which place best for us to stay?

Hi, my name is Tina. We are first timer visitor in Japan (me, husband, my 24 years old son, my 23 years old daughter and my 19 years old daughter). We will be there for 15 days, arriving lunchtime on Christmas day.
May i ask where we best stay/accommodation and my kids want to experience skiing, my husband want to eat (ramen, beef and seafood), my daughter wants to experience wearing kimono and we all want to see "JAPAN".

We will be there for 15 days, arriving lunchtime on Christmas day.

Have you already booked flights? Where will you be landing and where will you be leaving? The name of the airport I mean. I think if you want to wear KIMONO, Kyoto would be the best place and if you want to ski, Hokkaido is the best place. So flying into KIX and flying out of CTS would be good, but it depends on your flight tickets.

Thank you very much for the response 😊
We will be arriving on December 25 In Narita Airport. We only have 15 days to explore Japan. We also depart from Natita Airport back to our country.
Where should we start our adventure there in Japan.
I am very thankful of any help to decide and maximize our time.

With only fifteen days. I'd look for a ski resort between Tokyo and Kyoto to save travel time. Hakuba and Yuzawa come to mind, but no expert on skiing locations in Japan.

Japan over the new years period tends to shut down, so i'd place your skiing time around this period.

So maybe 4 days tokyo, then to ski resort for 3 days, then to kyoto for 5 days, then back to tokyo for 3 days. As an example.

Wow, thank you very much hakataJ4
Its a very big help.

Japan over the new years period tends to shut down, so i'd place your skiing time around this period.

Well, I have somewhat different opinion. As for tourism, including accommodation and long-distance trains, new years period is quite busy. Especially hotel rates are quite high in touristic places such as ski resort, Kyoto and central Tokyo. In Japan, 6 days in new years (from 29th Dec to 3rd Jan) is long holiday so many Japanese are going to the touristic places though some are going to their home town. At this time it is too early to know the actual rate for hotels since many hotels start to receive reservation 3 to 6 months ahead, but I think it will be highly probable that hotel rate in popular snow resort, Kyoto and central Tokyo will be rather expensive. I think it will be rather affordable from 25th to 29th Dec. As for Jan, 5th is Saturday which tend to be expensive so there will be no or little drop down.

You are member of 5. Which type of accommodations will you take? Hotels are quite common everywhere. In some places there will be "vacation rentals", but note that some are illegal and you will not find any in some places (like non-touristic cities such as Niigata and Sendai). On the other hand, the rate for normal hotels in these city tend not to be increase in the "high season" like new year's period.

All in all I would recommend you to do your ski holidays at the start, before new year's period. But this is just a personal opinion. I think you will enjoy Japanese new year everywhere, even it is non-touristic cities: Each city has shrines and you can enjoy new year's celebration there.

The site of the 1998 Winter Olympics... Can't do better than that for skiing in Japan!

http://welcome.city.matsumoto.nagano.jp/contents05+index.htm

It's easy to get there, too!

Thank you for your suggestions, we will formulate our itinerary based on your suggestions and places to go first.
We will go directly from Narita Airport to the place suggested by Ski Bum.
Then Osaka for Harry Potter?
Then Kyoto?
Then Tokyo?
Are these itinerary okay?

We will go directly from Narita Airport to the place suggested by Ski Bum.
Then Osaka for Harry Potter?
Then Kyoto?
Then Tokyo?

It's very difficult to answer. Yes ski resorts in Nagano prefecture should be nice. It depends on your actual arrival time at Narita but you might be able to go to one of the ski resort in Nagano. There should be many types of accommodations which will fit your needs.

If you don't want to go to Kansai area then JR EAST PASS (Nagano, Niigata area) will be a good deal. It is 18000 yen and you can take 5 days among 14 days period.

https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/eastpass_n/

With this pass you can go plenty of places for free, including Nikko, Kamakura, Atami, Ski resorts in Nagano, Nagano, Niigata and Matsumoto. However, you must pay additional 20000 yen to go to Osaka and back to the JR East pass area.

There is Japan rail pass 14 days which covers your whole itinerary except for some non JR trains/buses.

http://www.japanrailpass.net/en/about_jrp.html

This is 46390 yen which probably does not pay off for your itinerary. 7 days pass 29110 yen will probably pays off, but I am afraid your traveling date will exceed the 7 days period.

