Itinerary Ideas/Help

We aren't really doing it for the whole Mario theme. I just think it's super cool that you get to drive a go kart around town and over the Rainbow Bridge lol. I know there are different Maricar companies. Was the judgement against all of them or just a certain one? We are wanting to do this one: https://rmaricar.tokyo/

No idea what the company was. I just read about it the other day on a travel website. I just wanted to warn anyone getting very excited about this. I would also assume that Nintendo will be going after other companies after they have the precedent of the first case.

To be honest this has no appeal to me. The article also mentioned that there had been over 50 accidents so far with these carts this year in Tokyo.
 
No idea what the company was. I just read about it the other day on a travel website. I just wanted to warn anyone getting very excited about this. I would also assume that Nintendo will be going after other companies after they have the precedent of the first case.

To be honest this has no appeal to me. The article also mentioned that there had been over 50 accidents so far with these carts this year in Tokyo.
I see your point, but I feel like I could say that about a lot of things I choose to do. I choose to get on the road every day in my car even though there might be an accident. It isn't exactly the same thing, but I don't want to constantly worry about what could happen.
 
No idea what the company was. I just read about it the other day on a travel website. I just wanted to warn anyone getting very excited about this. I would also assume that Nintendo will be going after other companies after they have the precedent of the first case.

To be honest this has no appeal to me. The article also mentioned that there had been over 50 accidents so far with these carts this year in Tokyo.
Maybe it's for the best that you can't wear costumes anymore. I almost died laughing at the review that said "it was fun, but Yoshi's head blew away :(" Where did it go? Did someone walk outside & find a random Yoshi head? :rotfl:

I mean... it's probably not the safest activity ever but I've seen them on the road before and the drivers always seem to be having a good time. People walking by seem to enjoy it too - "oh, let's wave to the happy foreigners in funny outfits!" - and they get a kick out of it. I think the accidents are caused by people who are poor drivers anyway & don't care to follow the (admittedly lax) safety regulations. The awful smell of them is more off-putting. It would be like subjecting yourself to Tomorrowland Speedway for hours. That & I'm not sure how much sightseeing you can really do in a low vehicle in certain areas. In others, it's probably pretty cool.

Not at all surprised that Nintendo would sue. Eventually, some dingbat is going to get maimed or killed while trying to film a stunt video or whatever for their YouTube channel, and "TOURIST ACTIVITY BASED ON NINTENDO'S MARIO KART SERIES" would have been all over the news.
 
Maybe it's for the best that you can't wear costumes anymore. I almost died laughing at the review that said "it was fun, but Yoshi's head blew away :(" Where did it go? Did someone walk outside & find a random Yoshi head? :rotfl:

I mean... it's probably not the safest activity ever but I've seen them on the road before and the drivers always seem to be having a good time. People walking by seem to enjoy it too - "oh, let's wave to the happy foreigners in funny outfits!" - and they get a kick out of it. I think the accidents are caused by people who are poor drivers anyway & don't care to follow the (admittedly lax) safety regulations. The awful smell of them is more off-putting. It would be like subjecting yourself to Tomorrowland Speedway for hours. That & I'm not sure how much sightseeing you can really do in a low vehicle in certain areas. In others, it's probably pretty cool.

Not at all surprised that Nintendo would sue. Eventually, some dingbat is going to get maimed or killed while trying to film a stunt video or whatever for their YouTube channel, and "TOURIST ACTIVITY BASED ON NINTENDO'S MARIO KART SERIES" would have been all over the news.
I actually laughed out loud about the yoshi head lol. We have other days for sight seeing so our main reason is to go over the rainbow bridge and just be able to drive a go kart in Japan. I could see the smell getting annoying though.
 


There is a super great group on FB if you're on there. There is so much information and help - as well as amazing photos. Just search Japan Travel Planning on FB and you'll find them.

I know you are not supposed to refer to FB as far as FE so if it allows applies here, please delete.
 
