Hello! My partner and I are hoping to head to Japan for a month from 8 Jan – 9 Feb. This will be our second trip so we have done most of the big tourist things. We’ve put in some places we missed the last time and am excited to go to north for the first time. Itinerary is quite flexible and we want to spend more time in each area – specifically Kyoto since we loved it from our previous trip. Only issue is our flights are set and we will fly in (Narita) and out of Tokyo (Haneda).
Proposed itinerary:
8 Jan: land in Tokyo
9 – 10 Jan Noboribetsu
*fly to New Chitose Airport
* Ninja village
* Hell valley
11 – 12 Jan: Hakodate
* Mt Hakodate
* Hakodate market
* Red brick warehouse
13 – 15 Jan: Sapporo
* Otaru day trip
* Odori park
* Sapporo beer museum
* Mt moiwa
* Nijo market
* Suskino
16 – 19 Jan: Osaka
* fly from New Chitose airport to Osaka
* USJ
* Nara day trip
* Osaka sky castle
* Umeda sky building
20 – 24 Jan: Kyoto
* Nishiki market
* Kifune shrine
* Kinkakuji temple
* Arashiyama
25 – 26 Jan: Takayama
* Hilda folk museum
* Hikaru museum
* Shinhotaka ropeway
* Takayama old town
27 – 28 Jan: Matsumoto
* Matsumoto castle
* Nowate street
* Day trip to monkey park?
29 – 2 Feb: Tokyo
* Disney Sea
* Tsukiji market
* Sky tee
3 – 4 Feb: Lake Kawaguchigo
* mt Fuji ropeway
* Chureito pagoda
* Fuji pass?
5 – 6 Feb: Hakone
* ryokan
* Owakudani
* Ropeway
* Lake Ashi
7 – 8 Feb: final Tokyo days
Questions:
* Am also considering flying straight into Hokkaido from our first day to get the travelling done with OR shift the Hokkaido leg to the middle of our trip (do itinerary in reverse – land in Tokyo, Matsumoto, Takayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo) to attend snow festival.
* Is the number of days in Hokkaido region appropriate?
* JR pass: we plan to activate JR pass once we start the Kyoto to Tokyo leg
* Luggage services: will it be okay to leave our luggage at Tokyo while we go to Lake Kawaguchigo and Hakone?
* Would love to try and rent kimono, is there a recommended place or location we should be doing this? Was thinking Kyoto..
* Note that we have been to Kanazawa and Shirakawago previously
Thank you 🙂
3 comments
The Tsukiji fish market is long gone. All that’s left is the nice-but-not-very-interesting Tsukiji outer market
Yes the number of days in Hokkaido is appropriate for those spots but if you plan on going to the snow festival then I’ll try and add an extra day or 2.
I would switch it up to have Sapporo at the end of your trip so you can experience the snow festival. I believe it starts Feb 5th next year, but I’m not positive on the date.