We did not buy the JR Pass this trip. The sums we did showed that it would not have worked out for us. The 15 days in Japan would be punctuated by train, bus and even car rental, but there would not have been a stretch where we would be actively travelling by train.

Having said that, there were two segments in the trip which saw a lengthy train journey. Both times the scenery was stunning.

The first is the stretch from Nagoya to Takayama.

It started out uneventful. Houses, small townships, cars on highways whizzing by.

Then came the rivers tumbling over rocky beds, the vertical walls of cedar stretching above the rivers, an iridescent teal lake, old dams. So many bends and turns into the mountains that left us gaping and shooting.

Drink in the views with us here:

sakura in a small town

townscapes

old dam

teal waters

rivers and hills