japan 17 days!

hello everyone..

I%26#39;m going to japan in between 26th of march and 14th of april,havin just 17 days available, what would you suggest to do:

掳 try to visit as much as you can or just the south part of it?

掳 would u suggest to do the 14 jr pass, or any other passes?

掳Cause i%26#39;m travelling with my dad and he doesn%26#39;t like hostels, do you know any other kind of accomodation that u would suggest without spending a fortune?

Thank you for your help cause i really don%26#39;t know anything about it

Alessio

japan 17 days!

With 17 days, you can see most of Japan between Hiroshima/Miyajima and Tokyo. Hokkaido or Kyushu would be a stretch though.

Do some research first to see what you are interested in. There are various guidebooks you can read. A good website to use is http://www.japan-tuide.com. Read through some older posts on Tripadvisor as well, particularly for suggested itineraries. The forum search function (see the search box above) is particularly useful.

Regarding JR Pass, it depends on your final itinerary and how many places you go to so you can think about that later. A good train fares and schedule site is http://www.hyperdia.com

For budget hotels, there are many business hotels in Japan that charge about 8,000 to 10,000 Yen per room for two. Toyoko Inn is a solid, if not fancy national chain.

http://www.toyoko-inn.com/eng/index.html

japan 17 days!

A slight correction to the previous response - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e623.html

Please cruise through the Japan forum on this web site. Previous posts might answer some of your questions.

You will be traveling around the time of Cherry Blossom. One suggestion is to ';chase'; the cherry blossom from south to north %26#39;cos cherry blossoms happen in warmer south first. 17 days is a pretty good stretch of time. I would suggest concentrating on 2 to 3 areas at the most (kinki/kanto, kinki/chubu etc). You will get to appreciate what you see more rather than cramming in all the info at once. Kyushu, Shigoku and Hokkaido would be a little bit out of the way. You may need to do some domestic flying within Japan if you want to cover these areas.

For starter, most people will fly into Tokyo and explore Yokohama,Nikko,Matsushima,Kamakura, Hakone in kanto area. Then you can take the shinkansen (bullet train) to kansai/kinki area to see Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, Osaka, Kobe. From there, you can decide if you want to go further south to see Hiroshima and Miyashima.

Whether you want to purchase the 14 day JR pass depends on how frequent you travel on the bullet train. If you see yourself traveling very long distances, the JR pass is worth it.

My 2 cents. Hope it helps.

Gigi

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