the bathing monkeys) but also to see the japanese alps. Do you think it is worth trying to squeeze this in or will the Iwatayama do the trick. I mean id love to see the mountains of nagano but hey will they even have any snow at that time of the year (start of april)

Once again i must thankyou all,
its been a great help in compiling my itinery.
hopefully i can put up great big trip report with plenty of pics when i get home for you all to see.

Thanks again,

Ben

[biwako]

the other thing that sways me towards a trip up to nagano is to see matsumoto
I really want to see a castle or two while in Japan,
i was thinking that matsumoto would be the best option seeing as though himeji is going to have scaffolding all over it

any tips

[godwine]

Originally Posted by biwako

the other thing that sways me towards a trip up to nagano is to see matsumoto
I really want to see a castle or two while in Japan,
i was thinking that matsumoto would be the best option seeing as though himeji is going to have scaffolding all over it

any tips

You know what, I never thought of that. And yes, since you can't see Himeji, Matsumoto will be a great choice

Originally Posted by biwako

so il have plenty of time to see these things and more, thats great.
i think i know what you mean about the temples, i know when i was in thailand it was great to see the temples but i wouldnt spend too much time there and would probably see a few in a day,
my question is, how big a place is kyoto and how easy is it to get around,
obviously all of the sights i want to see are not going to be right next to each other, so will it take a long time to get around and what is the best way one would do this, i will have a JR pass but wasnt sure if this would be applicable.

You will not be bale to use your JR Pass WITHIN Kyoto, you can use it to get to and from Kyoto (To Nara or to Fushimi Inari). Within Kyoto, you definitely will want a public transit pass as suggested in my previous reply, if I remember correctly, its 500 yen for a Bus only day pass, and 1000yen for a bus and train day pass. I THINK there is also such thing as a 2 days sight seeing pass, but I don't remember the price

On that note, Fushimi Inari is HUGE, I completed the trail with my friends in 2007, it took us about 3 hours to do it, of course, we stopped here and there to look at things.

Don't know of the Monkey park, never been there

[jbradfor]

Originally Posted by biwako

great info guys,
I mentioned the Monkey Park at Iwatayama, has anyone here seen this,

We were at Monkey Park 5 days ago.

Should you go? Well, how much do you like Monkeys?

We went with our 2 year-old, and she absolutely loved it. Just seeing her reaction to all the monkeys was worth it. She still asks to go see the "Monkey Top" (monkeys on top of the hill).

Basically it's a small monkey center at the top of a hill. So picture an area of bare ground with about 20-30 monkeys at any given time walking around. They are not pets, you can't touch them, but they are very tame and you can get within 2 feet of them. Also, they have a room you can go into and buy peanuts and apples (only JPY 100 per bag) and feed them by hand.

The view from the top is also beautiful, you can see pretty much all of Kyoto spread out beneath you, so pick a clear day to go.

The walk up is a fairly strenuous hike, taking about 15-20 minutes for adults in average condition. The map is NOT to scale, so don't just your progress by the map or you will freak out.

In my opinion, I think it is very worth the trip. But then again, I like monkeys.

The entrance to the park is about 10 minute walk from the Bamboo Groves, just on the other side of the bridge. So if you are going to see the Bamboo anyway, I would say go.

Note that there are two main ways of getting there from Kyoto, the JR rail, and the non-JR rail. The JR rail leaves from Kyoto station and is standard modern rail. The non-JR rail is a total hoot. I recommend it just for the experience. It's a single car (!), goes really slowly, has stations like every 3 blocks, and makes weird noises. JPY 200 per ride, highly recommended. However, the end is on the west side of Kyoto, so if your hotel is far away it can be a bit of a pain.