12-day Japan trip - Itinerary

We recently went to Japan, for the first time ever!  We've been wanting to go, but either the timeline doesn't work, or the plane tickets were too expensive.  We finally took the leap of faith and booked the plane tickets when we saw a $930 per person deal, return ticket including tax, with only a 2 to 3 hour transit time each way.  This is not the cheapest ticket price I've seen, but for the dates that we were looking for (we had to book our vacation days off wayyy in advance), this is not too shabby!

Friends/family have recommended a tour, since this is our first time ever to Japan after all.  However we opted for a self-guided tour for obvious reasons (ie. we want freedom in choosing the restaurants that we want to try).  We read a lot of blogs and watched a lot of Youtube videos to make sure we can find our way in Japan.  And I think we did quiet well!  We made it back in one piece, with a few extra kilograms in weight that we're now trying hard to shed :)

Here's the details:

• Departing flight:   
• YVR (Vancouver) - LAX (2.5 hr transit) - American Airlines
• LAX - NRT (Narita) - Japan Airlines
• 3 nights in Tokyo - APA Hotel Nishi Azabu
• Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto
• 4 nights in Kyoto - Hotel Grand Japaning Shijo Omiya
• Regular train from Kyoto to Osaka (because we didn't want to pay for Shinkansen...)
• 4 nights in Osaka - Mystays Hotel Shin-Osaka 
• Bus from Osaka to Arima onsen bus station 
• 1 night in Arima onsen (Kobe) - Gekkoen Koroukan hotel
• Bus from Arima onsen bus station to ITM (Itami) airport 
• Return flight:  
• ITM (Osaka) - NRT (Narita) - 2.5 hr transit - Japan Airlines
• NRT - YVR - Japan Airlines 

I will try to review the hotels that we stay at, plus the food that we ate during our Japan trip.  Will probably take me a while to finish writing everything, thank you for your patience!  As always, I hope these reviews will be useful for some of you!