I thought I'd come back and update my itinerary since Dh and I have been working long nights to perfect it. We are currently working on our Kyoto days. The main thing we have been focusing on is making sure everything is grouped by area so we don't backtrack. We've also been finding places to eat so we aren't wandering. I'm really picky so knowing there are things nearby that I'll like is important. It's also been tough figuring out transportation, but we're starting to figure it all out. It's been a stressful time, but we are having a lot of fun planning our days out!
 
I thought I'd come back and update my itinerary since Dh and I have been working long nights to perfect it. We are currently working on our Kyoto days. The main thing we have been focusing on is making sure everything is grouped by area so we don't backtrack. We've also been finding places to eat so we aren't wandering. I'm really picky so knowing there are things nearby that I'll like is important. It's also been tough figuring out transportation, but we're starting to figure it all out. It's been a stressful time, but we are having a lot of fun planning our days out!



I am a planner as well, and I to group things together to get the most of our time so that we can see what we planned on, and still not feeling like we are on a tight schedule...

I am following along very closely... I have so many notes to go back through and sort out... We are just in the beginning of planning, and this has been a wealth of info.... Living in Fl... we don't have trains, metros, or anything really for us to have any experience, moving around on them...

The thing that is getting me is all the different passes as well as the level of seating... and the luggage moving it with your or shipping it... We will be using the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and back again... then I need to figure out how to get from Tokyo station to Disneyland Tokyo.. then back again to the airport...

1)So I can get a 72 hour pass for Tokyo for our 2 nights there?...
2) Use the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Kyoto ? Green seats
3)Once in Kyoto for 3 nights we want to do a day trip to Hiroshima and back again to Kyoto to our hotel... what are my choices?
4) Shinkansen from Kyoto station to Tokyo station ? Green Seats
5) How do I get from Tokyo Station to either Hilton or Shearton Tokyo bay, or to Tokyo Disneyland Hotel ?
6) How do I get from ( either of the #5 options) back to the airport for our flight home..

When do I need to book all of this... I'm in need of some major help.

I do have a question has anyone used uber like from the train stations to the hotels, we normally use a private car service to and from the airport to hotel ... we did in Paris last year and honestly it was so worth the money, it was about break even between using uber and private car service.... we did use the hop on hop off buses, we had planned to use the trains, but they were on strike so that was a complete strike out for that knowledge... So has anyone had any experience with this, and if you used a private car service how was it, and any suggestions would great be appreciated....

As well has anyone used the concierge at the hotel to help with tickets, or tour guide and how did that work out. We used our concierge in Paris and it was a wealth of knowledge and options that we used... it was one of the tips that I got from here on the DIS... which really worked in our favor...
 
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I am a planner as well, and I to group things together to get the most of our time so that we can see what we planned on, and still not feeling like we are on a tight schedule...

I am following along very closely... I have so many notes to go back through and sort out... We are just in the beginning of planning, and this has been a wealth of info.... Living in Fl... we don't have trains, metros, or anything really for us to have any experience, moving around on them...

The thing that is getting me is all the different passes as well as the level of seating... and the luggage moving it with your or shipping it... We will be using the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and back again... then I need to figure out how to get from Tokyo station to Disneyland Tokyo.. then back again to the airport...

1)So I can get a 72 hour pass for Tokyo for our 2 nights there?...
2) Use the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Kyoto ? Green seats
3)Once in Kyoto for 3 nights we want to do a day trip to Hiroshima and back again to Kyoto to our hotel... what are my choices?
4) Shinkansen from Kyoto station to Tokyo station ? Green Seats
5) How do I get from Tokyo Station to either Hilton or Shearton Tokyo bay, or to Tokyo Disneyland Hotel ?
6) How do I get from ( either of the #5 options) back to the airport for our flight home..

When do I need to book all of this... I'm in need of some major help.

I do have a question has anyone used uber like from the train stations to the hotels, we normally use a private car service to and from the airport to hotel ... we did in Paris last year and honestly it was so worth the money, it was about break even between using uber and private car service.... we did use the hop on hop off buses, we had planned to use the trains, but they were on strike so that was a complete strike out for that knowledge... So has anyone had any experience with this, and if you used a private car service how was it, and any suggestions would great be appreciated....

