Jym when are you going? I’d love to hear how your travels went.
I am trying to figure out the rail pass system – we will be in Tokyo for three days, one of them traveling out to the Ghibli museum (hint: if you can’t get tickets from the international travel agent, try your hotel’s concierge). We also will be taking the bullet train to Kyoto and then back to Tokyo. Should we purchase the JR pass? If so, how exactly do I do that? Also, I have read conflicting things about advance reservations for the bullet train – some people seem to regard reservations as a must, while others suggest that because the trains run fairly often, reservations are not essential. Advice?
Mathilda – When we were in Japan last spring, we stayed with someone who had been living there for 3 years. He recommended making advanced reservations for the longer, well-traveled routes, like Tokyo to Kyoto. Which we did. We bought our Japan Rail Pass online before we left – I just looked at the confirmation email and it says we got it through Japan Experience, which is this website: https://www.japan-rail-pass.com/.
As to whether you should buy one – If you are just taking the train from Kyoto to Tokyo, it might not be worth it. There are folks on the Japan forum at Trip Advisor who will look at your itinerary and give advice on whether to buy one. The Japan rail website is pretty user friendly – you can look up your routes, total the cost, and see if it makes sense to buy a pass. We used ours in Tokyo too. The website also tells you what track # your train is leaving from, which is really really helpful.
In Kyoto we took a walking tour of Gion and a biking tour that were both wonderful. We also loved the Fushimi Inari shrine and hiked to the top. I planned most of the trip using trip advisor and japan-guide.com.
Thanks, fireandrain – now that we have hotels booked I will tackle the train system.
Also, do you happen to have the names of the tour companies that you used? We have talked about possibly renting bikes in Kyoto but a tour would probably make more sense.
We did this tour, in the morning: http://www.kctp.net/en/tour/goloden_tour.html, ending at a train station. Then we took the train to Fushimi Inari. The Gion tour I don’t remember, I’m pretty sure it was in a Kyoto tourism newspaper. The first day we were there we did our own walking tour of the eastern temples/shrines; we walked along a lovely tree-lined canal some of the way.
Do post after you get back – I would love to hear your experiences. Look up the Fox Shrine in Kyoto – we didn’t go, but my son didl. I will visit that one next time I go, which will be in the next couple of years, I hope.