Frugal holiday in Japan in December

Hello All. My husband and I are travelling to Japan from 17/12 to 5/1 this year, 3 weeks. I booked the tickets a while back, as I was lucky enough to find something cheap for the holiday period. I have been trying to organise our trip, but just suddenly coming to the (pretty obvious) realisation that everything is more expensive during that time.. My original (and very idealistic plan) was to spend a couple of days in Hakone upon arrival, then continue the hot spring adventure in Nagano,Gifu &Gunma (really want to see Shirakawago and Kusatsu), fly off to Okinawa from either Osaka or Tokyo and spend 3 days there seeing the main island and daytrip to Taketomi island and return to Tokyo and stay put for a week for New Year's as it's bound to be really busy at the time (or maybe take a daytrip or two)

Now as I am trying to get things booked in I am realising how expensive this original plan was (the horror!). I was wondering if any of you lovely people here have attempted travelling to Japan in December, where did you go and if you managed to remain within a reasonable budget. We are not keen on hostels and mainly travelling with airbnb but that has gotten quite stagnant in the last couple of weeks for some reason.

I should mention that we have been to Japan before, and had the wit to go in late October which was cheap and lovely with all the autumn leaves. We have seen Tokyo, Nikko, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Himeji, Hiroshima, Miyajima and Kurashiki. I planned it myself really easily, but for some reason this holiday now has me in a panic, not knowing where to start, hence this post! Any ideas would be most welcome and appreciated!!

Hi. I'd swap Hakone for Bessho Onsen and maybe try places like Matsumoto and the Kiso Valley (eg Tsumago) for a few days each. They are much cheaper than the more higher volume places.

I love onsens, but not the cost of staying at ryokans. Ryokan stays usually include two nice meals a day, which is one of the reasons that make them very expensive. And the meal portions are so large that I cannot finish them and that adds to the expense. Most Japanese take a one-night or two-night mini onsen vacation to keep it affordable, and not a 3 week onsen ryokan stay.

So I try to find just accommodations without meals, in an onsen town with many bathing options. You can bathe in either (a) onsen ryokan that accepts non-staying guests to bathe for a fee (日帰り温泉, higaeri onsen, or day-trip onsen); or (b) dedicated onsen bath house that is not a part of ryokan (外湯, sotoyu).

Only the last few days should be expensive.

Airbnb has had issue with about 80% of listings removed from their site. I assume this would have pushed up prices. A google search should net you some onfo to read.

Tips:
- avoid touristy places like Hakone
- avoid big cities like Tokyo - stay in Yokohama instead or out of the city centre
- go exploring in the regions - smaller towns are often cheaper and more interesting

I've done a few trips/tours for people over New Year and they were not more expensive than ones at other times of the year - things balance out. Depends a bit on your budget and standard of accommodation that you like.

Ryokan do not have to be expensive either. Like hotels, there are some that over-charge, and others that are very affordable (including the meals).

And AirBNB (and others) recently removing illegal/unregistered listings really hasn't anything to do with the surge pricing over New Year, it has been horribly expensive in other years too. A lot of domestic Japanese take holidays or stay in hotels (esp 31 Dec).

What's your budget?

Nagano itself is underrated and hotels there seem quite low priced compared to other locations, we just paid under $100 a night for the Metropolitan. I'm also quite fond of Kanazawa, from which you can get to Shirakawa-Go by bus. There seemed to be a plethora of options there as well.

The one time I was in Japan that same period was many years ago, and I spent part of my time in Wakayama-ken with friends.

Good luck!

I went to Munakata shrine and MIyajidake shrine in Kyushu last year.
I visited there on 29,30th day Dec. to avoid the congestion of worsippers.

Most japanese people are busy for preparing the New Year ceremony on these days,
though the number of the 1-3 Jan. is huge.

The number of a worshipper was small in the shrines those days.

If you stay the countryside town and visit the famous shrine on 29,30 Dec.
you could save the travel cost and evade the congestion of a worship visitor.