As well has anyone used the concierge at the hotel to help with tickets, or tour guide and how did that work out. We used our concierge in Paris and it was a wealth of knowledge and options that we used... it one of the tips that I got from here on the DIS... which really worked in our favor...
Yeah the different passes are kind of a lot. We are buying a 7-day jr pass, 72 hour Tokyo metro pass, a 4 day Disney monorail pass, and a hakone free pass. Along with those we are still estimating paying around $150 for extra transportation that isn’t covered by those passes. There are places in Kyoto we are going that aren’t covered by the jr pass but some of the buses we take should be.

I looked on each website to find out when I can purchase each type of pass.

1) you could get a 24, 48, or 72 hour pass for Tokyo. Really depends how much time you’ll use the pass for
2) we are taking the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto but we have jr passes. We are doing the ordinary seats and plan to reserve our seats ahead of time. We are stopping in hakone first for a night so we are shipping our luggage from Tokyo to Kyoto and taking just a backpack in between.
3) we are also going to Hiroshima but our jr pass covers almost all of that. You might just have to pay for that out of pocket. Since you won’t be in Kyoto that long I think it would still be cheaper than you buying a jr pass
4) we will still be using our jr pass when we go from Kyoto to Tokyo Disney and our pass covers almost all of that again. Actually I think it covers all of it except the Disney monorail. I’ve been using google maps to help plan out our routes.
5) honestly I would plug those into google maps and see what you get but if I’m remembering correctly I believe it’s the keiyo line?
6) we are paying for an airport limousine bus to get from the Hilton to narita airport because by that point we will have two suitcases each and I’m not taking those on a train
 
Yeah the different passes are kind of a lot. We are buying a 7-day jr pass, 72 hour Tokyo metro pass, a 4 day Disney monorail pass, and a hakone free pass. Along with those we are still estimating paying around $150 for extra transportation that isn’t covered by those passes. There are places in Kyoto we are going that aren’t covered by the jr pass but some of the buses we take should be.

I looked on each website to find out when I can purchase each type of pass.

1) you could get a 24, 48, or 72 hour pass for Tokyo. Really depends how much time you’ll use the pass for
2) we are taking the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto but we have jr passes. We are doing the ordinary seats and plan to reserve our seats ahead of time. We are stopping in hakone first for a night so we are shipping our luggage from Tokyo to Kyoto and taking just a backpack in between.
3) we are also going to Hiroshima but our jr pass covers almost all of that. You might just have to pay for that out of pocket. Since you won’t be in Kyoto that long I think it would still be cheaper than you buying a jr pass
4) we will still be using our jr pass when we go from Kyoto to Tokyo Disney and our pass covers almost all of that again. Actually I think it covers all of it except the Disney monorail. I’ve been using google maps to help plan out our routes.
5) honestly I would plug those into google maps and see what you get but if I’m remembering correctly I believe it’s the keiyo line?
6) we are paying for an airport limousine bus to get from the Hilton to narita airport because by that point we will have two suitcases each and I’m not taking those on a train


Thanks so much... I am planning on spending quite a bit of time on the transportation part of our trip... It seem honestly to be the most overwhelming to me right now...

1) I think as of right now, and depending on if we decided to just go it alone, or use a guide with car service for Tokyo it will depend on if we get a pass for Tokyo, So if we do it would be 24 or 48 hours.

2) Then a 7 day JR pass to cover the Shinkansen to and from Tokyo and Kyoto as well as the day trip to Hiroshima from Kyoto included.

3) Then a JR pass should get us from Tokyo to Toyko Disney? A friend said we should use the Disney train from Tokyo to Tokyo Disney, not sure what she meant... my head was spinning after all the talking about the trips, and trains, and such...

4) We most likely will use a car service, from the Airport in Tokyo to the hotel in Tokyo, as well as a car service from Tokyo Disney back to the airport, we too might have an extra suitcase or two to bring back with us.

