My friends and I were thinking of hiring a car and doing an onsen/foodie road trip for 5 days between boxing day (26th) and new years (30th) in December 2023. We were initially super keen as there are four of us, all with full license and 10-15+ years driving experience but never in snow. One of us has moderate Japanese language skills. We’re starting to get cold feet about the snowy mountainous drive.
Itinerary is below but main questions :
1. Is this too much, noting that the sun will set early during that time so we have less daylight to drive?
2. Any advice for the snow? Dealing with the peak holiday time? Alternative options of things to do?
3. Should we look at public transport options. If we are taking public transport, should we cut out bits of our trip. e.g spend more time in some locations.
Day 1 – Pick up rental from Akihabara station – drive to Takayama
* Main goal for today is probably reach before sunset and eat Hida beef at a restaurant and chill
Day 2 – Takayama to Kanazawa
* Spend a bit of the morning checking out Takayama but essentially start the drive to Kanazawa by noon
* Is it worth driving through Shirakawa-Go?
* Again main goal would be to dine at a sushi restaurant – keen for recs- If we get there early enough, check out a pokemon centre
Day 3 – Kanazawa to Yamanochi Onsen
* Check out the Omicho markets in the morning but start the drive by noon.
* Highlight would be arrival at our ryokan
* enjoy our Kaiseiki dinner and the onsens
Day 4 – Onsens and potentially Snow Monkey Park
* If we can’t see the monkeys then mostly a rest day with the onsens
* maybe visit Shibu Onsen.
Day 5 – Yamanochi Onsen- Kusatsu – Shinjuku
* Start the drive back to Tokyo, with the route passing through Kusatsu. Primarily to check out the town but maybe we might have time to squeeze in a public onsen?
* Drop rental off
Thanks!
1 comment
The problem is that it seems a pointless driving for the sake of driving (true, with four people some money saved on transport) with majority of time spent on fairly boring highways.
Consider this plan:
Day 1:
* take a morning Azusa train (preferably Azusa #1 – dep. Shinjuku at 7:00, arr. Matsumoto at 9:37)
* visit Matsumoto-jo
* rent a car at Matsumoto around noon and drive to Shin-Hotaka Ropeway
* when it gets dark drive to Takayama, do a Temple Walk or just go to your chosen Hida beef restaurant
Day 2:
* do a morning market in Takayama
* drive around 11am to Shirakawa-go
* stop there for lunch and sightseeing
* at around 2pm drive to Kanazawa
* you should have enough time to visit Higashi Chaya or 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art depending on your interest
* do a sushi/crab/goldflake dinner
Day 3:
* visit Omicho Market and Kenrokuen in the morning
* drive to Toyama and stop for a black ramen lunch and maybe stop at Glass Museum if there is enough time
* drive to Yudanaka/Shibu Onsen and enjoy your kaiseki meal
Day 4:
* you should probably visit Zenko-ji and Snow Monkeys (if there are monkeys) or perhaps do a quick ski/fun in the snow trip to Shiga Kogen
Day 5:
* I would rather suggest a route through Karuizawa area (Onioshidashi Park, Usui Pass, perhaps with a lunch stop around Kyu-Karuizawa) – Kusatsu is an onsen town and the whole point of visiting it is onsen-hopping (and this close to New Year’s – there might be a lot of Tokyoites around)
* even with luggage (I would still suggest using takkyubin and taking only carry-on/duffels/backpacks on the road trip), you might consider dropping off car in Takasaki