My fiancée and I are getting married this summer and planning a honeymoon in Japan from July 18th to August 7th (local time). While we’re flying into and out of Tokyo (HND), we plan to spend the majority of the time in Tohoku and Hokkaido. This will be our second trip to Japan together: we previously had a 3.5 week trip in the summer of 2018 where we covered Tokyo, Kansai, Hiroshima, and Kyushu (Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Beppu, Kumamoto, Kurokawa Onsen, Kagoshima).
We already have tickets for our international flights, but all other dates are flexible.
Here is our preliminary itinerary:
|Date|Travel|Accommodation|Activities|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|Jul 18|USA -> Tokyo|Tokyo||
|Jul 19||Tokyo||
|Jul 20||Tokyo||
|Jul 21|Tokyo -> Sendai -> Matsushima|Matsushima (Komatsukan Kofutei)||
|Jul 22||Sendai|AM: Matsushima bay ferry. PM: Explore Sendai|
|Jul 23||Sendai|Day trip: Yamadera hike (and maybe Ginzan Onsen on the same day, but only if we rent a car)|
|Jul 24|Sendai -> Geibikei -> Hiraizumi|Hiraizumi|Geibikei boat cruise, explore Hiraizumi. Possibly get around with rental bikes.|
|Jul 25|Hiraizumi -> Nyuto|Nyuto (Tsurunoyu Onsen)|Stop by Lake Tazawa on the way in. Then spend two days just bathing and relaxing|
|Jul 26||Nyuto (Taenoyu Onsen)||
|Jul 27|Nyuto -> Morioka -> Miyako|Miyako|PM: Jodogahama Beach|
|Jul 28|Miyako -> Aomori|Aomori|AM: Scenic trains up Sanriku coast. PM: Nebuta Museum.|
|Jul 29||Aomori|Day trip: rent a car and explore Lake Towada area.|
|Jul 30|Aomori -> Hakodate|Hakodate|Fort Goryokaku, night view from Mount Hakodate|
|Jul 31||Hakodate|Morning seafood market|
|Aug 1|Hakodate -> Sapporo|Sapporo|Beer Museum, Natsu Matsuri festivities|
|Aug 2||Sapporo|Day trip: Otaru|
|Aug 3|Sapporo -> Asahidake|Asahidake|Very early day (with car rental): drive to Asahidake, take the ropeway and hike, spend night in Asahidake onsen.|
|Aug 4|Asahidake -> Biei -> Furano -> Noboribetsu|Noboribetsu|Biei scenic drive, blue pond, Furano flower fields on the way to Noboribetsu|
|Aug 5|Noboribetsu -> Sapporo|Sapporo|Day bathe at Dai-ichi Takimotokan (possibly explore Lake Toya and Lake Shikotsu), return car in Sapporo.|
|Aug 6||Sapporo|Moerenuma Park|
|Aug 7|Sapporo -> Tokyo -> USA|||
Advice about any of our destinations would be greatly appreciated, as well as anything glaring we may be missing or anything we can skip. We’d love to hear trip highlights and food recommendations as well.
Our main notes and questions are:
* We have the night in Hiraizumi mainly because it seems unreasonable to do both Geibikei and Hiraizumi in a single day on the way to Nyuto. Would it be better to stay in Sendai one more night and do these as a day trip instead, though?
* We plan to stay in Nyuto Onsen for two nights, one in Tsuronoyu and one in Tae-no-yu. We would consider staying at other ryokans there if anyone thinks they have better suggestions. Also, should we just stay two nights in one ryokan instead?
* We have the night in Miyako primarily because we want to take the scenic trains up the Sanriku coast, but it would be too much to incorporate those train rides into a trip all of the way from Nyuto to Aomori in one day.
* Noboribetsu: do people recommend renting a car and visiting the lakes, or is going around on foot fine? What hotels do you recommend? The baths at Dai-ichi Takimotokan look amazing, but it seems very large and we would prefer a kaiseki dinner versus the buffet offered there.
* Generally, is it easy to rent a car early in the morning day-of, or would you want to start the rental the day before? Specifically for the Yamadera/Ginzan trip (about 4 hours driving total) and the Sapporo -> Daisetsuzan day (3 hours driving)
* We are considering removing either the night in Noboribetsu or the Daisetsuzan hiking day (along with Biei and Furano) to make more space in the itinerary for an additional night in Aomori (with a day trip to Hirosaki) or Sendai. Are these attractions worth the necessary travel time considering we have other ryokans planned? If we were to cancel, where should we add time?
* We seriously considered visiting the three big Tohoku festivals on the way back from Hokkaido, spending an extra night each in Aomori and Akita and stopping for lunch in Sendai on the way back to Tokyo instead of flying. However, it seems like we are already too late to book accommodations in Aomori. We would probably have to cut both Noboribetsu and Daisetsuzan out as well. Do you think it would be worth it to rearrange our trip to hit these festivals, and is it too late to get accommodation?
Thanks for reading! Let us know if you have any questions or want us to elaborate.