I have been reading so much stuff, and DH made a comment that maybe we just skip Tokyo, and go straight to Kyoto, so that we could squeeze in another day trip somewhere from Kyoto, then to Tokyo Disney, then check out at Disney Tokyo, and check into a hotel in Tokyo at or near the airport, and see what we can see for the rest of that day, before leaving the next day... I am a little bit worried about a the flight and then adding in a train ride.... Jet Lag... but we are thinking of splurging on plane tickets so we might actually get some sleep, so it might be do-able...
 
Tokyo Station to Tokyo Disneyland (Maihama station) is covered by JR Pass. It's on the Keiyo line which is operated by JR. The platform of Keiyo line is a bit far from the main building of the Tokyo station so you have to walk quite a bit.
 
I am a planner as well, and I to group things together to get the most of our time so that we can see what we planned on, and still not feeling like we are on a tight schedule...

I am following along very closely... I have so many notes to go back through and sort out... We are just in the beginning of planning, and this has been a wealth of info.... Living in Fl... we don't have trains, metros, or anything really for us to have any experience, moving around on them...

The thing that is getting me is all the different passes as well as the level of seating... and the luggage moving it with your or shipping it... We will be using the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and back again... then I need to figure out how to get from Tokyo station to Disneyland Tokyo.. then back again to the airport...

I'm not sure if anyone has recommended this to you yet, but I'm finding it helpful with the transportation planning: https://www.japan-guide.com/railpass/ If you input the major segments of your transportation plan, it'll tell you if the JR Pass is worthwhile.

I'm also in the early stages of planning (for a May/June 2020 trip) and as a lifelong Detroiter, public transit is always one of the more confounding parts of traveling without a car. So I'm spending a lot of time on the transportation part of our trip too. I haven't waded into decisions about how to handle our luggage yet. My natural inclination is to travel light, do laundry along the way, and ship purchases home as needed but I haven't found a solid cost-of-shipping calculator to evaluate the practicality/cost effectiveness of that plan yet.
 
I'm really looking forward to your trip report (you are going to do one, right? ;) ). I haven't gotten down to itinerary details yet but yours hits most of the things we plan on doing in Tokyo/Kyoto so I'm eager to see how it works out for you.
 
Thanks so much... I am planning on spending quite a bit of time on the transportation part of our trip... It seem honestly to be the most overwhelming to me right now...

1) I think as of right now, and depending on if we decided to just go it alone, or use a guide with car service for Tokyo it will depend on if we get a pass for Tokyo, So if we do it would be 24 or 48 hours.

2) Then a 7 day JR pass to cover the Shinkansen to and from Tokyo and Kyoto as well as the day trip to Hiroshima from Kyoto included.

3) Then a JR pass should get us from Tokyo to Toyko Disney? A friend said we should use the Disney train from Tokyo to Tokyo Disney, not sure what she meant... my head was spinning after all the talking about the trips, and trains, and such...

4) We most likely will use a car service, from the Airport in Tokyo to the hotel in Tokyo, as well as a car service from Tokyo Disney back to the airport, we too might have an extra suitcase or two to bring back with us.

I have been reading so much stuff, and DH made a comment that maybe we just skip Tokyo, and go straight to Kyoto, so that we could squeeze in another day trip somewhere from Kyoto, then to Tokyo Disney, then check out at Disney Tokyo, and check into a hotel in Tokyo at or near the airport, and see what we can see for the rest of that day, before leaving the next day... I am a little bit worried about a the flight and then adding in a train ride.... Jet Lag... but we are thinking of splurging on plane tickets so we might actually get some sleep, so it might be do-able...
The amount of reasearch I’ve done for this trip is a lot but it’s been worth it and it gets me really excited to go. Dh and I have some of our days planned down to the hour, even though we know we might have to be flexible. I think I’m most worried about getting on and off trains but once we do it a couple times I’m sure we’ll get used to it. I’ve barely taken any public transportation in my life unless the concourse counts at an airport lol.

