You might think a lengthy diatribe about the factors you consider when planning a trip to Japan is a bit rich when it's coming from the bloke who doesn't do a whole lot of the actual planning, but I've been known to expound on all manner of subjects where there isn't a whole lot of experience to back things up, and, anyway, this is how the planning process looks from where I'm sitting.
There have, of course, been numerous discussions about possibilities, so I do have something to base my assumptions on.
It mightn't be 100 per cent accurate, but it gives some sort of explanation about the itinerary that's tacked onto the end of this little ramble.
The first thing you need to realize when you're planning something like this three week jaunt around the Land of the Rising Sun is that you can't go everywhere and see everything. Take a place like Kyoto and you'd probably need a good fortnight to get beyond a fairly elementary scratching of the surface. Live there for a year and you'd probably find there are things you've somehow missed that you really shouldn't have.
And that's just Kyoto.
Second, it helps to have a theme, or possibly two. When we went in April 2008 we weren't sure how I'd go, so we had two.
One was the Sakura season, and the second was some of Japan's greatest hits. Actually, the two of those combine rather nicely because most of Japan's greatest hits are at their best in when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. Having done that one (and we could easily do another trip based on the same seasonal factor) the logical extension was to go to the coloured leaves time, and catch the trees in their multicolored autumnal glory.
The second theme you could throw in this time around is trains, based on the principle that we've got a couple of two week Japan Rail Passes, and there's no way we were going to limit ourselves to the Shinkansen.
The seasonal theme has the added advantage of delivering a direction to work within. In spring, the Sakura blossoms start in the warmer south and gradually make their way up to Hokkaido, while in autumn the process is reversed. Trees start to lose their leaves in the colder regions first, and the colouring gradually makes its way towards the Equator, not that it's ever going to get there...
So this time around we start in Kansai, make our way north and then loop back to the centre, ending up at the other end of the country.
Third, when you've got access to virtually unlimited rail travel, you're obviously going to travel, because you can. Without the rail pass, you might be inclined to spend a couple of days in Tokyo, but other considerations mean that on the last trip, and on the one I'm looking down the barrel at as I start typing this in a Cairns hotel room Tokyo is somewhere to stop for lunch on the way to somewhere else. Well, you can't go everywhere and see everything, can you?
See point #1 in that regard.
That Rail Pass travel factor brings in another element in the planning process, namely the presence of two basic arrival and departure points and the fact that there's no designated space for large pieces of luggage on a Shinkansen. There's a space behind the last seats in the carriage where you might be able to stash a large suitcase provided no one has snaffled it already, but you're pushing your luck if you try to take two.
That means if two of you arrive at Kansai or Narita with a suitcase each, you need somewhere to stash the smaller of the two when you've shifted what The Supervisor needs for the rail odyssey into Hughesy's port and shifted what's likely to be surplus to requirements for the next bit into t'other one, which then goes out to The Mother's place.
There are also possible cases where the big one gets deposited in a coin locker or cloak room and the back packs get used for a day or two.
So it's not just a case of pack up and go.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that the lengthy rail leg bit needs to start and finish in Kansai or Tokyo, which is another reason for using the capital as a lunch stop if it doesn't represent a viable overnight stay on the Rail Pass route. It didn't last time, and it misses out again here. Maybe next time.
The next thing to consider is variety. You've got limited time, a fair bit of travelling to do and while you could, say, spend a week sitting on Shinkansen and zooming all over the place, there are interesting little local lines tucked away around the islands and one of the highlights last time around was the rail motor journey from Toyama on the west coast up to Takayama and back down to Nagoya.
Similarly, you could spend the whole of the train trip looking as Sakura, autumn leaves, temples or gardens but even when you combine leaves and gardens (natural fit, that feller) or leaves and temples you're going to need a break to spare yourself the risk of sensory overload.
Last time around the mix was old buildings and garden (Kanazawa), a heritage village and old buildings(Takayama), social call (Nagoya), trying to see Mount Fuji (Hakone), social call and temples (Kitakami) and back to base in Kansai where there was a significant temple and garden component.
And all of that was carried out against a backdrop of Sakura.
This time we've got a different mix, and next time will be different again.
On that variety of rail experiences it's worth remembering you can do a leg from Kagoshima at one end of the archipelago to Kansai in a comfortable day and we already know the same applies from somewhere around the north of Honshu (the main island) back to Kobe/Kansai. That means you can make a substantial shift in geographic location quickly, and you can travel comfortably from the north of Honshu to the southern end of Kyushu in two days. Given that consideration, a two week rail pass gives you time to get out into the back blocks.
So with this time around dedicated to colored leaves, we start at Kobe and head up to The Teacher in Kitakami. That's a day, with lunch in Tokyo and a meeting with The Translator. With the colored leaves (hopefully) in all their glory we do a bit of exploring around the north, ending up in the bottom of Hokkaido after a train trip through a tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait.
Another big jump brings us into the tsunami area, where Matsushima Bay is one of the must see views in the whole of the country, then it's up into the mountains for more leaves, onsen hot springs and a temple before another jump down to the Seto Inland Sea, a trip across a rail bridge to Shikoku and straight back to the main island, the temple island at Miyajima, Hiroshima and on to Kyushu, where castles, gardens and local rail lines come into the mix.
That will use up most of the fourteen day rail pass, so the final day delivers us to Kansai, where we spend the next six days doing the big city bit in Osaka, the temples and gardens bit in Kyoto, catch up with acquaintances and end up in Kobe to reunite the suitcases and wing our way back home.
Anyway, the itinerary:
Wednesday 24 October: Bowen > Cairns
Thursday 25 October: Cairns > Kansai > Kobe
Friday 26 October: Kobe
Saturday 27 October: Kobe > Kitakami
Sunday 28 October: Kitakami > Hiraizumi > Kakunodate
Monday 29 October: Kakunodate > Dakigaeri Valley > Kakunodate
Tuesday 30 October: Kakunodate > Aomori
Wednesday 31 October: Aomori > Hakodate
Thursday 1 November: Hakodate > Sendai > Matsushima > Sendai
Friday 2 November: Sendai > Unazuki Spring
Saturday 3 November: Unazuki Spring > Nagano
Sunday 4 November: Nagano > Okayama
Monday 5 November: Okayama > Seto Bridge > Okayama > Onoura
Tuesday 6 November: Onoura > Miyajima > Hiroshima
Wednesday 7 November: Hiroshima > Kumamoto > Kagoshima
Thursday 8 November: Kagoshima > Yoshimatsu > Hitoyoshi > Shinyashiro > Kagoshima
Friday 9 November: Kagoshima > Osaka
Saturday 10 November: Osaka
Sunday 11 November: Osaka
Monday 12 November: Osaka > Kyoto
Tuesday 13 November: Kyoto
Wednesday 14 November: Kyoto > Kobe
Thursday 15 November: Kobe > Cairns
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