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A friend of mine living in Japan is getting married March 30th this year. He's invited me to be the best man in his wedding if I come. My wife and I have always wanted to go to Japan, so we will definitely be making the trip.
I need some advice about traveling in Japan though. It's proven to be very overwhelming. If this is not the place to ask for travel advice, then please point me in the right direction.
Here's what we've already finalized so far. We'll be flying to Fukuoka Sunday March 24th. My friend has some friends who will host us for a week while staying there. Then on March 31st, we'll be making our way to Osaka. We plan on staying there for 5 days and would like to see both Osaka and Kyoto during that time. Then we'll be making our way on April 5th to Tokyo and plan on staying there until April 12th when we fly back to the US.
Here's where we need help. Transportation from Fukuoka to Osaka, within Osaka, between Osaka and Kyoto, from Osaka to Tokyo, and finally within Tokyo.
I know public transportation there is easy in the sense that it's plentiful with bullet trains, buses, and subways. I'm just not sure what's the best method for each endeavor and I want to be prepared. I know there's a JR pass we can get, but we've gotten conflicting advice on whether it would benefit us.
Any advice would be helpful and appreciated. Thank you!
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Between cities:
Bullet trains are comfortable and easy to get on. You need to travel quite a lot to make the JR passes worthwhile I hear though, so you might be better off with buying the tickets individually.
Domestic flights are also a good choice. I've only flown domestic once but it was a very smooth trip. Not sure how it compares to just going by the bullet train cost-wise.
If you're low on cash, take night buses XD Not the most comfortable but gets the job done
Within cities:
Just use the trains/subways. Even if you can't read japanese, there's always staff at every station you can ask. Just show them the name of the station you want to go to and look like a lost tourist :3
Oh, and make sure you have cash on you when you travel. And when you're not, for that matter.
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Take the train everywhere. Take the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Fukuoka to Osaka and from Osaka to Tokyo. Take the Subway to get around Osaka and Tokyo. Take the bus in Kyoto (or rent a bicycle). Before you go get a map of the Tokyo Subway, the Osaka Subway and the Kyoto bus system in English, take it with you.
If you are travelling by train everyday it might be worth getting a JR pass, but otherwise it won't be worth it. Check if it can be used on the Shinkansen, probably not. I don't know if it is worth it or not, but being tied down to using it to go everywhere will probably make it annoying, so I think it would be better just to pay as you go.
I recommend spending more time in Kansai and less in Tokyo. You can see Nara and Kobe as well as Osaka and Kyoto. Alternatively i guess there are places to see in the Tokyo area like Chiba and Yokohama, but I'm not really so familiar with those areas.
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As far as I know, the JR pass should be much cheaper even if you just use it a few times. There are sites where you can compare it (like http://www.hyperdia.com/en/). I think you can use it for almost all trains, including Shinkansen but excluding the most recent Nozomi. From Osaka, it's easiest to just take the train to Kyoto (and covered if you have the pass).
The JR goes everywhere and are usually a good means of transport (and cheaper than other trains).
I agree with the above poster that Nara and Kobe are nice places to go. I've been living in Osaka for 4 years, but not been very much in east of Japan, so can not say much about Tokyo.
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Thanks all for the advice. I found that hyperdia website to be very useful. I was able to figure out for the most part all of my transportation needs.
The only thing I have left to figure out is transporting luggage. I'll only have to do it twice: from Fukuoka to Osaka, and from Osaka to Tokyo (and I guess from the hotel in Tokyo to the airport). I heard there's not much room as far as luggage goes on the trains. Do you guys know if there's a way to courier the luggage? Or if it really won't be that bad if we have a few bags per person for two people?
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The shinkansen( at least the ones ive been on) have overhead space and quiet a lot of leg space so if it isnt too much, just take it with you, there also was space for luggage at the end of the rows ( at least people piled luggage up there, no idea if it the space was for that purpose ).
If you have more luggage, ask the hotels that you are going to stay in if they are attached to some kind of luggage sending service. When i was in Japan, we could just send it from hotel to hotel, 1 day delivery.
If you know at which hotel you are staying ahead of going there, just mail / phone the staff.
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EPT