Further if you travel to Osaka/Kyoto after the ski resort, you will hit the busiest days in which the hotel rate will be very expensive there. USJ Osaka will be very crowded and you will encounter difficulties for getting the activities there.

It all depends on your budget and preferences. If you have sufficient budget you might better go to Osaka/Kyoto first and then ski resort. The crowds in ski resort might be less severe than the USJ. At least you can choose less popular places.

I suggested you might better stay in less crowded places like Nagano, Matsumoto or Niigata in new years and give up Kansai region this time. But if you really want to see Osaka/Kyoto, then it will be your choice.

Thank you so much frog1954 for giving us great suggestions. Tips on which day and places to stay.
Its soooo helpful.
We do brainstorming for now for our itinerary.
Do we have to book our accommodation as early as we have our itinerary?

We do brainstorming for now for our itinerary.

Well, there are so many variables in your equation.

Do you want go to Kansai area?
Which type of accommodation do you like?
JR Pass? Regional pass such as JR east Nagano Niigata pass?
Flight? You might better take flight from Narita to Osaka, but at this time the flight ticket is not sold (until the end of August I think).
Which snow resort? Nagano? Niigata? Tohoku area? Hokkaido? Each has it's pros and cons.

Do we have to book our accommodation as early as we have our itinerary?

For some accommodations yes, for others no. Most of the accommodations start to sell their rooms 3 to 6 month ahead. So, there should be many other candidates which are not open for reservation now. Of course you can book for fully refundable accommodations, but I think you do not need to hurry. Do brainstorming. Since you are family of five there should be difference of preference :).

Hi!

I don't know if they have December or January yet but...

http://www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/usj/

This is generally considered one of the best crowd calendars for USJ. I used it for my first trip and have been using it for my next trip.

Last trip I went on one of the pale green under 20,000 people days and I will be doing so again. In terms of crowds, unlike when a friend visited, there was no timed entry for Harry Potter land and we could enter it at will. We had no problem eating in a sit down restaurant and getting a Butter Beer as well as seeing various Harry Potter sights. However, by noonish, the line for nearly all rides with the exception of actual rides geared towards kids were 1 hour or longer. So if you're traveling with under 11s, they can ride some of the kiddie rides again and again and again. There was no line for the Hello Kitty ride and a minimal line for the Peanuts coaster. And I have no idea how many times my daughter did the various car rides. However, even Jaws had a 1 hour line and we had walked on it first thing in the morning.

So I'm not saying don't go to USJ, but just be aware it can be very busy.

Good day, we did our brainstorming and we came up this itinerary, Is it possible to do these and should we purchased 14 day JR pass or other optional pass
Dec 25 - Arrival Narita airport
Dec 25 - check-in Osaka accommodation
Dec 26-USJ (Harry Potter is a must for my kids)
Dec 27 & 28 - Kyoto
Dec 30- Nara
Dec 31-Hiroshima ( its a must for my husband)
Jan 1 & 2-Osaka (Dotonbori/shopping)
Jan 2- Transit to tokyo
Jan 3 - Nagano (day pass skiing for all of us)
Jan 4- Shirakawago ( snow monkey)
Jan 5-Niko and 47 Ronin
Jan 6, 7 & 8-tokyo sightseeing / shopping
Jan 8- depart
Thank you very much for all additional suggestions

Hi!

Do you mean Jigokudani Monkey Park in Yamanouchi on January 4th or Shirakawa Go. Shirakawa Go is interesting and all, but it's not known for snow monkeys, it's known for gassho-zukuri farmhouses and snow. Jigokudani is the park near Nagano known for its snow monkeys. If you do mean Shirakawa Go I'm not sure I would fit it in there during your trip.

I would also be careful with the shopping planned on 1/1/19 and 1/2/19 and make sure the stores you want to visit are open. Some store are open on New Years but not everything is.

Good luck!

Dec 25 - Arrival Narita airport
Dec 25 - check-in Osaka accommodation Do you mean that you arrive in Narita and then take immediately a train to Osaka? Wouldn't it make more sense to fly to Osaka, assuming that until December the problem with the airport has been resolved? Your current plan is doable, if you don't arrive too late at Narita and if you didn't have a very long flight before. Otherwise it is going to be extremely tiring.

