Trip Report – Sapporo > Zao Onsen > Tokyo > Osaka (Super Nintendo World)

Thought I’d share a quick trip report and include some information I found difficult to find online, and maybe some updates to travel in Japan post Covid.

My Itinerary was

6-8th Feb – Sapporo

8th-10th Feb – Zao Onsen

10th-12th – Tokyo

12th-15th – Osaka

**General**

The JR Pass has improved somewhat in that now it is just a ticket that can be used on the normal train entries (aside from IC Card only gates). Great that you don’t need to show your passport every time and go through the manned station.

They also have a QR code you can scan at JR ticketing machines to reserve tickets and select your seats.

This is particularly useful if you are travelling with larger suitcases that don’t fit above the seats as you now need to book seats with ‘oversized luggage’ space. These are the rear seats of the cars where luggage can be rolled behind the seats. Now you may be charged 1000 yen for large suitcases if you don’t book these seats, which seems to be at the discretion of staff on the train and may be for when trains are busy. Travel in early February wasn’t particularly busy so I think we got way with not booking over sized luggage from Sapporo to Sendai, but was more difficult To Tokyo and Osaka, busier routes.

Easy to book at a JR machine though with the QR Code and search through routes to find the seats you need.

Another related thing I found frustrating is that currently Kuro Neko Yamato has a two day delivery time for luggage forwarding. Even between Osaka and Kansai airport. Our usual plan is to forward luggage while on the Shinkansen, but that really isn’t worthwhile with the two day delivery imo. A shame as when they had overnight delivery it was great for making travel days more flexible as you didn’t have to store luggage, or go back to your hotel to pick up luggage when jumping on the next shinkansen.

I don’t think we’ll bring the large suitcases to Japan again and will reduce down to the medium ones.

**Sapporo**

We were here for the return of the Snow Festival and while it is still toned down from previous years, with less ice sculptures and no food area outside of a few vendors at Sapporo Tower, it is still a great experience. We stayed at L:’agent Sapporo’ which is close to Odori for the snow sculptures, and walking distance to the Ice Sculptures. Second time staying there for the Snow Festival and while it isn’t the cheapest, it is worth having a bath at the hotel at the end of ther cold days in the festival.

**Zao Onsen**

This was a long trek from Sapporo through Hakadate and Sendai, transferring to a local Yamagata Train service. Technically from Yamagata there is a bus for 1000 yen per person, however we decided to take a taxi for around 6500 yen rather then wait 45 minutes for the next bus.

We were here to see the Snow Monster trees (Juhyo)

We stayed at Matsukaneya Annex which was a very friendly, and comfortable ryokan with a Sulphur hot spring, and clear hot spring for bathing. [Booking.com](https://Booking.com) only allowed us to book three nights, but we only planned to stay for two night (and were happy with paying for three to stay there) but at check out they graciously only charged us for the two nights. Just on the outskirts of the village it is an easy walk to the main street with Lawsons anb various restaurants as well as the two chairlifts if you are skiing. You could carry your gear and walk there, but I believe they also will drive you there in their minibus if you ask at reception.

Currently it seems many restaurants are not fully operational so options were kinda of limited. Some places were just closed, others were for hotel guests only and one place we tried was closed for a private event. Might be worth looking at half board options if you stay here.

As for the Snow Monsters themselves, it was difficult for me to get a handle of how to view them before we arrived. In reality it is just as simple as going to the ropeway at night and purchasing a ticket to go up to the snow monsters, which are the the top of the second ropeway on the mountain. Originally I thought you needed to book a tour or something as that was the most common flyer I saw around, until I saw one just for the ropeway tickets. Once up there, the trees are roped off, but you can get some great pictures, and there is a restaurant with heating, and hot food, if you need to warm up because you are an idiot that went up in a bomber jacket, cotton pants and fingerless gloves.

My advice is, if you want to see the Snow Monsters cheaply, you can very easily just stay in Yamagata where accommodation is a fraction of the cost of the ski lodges and get a taxi, or the last bus, go up the ropeway and when you’re done and come down, just grab some dinner at a local place and ask them to call a taxi for you. Of course staying in Zao and enjoying the baths is also a great option, but overall it was much easier then I expected, and accessible from Yamagata.

**Tokyo**

Not much to really report here. Went to Akihabara for nostalgia and it is kinda sad to see it slowly fade. Decent to shop for TCG supplies if you want cultured sleeves/playmats and still plenty of figures and arcades (The SEGA ones are now GiGo mostly, with a few just empty shells). The advice for otakus to go to Nakano Broadway is likely more accurate then ever.

**Osaka**

Osaka is still a foodie paradise. Definitely recommend staying in the Dotonbori area, however, the main attraction here for us was-

**Super Nintendo World**

So, accessing Super Nintendo World is a bit of a topic. We bought tickets early off Kloosk, as well as express passes to access Super Nintendo World. Do not buy these off Kloosk. We ended up with Entry to Super Nintendo World at 16:45 which is not enough time. Apparently you can buy entry on the USJ website from overseas if you use apple pay, otherwise you need a Japanese credit card, and it lets you see what time your entry is before checking out. I can’t vouch for this, but I will be trying this next time. Check early before your trip as they seem to sell out and they release the express tickets a few months in advance.

If you are unable to get express tickets, or want to save the money (Or end up with a crap time like we did) when we went on the 13th Feb, Super Nintendo World had open entry for the first 15-30 minutes. Bear in mind this was a cold, rainy Monday morning. We arrived at around 8:40 as some reports indicate the gates can open up to an hour early, but for us gates opened at 9.

At opening there is a rush for Super Nintendo land. Literally people who half jog through the park, strollers and all to make it to the entrance, so do not dawdle. The staff appear to count people entering and will put up the check point once they reach a certain number. Until then no one checks for your express pass and it is just direct entry. Once you see the first power band sales cart, you’re safe.

You can add your ticket details to their app and apply for an entry time if you miss out, but we didn’t do that since we got in. The rest of the day the area was closed to people without an entry reservation.

Because we made it in, our late afternoon entry time worked out well as we left Super Nintendo World at about 2 to do the Jujutsu Kaisen 4d experience and check out the rest of the park for two hours and just stroll back n for our fast pass to Mario Kart and do a final rush on coins to get in the top 100 daily score.

Super Nintendo World gets more and more crowded as the day goes on too as people just don’t leave. So being there in the morning is by far the ideal case since you can get into Mario Kart much quicker then in the afternoon.

Overall you could spend your entire day in Super Nintendo World since the powerband games have objectives that include multiple playthroughs of the games and Mario Kart is repayable imo as it changed on our second ride (maybe it has to do with which kart you sit in).

Little hint. Collect three keys and defeat Bowser jr before you do the character meet and greets.

Hope this is helpful to someone and happy to answer any questions I can