Itinerary for Tokyo ;Kanazawa ; Kyoto ; Hakone - "15Jan2013 to 26Jan2013 "

Hi there and welcome!

1. Weather prediction is always a bit hard, I looked up weather data for Kanazawa and it has an average of 19 days snow in January, so there is a good chance for sure!
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanazawa,_Ishikawa
2. When you are in Kyoto. I would recommend, a day trip to Nara, Kobe and of course Osaka if you haven't already got plans to go there. I would recommend visiting Himeji or Iwakuni if you have a JRPass.
3. You can use your JR Pass in Tokyo to Travel all the local JR lines. However it gives much better value if you use it for longer distance travel outside of Tokyo. Consider buying an all day metro ticket in Tokyo, it costs 710 Yen and will give you unlimited travel on the Tokyo metro for a day.
4. I am not very familiar with popular show areas in Japan. However http://www.snowjapan.com/e/maps/index.html seems to be a good resource for it.
5. The best place for Winter Sport activities in Japan is in my opinion Hokkaido, I have not visited any myself around the Tokyo Area but the site in question 4 has a couple listed around there.
6. Japan is a very safe country, I have made many trips alone there myself and never had any troubles, just make sure to keep your passport and JR-Pass save so not to lose them.

Happy Holidays!
-Daniel

Hi there!

For skiing around Tokyo I recommend you check out Gala Yuzawa. At 1.5hrs from Tokyo by bullet train it is very convenient! The lockers, ski rental and gondola station at Gala Yuzawa is in the same building as the JR train station, so you can just turn up and get skiing :)

Hope this helps!

Hi there,

Thank you very much for the reply !

I am hoping you may be able to provide me with some advise on my travel plan.

15th - arrive Haneda airport at 2200
16th - Shinjuku ; Ikebukuro ; Harajuku
17th - Roppongi ; Tsukiji ; Tokyo Tower
18th - Kawasaki-city
19th - Disneyland with my friend
20th - (any recommendation?)
21st - Travel to Kyoto in mirning. Explore Kyoto
22nd - Evening train to Kanazawa
23rd - Kanazawa
24th - Takayama morning, get the JR train back to Tokyo evening
25th - Tokyo
26th - 2230's flight back to Singapore

Except 19Jan is with my friend, the rest of the days I will be traveling alone the whole trip.
I guess purchasing the 7 days JR pass makes sense for my itinerary . Does it not?

thanks for your help again!

Looking at your itinerary I do indeed think that that a 7 day JR-Pass is best suited for your travels. This to cover your travel from the 21st to the 26th.

Here are some recommendation you could consider.
Assuming by Tsukiji you mean a visit to the fish market, be sure to come early, these days only a maximum of 200 Tourists are allowed inside, so be prepared to come early, before 5 a.m. if you can.
Also on the same day when you visit Roppongi and Tokyo Tower, you can walk from one to the other as they are rather close. If you have time after that consider a visit to the ''New Tokyo tower'' better known as he Tokyo Sky Tree, it is an interesting comparison.

On the 20th if you can still meet your friends you could visit Disney Sea, the Disney park in Tokyo is actually 2 parks, Disneyland and Disney sea, both worth a days visit. Otherwise a day trip to Kamakura is a very good option, it is about 900Yen from Tokyo and you can see some marvellous temples and visit the Big Buddha.

I think that for the rest you will have a very nice and trip and I am sure you will see a lot!

Let me know if you have more questions :)
-Daniel