Trip Report: 18 Days Across Japan

I got home a couple hours ago from my third trip to Japan, and what was almost certainly the best solo trip I’ve ever taken. I crossed Japan from snow-covered Sapporo to the palm trees of Ibusuki, taking advantage of Japan’s incredible railway system and making full use of my two week Japan Rail Pass. So, without further ado…

December 31-January 1: New York to Washington
This trip got off to a very hectic start, as Amtrak faced severe signal problems on New Year’s Eve. Luckily, a friend of mine was driving a FlixBus to Washington that day, so I got a ride with him instead. I spent New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day with friends in DC before crashing on a friend’s couch for a couple hours sleep before leaving for Dulles Airport.

January 2-3: Washington to Sapporo
I woke up the morning of January 2, 2024 to the news of the plane crash at Haneda. I didn’t know if I would even make it to Japan that day, however NH101 flew as scheduled, getting me to Haneda a few minutes early. After transferring to Terminal 2, I went upstairs to the observation deck. Though JAL516 was no the first plane crash wreckage I’ve seen (I saw the Miracle on the Hudson plane a few days after that incident), it was a harrowing sight. Unsurprisingly, my flight to Sapporo, NH75, was significantly delayed, enough so I would miss the last train to Sapporo from Chitose. A wonderful ANA gate agent managed to get me on extra flight NH1313, and I managed to catch one of the last trains into Sapporo and got to my hotel at Odori Park as the clock on the Sapporo TV Tower turned to midnight.

January 4-5: Sapporo
I decided not to take the Subway and instead walked to Sapporo station to pick up my JR Pass and reservations in advance. From there, I took the Subway to Maruyama Park and walked to Hokkaido Shrine where Hatsumode was still in full swing. Dropped my 5 yen in the box for luck, got a couple of fortunes and stopped by a couple stands for wagyu skewers and amazake. It was a wonderful atmosphere and a beautiful day outside as well. From there, I crossed the city to the Sapporo Beer Museum. After touring the museum, I went over to the beer hall for a late lunch, with some brewery-exclusive beer and Genghis Khan. After returning to the hotel to change, I took the streetcar to the Mt. Moiwa ropeway, and while I missed sunset by a few minutes, the night view of Sapporo was absolutely stunning. For dinner, I stood in line for a while to get a delicious bowl of miso ramen at Shinshu before stopping by Flair Bar overlooking Susukino Crossing before going back to the hotel for laundry and bed.
I got an early enough train to Teine to make the first bus of the day to Teine ski center and hit the slopes relatively early. Unfortunately, as has been the case around the world this season, there hadn’t been nearly enough snow, and there were a number of bare and/or icy patches. Only a couple days removed from a 30 hour travel day and still on a sleep deficit and having not skied at all the season prior, needless to say, my thighs were on fire by the time I finished that afternoon. I’d say easily the best part about Teine is the stunning view over Sapporo and Ishikari Bay. After taking the train back to Sapporo, I had some delicious soup curry and called it a night

January 6-8: Sapporo-Aomori-Sendai-Zao
Departing Sapporo on the Hokuto for Noboribetsu was the first leg of what would be many on my Japan Rail Pass. Noboribetsu Jigokudani reminded me a lot of Yellowstone, both from the smells and the landscape. What Yellowstone doesn’t have, however, is an incredible onsen day spa. I sat for a while in the rotenburo looking out over Jigokudani with a light snowfall, and it was positively magical. The Hokuto from Sapporo to Hakodate is incredibly scenic, especially along the coastline of Uchiura Bay. At Shin-Hakodate Hokuto, I boarded my first Shinkansen from the system’s northernmost station, taking it through the Seikan Tunnel to Aomori, where I checked into my hotel, went to the Nebuta Museum and had dinner with a local apple sour and apple pie to finish it off.
Rather than taking the quick Shinkansen to Sendai, I decided to take the scenic route, and by scenic route I mean the Resort Shirakami on the Gono Line five hours from Aomori to Akita. We left Aomori in a blizzard and even had to slow for high winds along the Shirakami coast leading to a significant delay that cut what was supposed to be an extended layover stop into a very brief halt. Nonetheless, the ride was spectacular, and I highly recommend it, especially as it’s a Rapid service and so doesn’t require limited express fare, though all seats are reserved. Riding the Komachi across the mountains through a winter wonderland, we joined with a Hayabusa at Morioka and rocketed south to Sendai where I checked into my hotel, had dinner, and went to bed, still tired.
While I’m a big Pokemon fan, I forewent the Pokemon With You train at Ichinoseki and took an earlier train in order to enjoy a cruise down the Geibikei Gorge, something else I highly recommend. I then made the most of my JR Pass and went to Yamagata via Fukushima. Now, I had seen the new Disney Magical Dream Shinkansen that morning, and I saw it again that afternoon while passing through Sendai and again while transferring at Fukushima. I caught my Tsubasa to Yamagata, my bus to Zao and walked to my hotel, where I took a dip in the onsen and called an early night for what was going to be an exciting next day.

