Hi! I’m going to Japan with my SO and some friends. All of us have been to Japan before, so we wanted to venture beyond the Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto route. We’re interested in food, nature, culture, anime, and hoping to catch some cherry blossoms near the end of the trip! We’re still weighing the options for some destinations in Tohoku and Fuji areas and would love some advice on how to plan our itinerary.
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Option 1:
* March 16-18: Tokyo
* March 19 : Tokyo -> Sendai
* March 20: Sendai / Yamagata
* March 21: Matsushima
* March 22-23: Fuji Five Lakes
* March 24-30: Tokyo
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Option 2:
* March 16-18: Tokyo
* March 19 : Tokyo -> Sendai
* March 20: Sendai
* March 21: Matsushima
* March 22: Yamagata / Mt Zao
* March 23: Nikko
* March 24-30: Tokyo
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Some areas I’d like to get thoughts on:
* Is this enough time in each location? We can adjust timing and spend more or less days in Tokyo depending on what we want to do in the other spots.
* Nikko vs Fuji Five Lakes vs both?
* They both sound like nice nature-y getaways
* Nikko sounds like it’s most popular in for fall colors, not sure how it is in March. Wonder if it’s better to save this for a future fall trip.
* Fuji Five Lakes is more out of the way – if Nikko is just as nice to get our “nature fix”, maybe we skip FFL?
* If we do both: The train ride from any of the cities we’re planning to visit in Tohoku (Sendai/Yamagata/Nikko) to Fuji Five Lakes is about 5 hrs. Should we do it in one shot, or stop in Tokyo for a day or two first?
* Is it worth visiting Mt Zao in late March? It sounds like the snow monsters may be melting by then? Not sure if we should bother with the 1 hr bus ride each way from Yamagata. If we skip Mt Zao, we would likely just make Yamagata a day-trip from Sendai.
* Any suggestions on how to improve this itinerary would be appreciated! Thanks!