I’ve been to Japan once and travel to Tokyo -> Osaka -> Kyoto -> Fuji -> Tokyo over the span of 3 week in summer. Now, I’m planing a 2nd trip and I’ve been considering giving winter travel a try. Forgive me if these are dumb question, but besides skiing trips within my small country, I’ve never traveled anywhere during winter.
Goals:
– normal tourist things, visiting temples, museums and eating lot of delicious food
– no interest in skiing or partying
Date:
– end of January – early February
Rough draft if the itinerary is as follows (length of trip is undecided)
1. several day in Tokyo
– visiting a friend in Kamakura
– seeing the new Gundam in Yokohama
– visiting Wonder Festival in Chiba (February 9th)
– and some more
– I imagine this sort of city tourism should be perfectly doable in Winter, plus Tokyo is pretty warm at this time. I’m only mildly worried about rain and humidity (which I’m not used to dealing with where I’m from).
2. Exploring Ibaraki and Utsunomiya (probably hotel in one and traveling to the other as needed) for a few days.
– e.g. Utsunomiya – Mashiko Pottery Town and Tenkaisan Ōya Temple and Museum
– e.g. Ibaraki – maybe visiting Oorai is one option (due to Girls und Panzer), but I don’t have anything else planned yet.
3. Shinkansen north to Fukushima or along to coast via normal trains
– considering taking tour to the Fukushima power plant, which start at Minamisoma
4. continue to Sendai
– one thing I really want to see is the tsunami wall, either in Sendai or close by
– itinerary TBD
4. continue to Sapporo
– Sapporo Snow Festival (February 4th to 11th)
– 2-4 days in and around Sapporo
5. back to Tokyo
– likely part of the Tokyo itinerary I described above would fall into this, especially Wonder Festival due to its date (~February 9th)
The entire itinerary may be turned around by flying into Sapporo and then going south, to make it just in time for Wonder Festival and then flying back from Tokyo. This would depend on ticket prices. But I’m not too keen on this since I would literally just have a layover in Tokyo (meaning the already long 12h flight with one layover would be even longer). Maybe due to Covid Kiwi isn’t showing direct flights from Europe to Sapporo?
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Issue I’m seeing here is that I’m not sure what to expect north of Tokyo. **How many tourist places will be closed for Winter?**
**I feel like the winter kinda locks me into staying in the larger cities** (especially up north), which may be limiting? Frankly, this may be unfounded, and partly stems from the itinerary being in very WIP state (not sure what to do where) and my limited experience using local buses (since on the previous trip I was mainly in major cities).
Overall I feel like I’m either skipping ton of tings in between Tokyo and Sapporo, or spending a whole day sitting on a Shinkansen to get to Sapporo. **I’ve heard people say if I’m going all the way up to Sapporo, I should just travel the whole island, but isn’t that hugely impractical during winter?** But then, I wouldn’t be able to see the Snow Festival…
**How large issue is the weather?** I have nice warm coat, but it’s not water proof. I imagine that may be a pretty big issue.
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There isn’t a huge amount of information in Winter travel in Japan and I’ve been struggling to find concrete answers to some of these. I’m mainly just looking to see whether the plan somewhat makes sense and doesn’t have some glaring issues to that I can continue detailing it.
6 comments
It’s hard to answer your question when detail is so sparse. Temples, museums etc are likely to be open all year long. Places that close in winter are usually the one that is in a hard to access place.
Nothin is wrong with staying in major city? I mean, sure, if you are also planning thing like Akita, Yamagata, Aomori where tourist attractions are not in the city, and transportation may be a problem in winter depending on the weather, but your wip itinerary doesn’t include those sections.
Whether you actually visit other cities depend on your time. Frankly, Hokkaido has enough place to visit for weeks.
Regarding weather, there usually aren’t a lot of snow in Feb, but when it but it can hit hard. Shinkansen usually won’t have problem, but local lines can stop operation in heavy snow.
I mean, there arent a lot of information for travelling in Japan during winter because it’s not different than travelling anywhere in winter…
Regarding your wip itinerary, I see two major problems here: 1. Utsunomiya and Ibaraki isn’t well connected to each other. Ooarai to Utsunomiya is 2.40 hour one-way. And 2) there aren’t really coastal route from Utsunomiya to Fukushima, simply because the coast arent there…
> I feel like the winter kinda locks me into staying in the larger cities (especially up north), which may be limiting? Frankly, this may be unfounded, and partly stems from the itinerary being in very WIP state (not sure what to do where) and my limited experience using local buses (since on the previous trip I was mainly in major cities).
There is a recent Abroad in Japan video where they travelled over 3 days from Hakodate to Wakkanai during Feb/March. https://youtu.be/UlRraQXerGg
Plus that channel had 3 Hokkaido travel videos done from about 2-3 years ago, during winter, including one during Snow Festival. But they probably travel by car so I’m not sure how good trains are during the season.
What do you consider warm? Tokyo in no that warm in January/February. It can snow around that time.
Exploring Hokkaido is a lot easier in warmer months. If you are going during winter I would focus on Sapporo (including Otaru) and possible Asahikawa if time permits. If you can make it work then 4 days is a good amount of time to enjoy the festival and general area. There are festivals in Otaru and Asahikawa if you get timing right.
In mid-February there is a Painted Castle/Winter Illumination at the castle in Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima and Aizu is a cute little town to visit with lots of samurai history and an old merchant town area. Higashiyama Onsen right outside Aizuwakamatsu would be a great relaxing place to stay too.
– [My Trip Report – Fukushima: Samurai History and Painted Candle Illumination in Aizuwakamatsu (mid-Feb) ](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/metuf4/samurai_history_in_aizuwakamatsu_in_fukushima/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Edit To Add: I’ve also visited Utsunomiya and you might find this trip report helpful. It’s easy to get to from Tokyo and on the Shinkansen line up towards Fukushima.
– [Tokyo Day Trip: Utsunomiya Gyoza and Oya Stone](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/mv766x/tokyo_day_trip_utsunomiya_gyoza_and_oya_stone/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Depending on where you all go, you could take advantage of the JR East Tohoku Pass or the Tohoku/Southern Hokkaido pass which would be a great way to save on the cost of your long distance travel if you can lump that all into 5 days or so.
– [JR East Tohoku Pass ](https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/en/pass/eastpass_t.html)
– [JREast South Hokkaido Pass ](https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/en/pass/easthokkaido.html)
I wouldn’t worry too much about a water proof coat if it’s already warm enough. It’s more likely to snow than rain at that time of year, so you’ll be able to brush it off before it melts on you.
I’ve found water proof shoes more important… your feet will be freezing walking through snow and slush in trainers. I use goretex hiking boots and my wife has gum boots. I’ve also got a pair of ice cleats that slip over my shoes when the pavements ice over.
Also, I wouldn’t rule out the small towns as long as it’s easily accessible by train. I went to Hakodate and Otaru during winter and both are beautiful in the snow.