Itinerary for 6 Weeks during Winter 2021

8 comments

1. Are you going to Gotemba only for the outlet shopping? If so, I’d suggest giving it a miss and spend more time in Hakone. The outlet is mostly international brands you can find anywhere, and the prices and selections aren’t anything special. I found the outlets in the US much better.

2. The snow monkeys are always there in Jigokudani, but the best view of them is course when they’re in the hot pools surrounded by snow. This is most likely from January onwards; early December might be too soon for good snowfall. You will definitely see monkeys though!

   I would recommend more than one day for the Kiso Valley. While the hike between Tsumago and Magome only takes 2-3 hours, there is the travel to and from there to consider. It’s also a lovely area to stay overnight in a ryokan; I really enjoyed my stay in Tsumago. The post towns are quite attractive when all the day trippers leave.

3. From Sendai, what makes most sense is going to Nagano. It would take as much time to go to Nagoya and you would need to do round trip Nagoya-Nagano instead of just going once from Nagano to Nagoya.

   Between Nagano and Nagoya, I would stop somewhere for a night, for example in Matsumoto, so you do not have to backtrack to Nagano. I guess that this is a bit a question of taste between changing accommodation and spending 2h30 more in the train. Matsumoto could even just be a stop on the way to Kiso valley to spend the night there and have more time for the hike and visiting the area.

   I think it depend on the year, it might be late for koyo in mid-December, or at least really close to the end of koyo, so don’t put too much hope in it.

   Shimanami kaido at these dates, depend how tolerant you are to cold and what kind of cloth you prepare, you should expect temperatures between 5 and 15 C around that time. I’ve seen people commuting by bike in Canadian winter in the snow, so I guess it is not impossible.

   I do not know what your plan is for transportation from Osaka to Gotemba, but for me, it would make more sense to take the shinkansen to Odawara, visit Hakone that day, next day in the afternoon go to Gotemba and from there take the train direct to Tokyo. I guess the advantage to do it the way you have planned is you can drop luggage in ryokan, go to gotemba for shopping and bring back stuff at the ryokan, so you would not have to carry the luggage to Gotemba. I have to say I only carry a backpack and don’t care to store in in a locker, so that might also be a question of personal preference. What you could also do is forward luggage from Osaka to Tokyo and only bring a day for the night you spend in Hakone.

   Depending on what you want to see in Nikko, staying for the night can be a good idea, especially if you want to such as Lake Chuzenji. In a single day I would only recommend do to central Nikko and the shrine/temple area.

   I do not want to be rude, but Australia to Japan, I do not thing you can call it jetlag, you are almost the same time, but yes, the flight might be tiring.

4. Wow, there is a lot packed in there. Have you considered travel times to some of these locations? leaving one location at 9am to get on a 9:30am train then hour or more ride to a new city then drop luggage at hotel and finally get to explore means half your day is already gone.

   **Fukuoka/Yufuin specific comments here**

   What are you seeing in Fukuoka and Yufuin? What city are you staying in? How are you traveling?

   I stay in Fukuoka prefecture about 8 weeks a year. and visit Yufuin every trip. I definitely recommend Yufuin, but Yufuin day trip sounds incredibly tiring with at least 2 hours of travel each way under perfect conditions.

   If there is something you absolutely have to see in Yufuin, spend the night at one of the onsen hotels in Yufuin. In that case on December 23rd go straight to Yufuin and spend the night then leave on the 24th and head to your next destination. Both ways it will take a big chunk of your day traveling but you get Yufuin. For comparison, when we visit, we always spend 2 nights so we have a whole day to walk around Yufuin and the surrounding areas.

5. 1-8 December: You have a hub approach, which is all good, but may leave you with quite long commutes. I would probably use 1-2 December for Nagano/Yamanouchi (snow monkeys and snow might be there, or not depending on the year), visit Matsumoto on 3rd my way to Takayama and stay two nights there before moving on to Nagoya on 5th. Kiso Valley is a better day trip from Nagoya than Takayama (it’s closer, with a higher number of direct train connections).

   18-19 December: You are not that crazy doing Shimanami Kaido, however, temperatures may (especially in the mornings) hover just above freezing, and you will have to deal with cold crosswind during winter.

   25-28 December: Yoshino does not have anything to offer in winter; you’d probably be better served by visiting Himeji (castle + Mt. Shosha complex, where *The Last Samurai* was filmed), Kobe (Shin-Kobe area with Nunobiki Herb Garden; or Mt. Rokko), or Minoo Park.

   Gotemba: My take would be: re-consider. Even if you take Hikari stopping at Mishima, you will still have to transfer two more times (at Numazu and Gotemba) to reach the premium outlets. Perhaps one more day in Osaka with a trip to Rinku Premium Outlets, which is served by direct Nankai and JR trains (from Namba and Tennoji respectively) would make more sense.

6. re: 21 – 22 Dec: Hiroshima & Miyajima there’s a lot to see down in that part of Japan.

   re theme parks make sure you are not going on a public holiday. You can check how busy it will be in advance. Disney can be very very busy and the fast pass is not as sophisticated as Florida.

   re: Transport we have used green car and regular Japan pass for trains. You don’t need green car. Reserved coaches can be much busier than non reserved so we ended up just getting the non reserved ones.

7. you will be rushed. lolol.

8. With that much time you really should find a way to get to Hokkaido and the Sapporo snow festival