Summer in Japan: Temples, cities & mountains in the Land Of The Rising Sun

Kyoto Travel Inormation

Metal Travller got there:

By plane:

Osaka Kansai Airport:

With:

Jetsar Japan: Japanese low cost carrier

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and

By train:

Train from Osaka-Kyoto

Where to sleep in Kyoto:

Compare all Kyoto hotels:

Reviews on Kyoto Hotels:

Metal Traveller slept at:

Riverside Takase

Vuelos baratos a Osaka

Tokyo - Asakusa

Tokyo - Shibuya

Tokyo - Odaiba

Climbing Mount Fuji

Kawaguchiko

Osaka

Kyoto

Nara

Japan: Kyoto

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I must say that we got very lucky with this one!
One day while browsing the Internet, I found an airfare to Japan for 250€!

Amazing, isn’t it? The outbound flight from Rome, and the inbound flight to Paris. It was with Aeroflot, Russia’s flag carrier, so each way involved a change of planes in Moscow.

Japan has the reputation to be an expensive place, so we seized this opportunity to save on the airfare without thinking twice.
The departure from Rome was no problem to me, as I have friends in Rome and Padova, it was a great occasion to visit them!

On Russian airspace, from Moscow to Tokyo

We planned to visit the cities of Kyoto and Tokyo, and we also wanted to climb the Mount Fuji. The first option for transport in Japan was the famous Japan Rail Pass. This pass offers unlimited travel on trains from the company JR, which is the main train operator of Japan.

Domestic flights were not an option, as they were extremely expensive. But in summer 2012 3 low cost airlines started to offer domestic flights in Japan: Jetsar, Peach and Air Asia Japan. The Japan Railpass costed 270€ for unlimited travel during 7 days, while the roundtrip between Tokyo and Osaka with Jetstar was around 100€. That’s easy maths, so we finally choose to fly. For what we wanted to do, this suited us perfectly: we spent in all domestic transport (planes, buses trains and subway rides) less than what we originally planned to spend on the JR Pass. OK, I would have loved to ride the Shinkansen high speed train, but well, maybe next time.

The great view from the Aurlandsfjord, as seen from our balcony at the Kyoto Jail Hostel

We spent quite some time comparing hotels with Hotels Combined and found some good deals. The highlights were Riverside Takase in Kyoto, __ near Mount Fuji, and the Palace Japan in Tokyo. With some planning, we managed to keep the trip on a low budget. It was finally very cheap for a 2-week vacation to Italy and Japan in summer, including food, lodging, and all transport including intercontinental and domestic flights.

The full itinerary was: Paris-Verona-Padova-Rome-Tokyo (via Moscow)-Kyoto-Nara-Osaka-Kawaguchiko-Mount Fuji-Tokyo-Paris (via Moscow again).
Enjoy the pictures and the trip report.

The Japan pages start here with Kyoto.