[Trip Report] 6 days in Tokyo, Hakuba & Osaka in mid-March to experience snow, onsen, and cherry blossoms

This is the second time visiting Japan with my boyfriend and our main goals were to eat good food and ski at Hakuba Valley. We saw cherry blossoms, experienced Japanese onsen, and traveled a lot with our JR rail pass!

Day 1 Tokyo:

* Arrived at Narita in the afternoon
* **Omotesando** (shopping, ramen at Oreryu Shio Ramen Jingu-mae; order from the vending machine, it’s cheap and fast)
* **Shibuya** (conveyer belt sushi at Gansozushi, we only went there because the other sushi place we wanted to go to – Sushi No Midori – wasn’t taking any more people. We were super tired and just wanted something quick)
* We stayed in Kyobashi near **Tokyo Station**. The area feels upscale, quiet, clean and safe. It’s not crowded and has very wide streets (easy for wheeling luggages from the station to your hotel), and is centrally located. Not much nightlife.

Day 2 Tokyo to Hakuba Valley:

* Breakfast at **Tsukiji Market**. Even at 7am most places have a short wait. We ate A5 Wagyu, sushi at Tsukiji Itadori Bekkan, and got taiyaki at Tsukiji Sanokiya. Also bought some small bowls and sake cups from Ichifuji
* **Shiba Park**. Didn’t get much time here since we were rushing to catch our train, but we saw Tokyo Tower and some cherry blossom trees in front of Zojo-ji
* Train from Tokyo Station to **Nagano** and bus to **Hakuba Valley**. We’re glad we budgeted a lot of extra time at Tokyo Station because we were pretty lost. You don’t really need to be at the platform super early (boarding time is just a few minutes before departure)
* At Nagano station we got soba noodles while waiting for our bus to Hakuba. Seems like a lot of locals were eating there too.
* Dinner in Hakuba at NEO＂和＂食堂 一成. The tonaktsu here is delicious, and we tried duck sukiyaki. The restaurant only has like 3-4 tables so get here early if you don’t have a reservation.

Day 3 Hakuba Valley:

* Ski day at **Iwatake**. Not much snow coverage, but we still had fun. It has a lot of beginner and easier intermediate terrain with pretty good views (hard/expert terrain were closed due to lack of snow.) It was cloudy all morning but around noon it cleared up and we had amazing views of Hakuba valley.
* The **City Bakery** is worth a visit even if you don’t ski at Iwatake. It’s a beautiful wooden viewing platform and attached cafe with coffee and pastries.
* **Hakuba Happo Onsen**. Very clean and relaxing experience. The best part was sitting in the tatami room after the onsen, and drinking some tea from the vending machines.
* Dinner at Yamagami Syokudou NEO. We had grilled pork and beef, ramen, gyoza and potato croquette.

Day 4 Hakuba Valley:

* Ski day at **Happo One**. It snowed all day so there was a good amount of fresh powder, but also poor visibility. The terrain here is more advanced, especially because it’s not well groomed. The green runs are very narrow cat tracks. We stayed in the section called Panorama Pair. Lower half of the mountain was mostly closed.
* Stayed at **Hakuba Hifumi**. We used the onsen, relaxed in our room, then had dinner in the hotel (shabu shabu.) Staying here was one of the major highlights of our whole trip. If you can find a room here I’d highly recommend it! ([http://www.hakubahifumi.jp/en/](http://www.hakubahifumi.jp/en/))

Day 5 Hakuba to Osaka:

* Long travel day. Bus from **Hakuba > Nagano**, train from **Nagano >** **Kanazawa**, then **Kanazawa > Osaka**, around 6 hours total travel time. We sat on the left side for Nagano > Kanazawa and got amazing views of snow mountains. Watched anime, took a nap, ate ekiben.
* **Namba Walk**, had ice cream and matcha tiramisu at Maccha house
* **Kuromon Market** and **Dotonbori**. Didn’t enjoy it much our second time round. The food we had was mediocre (maybe we’re just unlucky). The line for takoyaki was super long, and the takoyaki was very undercooked and runny.
* **Umeda Sky Building**. Nice experience overall, especially watching the trains go across the river. Luckily we were able to just go up without any lines.
* We stayed in **Shin Osaka** station area. It’s much quieter than Osaka station but still pretty convenient.

Day 6 Osaka:

* Breakfast at Dashichazuke En.
* **Osaka Castle Park**. There were a few cherry blossom trees blooming. Recommend walking to the Japanese Garden on the south west corner of the castle.
* Lunch at Sachifukuya (in Jo Terrace). The Hokkaido milk soft serve ice cream is really good.
* Gift shopping at **Shin Osaka station**. Also had conveyer belt sushi at Ganko kaitenzushi.
* Train to Kansai Airport. We arrived about 3 hours before departure. Check-in line took 1 hour. Our gate was in an area that is mostly under construction so there was not much to eat or shop. I recommend doing your souvenir shopping at the big train stations (Shin Osaka or Osaka) instead of the airport.

Some tips for future travelers:

* Don’t just buy a 24 hour Tokyo metro ticket. There are two different subway companies, the Tokyo Metro (blue M symbol) and Toei (has a green leaf symbol), and we were not able to use our metro pass on any of the Toei stations. It was still possible to get around but we had to walk further to certain stations. I think there is an option for a combination ticket for both, we just didn’t know at the time.
* If you’re going to or from Tokyo Station, budget an extra 15-20 minutes travel time. You can even spend a whole hour exploring the station’s food.
* When booking a hotel in Hakuba, check the free shuttle map so you can use it to get to and from the slopes and bus station. Some hotels will also offer some shuttle services as well (e.g. pickup and drop off at the bus station.)