Itinerary Check for December – 22 Days in Japan (Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Sapporo/Skiing)

3 comments

1. I might not be the best person to answer but I just got back from Japan a few days ago and did a number of the things on your list.

   I did Fushimi Inari on a Friday afternoon and it was really not as busy as everyone makes it out to be, I think a lot of people tap out before the actual mountain climb. There’s a gift shop with a sign that says 40 mins to the top and most people turn around here. If you’re going to do the whole hike I don’t think it’s necessary to be up super early. Nishiki market also closes quite early. The Kyoto Imperial Palace grounds are quite large however I think it’ll be pretty dull in December as it’ll be past the leaves change and way before the cherry blossoms, you can tour the Palace area which takes maybe 30 mins to an hour. Maybe check google reviews for photos around Dec to see if it’s worth it to you?

   As for Golden Gai I’d personally go on a Friday or Saturday evening, it’ll be more crowded but it’s probably more the experience you’re looking for. I went a couple times and the weekdays seemed kinda chill. Your Tokyo days also seem kind of packed, you can maybe do partial days in Akihabara or Asakusa but in Japan pretty much everything of interest besides bars/ arcades closes between 8-10 pm and things aren’t open super early, so you might not get the best experience in every place if you try to do too much, especially with travel time between everything. You’re already doing a lot and IMO you’ll get more out of your time in Tokyo if you cut out the Yokohama day trip and spend more time in the notable areas you have picked out already. I thought Yokohama was fine but with such a packed schedule it’d be low on my list.

   Some other misc stuff: each coin locker is different but it’s a gamble if there will even be open ones for your luggage. You’ll probably want to do Odaiba/ Gundam the same day as TeamLabs as there’s not a lot of transport options out there and you’ll more than likely have to take one/ multiple busses

2. Hi!

   Since this trip is not planned until December, I figured it is OK to critique this itinerary.

   A 1 week pass is currently 29,650 from a reseller. A 2 week pass is 47,250 or 17,600 yen more.

   I would get a 1 week pass to do the round trip to Hiroshima and to go from Kansai to Tokyo and I would maybe move Nikko earlier in the trip so that is covered as well.

   I would fly to Niseko and I would fly back from Niseko. There are often airfare specials and I think you will have a very hard time trying to get from Nikko to Shin-Hakodate. I think you are underestimating how long travel is going to take and unless you really just like sitting on trains I think flying makes more sense.

   I would move Niseko to as late in the trip as possible, because even though the resort opens in early December, I would imagine there is more snow and better conditions later in December.

   I love Japan Guide, but their example itineraries tend to work under the assumption you are not spending much time seeing anything. But if that is how you want to sightsee Hiroshima, that is up to you.

   I would send your luggage from Osaka to Tokyo rather than keeping it in a locker in Shin-Osaka. If you don’t want to use a service then I would look into the luggage cloak room at Shin-Osaka over a locker.

   Since I think you should fly to Niseko, it would be a non issue about your bags with Nikko.

   If you don’t want to fly, I would again send any larger bags onwards to Niseko and just have a much smaller bag.

   I believe very few Hayabusa stop at Utsunomiya, they’re mostly Yamabikos which are slower. So you will either have to go up to Sendai and then switch or switch in Morioka because Yamabikos don’t go past Morioka. I think the only Hayabusa that stop in Utsunomiya stop in Morioka as well. Sometimes trains line up well and sometimes they just don’t.

   No matter what I would fly back from Sapporo because you can do a 1 week from December 5-12 (train fare between Osaka and Kyoto is minimal, especially since you can use various private lines with the subway and they will be as fast or faster than if you took the shinkansen because you’re not sightseeing at Kyoto Station and usually when people talk about Namba they mean Nankai Namba or Metro Namba station, not JR Namba which is closer to OCAT and not as convenient in general.) And then even if you felt compelled to take the train to Shin-Hakodate and then Shin-Hakodate to Niseko, it would all be covered. You can definitely fly from New Chitose to Haneda for under 17,600 yen with one of the special fares for tourists and save so much time, since I think your plans for 12/19 sound really hard to do.

   Good luck!

3. In general, if there’s nice restaurants that you specifically want, then you need to make reservations. You can use the omakase website or tabelog if you can read Japanese. If you book with a hotel early, they can make reservations on your behalf. Japan has enough good food though that you don’t need to make reservations all the time unless that’s what you’re going for.

   I don’t think you can leave luggage in the lockers overnight at the JR stations.

   For Ghibli museum, need to stay on top of getting tickets. I believe they’re still only available to locals right now.

   Now for Niseko….
   I didn’t see any mention of getting a car. I’d highly recommend renting one to get around. The transportation there just isn’t as good and it’s gonna be really inconvenient to get from place to place relying solely on bus. The food options honestly suck in comparison to the rest of Japan because it’s marketed and priced towards tourists. It’s not bad, but I felt like I could get the same quality if not better food from the supermarket in Kutchan. Niseko is still a ski town so it’s just not gonna be the same as some place even like Otaru. And yes definitely push this part back as far as possible. I go to Niseko yearly and I’ve seen it so bad that there wasn’t snow as late as Christmas and then it just dumped feet everyday afterwards. You don’t wanna risk it. I just came back from Niseko thinking they’d have an amazing spring season like we did in the States and it was as if someone just shut off the snow valve and raised the temp cause the locals said it just stopped as soon as March came around. Was somewhat disappointing but I’ve skied worse conditions.