Hi,
Our flight arrives into Tokyo Narita airport on the 31st of December at 8.50pm literally less than 4hrs before midnight – If I had thought about it more I probably wouldn’t have booked this date because of the closures during the new year period but its too late now ðŸ˜.
So we are planning to spend half of our trip (We leave in the morning on the 13th of January) in Tokyo and the other half in Hakuba – for snow boarding (we decided on this because we plan to do Osaka and Kyoto when we come back for the cherry blossom period).
Now Im just wondering if I should do Hakuba or Tokyo first? Heres the options Ive thought of:
Option 1: 31st – arrive and check into hotel nearby Narita airport, then next morning on the 1st catch the shuttle bus (I think it is) going directly from Narita airport to Hakuba? Stay in Hakuba from the 1st until the 6th. We are mainly going to snow board but will also do a day trip to go see the snow monkeys whilst we are there.
or
Option 2: 31st – arrive and catch train into Tokyo (we are planning to stay near a station in Shinjuku). Is there many new years festivities on in Tokyo? Will the trains from the airport even be available to get us to Tokyo at that time? If there will be stuff to do in Tokyo for midnight Im happy to do this option as we are young and can just have a coffee after a long travel day. Then stay In tokyo until the 6th of January (5 full days). We are hoping to do all the main attractions like Team labs, sky tree etc – but really just excited to eat our way around the city.
Then If I select option 2: Will everything be shut in Tokyo from the 1st onwards? We are very food orientated and will be disappointed if all the restaurants are closed? So maybe better to do Hakuba first? Or will everything also be closed in Hakuba?
Anddd just to make things a bit more complicated: On the way from Tokyo to Hakuba or Hakuba to Tokyo whatever one its ends up being – Im hoping to do a 1 night stop over maybe In Nagano or Kanazawa? So we can visit Shirakawago. Im still trying to wrap my head around all the different trains and buses that we could take to do this- but I suppose we are hoping for whatever will be the shortest travel time. Any recommendations on how to go about this? We also though about Maybe renting a car just for a day to do this part of the trip but a little bit concerned about driving in snow as theres none where we are from.
I hope that all made sense! TIA.
by One_Chef_3640