1) I think a tour could work for you. You’ll have to look online and see if you find any that would hit your points of interest. We typed up everything we wanted to see then combined then by proximity to each other
2) I found a website that would price out my trips to see if it would be cheaper to use the jr pass or buy tickets individually. https://www.japan-guide.com/railpass/
3) there isn’t a Disney train from Tokyo but if you use the Keiyo line it is a jr train and it will take you to the Ikspiari area. From there you just walk to the Disney monorail to get to your hotel
4) have you looked at an airport limousine bus? They store your luggage below and it’s way cheaper than a car service. At least it was when I looked. This is the website I used: https://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/

Where you start on your trip all depends on your plane tickets. Our tickets have us going in and out of narita in Tokyo so that’s why we structured our trip that way. If you want to fly into Kyoto and out of Tokyo then you could do Kyoto first and Tokyo last. If you did that I wouldn’t buy a jr pass. We got plane tickets with points through chase. We transferred points to Virgin Atlantic and booked an ANA flight with them. We got business class seats for free
 
I am going to TDR, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Sapporo, Noboribetsu and Hong Kong from June 29 to July 25 which is my birthday (I will get to celebrate my birthday for 36 hours :flower3:). We are doing TDR first because the first half of July is the cheapest time in the summer for TDR hotels. Also summer sales start in early July and July is the blooming season for lavender in Hokkaido.

Like others, I pick where I stay depending on where I want to go visit. I picked a hotel in Shibuya because DD wants to take a dance lesson or two at a dance studio in Shibuya. This way I can stay comfortably in the hotel while she goes dancing; then we will meet up for dinner. I always pick a hotel within 10-15 min waking distance from the subway since it’s my main mode of transportation, and has self-serve laundry facilitates. We only bring a week of clothing and do laundry a few times over our trips overseas.

I don’t think we need the JR pass this time. We only need it for a few short trips and the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto. We are taking a Kyoto day tour which offers the option to be dropped off at the JR Osaka Station and it is a 25 minutes of train ride plus walking to our hotel. We had previously experienced riding subway train with a 28-inch and a 24-inch suitcases in Seoul. The 28-inch one is a bit harder to maneuver and easier to exceed the weight limit. So, I bought two 25-inch suitcases, two backpack carryons that can put through the handle of a suitcase, and 4 sets of packing cubes. I think it should be easier to travel with our suitcases on public transit this time. Our backpacks are water resistant with waterproof zippers. Last time in Seoul, it was raining dogs and cats on our last day. We had to walk in the rain for 20 min to the airport bus station. Luckily we had enough plastic bags for things in our non-water resistant backpacks.

We will then fly from Kansai to Sapporo after our one night stay at Nara. I have yet to book the Fuji day tour from Tokyo and Furano day tour from Sapporo from Veltra.com. We prefer their tour itineraries for these two sites. But the Furano tour is not out for booking yet. Can’t wait to experience private onsen bath in our hotel room at Noboribetsu. It’s our most expensive stay. I hope it won’t disappoint us!

I am in the stage of finalizing dining arrangements. Getting my credit card concierge to book Michelin starred restaurants doesn’t work. I was told the whole July and August were already fully booked for a particular restaurant. The next day, I gave JPNEAZY a try for 1000 yen booking fee and got a reservation. Even if I can understand Japanese enough to use the online reservation service, I don’t have a Japanese phone number to confirm my online booking. I need a booking service to assist me with that in order to guarantee dining at some well-sought after restaurants.

I don’t plan my day to the hour, except for TDR, but I list the seqences of events or sites for each day with a few dining options just in case if we can’t get a table for one place, we can easily move on to another restaurant. I would rather overplan with flexibility than underplan with no directions.

Have fun planning!
 
I am going to TDR, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Sapporo, Noboribetsu and Hong Kong from June 29 to July 25 which is my birthday (I will get to celebrate my birthday for 36 hours :flower3:). We are doing TDR first because the first half of July is the cheapest time in the summer for TDR hotels. Also summer sales start in early July and July is the blooming season for lavender in Hokkaido.