Jan 1 & 2-Osaka (Dotonbori/shopping) as PP said, make sure that the shops you want to visit are open. Many close during the new year season.
Jan 2- Transit to tokyo Depending on the day of the week 2/Jan can be extremely busy day for trains, so you best reserve your tickets as early as possible. Also why do you stop at Tokyo instead of just going a little bit further and stop at Nagano? I haven't looked it up, but it is probably only an other 2 h by train from Osaka to Nagano, so you can just ride through. However, it also depends on where you want to spend the next day for skiing
Jan 3 - Nagano (day pass skiing for all of us) where exactly?
Jan 4- Shirakawago ( snow monkey) as PP said you seem to mix up two things, Shirakawago is for Gassho villages while the snow monkeys are in Nagano prefecture.
Jan 5-Niko and 47 Ronin I think you are travelling too much these days. I would either cut out Nikko or the snow monkeys.
Jan 6, 7 & 8-tokyo sightseeing / shopping
Jan 8- depart

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

I will add some comments.

Dec 25 If your Narita flight is already fixed, there are a few ways to get to Osaka; train, flight by legacy ailines (JAL or ANA), and flight by LCC such as Jetstar. you might better compare them.

Dec 31 Note that Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is closed on 30 and 31 Dec.

Jan 2 If this transit is for Ski the next day, you might better consider going directly to Nagano. You can also consider flight to Niigata which is relatively cheap and you can book it now (about 50 USD) in ANA�fs website. After Niigata Airport, take bus to Niigata station and then take Shinkansen to Echigo-Yuzawa.

Jan 5 What is 47 Ronin? 47 Ronin is a group of persons, not the place.
Enjoy planning!

frog1954:
What is 47 Ronin?

Personally I have not seen it,
but presumably you mean a U.S. movie of that title released in 2013,
which seems to borrow motifs
from Japanese Chu(u)shingura story of (former) Akoh samurais.

Still, I am not sure what site you put together with Nikko in your itinerary.

Nikko City is in Tochigi Prefecture.
The scenes of the two real events (in 18C) which Chushingura derives from
are in present Tokyo, so are the tombs of the samurais.
These three sites are not near Nikko City.
Akoh domain at that time is now a part of Hyogo Prefecture in Kansai Region,
which is far away from Tokyo Metropolis and Tochigi Prefecture in Kanto Region.

This itinerary sounds too ambitious for first-time travelers.

You may pause for some time to find your ways,
get lost in a huge and complected station building,
and/or have to wait in a long queue.

I suggest you plan to have a day without must destinations,
for example, by leaving Nikko (and "47 Ronin" related site) to the next time.

It sounds better to travel in two groups
of slower-pace goers and of faster-pace goers.
When five travelers remain at each site until everyone feels ready to proceed,
some members may have to spend time for almost nothing.

Jan 1 & 2-Osaka (Dotonbori/shopping)
Jan 2- Transit to Tokyo

You can travel from Osaka or Shin-Osaka Station to Kanazawa Station by JR,
make a round trip by bus (as long as you can book your rides)
to Shirakawa-go and back,
proceed to Nagano Station by the JR Hokuriku Shinkansen,
make a side trip to Jigokudani monkey park,
then go from Nagano to Tokyo by the Shinkansen.

LikeBike:
I haven't looked it up, but it is probably only an other 2 h by train from Osaka to Nagano

It is not that fast.

A Limited Express train brings you to Kanazawa
in about 2 hours 35 minutes to 2 hours 50 minutes;
in winter it may be delayed due to snow.

A Shinkansen Kagayaki train ride from Kanazawa to Nagano
takes about 1 hour 5 minutes.

Narita Airport [NRT] is actually outside Tokyo.
Have you checked whether you can fly into Tokyo Haneda[HND]?

LikeBike:
Wouldn't it make more sense to fly to Osaka,
assuming that until December the problem with the airport has been resolved?

Unlike Kansai Airport [KIX],
Osaka Airport [ITM, Itami Airport] (for domestic flights)
seems not seriously damaged by typhoon #21.

You can go from NRT to HND by (bus +) railway then take a flight to ITM.

- Discount Air Tickets
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2364.html

frog1954:
If your Narita flight is already fixed, there are a few ways to get to Osaka;
train, flight by legacy ailines (JAL or ANA), and flight by LCC such as Jetstar.

Flights by Jetstar and by Peach Aviation connect Narita [NRT] and Kansai [KIX].
(Regrading specially low-price flights,
I recommend you check possible limitations.)