My girlfriend (25) and I (25) are traveling to Japan in February and are beyond excited. Little bit of background: I’ve wanted to visit Japan for the longest time and am an avid skier, so Niseko is definitely in the itinerary.
On the other hand, my girlfriend is a huge Taylor Swift fan and we haven’t had a chance to see her live yet during the Eras tour.
As I was researching her tour dates, I noticed she’s in Tokyo just before Valentines Day, and the wheels started turning.
Valentines Day (which I love to travel somewhere new during), Presidents Day (meaning I don’t have to use a PTO day), and winter season all added up to me realizing that it would be the perfect time to travel to Japan. After a few months of talking about it and thinking through all the details, I finally pulled the trigger last week and purchased our flights. At the moment, here is the itinerary I had in mind:
Friday, February 9
Land at NRT, head to our hotel, check in, wind down, step out for dinner and call it a night
Saturday, February 10
Explore top Tokyo attractions and eat loads of sushi for a few hours. Taylor Swift starts at 6pm so we’d probably begin to head towards Tokyo Dome an hour early or so. After the concert, probably call it a night
Sunday, February 11
More touring and food. Honestly haven’t nailed down the specifics of what to do in Tokyo yet so any input is greatly appreciated. We’re young, we love beautiful architecture and scenic views, huuuge foodies, and we’re trying to limit shopping (although that doesn’t mean we won’t look).
Monday, February 12
This is where it begins getting tricky. We’ll either spend one more day exploring Tokyo, or possibly take a day trip somewhere more naturist/a beautiful onsen/etc. We head to Kyoto the next day, so if there is any location in that direction that we should check out, I’m all ears!
Tuesday, February 13
Take Shinkansen to Kyoto where we intend to spend the next 2 days. Also haven’t looked into specifics/to-dos here yet so any guidance is appreciated.
Wednesday, February 14
Going to try to take her to one of the Michelin restaurants nearby. Hopefully I can get a reservation. Other than that (which would be at nighttime), not entirely sure. Any input is welcome.
Thursday, February 15
Head to Osaka airport, fly to Sapporo, and then I definitely need some guidance on this next part. I want to treat her to one day of an amazing ryokan w private Onsen somewhere between New Chitose Airport and Niseko. I was looking at some in Noboribetsu but it looks like getting from there to Niseko the next day could take 4 hours. I was looked at Otaru which looks amazing and appears to be on the way to Niseko. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Friday, February 16
Head to Niseko and ski
Saturday and Sunday, February 17-18
Ski
Monday, February 19
Head to CTS, fly to Tokyo, fly back home, end of trip 🙁
Now, when I ask for suggestions, I want to mention that the overall vibe of this trip that I’d like is beautiful, romantic, scenic and we want to try as much good food as possible. For the most part, I’ve figured out which hotels I’d stay in in Tokyo and Kyoto, but the areas I’d greatly appreciate some suggestions are:
1. Things to do in Tokyo
2. Things to do in Kyoto
3. Staying in Noboribetsu vs Otaru on the 15th (factoring in both the better ryokan/Onsen experience as well as easily getting to Niseko the next day)
4. Hilton Niseko Village (staying in Niseko Village) vs Chalet Ivy or Yumoto Niseko Prince Hotel (staying in Grand Hirafu)
And if you have any recommendations for your top food spots in any of those locations, PLS SHARE.
We have another 5 months for the trip but it seems like hotels in Niseko are filling up quickly so will probably need to pull trigger on one soon.
Thank you in advance for any recommendations/suggestions/advice!
2 comments
Question. Do you have the ticket for the show? From what I could see when they announced it, you had to have a Japanese phone number to open a l-tike account to go in the lottery to get a change to have a ticket. So it kind of seems unlikely you oculdgo.
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If you want to have a more nature and onsen stop on the way to Kyoto, either Hakone or Izu peninsula like Chuzenji onsen. You could do the onsen here and just take the bus from the airport direct to Niseko. Hotaru is only “on the way” if you take the train, but it’s the one that would make most sense if you decide to do a ryokan in Hokkaido.
here’s a warning : ” careful not to get bitten by ninjas! “