3 Week Japan Visit Advice

Japan Traveller Questions
1

Hi, Couple booked arriving March 11, 9am, departing March 31, 10am

  • Is best option on arrival Narita getting a Suica Welcome Card?
  • Not in any hurry to get from Airport to Shinjuku, what is best option as in seeing a few landmarks on way in,bus or train?. I can see the Narita express goes direct to Shinjuku, also minimal luggage
  • First 7 nights Tokyo, hotel booked near Shinjuku Station
  • We plan visiting most of the major things listed + see as much as possible so train will be our mode of transport, approximately how much would we need for the week?
  • Plan on purchasing 14 day JR Pass which we would activate 18 March
  • Rather than waste 1 day while in Tokyo we would like to visit Mt Fuji the day we leave Tokyo using JR Pass, not sure where we should head to for this visit, not essential to go climbing, also stay overnight in vicinity, any advise welcome
  • after Mt Fuji no specific plans but would like to visit Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima & other places recommended
  • I have briefly looked at visiting Kyushu, maybe train all way to Kagoshima if JR Pass permits
  • If JR Pass permits travel to Kagoshima will it let us also travel across to Miyazaki around coast to back to Kitakyushu is this doable & is it a scenic rail journey
    Sorry asking for so much information
    Thank you
    Michael
2

Hi MichaelM
-Suica is good for taking all non-express trains, so yeah you can get it at the airport or Shinjuku
-Narita express you can’t use Suica unfort. Purchase tickets for ¥3,250. If you want to save $ you can take the keisei skyliner (using suica ok) for ¥1,250 but avoid if peak hour.
-in tokyo, probably budget 600yen per day if doing local travel. there’s also some metro train passes (2d 3d) but they don’t work on JR lines.
-Mt fuji on JR pass, probably kawaguchiko is the best option. Climbing season not open at that time anyway. 5th station might be open
-Yes JR permits access to Kyushu. I haven’t traveled around there so much, but I heard Yakushima is beautiful (although boat trip is expensive). You might even see early blooming sakura in kyushu

3

Thank you for info, much appreciated