January 9-12: Zao-Aizu Wakamatsu-Tokyo
While most westerners skiing in Japan go to the Australian exclaves of Niseko or Hakuba, I followed the locals to Zao. The morning was a clear blue sky that I knew wasn’t going to last, so I went straight to the summit and skied through the Juhyo. The pictures don’t do it justice. It’s cold, windy, and the Juhyo are something to behold. The conditions rapidly worsened after lunch and eventually reached whiteout on parts of the mountain by the end of the day. I did ski almost until last chair and then took a walk through the town, stopping in one of the public baths and then another that had a foot bath. Wagyu yakiniku for dinner that night, back in the onsen at the hotel, and to bed.
I decided to spice up the travel day from Zao to Aizu and make a stop in Yonezawa for sukiyaki Yonezawa gyu lunch which was absolutely divine. I walked a couple kilometers back to Yonezawa station from the restaurant before getting on the Tsubasa again for Koriyama. I had some time to photograph a few Shinkansen before catching my local train to Aizu Wakamatsu and the bus to my hotel at Higashiyama Onsen, where I had a full country dinner that seemed to be neverending.
For my full day in Aizu Wakamatsu, I made sure to stop by the Bukeyashiki samurai residences and Tsuruga Castle. Aizu Wakamatsu is very proud of its samurai history and these two sites definitely drive it home. That night, rather than having dinner at the hotel again, I hopped a train to Kitakata, where I found a small ramen shop for my second of the three Ramen capitals.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I like to make my travel days a bit interesting. So rather than simply taking the train back to Koriyama and the Shinkansen to Tokyo, I spent five hours on a small diesel train across Oku Aizu along the Tadami Line. There’s an argument to be made that the rural Tadami Line and it’s wan-man ressha is the most scenic railway in Japan: full service was only recently restored to the entire length of the line after heavy flooding over a decade ago severed the line. From Koide, once again in a blizzard, I took a train to Urawa and a Shinkansen to Tokyo, where I checked into my hotel room overlooking Tokyo Station (even the shower had a view).

January 13-15: Tokyo
I had three full days in Tokyo this time around, which is fine, as my last trip was a week and a half spent entirely in Tokyo. So on the first day, I ended up going to…Shizuoka prefecture to get pictures of the Shinkansen passing in front of Mt. Fuji. This El Niño has hit everywhere hard, and the most iconic mountain in the world was no exception: the normally snow-capped winter summit was hardly snow-capped at all. On my way back to Tokyo, I stopped by Numazu for lunch and some Love Live Sunshine displays around the station before heading back to Tokyo. I stopped by a couple of Pokemon Centers to pick up some merch for a friend and went to the Skytree at night. The next morning, I stopped by A Happy Pancake in Ginza for breakfast before making my way over for a showing of Godzilla Minus-1.0 at Toho Shinjuku: yes, the one with the Godzilla head on it. I went down to Yokohama to get myself a Hanshin Tigers Nippon Champions t-shirt before heading back up to the stalls under the railway at Shimbashi for dinner. My last day of this stint in Tokyo was primarily Shibuya Sky. Hard to get tickets, and I could only get them for the daytime, but I have to imagine it’s spectacular at night: even in the day it was quite something (very windy though, and if you’re afraid of heights, this might not be for you). I had some time to kill so I rode around on some area trains before getting back to Tokyo Station.

