Discussion
I'm off to Nara in Japan later this month with work, I'll have a week or so free to explore so I was wondering if any PH'ers had visited Nara and could give me some insight and advice as to what to do there or what's worth visiting nearby. This is my first visit to Japan and I must admit I've not spent a great deal of time researching what to do whilst I'm there, so any recommendations would be most welcome.
Cheers
Cheers
1) Get a 7-day JR Pass (assuming your 'week' is all in one go). Need to sort out from the UK in advance though - TravelBag do them. Will give you unlimited rail travel for the week on all JR lines (inc. a couple of Tokyo subway lines) and on all trains except the Nozomi shinkansen (quickest, least stops - all other Shinkansen are included). We found we didn't need anything other than trains and the odd taxi to get around. And the trains are punctual to the minute!
Consider travelling between places in the evening or early morning if you want to do lots of sightseeing - some trains can get quite hot in the middle of the day, plus you can usually get bento-boxes at the (big) stations to eat on the train (meal-in-a-tray...often pot-luck!
).
2) (Quickly) research and visit any/all of the following:
- Kyoto. Lovely city, worth a day or two there at least. Useful base to visit elsewhere, such as...
- Himeji Castle - biggest castle in Japan, very impressive. Short day-trip from Kyoto. Or stop-off en-route to...
- Hiroshima. Just a city, but peace park and A-bomb dome interesting, and you can spend the rest of the day visiting...
- Miyajima Island, an hour on from Hiroshima. Absolutely beautiful. Plus a big hill if you like walking!
- Mt Fuji. Half-way between Kyoto and Tokyo, may be easier to get to from Tokyo.
- Fushimi shrine just south of Kyoto (10min walk from the station of the same name)
Also, if you like big cities, you MUST visit Tokyo. They don't get much bigger/more crowded/more neon. We weren't big fans of it, but we're not big-city people. It was interesting though...a real experience, esp. the night-time neonness of e.g. Shinjuku.
www.hyperdia.com has a good train-timetable/planner which while not 100% accurate is flexible to use and mostly accurate. Will give you a good idea of how long it'll take from place to place when planning.
3) Accomodation can be booked through the usual places or through www.rakuten.co.jp, which is Japan's biggest online travel agent, so safe. We were paying ~Y11,000-15,000 per room per night for a double/twin (so up to £100 at today's rates).
4) Stay in a ryokan if you can for a night - look on e.g. tripadvisor.com for rated ryokans in each city. Worthwhile experience. Perhaps consider an onsen too (hot-spring baths attached to a hotel/ryokan) - another traditional Japanese custom is the baths.
5) If you've the time and interest, check out the horseback archery at a place called Kamakura - 1hr south of Tokyo. It's only on once or twice a month though (on Sundays), and gets VERY busy, but is cool to watch.
Finally, note that Japan will be hot AND humid at this time of year - probably worse than we've got this week, certainly as bad. So pack accordingly (lightweight rainproof as well as sun-tan-lotion and hat) and remember that when planning sightseeing!
Unfortunately I haven't got our photos from April up anywhere at the moment, so I can't show you those.
Pointers:-
- stations can be HUGE, so allow time to get from one train to another if connecting.
- lots of english-language signs, particularly in stations, and lots of tourist-info places around.
- menus not often in english - more often they're pictorial or there's a display-cabinet with plastic models of the food.
- locals are almost-universally very friendly and helpful, but (wrongly) they will get embarassed if you ask them for help/directions and they cannot help you - it's a cultural thing. So best-off finding tourist-info places and getting maps where possible.
- a few words of the language will (as everywhere) oil your visit very nicely.
- PLAN IN ADVANCE. We did lots and almost everything went smoothly. It's a lot harder there to do things on the fly due to the (written) language barrier, although i'm sure it's not impossible if you're determined. But if you've only a week why waste time checking into what to do when you're out there?!?
I think I've got a few 'research documents' - hotel shortlists, maps, to-do shortlists etc. from when we were planning our holiday - e-mail me if you want them and I'll ping them over to you.
Consider travelling between places in the evening or early morning if you want to do lots of sightseeing - some trains can get quite hot in the middle of the day, plus you can usually get bento-boxes at the (big) stations to eat on the train (meal-in-a-tray...often pot-luck!
).2) (Quickly) research and visit any/all of the following:
- Kyoto. Lovely city, worth a day or two there at least. Useful base to visit elsewhere, such as...
- Himeji Castle - biggest castle in Japan, very impressive. Short day-trip from Kyoto. Or stop-off en-route to...
- Hiroshima. Just a city, but peace park and A-bomb dome interesting, and you can spend the rest of the day visiting...
- Miyajima Island, an hour on from Hiroshima. Absolutely beautiful. Plus a big hill if you like walking!
- Mt Fuji. Half-way between Kyoto and Tokyo, may be easier to get to from Tokyo.
- Fushimi shrine just south of Kyoto (10min walk from the station of the same name)
Also, if you like big cities, you MUST visit Tokyo. They don't get much bigger/more crowded/more neon. We weren't big fans of it, but we're not big-city people. It was interesting though...a real experience, esp. the night-time neonness of e.g. Shinjuku.
www.hyperdia.com has a good train-timetable/planner which while not 100% accurate is flexible to use and mostly accurate. Will give you a good idea of how long it'll take from place to place when planning.
3) Accomodation can be booked through the usual places or through www.rakuten.co.jp, which is Japan's biggest online travel agent, so safe. We were paying ~Y11,000-15,000 per room per night for a double/twin (so up to £100 at today's rates).
4) Stay in a ryokan if you can for a night - look on e.g. tripadvisor.com for rated ryokans in each city. Worthwhile experience. Perhaps consider an onsen too (hot-spring baths attached to a hotel/ryokan) - another traditional Japanese custom is the baths.
5) If you've the time and interest, check out the horseback archery at a place called Kamakura - 1hr south of Tokyo. It's only on once or twice a month though (on Sundays), and gets VERY busy, but is cool to watch.
Finally, note that Japan will be hot AND humid at this time of year - probably worse than we've got this week, certainly as bad. So pack accordingly (lightweight rainproof as well as sun-tan-lotion and hat) and remember that when planning sightseeing!
Unfortunately I haven't got our photos from April up anywhere at the moment, so I can't show you those.
Pointers:-
- stations can be HUGE, so allow time to get from one train to another if connecting.
- lots of english-language signs, particularly in stations, and lots of tourist-info places around.
- menus not often in english - more often they're pictorial or there's a display-cabinet with plastic models of the food.
- locals are almost-universally very friendly and helpful, but (wrongly) they will get embarassed if you ask them for help/directions and they cannot help you - it's a cultural thing. So best-off finding tourist-info places and getting maps where possible.
- a few words of the language will (as everywhere) oil your visit very nicely.
- PLAN IN ADVANCE. We did lots and almost everything went smoothly. It's a lot harder there to do things on the fly due to the (written) language barrier, although i'm sure it's not impossible if you're determined. But if you've only a week why waste time checking into what to do when you're out there?!?
I think I've got a few 'research documents' - hotel shortlists, maps, to-do shortlists etc. from when we were planning our holiday - e-mail me if you want them and I'll ping them over to you.
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