So is this the official Japan travel thread? I hope so!
I'm traveling to Japan for two weeks next month (24th March). I'll be in Tokyo 5 days, Kyoto 5 days, Takayama 2 days and Kanazawa 2 days. My friend will arrange Kyoto and Kanazawa, I have to arrange the Tokyo and Takayama days so I need advice:
What weather can we expect? Will it be when the sakura blossom? (End March - beginning April) Where can we see it?
What's the best located hotel?
http://www.horidomevilla.jp/e/guide.html
http://www.hotelvilla.jp/e/guide.html
Any apps (iOS) to learn basic Japanese, for the subway/trains (offline and in English would be better) or for something useful?
What are the places we need to visit from Tokyo? (1-day trips)
How is the nightlife? And the best places to eat? (authentic better than fancy)
Could we make it with a 7day JRP or we'll need a 14day JPR?
I'll be reading this thread and keep asking questions so any advice/recommendation/answer will be very welcome
Thanks in advance!
First off, I'm going to assume your route is Tokyo->Takayama->Kanazawa->Kyoto since that makes the most sense logistically. If you're going to be coming back to Tokyo to flight out, then you'll have the advantage of being able to cover time periods in Tokyo, because right now the sakura forecast is only slightly earlier than typical years, which means you guys are going to be a little early for peak bloom. This can change rapidly however, and you're going to be there long enough and across a large enough geographic area that you will still likely be "cherry blossom'ed out" by the end of your trip anyway.
Use this page for the updated sakura forecast for the entire country. Additionally, Japan-Guide itself and WikiTravel make the two absolute best/essential sources for Japan travel IMO. Tripadvisor may be a good resource as well. It wasn't particularly helpful for me when I went in 2010 however.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2011.html
Weather will be a little on the cool side. Dress in layers and you'll be just fine. There will likely be a chance of snow in Takayama.
There will be shortages of sites to view the sakuras at where you are going. On the Japan-Guide sakura forecast page, clicking each city will give you a listing of all the popular viewing spots. One thing to consider is that you may be in Japan way too early for any significant blooming in Kanazawa. Check out the previous year Kanazawa sakura reports on Japan-Guide and elsewhere to get an idea of what it's like on the days you may be there. Kanazawa's Kenroku-en has some of the best sakura viewing in the entire country, but if the timing won't work for you then I'd strongly consider possibly dumping Kanazawa altogether; it's not an easy city to get to and from, and outside of the gardens it may not offer enough to you and your friend to be worth the hassle to get there with your itinerary if the sakuras aren't significantly blossoming. Hopefully your trip plans are flexible enough that you can make last minute revisions, because weather can change things.
For hotels, in Tokyo I would recommend the Ueno area. It's a fairly cheap area, has a very good JR station, and Ueno Park is one of the best sakura viewing spots in Tokyo. Takayama is small enough where location isn't as important, but since you're going to be there 2 days I'd splurge a little on the hotel since that may be one of the cooler moments of your time there. I stayed here, but it looks like the rates have gone up a little despite the fact that the Yen appears to have come back to the rate I was paying during my trip. But you can't beat having an open-air onsen at the top of a hotel on a cold night. One of the highlights of my trip.
http://www.japanican.com/hotels/shisetsudetail.aspx?st=5475041
I used Japanican.com for almost all of my hotel bookings I believe.
Personally, I'd forego any translation apps for use once you're there. The one time I tried to use a translation app to translate "bus," it brought up so many possible uses of the word, it was useless. Kanazawa is the only place you're going that you may run into language issues. Studying up beforehand on some basic words and phrases certainly wouldn't hurt though, unfortunately I can't make any personal recommendations.
Use the iOS app AllSubways for subway maps, but in 2010 there wasn't a good offline train timetable app, and there doesn't appear to be any improvements in that regard. Hyperdia.com is the best site for rail transit. Their site claims they have an Android app, but I don't thinks it's offline. International roaming data plans have dropped so much in price in recent years, I would highly recommend buying one through your provider assuming you have a global iPhone. It's great for getting out of jams. In 2010 I managed to make due on 55MB of data for 3 weeks; now that same plan through my provider costs the same and now includes 200MB of data. Don't count on public WiFi anywhere in Japan.
Japanican.com and Wikitravel both list day trips under their respective city pages. This thread covers them as well.
Nightlife in Tokyo is great. Nightlife in Kyoto is pretty non-existant if you're looking for the club scene, but Osaka is a quick train ride away and has the best nightlife in Japan. My hotels in Osaka/Kyoto had free magazines called Kansai Scene that covered that kind of thing, and appeared aimed at westerners. Their site appears to be kansaiscene.com.
If your route is the route I anticipated above, you're only going to be taking 2 lengthy shinkansen rides (Kanazawa to Kyoto, and Kyoto back to Tokyo), so you may not even save money with a 7-day pass. The general rule-of-thumb is that a weeks worth of the pass cost is as much as the cost of a single trip between cities like Hiroshima and Kyoto, and Tokyo and Kyoto. A 7-day pass may be worthwhile to activate in the middle of your trip to include both of those bullet train rides. Use hyperdia.com right now to plan out all of your trips to get a ballpark of the cost, and then plan it out again with the JR pass covering the parts you may intend to use it on.