Like others, I pick where I stay depending on where I want to go visit. I picked a hotel in Shibuya because DD wants to take a dance lesson or two at a dance studio in Shibuya. This way I can stay comfortably in the hotel while she goes dancing; then we will meet up for dinner. I always pick a hotel within 10-15 min waking distance from the subway since it’s my main mode of transportation, and has self-serve laundry facilitates. We only bring a week of clothing and do laundry a few times over our trips overseas.

I don’t think we need the JR pass this time. We only need it for a few short trips and the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto. We are taking a Kyoto day tour which offers the option to be dropped off at the JR Osaka Station and it is a 25 minutes of train ride plus walking to our hotel. We had previously experienced riding subway train with a 28-inch and a 24-inch suitcases in Seoul. The 28-inch one is a bit harder to maneuver and easier to exceed the weight limit. So, I bought two 25-inch suitcases, two backpack carryons that can put through the handle of a suitcase, and 4 sets of packing cubes. I think it should be easier to travel with our suitcases on public transit this time. Our backpacks are water resistant with waterproof zippers. Last time in Seoul, it was raining dogs and cats on our last day. We had to walk in the rain for 20 min to the airport bus station. Luckily we had enough plastic bags for things in our non-water resistant backpacks.

We will then fly from Kansai to Sapporo after our one night stay at Nara. I have yet to book the Fuji day tour from Tokyo and Furano day tour from Sapporo from Veltra.com. We prefer their tour itineraries for these two sites. But the Furano tour is not out for booking yet. Can’t wait to experience private onsen bath in our hotel room at Noboribetsu. It’s our most expensive stay. I hope it won’t disappoint us!

I am in the stage of finalizing dining arrangements. Getting my credit card concierge to book Michelin starred restaurants doesn’t work. I was told the whole July and August were already fully booked for a particular restaurant. The next day, I gave JPNEAZY a try for 1000 yen booking fee and got a reservation. Even if I can understand Japanese enough to use the online reservation service, I don’t have a Japanese phone number to confirm my online booking. I need a booking service to assist me with that in order to guarantee dining at some well-sought after restaurants.

I don’t plan my day to the hour, except for TDR, but I list the seqences of events or sites for each day with a few dining options just in case if we can’t get a table for one place, we can easily move on to another restaurant. I would rather overplan with flexibility than underplan with no directions.

Have fun planning!
We don't have to do a ton of dining reservations because a lot of ours will be street food and quick food. We have 3-4 restaurants we plan to book reservations, including one in TDR, but that's it. We want reservations at Magellan's so we plan to use Google Translate for that one.
 
We don't have to do a ton of dining reservations because a lot of ours will be street food and quick food. We have 3-4 restaurants we plan to book reservations, including one in TDR, but that's it. We want reservations at Magellan's so we plan to use Google Translate for that one.
For TDR, I only plan to book for Crystal Palace’s character breakfast and have mainly quick service meals and snacks. We also plan to taste as much street food as possible. I so far have successfully booked one sushi restaurant only. We will try to book if we are going for dinner. For lunch, we will just arrive early to line up.
 
For TDR, I only plan to book for Crystal Palace’s character breakfast and have mainly quick service meals and snacks. We also plan to taste as much street food as possible. I so far have successfully booked one sushi restaurant only. We will try to book if we are going for dinner. For lunch, we will just arrive early to line up.
I plan to snack a lot at TDR too. There are so many good looking snacks.
 
Well I've got our first DisneySea day finished and I'm going to try to do our first Disneyland day tonight. I mainly followed Tom Bricker's 1-day plan. It fits a lot into one day, but it also leaves our second day at each park super open so we can be flexible and go slow. I'm planning our first days as heavy ride/show days and the second days as snack, merch, reride days.
 
What a beautiful, well laid out plan! I'm so happy for you and yours :hug:

Cannot wait to hear all the stories when you get back!
 
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What a beautiful, well laid out plan! I'm so happy for you and yours :hug:

Cannot wait to hear all the stores when you get back!
Aww thank you so much! We’ve put so much work into this trip and I know it’s gonna be amazing! We’re already talking about going back to Japan lol
 

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