We will be travelling to Japan in May 2024 and have the beginning and end portions planned out. We are currently planning the middle portion and am looking to see if the itinerary is reasonable and/or recommended. We wanted to double check if there are any issues with the plan. The trip is for two people.
**Day 1 (18 May)** \- Arrive in Kanazawa from Osaka (where we end the beginning portion of the trip) around 3PM to spend the rest of the day. The exact plans here aren’t too important as it is essentially a layover. The plan is to luggage forward out suitcases to Nagano (read below) and to carry 2 smaller travel bags.
Have people had experience with forwarding luggage to arrive several days at the destination afterwards?
**Day 2** \- Travel from Kanazawa to Shirakawa-go, then to Takayama and then to Toyama as a day trip.
This is the day we are most unsure about and would appreciate advice on. The plan is to:
* Take the first Nouhi express bus (8:10am), arriving in Shirakawa-go at 9:25am.
* We would take either the 12:35pm or 1:15pm bus to Takayama (arrive 1:25pm or 2:05pm).
* We would thereafter take the Takayama Line at 4:02pm to arrive at Toyama station at 6:22pm, where we will check-in, eat dinner and then relax for the night for the night.
We are most concerned about Day 2 and aren’t sure if it would be too rushed/feasible with transport times. Would it be recommended to stop by just one of the locations instead? If so, which would you recommend?
**Day 3** \-
* Commence the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route from Toyama station, taking an earlier train (probably around 7am).
* We will be travelling along the Alpine Route at the suggested stopping points, aim stopping at Murodo
* We will be staying in Hotel Tateyama in Murodo overnight.
**Day 4** \-
* Continue along the Alpine Route throughout the morning and depart for Nagano, aiming to arrive in the early afternoon (around 1pm) for lunch
* Check-in, reuniting with the luggage we forwarded on Day 1.
* Visit Zenko-ji Temple.
* Have dinner and then explore the streets, before retiring for the night.
**Day 5** \-
* Visit Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park earlier in the morning, aiming to arrive around the opening time of 9am and spending a couple of hours here (leave probably 11-11:30am).
* Afterwards, return to Nagano, have lunch and pick up our luggage and then continue onto Matsumoto, leaving probably around 2-3pm and arriving 3-4pm.
* We will eat dinner in Matsumoto and then explore the streets again.
**Day 6** \- Visit Matsumoto Castle, before proceeding to Tokyo to finish off the trip. This day is fairly relaxed, we would probably visit the castle around 9am and have lunch in Matsumoto before departing for Tokyo. We already have the Tokyo plans planned out (and have visited before).
We have assumed for Days 4-6 to factor time to just wander the streets/explore, hence why there is less detail in the itinerary (we like to balance just openly exploring and having set locations to visit) but if there are any other specific recommendations for places to visit, that would be great too.
by vinakro