About me (and this trip): Solo traveler looking to make the best use of the Christmas/NYE holidays. I was able to find inexpensive round trip tickets (\~$600) to Japan. This will be my fourth time visiting Japan. Not really planning my trip around specific sightseeing, rather it’s based around a personal bucket item to take every Shinkansen line. Hopefully I will be able to minimize the 21 day JR rail pass here 🙂
Without further ado, here’s the schedule:
|12/16|Friday|Tokyo (land around noon)|
|:-|:-|:-|
|12/17|Saturday|Tokyo|
|12/18|Sunday|Kagoshima|
|12/19|Monday|Kagoshima|
|12/20|Tuesday|Nagasaki|
|12/21|Wednesday|Nagasaki|
|12/22|Thursday|Hiroshima|
|12/23|Friday|Osaka|
|12/24|Saturday|Sapporo|
|12/25|Sunday|Sapporo|
|12/26|Monday|Sapporo|
|12/27|Tuesday|Aomori|
|12/28|Wednesday|Akita|
|12/29|Thursday|Nagoya|
|12/30|Friday|Kyoto|
|12/31|Saturday|Kyoto|
|1/1|Sunday|Kyoto|
|1/2|Monday|Kanazawa|
|1/3|Tuesday|Kanazawa (maybe stay in Nagano?)|
|1/4|Wednesday|Niigata|
|1/5|Thursday|Tokyo|
|1/6|Friday|Tokyo (day trip on the Yamagata Shinkansen)|
|1/7|Saturday|Tokyo (leave the next day)|
The underlying structure of the itinerary is that I want to be in a major city during the weekends (because I like the nightlife). Thematically, I think it would be interesting to be in Sapporo for Christmas and Kyoto for NYE. The routing is I start out in Tokyo, take some time to get rest/settled, head down south to Kagoshima, spend a couple days in the region, make my way to Osaka, take a long train ride up to Sapporo, spend Christmas there, head back down towards Kyoto, spend NYE there, work my way back to Tokyo via Kanazawa/Niigata, wrap up the trip by spending the last weekend in Tokyo. If all goes well, I should be able to hit every Shinkansen line.
And if I’m going to be honest, this feels like a long trip for me. Usually I feel “out of it (traveling)” around 14 days, so 23 days of traveling is something that will be out of my usual comfort zone. However, I don’t see a viable way to cram every single Shinkansen line in a 7/14 day pass without not taking the time (at least 2 days) to actually see the places I’m traveling to.
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Lodging: Usually I’m a big hostel person, but with the nature of the travel, I’ve decided to just get my own room. So far, they’ve averaged $40-50, which is rather inexpensive by US standards. I can splurge for a ryokan experience, but I feel it might be something I save for a future trip, ideally when I’m not traveling solo.
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Questions:
1. Somewhat nervous about the Osaka – Sapporo leg (on the 24th). It seems to be an 11 hr ride with changes. It’s literally the day before Christmas, so I’m worried about being able to get on a train. Would it make sense to put myself closer by heading to Tokyo from Hiroshima for a night instead of Osaka? Any guidance on how the Shinkansen are like during the holidays would be great.
2. Weather. I mean this is something I can’t predict, but the hope is that no major weather events impacts the Shinkansen. For those that might know, is the Dec month a risky time for Shinkansen delays? Also, odds of it snowing in Sapporo for Christmas?
3. Due to the nature of the travel and JR rail pass, I can be pretty flexible. Any changes I should make?
4. Finally, I need a sanity check. Is this trip too much? I consider myself a somewhat seasoned traveler (30+ countries) and Japan is a relatively safe (in the sense, that things run on a timely manner) place for travel. However, I tend to plan out trips that can be iffy, because I like to see more places in a short period of time. It always works out (or I figure a workaround), but I wonder if there are dealbreakers in this routing that I’m not aware of.
3 comments
1. Christmas is not a holiday in Japan. This is, however, objectively the busiest period of the year for long-distance travel, because of New Year’s (traditional family gathering time in Japan) and school break. As for shinkansen: Joetsu and Hokuriku shinkansen tend to be slightly mad. I generally would not recommend using particularly Hokuriku shinkansen’s in-bound direction just after New Year.
