Planning for snow vacation in January

Hi,

I am making a itinerary for my family trip in January. We will arrive in Narita early January 2019 but only have 4 full day in Japan (do not include arrival and departure date) .

As some of our family never see snow, our most priority in this vacation is snow landscape (seeing white scenery, seeing snow, touching snow but not skiing). Relatively cheap onsen is our second wish but not mandatory.

Are there any good place to visit to see this around Tokyo? To be honest I really want to go to Takayama but the limited time of our holiday in Japan quite concern me.

Thank you in advance

not in and around tokyo city.

click the interests section of this website and click the "snow destinations" and start reading.

Bessho Onsen is close-ish and would be a good chance of snow at new year. Takayama would take a half day to get to and would have a reasonable chance of snow. We spent a snowy Christmas there several years back, and Shirakawa-go (about an hour away by bus) was - 10 celsius and heavily under snow. Hotel Associa at Takayama is a good choice for an onsen resort too.

Nikko has a chance of snow as well, but if it was me, I'd go to Takayama as I really like it. We have stayed there twice for about 7 days total, and are going back this year for a few nights.

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2265_tokyo.html

Personally I'd recommend catching the shinkansen to Gala Yuzawa for an easy daytrip. You can ride up the mountain in the gondola and wander around outside without needing to ski or anything. There's a restaurant with great views. If you use the JR Tokyo Wide Pass it is exceptionally good value for 3 consecutive days travel. Do one day to Gala Yuzawa, one day elsewhere (such as Fuji Five Lakes), and use one other day for the airport or somewhere else long distance.

If you're looking for beautiful snow landscapes, make you way to Biei in Hokkaido, I did this a few years ago, loved it: http://monochrome.me.uk/blog/biei-trees-snow-2/

Otherwise, take a shinkansen from Tokyo to Aomori. If you want to stay close to Tokyo, you could try Chichibu but snow is not a guarantee there.

I'm seconding the suggestion of Gala Yuzawa, since it should be easy to reach from Tokyo and not as expensive to get to. If you'd like to spend a little more money, I bet Zao onsen has snow. You can take a train to Yamagata and then the 1 hour bus or in Winter you can take a train to Sendai and I believe there is then a bus from there. I thought as an onsen area it wasn't so expensive and they should have snow. Though their best onsen is closed in Winter. You would need the JR East pass for it.

I would recommend Gala Yuzawa, as well. My wife and I went to that area to ski last December. There was already plenty of snow in town, so I imagine January will have even more. I enjoyed the shopping at the Echigo Yuzawa train station, too. Tons of regional food and snacks to take home as gifts and if you like drinking sake, like I do, then there is a plethora of sake that you can taste and buy. There is a sake vending machine area, where you buy tokens to try whatever you want. It only took about an hour and a half to get there from Tokyo Station. It can easily be done as a day trip.

Oh yes that sake vending machine area is amazing!

When we went there it was late Dec/early Jan and there was heaps of snow.

Have you consider Kusatsu Kokusai ski resort, about 5 minutes from Kusatsu Onsen town it's also one of the best and more famous Onsen town, just a few hours train ride from Tokyo.

Yuzawa!
Sake, snow, and onsens, and it's close to Tokyo.

Thanks all for the suggestion. Yuzawa sound nice to visit.