Five days in northern Honshu (winter)

Hi all,

I've got five full days between Sapporo and Tokyo. I'm thinking of getting a JR pass and taking this time to see the sights of northern Honshu in winter. I'll be travelling alone and I like the idea of seeing a less touristy and more peaceful side of Japan (I've visited Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima a number of times before ).

At the moment I'm thinking of spending a night in Hachinohe during the Enburi festival, a night in either Aomori or Tsurunoyu Onsen, a night in Sendai, a night in Niigata and a night in Nagano (where I might spend a day snowboarding).

Basically I'm seeking suggestions on whether this sounds like a good plan or whether there are other places I should visit, and what I should see and do in each location... what would you do if you were in the same situation?

My interests are each region's food and drinks, nightlife (realising that these areas probably have fewer western tourists and my Japanese is very basic), visiting onsens, outdoors, nature, and basically taking in the winter beauty of the region.

I suggest focusing on a smaller area instead of moving all over the place. Five days is not that much time.

Traveling every day very much limits your time at each spot. I'd also stick to 1 or 2 destinations.

Instead of visiting too many places in short time, I prefer exploring one or two places in enough time.
If I was in this situation, I will go Otaru, for that it's very beautiful now.
Anyway, I love exploring surprising places anywhere anytime, cuz I like that kind of surprise during time. I once did this in my Hokkaido travel last year, when I walked with no destinations in Sapporo and visited the places shown on Tourank app and Google map one by one. yeah, the two apps helped me a lot, and you could have a try.
In a word, I would like to have a travel without any constraint.
Hope you have a great travel in Japan.