First time going to Japan with my wife for our honeymoon. Extremely excited, there Dec 15th-Jan 5th.
Dec 16th – Land at Haneda, travel to our hotel in Shinjuku. Wander around and grab dinner.
Dec 17th – Team Labs during the morning. Afternoon is free. Shibuya Bar hopping tour at night.
Dec 18th – Currently open and welcome to suggestions.
Dec 19th – Fly to Okinawa, ferry to our hotel.
Dec 20th-22nd – Explore okinawa. Ferry to islands, potentially snorkel depending on the weather. Peace memorial, okinawa world. Open to suggestions.
Dec 23rd – Fly to Sapporo and train to Niseko.
Dec 24th and 25th – Ski in Niseko. Any restaurant recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
Dec 26th – Fly to Osaka and check in.
Dec 27th- 29th – Explore Osaka and Kobe. Eat, drink, cycle Osaka tour on the 27th. Currently working on this part, but any recommendations again would be appreciated.
Dec 29th-Jan 1st- In Kyoto. Will be with someone local so they are planning this part.
Jan 1st- Train to Hakuba, check in.
Jan 2nd- Snow monkey hot spring tour.
Jan 3rd and 4th- Ski in Hakuba, Any restaurant recommendations would be appreciated.
Jan 5th-Train to Tokyo and fly home.
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I know the trip is close, we are still working on the smaller details. We want to explore and be outside as much as possible. Food is important, but I am not extremely worried about reservations as it sounds like all the food is incredible. Again any suggestions or thoughts would be so helpful. Thank you!
3 comments
Hakuba Ski resort is not all that close to the monkeys, so unless you are paying for some sort of guided tour you’re looking at quite a ways in travel time. You have to go to Nagano first and then take the bus or train and then bus to get to where you can start the walk to the park where the monkeys are.
Have you thought about either going from Kyoto to Nagano and then going to the monkeys or perhaps skiiing in Shiga Kogen instead as it is much closer to the monkey park. (We spent our day sledding in a children’s area in Shiga Kogen before going to our ryokan near the monkey park and visited the monkey park the next day.) It would probably be hard to make those changes close to New Years, but if possible, it might make sense to overnight in Nagano on the 1st if there is availability even if you want to continue to ski Hakuba.
If you are going to Hakuba I recommend Nikumasa or Soba Zen for restaurants! Nikumasa is a very intimate steak restaurant and only seats about 10-20 people a night (so you have to book a few weeks in advance). Soba Zen does great soba, tempura, and ramen and I would also recommend reserving in advance.
As the other commenter mentioned though, the snow monkeys are about a 2 hour drive away from Hakuba. I’d suggest changing the itinerary so you do snow monkeys on your way up to Hakuba or on your way back to Tokyo.
You should check your travel to and from Hakuba. There is no direct train connection in either direction; you either are making several train changes, or taking a train + bus.
Do you have a reason to ski in both Niseko and Hakuba? You are spending a good amount of time to travel to both and IMO you’re better off spending a bit more time skiing in just one site and using the travel time you save to do other things.
If skiing is your main goal; go to Niseko. The snow will likely be better this early in the season.
If skiing isn’t your main goal; go to Hakuba and spend the extra time doing other things in Honshu.