Archived:NightOnTheGalacticRailroad: Difference between revisions

Line 13:

* Day 15, Saturday: One glorious day in Tokyo, or something

* Day 16, Sunday: Morning in Toyko, and fly home.

Let's see if there are any efficiency savings to be had from doing it in reverse:

* Day 16, Sunday: Train to Cologne, then Brussels and Eurostar home; we have about 6 hours to spend in one or other on the way.

* Day 15, Saturday: Get the 8AM train from Moscow, overnight to Berlin.

* Day 14, Friday: Arrive in Moscow at ~6PM, spend the night there

* Day 8, Saturday: Day in Beijing, train in the evening

* Day 7, Friday: Bah. Ferry only arrives on a Thursday, leaving on Tuesday midday, so again we only get like 4 days in Japan this way.

Let's look at it another way: suppose we wanted to go to Japan and other places, how much holiday time would we need?

* Day n, Sunday: Morning in Tokyo, fly home

* Day n-1, Saturday: Let's say we're doing this at Comiket. Comiket!

* Day n-2, Friday: Mickey Comikets early. Other people go do something cultural.

* Day n-3, Thursday: Tokyo, and all its joys.

* Day n-4, Wednesday: Kyoto! History!

* Day n-5, Tuesday: Osaka! Accents!

* Day n-6, Monday: Arrive Osaka, 09:30, rest weary selves, go to a hot springs or something.

* Day n-8, Saturday: A little Shanghai in the morning, ferry at 13:00.

* Day n-9, Friday: I'm going to say spend this in Shanghai, and stay night in Shanghai.

* Day n-10, Thursday: Day in Beijing, sleeper to Shanghai.

Eek, the only good train runs tuesday to monday.

So, best option would be to extend the original plan above by a bit at the end.

Constraints: if going out, train is tuesday -> monday, and ferry is tuesday from shanghai - so not much time in shanghai.

If coming back, train goes wed -> mon (at 2:28pm, plausible flying time), ferry could arrive sunday (leaving japan on Friday). So a plausible itinerary would look something like:

* Friday evening: Gather

* Saturday hideously early morning: Planes to Japan

* Sunday morning: Arrive in Tokyo, spend some time there and in Osaka.

* Friday midday: Get ferry from Osaka

* Sunday midday: Arrive in Shanghai, spend a day and a half or so there

* Monday night (say): overnight train to Beijing, spend a day and a half there

* Wednesday morning, 8AM: get the big train

* Monday afternoon: Arrive Moscow. Lamers could at this point fly home, meaning they'd only need 2 weeks + 1 day off work; otherwise we could take the rest of the week slowly crossing Europe.

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 * Day 15, Saturday: One glorious day in Tokyo, or something
 * Day 16, Sunday: Morning in Toyko, and fly home.
+Let's see if there are any efficiency savings to be had from doing it in reverse:
+* Day 16, Sunday: Train to Cologne, then Brussels and Eurostar home; we have about 6 hours to spend in one or other on the way.
+* Day 15, Saturday: Get the 8AM train from Moscow, overnight to Berlin.
+* Day 14, Friday: Arrive in Moscow at ~6PM, spend the night there
+* Day 8, Saturday: Day in Beijing, train in the evening
+* Day 7, Friday: Bah. Ferry only arrives on a Thursday, leaving on Tuesday midday, so again we only get like 4 days in Japan this way.
+Let's look at it another way: suppose we wanted to go to Japan and other places, how much holiday time would we need?
+* Day n, Sunday: Morning in Tokyo, fly home
+* Day n-1, Saturday: Let's say we're doing this at Comiket. Comiket!
+* Day n-2, Friday: Mickey Comikets early. Other people go do something cultural.
+* Day n-3, Thursday: Tokyo, and all its joys.
+* Day n-4, Wednesday: Kyoto! History!
+* Day n-5, Tuesday: Osaka! Accents!
+* Day n-6, Monday: Arrive Osaka, 09:30, rest weary selves, go to a hot springs or something.
+* Day n-8, Saturday: A little Shanghai in the morning, ferry at 13:00.
+* Day n-9, Friday: I'm going to say spend this in Shanghai, and stay night in Shanghai.
+* Day n-10, Thursday: Day in Beijing, sleeper to Shanghai.
+Eek, the only good train runs tuesday to monday.
+So, best option would be to extend the original plan above by a bit at the end.
+Constraints: if going out, train is tuesday -> monday, and ferry is tuesday from shanghai - so not much time in shanghai.
+If coming back, train goes wed -> mon (at 2:28pm, plausible flying time), ferry could arrive sunday (leaving japan on Friday). So a plausible itinerary would look something like:
+* Friday evening: Gather
+* Saturday hideously early morning: Planes to Japan
+* Sunday morning: Arrive in Tokyo, spend some time there and in Osaka.
+* Friday midday: Get ferry from Osaka
+* Sunday midday: Arrive in Shanghai, spend a day and a half or so there
+* Monday night (say): overnight train to Beijing, spend a day and a half there
+* Wednesday morning, 8AM: get the big train
+* Monday afternoon: Arrive Moscow. Lamers could at this point fly home, meaning they'd only need 2 weeks + 1 day off work; otherwise we could take the rest of the week slowly crossing Europe.