Tokyo to Kyoto with one stop?

Hello there,

I think we are missing some words what you plan to do in Tokyo (At night we...).

Starting with Fuji, I would recommend visiting the Hakone area. This is much easier to plan it and you can travel on directly from Odawara station on to Kyoto. Odawara is not that far from Tokyo, so you could also use a local train instead and save a bit on transport costs.

In Kyoto, the best stay is in the city center the, Kawaramachi, Gion, Shijou area. Kyoto station can also be handy to stay at if you want easy access to Osaka, Nara and other places in the area. For some more ideas in Kyoto, see this itinerary.

Osaka is also great to stay at. Especially the Namba/Shinsaibashi/Dotonbori area has an amazing atmosphere after dark and makes for a great stay. Alternatively the Umeda area near Osaka station is also nice, this is more modern and uptown.

As for walking around in Kyoto. Personally I love walking up the Kamogawa river up to Demachi-Yanagi. Here there's a small train company called Eizan Railway. You can take it up to Kurama and walk around in the mountains. There's also a beautiful temple complex that does not see of lot of foreign visitors because of the distance from the city. It is one of better kept secret places in Kyoto. More to be read here.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

Hello,
Your plans make it looks like a 7 day pass won't work for you, but some regional passes might help you out, such as a Hakone Free Pass and for Kyoto/Osaka a Hankyu tourist pass. I would also recommend Hakone for going near Mt. Fuji since there are some very good hot spring resorts there.

For Tokyo, if you want a real Japanese style breakfast, you could go to the Tsukiji Fish Market and try out a real sushi meal. There are tours there but you'd need to sign up by about 4:30 AM to get a spot. Eating there is no trouble at all though before 9 AM or so. The Sensoji Temple is also a hot tourist draw. If you are in Tokyo on a Sunday afternoon, be sure to go visit Harajuku to see the youth with their wild fashions. Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi Park are next to it and well worth seeing also. The Shibuya Hachiko intersection is amazing too, especially on a weekend.

For Kyoto I'd also recommend a hotel near Kyoto Station. There are a number of places close by, like the Honganji Temples which are within walking distance of the station and free. Toji is also not far and well worth seeing, as is Sanjusangendo. Even Kyoto Station is worth seeing at night.
But the three best sights though are the Kinkakuji Temple, Kiyomizudera Temple, and Fushimi Inari Shrine. It'd take some time to get to the first two and if you don't care to travel all over to see them, I'd recommend seeing Fushimi Inari - you can take a 5 minute train ride from Kyoto Station, and the shrine is literally across the street from Inari station.

For eating in Kyoto, you could try the Pontocho area - it has a long row of restaurants, and some even have English menus to draw in more tourists. For Osaka, a great place to eat is in Dotonbori which has some great pub-restaurants (izakaya) as well as the takoyaki octopus dumplings. If you still can walk after loading up on all the great food, the night views from the Umeda Sky Bldg, and Abeno Harukas Bldg are stunning.

Be sure to take at least half a day and go see Nara. Missing the Todaiji Great Buddha would be a tragedy. Nara Park has a lot of other great places, such as Kasuga Shrine, Kofukuji Temple, and feeding the many deer in the area.

Best of luck.

Hi Daniel-san and Toraneko, Thank You very much for taking the time to reply to us, we really appreciate it and the info is very helpful.

@Daniel-san - sorry looks like I missed some of what I was going to say, at night in Tokyo we will just eat and have a few drinks, looking around for interesting people and places. That is why we thought that either Shinjuku or Shibuya will be good for this. As we only have 2 full evenings there we wanted to be in quite a busy place where there is lots to see without travelling around too much.

We also have a friend joining us for our trip. He will then be staying an extra week, the first week coming with us and then from Osaka he will go to Hiroshima and then make his way back to Tokyo, so I already recommended the 14 day JRPass to him.

If our friend has the JR pass and we don't, will we be able to get on the same Shinkansen from Odawara to Kyoto? Would any of us need to book in advance or can we just hop on? Do they travel regularly, like every hour or more/less often?

Thanks!