Design a Trip: Japan

[enderzero]

So if everything goes as planned and the international date line doesn't mung up my plans I should be getting a JR Rail Pass delivered to me by the end of the week. This will give me 1 week (at least ) to travel around Japan on speedy shinkansens to my heart's delight. So where should I go? Here are some of the places I have never been and am considering:

Kyushu - this will probably be my main destination since if I go all the way there I will feel like I got my money's worth. But how many days to spend?

Fukuoka - It seems like I better stop and explore here. Anyone know what to do other than eat lots of ramen?

Nagasaki - I hear it is quite the cool city. I plan to spend the night here and better part of 2 days.

Beppu - Lonely Planet reports that this is one of the most tourist infested parts of Japan but Danz reports it is worth going to. Anyone else been?


Matsumoto-jo - Although i lived in Nagano-shi I never travelled south to visit the castle? Is it worth the slow train ride?

Himeji-jo - Definitely want to check this castle out.

Nara - Never been. I hear they have temples there.

I have a place to stay in Kobe so that will sort of be my base of operations. Then I can just quickly shink off to destinations form there. I will likely spend a night in Nagoya on the way down as well at a friend's. I am planning to spend a couple days in Kyoto but might do that seperate from the JR pass time as it is pretty easy to get to. I also might do a couple day quick trip around Shikoku with the kanojo if I can square away car rental. It seems like taking the slow trains around Shikoku would be a waste of the rail pass time. But getting to the island might be better with the pass. I would love to see Tohoku but won't likely have the time to get up north.

Any tips or wild ideas?

[danz]

yo...

I think you could get away w/out seeing fukouka...it really is just another big Japanese city (like tokyo, yokohama) without as much character as sapporo or osaka.

Nagasaki is a great walking city...I really liked the atmosphere there. Beppu is worth a visit...even if only for the onsen.

If you can pass up fukouka, you might be able to check out Aso-san, or even Kagosima (on your way from nagasaki to beppu). Kagosima is supposed to be incredible; one of the most beautiful places in japan...

Its tough for 1 week man...you have to decide what is important to you...if getting the biggest bang for your shink buck is important, than try tokyo-kobe-sendai-fukouka-nagasaki... that would be impresswive

danz

[Ocean11]

I wouldn't bother making a special effort just to see Matsumotojo. It's impressive enough, being quite tall and black, but there's a seen one, seen 'em all aspect about Japanese castles, especially the inside. If I go to a new town that has a castle, I usually make a big effort to go and look at it, but I wouldn't bother going to a city just to look at a Japanese castle. (British castles on the other hand are all very different from each so worth traveling to in themselves.)

Nara Park is unique in Japan in that nothing horrible has been built in it (at least not when I was there), so you can walk about for a couple of hours without pretending you hadn't seen some horrible concrete and steel vileness (although there are plenty of tour buses with their engines running). Nara is a bit of a spooky place and if you can find digs near the park, it would be good to venture out and soak up some of the atmosphere.

[enderzero]

Ocean - Do you know of or have a resource for finding info about a boat from Matsuyama to Beppu other than the Kansai Kisen which leaves Matsuyama at 6:40AM?