if you also include the North East part of Honshu, I think it easily takes you a week to 10 days to enjoy it without feeling being rushed.
I have not been in Hokkaido - it should be enjoyed either in Summer or in Winter - each has its unique beauty. We never find the right timeframe to go, that is why we haven't been in Hokkaido. Would love to go at least once though. I dont think you need to join tour at all. That Chinese site has lots of info for you to digest. Japan is very easy to get around because its train system is almost flawless - you can count on the punctual schedule almost to the minute. As I said, being Chinese we have advantage. Also now at every major station they have English display throughout. The only time we found we needed to follow the crowd's movement was when our train missed schedule and they made announcement (in Japanese of course), then we needed to use our common sense.
Our last trip was in 2004, Cherry Blosom time, from Honshu (Tokyo) to Kyushu (Fukuoka) for a total of 10 days. We bought a 7-day JR Pass, used night train 2 times to save travelling time. (Under the How to Get There section, extremely useful to plan the train travel.)
The Japan-Guide.com is a very useful tool - I particularly like the detailed information about how to get there and how much time it takes to get there, for each location/attraction I am interested in.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e691.html
Dont know if you have visited Kansai (Osaka). Himeji Castle is the most beautiful among the 3 most important castles in Japan (the other 2 are Osaka Castle and Kumamoto Castle in Kushu.
We also specifically made a trip to see the world's longest suspension bridge, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge near Kobe. It is an engineering wonder to behold.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3559.html
We also made a trip to Kansai Airport just to see it - as it is built on a manmade island which is sinking at a clip of over 1 inch a year. :)
In my opinion, one can easily spend 2 to 3 weeks in Japan and not feel bored at all.
If you really plan to go, in my opinion, the Chinese site and this Japan-Guide.com are the only 2 sites you need to spend time on to get yourself prepared. Personally I dont think one needs to join tour, and no way we would join a tour for Japan trip, as it is so easy to do by oneself.
qqh is [给我悄悄话]
I have not been in Hokkaido - it should be enjoyed either in Summer or in Winter - each has its unique beauty. We never find the right timeframe to go, that is why we haven't been in Hokkaido. Would love to go at least once though. I dont think you need to join tour at all. That Chinese site has lots of info for you to digest. Japan is very easy to get around because its train system is almost flawless - you can count on the punctual schedule almost to the minute. As I said, being Chinese we have advantage. Also now at every major station they have English display throughout. The only time we found we needed to follow the crowd's movement was when our train missed schedule and they made announcement (in Japanese of course), then we needed to use our common sense.
Our last trip was in 2004, Cherry Blosom time, from Honshu (Tokyo) to Kyushu (Fukuoka) for a total of 10 days. We bought a 7-day JR Pass, used night train 2 times to save travelling time. (Under the How to Get There section, extremely useful to plan the train travel.)
The Japan-Guide.com is a very useful tool - I particularly like the detailed information about how to get there and how much time it takes to get there, for each location/attraction I am interested in.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e691.html
Dont know if you have visited Kansai (Osaka). Himeji Castle is the most beautiful among the 3 most important castles in Japan (the other 2 are Osaka Castle and Kumamoto Castle in Kushu.
We also specifically made a trip to see the world's longest suspension bridge, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge near Kobe. It is an engineering wonder to behold.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3559.html
We also made a trip to Kansai Airport just to see it - as it is built on a manmade island which is sinking at a clip of over 1 inch a year. :)
In my opinion, one can easily spend 2 to 3 weeks in Japan and not feel bored at all.
If you really plan to go, in my opinion, the Chinese site and this Japan-Guide.com are the only 2 sites you need to spend time on to get yourself prepared. Personally I dont think one needs to join tour, and no way we would join a tour for Japan trip, as it is so easy to do by oneself.
qqh is [给我悄悄话]
选择“Disable on www.wenxuecity.com”
选择“don't run on pages on this domain”
