look into the rail pass. that's what we get when i go with my family. If yo plan on doing a lot of travel by train, it's a great deal. (link to prices: http://www.japanrail.com/index.php?p...apan-rail-pass). we did the green car pass because we were on a shinkansen almost every other day, and the regular car seats are on the smaller side (like united economy) while the green cars are more akin to older business class seats (big boxy things with hella legroom). would probably give more luggage space too, but you might be able to manage in regular with a bike.

regular ticket prices are based on distance traveled, so if you're not planning to go too far then it won't be worth it probably. I can't remember exactly how we traveled though, but i know if we bought tickets individually it would have cost about 1.5 times what we paid for the pass.

edit: i misread the length of stay, we were only there for like 10 days i think, so if you do a rail pass you'll want to get all your train riding out of the way fast lol. good if you want to stick aroud in like tokyo for a week, then jump between a bunch of cities in the next.

for hotels we stayed at a lot of these. they're more business oriented, but each room gets its own bathroom and they're pretty big for the price (well, japan standards). best part is it comes with a free breakfast of musubi, tsukemono, and miso soup. the only downside is that they expect everyone to be out in the middle of the day (it's a business hotel) so you might not be able to get access to your room as they just open them all up to clean them. Didn't bother us since we were out doing stuff and the hotel was really just for sleeping.

and i was with my parents so I wasn't smoking weed haha. I didn't see really any cannabis related material there (compared to all the legalize it shirts i see here in SF) so I don't think it's that big. everyone drinks there or smokes cigs. a lot of drinking haha.