Hi all! I’m meeting my husband in Japan at the end of Dec (he’s on Okinawa now) and it’s my first time visiting mainland. Due to the short visit (8 full days), I’m trying to limit our locations and we definitely want a trip on the relaxing side rather than jam-packed. We’re long distance right now for 6 months (this visit will be the 4-month mark), and just want to hang out together.
**Must do:**
* Ryokan/onsen – 2-3 nights? Definitely want nice food (maybe not for every dinner) and private tub/pool
* Food, nature (hiking/walking/biking), history, chilling
* Eat at least one Michelin place (fancy or non-fancy)
* Shirakawa-go? Day trip?
* Light display (probably easy to find, not super worried about it)
* Not super into lots of city stuff, but we do like museums (Ghibli if we can)
**Some notes:**
* Wasn’t planning on renting a car – should we?
* Only doing Tokyo the first and last night/day of the trip (simply too much to do/research, and I don’t really feel a strong connection/draw to Tokyo other than for food reasons)
* Don’t want to move home base more than 2 times outside of Tokyo, trying to avoid long transit times between home bases (i.e. not going to Hokkaido)
* Can’t decide between areas to stay in: Osaka, Kyoto, Nagano, Hakone, Hakuba
* I have several free night certificates, which I wanted to try to use in Tokyo: 2x Hilton, 1x IHG (maybe 2 if I cancel one I already have booked), 1x Marriott, 0x Hyatt (can also use/transfer points from Chase and Amex). Holiday period might mess with availability to use the free nights though.
* Budget: this is our Xmas present to ourselves, would like to stay under $150/night for “normal” lodging, but will happily pay more for ryokan with food as a splurge
**Schedule/lodging so far:**
* 23 Dec: arrive around 5pm (Haneda), go straight to hotel in Tokyo for the night
* 24 Dec: Breakfast/hang out in Tokyo; train to Karuizawa (staying at Hotel Wellies, recommended by a friend, and we thought it would be a nice Christmas feeling there \[British owners\])
* 25 Dec: Karuizawa/Hotel Wellies, explore the area
* 26 Dec: Explore more, check out of Hotel Wellies (or can stay until the 27th), move to next area
* 27 Dec: ??
* 28 Dec: ??
* 29 Dec: ??
* 30 Dec: ??
* 31 Dec: Train back to Tokyo
* 1 Jan: hang out in Tokyo, flight leaves in the evening (Haneda)
Trying to figure out what makes the most sense in terms of transportation/locations for home bases, and would love any recommendations for a nice ryokan in/around those areas. So many of them look great and I can’t really differentiate between them. Should I split up the 26th-31st into 2 lodging locations? Half ryokan and half something else? Or not split and just stay in one central base for those 5 nights. Or stay in Karuizawa an extra night and check out on the 27th, and then do 27th-31st at one location?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP, THIS SUB IS AWESOME!
3 comments
For Ryokan – availability is getting low, or may be fully non-existent by this point. The time you’re traveling is a holiday in Japan, and lots of folks have already booked out the areas you may be interested in. If you want to check with japaneseguesthouses.com they may have some spots left, but the prices at this point may be out of your budget.
Given what you’ve said about your preferences, I’d suggest the following.
Dec 26: Head to [Shibu Onsen](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6029.html) for ryokan stay and to see the snow monkeys. Stay 1 night.
Dec 27: Head to [Toyama.](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7500.html)Check out the glass museum there and Kansui Park.
Dec 28: Head to Takayama. Stay 2 nights. See [Takayama Trip Report.](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/mg8ir9/autumn_weekend_in_takayama_gifu_prefecture/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
– or head straight to Takayama from Shibu Onsen and skip Toyama
Dec 30: Take bus to [Matsumoto](https://visitmatsumoto.com/en/) and stop off for day trip. Or you could stay one night if you’d like. There is a limited express train you can take from Matsumoto right back into central Tokyo. See [Matsumoto access.](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6053.html)
Happy Planning!
[deleted]