Winter Holiday - Gifu Region

We planning our first winter holiday in 2017 and shall be grateful for advice on:

1) we plan to cover Nagoya - Takayama - Shirakawago - Kanazawa - Osaka - Kyoto - Nagoya. We live in Singapore and will end January with start of the sake brewery tours in Takyama be a good time when we can see snow and yet the weather will not be too cold?

2) we have been to Japan mainly during Spring and Autumn - for winter, will it be less crowded and easier to get onsen and hotel accommodation?

Thank you so much

If it is snow you want to see, you are coming at the right time. Takayama, Shirakawa-go, and Kanazawa will be beautifully white in early February. If the winter has been a warm one, you might even see some of the snow giving way to pretty spring blossoms. The fragrant plum blossoms will be blooming in late February, especially near Osaka Castle, if you can go that far. As for cost, you should find the prices lower than for summer, but you might find it more difficult to move around because of the extra wintery baggage. If you are traveling up from Nagoya, pop in to Gifu. You won't catch the Cormorant fishing (May to October), but the paper Buddha near the castle is awe inspiring.