January 15-16: Sunrise Seto
Japan once had an extensive fleet of overnight sleeper trains. Through competition with the Shinkansen, airlines, and more recently overnight buses, only two remain: the Sunrise Seto and Sunrise Izumo, which run as a single train as far as Okayama before splitting. I was booked in a single sleeper on the Sunrise Seto to Takamatsu. I got myself an ekiben for dinner and had one of the most comfortable sleeps I’ve ever had on an overnight train (and I’ve been on my share). I woke up in Himeji and watched the sun rise as we crossed the inland sea into Takamatsu.

January 16-19: Takamatsu-Okayama-Fukuoka-Tokyo
After disembarking the Sunrise Seto, I took a train up to Ritsurin Koen. I spent a good couple hours walking through there, and I must say, it’s probably my favorite garden in Japan. I had myself a bowl of udon for lunch before hopping the Marine Liner to Okayama where I checked into my hotel. I made a brief stop by Okayama Castle before taking a long walk through Koraku-en. Then, being the railway enthusiast that I am, I spent a good few hours that evening riding and photographing Okayama’s classic JNR era rolling stock, most of which is set to be replaced soon.
I’m pretty sure I fell asleep the next morning on the Sakura, because I don’t remember stopping at any stations between Hiroshima and Hakata. Seeing the palm trees in front of Kagoshima-Chuo station at the southernmost point of the Shinkansen was certainly whiplash from the cold and snow I had been experiencing only days prior. But I wasn’t done yet, taking the Ibusuki no Tamebatako down to Ibusuki, where I enjoyed the famous hot sand baths. Heading back north, things went awry: instead of the northbound Ibutama, there was a local train being held for Ibutama’s departure time due to an accident preventing Ibutama from making that trip. What had taken under an hour southbound took over two hours northbound as we waited quite some time for the line ahead to clear. In the end, I did make it to Kagoshima and got a Shinkansen back to Hakata where I checked into my hotel and did some laundry.
My full day in Kyushu was spent primarily in Yufuin. The Yufuin-no-Mori train was packed with Taiwanese tourists, as was Yufuin. I ended up stumbling upon a cat cafe there, where I ended up with a kitten in my lap. As we all know, it is illegal to disturb a cat that is sitting on your lap except for pets. These cats seemed to be treated very well: there was no evidence of the being sedated, as they were very playful, they had plenty of litter boxes and places to go hide if they were overstimulated. The nearby goat pen and owl zoo did not appear to be anywhere close to ethical. I went to a hot spring, went to the Showa museum, and took the train back to Hakata. To finish the night, I went to one of Fukuoka’s famous yatai for classic tonkotsu ramen, gyoza and yakitori.
I’d never taken a Nozomi before, but with the new “step-up” fares for Nozomi for JR Pass holders and with me needing to get back to Tokyo on the last day of my pass, I hopped a Nozomi all the way back to Tokyo. Amazingly, despite leaving in horribly icky weather from Hakata, Mt. Fuji graced us with its presence as we passed through Shizuoka. I went to Tam Tam hobby shop in Akihabara and picked up a model train for my collection, then checked into my hotel before going over to TeamLab, which was a real trip. After TeamLab I went to Daiba to see the mini Statue of Liberty, the classic skyline view of the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo, and the Gundam. I finished the day with Sushiro in Ikebukuro before my last train on the JR Pass to Shinjuku

January 20-21: Tokyo to Kawaguchiko to New York
My weather luck ran out as I headed out to Kawaguchiko where heavy snowfall prevended me from even catching a glimpse of Mt Fuji. However, I did still manage to enjoy the wind cave, Fujiyama Onsen and the winter fireworks festival. The next morning was the long road home to New York via Otsuki, Tokyo, Hamamatsucho, Haneda and Dulles. At Haneda, I managed to spot both of ANA’s Star Wars planes before hopping on my flight back to the States. As we taxied out, Mt Fuji was visible and remained visible until it disappeared behind us as we flew off over the Pacific. A minor snafu at Dulles got me to LaGuardia late, but I made it home with fond memories, a full book of eki stamps, and a backpack full of KitKats for my colleagues at work. I had several days of over 20,000 steps and even with all the trains I still broke 200km of walking distance. And while this is a long post, this is only really a brief retelling, as I could’ve gone on for hours.

by JBS319