2. Unless there are earthquakes: no. Snowing in Sapporo for Christmas: medium-high.
3. Let me put it mildly – it’s a slightly insane itinerary. You could make much better itinerary-forward plans that will still make your dream come true.
4. See below:
I would propose the following:
* 17 December: Tokyo
* 18 December: Echigo-Yuzawa – complete Joetsu shinkansen and then come back mid-afternoon to Echigo-Yuzawa (with Echigo Sake Museum Ponshukan as a bonus)
* 19 December: Yonezawa – go back to Omiya, take *Tsubama* to Yamagata, drop in for a visit to Yamadera, get back to Yamagata, complete Yamagata shinkansen and stop for a night and a dinner of high quality beef in Yonezawa
* 20 December: Akita – two transfers (at Fukushima and Sendai) are required to put you on *Komachi* with a stop to see Kakunodate
* 21 December: Hakodate – I propose you take Tsugaru for the coastal view to Shin-Aomori, then step into Hayabusa to Hakodate – see Goryokaku and Mt. Hakodate
* 22 December: Sapporo – visit Morning Market in Hakodate and then stop in Onuma Koen or Toya-ko (depending on the snow cover) for winter wonderland in countryside experience, then move on to Sapporo
* 23 December: Sapporo – take a trip to Otaru (seafood/Nikka Whiske Yoichi Distillery), enjoy Friday Night
* 24 December: Sapporo – enjoy Christmas Eve in Sapporo (and Christmas Eve nightlife in Susukino)
* 25 December: Sendai – get back to Shin-Hakodate-Hayabusa, take *Hayabusa* to Sendai, spend a nice evening there (it’s probably the nicest of bigger cities in Japan)
* 26 December: Kanazawa – take morning train to Omiya, switch to *Kagayaki* and you will have almost a full day of itinerary in Kanazawa (Kenrokuen, Higashi Chaya, Nagamachi, Omicho Market, Myoryuji)
* 27 December: Hiroshima – *Thunderbird* to Shin-Osaka, *Sakura* to Hiroshima (Peace Memorial Museum, Shukkei-en, okonomiyaki)
* 28 December: Nagasaki – I would actually drop in on Itskushima-jinja and Daisho-in in the morning, and then go to Nagasaki, visiting Peace Memorial Museum and possibly catching view from Inasayama
* 29 December: Kagoshima – start a day with Glover Garden and Dejima, move on around noon to catch glimpses of Sakurajima in the afternoon (transfer in Shin-Tosu)
* 30 December: Osaka – you will end up in Osaka mid-afternoon with enough time to visit Shitenno-ji or Kaiyukan, and feast on Dotonbori before enjoying nightlife.
* 31 December: either Osaka/Kyoto – do you want nightlife or more traditional NYE/New Year experience? Anyway, this is a good day to catch Himeji-jo and complete the last of the top night views in Kobe (Mt. Maya). Arima Onsen might be worth booking to soak up after all your travels
* 1 January: Kyoto – enjoy Hatsumode during the day (Higashiyama temple walk), poss. Fushimi Inari at dusk
* 2 January: Kyoto – day trip to Nara
* 3 January: Kyoto – Arashiyama + northern Kyoto
* 4 January: Hakone/Atami/Ito – just enjoy slow, onsen day on your way to Tokyo
* 5 January: Tokyo – Asakusa, Ameyoko, Akihabara
* 6 January: Tokyo – Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku
* 7 January: Tokyo – whatever you want to do (I’d guess shopping)
This would probably would serve you much better with more manageable travel times (Sapporo to Sendai is 6 hours, otherwise outside getting Yamagata shinkansen out of the way – travel tops at around 4½-5 hours).
One thing to consider: spend 3-4 days in Tokyo at the beginning or end and buy a 14 day pass instead…
You should film it for YouTube. Or whatever the young kids are using these days.