March 2019 2 week trip itinerary/ideas

My Girlfriend and I are going to Japan for 12 nights from the 28th of Feb and we would love some tips/advice/info on where we should go, what to see, places to stay etc.

We fly into Tokyo and out of Osaka.

We are looking at spending our first 4 nights in Tokyo. Followed by 2 nights in hakuba to experience the snow and also yamanouchi snow monkeys. We have 2 days free where we are thinking of doing a traditional ryokan onsen experience in Hakone or Fuji Five Lakes and finally our last 4 days are booked in Kyoto.

We plan to do lots of day trips along the way but there's just so much info out there we can't decide.

Our biggest issue is ryokan accommodation as they are expensive for what seems lile the good ones and then its difficult to determine the good from the bad when reading reviews.

We need your help!?!

Gooday. Really I woldnt bother going all the way to Hakone or Fuji 5 lakes for a ryokan. The Alps are super pretty, and there are heaps around where you are. The big thing with ryokans is whether you are getting kaiseke food with them. There is a truckload of food involved and really one night of that much food is plenty.

Close-ish to Hakuba (which I've never been to), ryokans I'd recommend would be Tsuruya at Karuizawa (really good for first time ryokan guests), somewhere at Bessho Onsen (we stayed at Uematsuya which was cheap and nice and the food was great though the building is old), or maybe somewhere along the train line between Nagano and Kyoto, eg a place at Tsumago or Magome would be ideal (not sure whether they have bathrooms in the rooms), or Hikone (not Hakone) which is a great little castle town near Kyoto.

I have a good friend who stayed at one of the ryokans near the snow monkeys in Yamanouchi and really enjoyed themselves. I can get you the name if you're interested.

I agree with @Lazy Pious about skipping Fuji 5 Lake and Hakone. It seems like an awful lot of backtracking when you are already in Hakuba and can easily take the bus to Nagano. Heck, you're going to want to take the bus to Nagano to see the snow monkeys in Yamanouchi. From Nagano you can either get to Kyoto by taking a Limited Express to Nagoya and then catch the shinkansen or taking the shinkansen to Kanazawa and then taking a limited express down to Kyoto.

I happen to really like Kanazawa, though the place I stayed there was nothing special. This website has an article about Kaga onsen which is close to Kanazawa and on the way to Kyoto.

Good luck!

OK great, thanks for the advice. We do really want to see Mt Fuji whilst we are in Japan so thinking that we might add an extra day to our time in Tokyo and make that a day trip to either Hakone or Fuji Five lakes before we head off to Hakuba.

With Hakuba, as we are only going to see the snow and probably won't be snowboarding/skiing due to the cost for 1 days worth of gear hire and lift tickets is it worth going to Hakuba, I only chose Hakuba as it had many resorts etc. But we are happy to look at Ryokan onsen options in Shibu Onsen or any others you have suggested in the yamanouchi area.

What else is there to do in the Alps Region if we don't go to ski/board?

Rkold, would love the name of the Ryokan in Yamanouchi your friend stayed at too

Here's an updated version of our current Itinerary. Please let me know any thoughts on anything we are missing out on or a must see or a probably not worth seeing options.

Day 1: Arrive Tokyo Evening, Check In. Sleep
Day 2: Explore Tokyo; Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku
Day 3: Disneyland. Explore more of Tokyo at Night
Day 4: Fuji Five Lakes Day Trip to see Mt Fuji.
Day 5: Travel To Hakuba/Yamanouchi to visit Shibu Onsen and stay in Ryokan
Day 6: Yamanouchi Monkey Park
Day 7: Travel to Takayama - Sake Brewery, Old Town
Day 8: Day Trip to Shirakawago
Day 9: Travel to Kyoto and explore
Day 10: Explore Kyoto
Day 11: Day trip to Nara
Day 12: Himeji Castle & Hiroshima Day trips
Day 13: Travel to Osaka, explore and Fly Home at night.

Thats our basic idea and we have some flexibilty with how we plan our days. Would love to hear thoughts :)

Hi!

I post this all the time, but here is the TDR crowd calendar. If you want to go, check the dates here:
http://www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney/

Having gone on an orange day this past Summer I would not recommend going on any day that is orange or darker. It's just crowded and unpleasant and really not all that fun unless you like walking around in crowds of people and waiting in lines for 1-2 hours.

In terms of seeing Mt. Fuji what do you mean by "see Mt, Fuji?" Do you mean just see it and snap a few photos, see a specific view of it? You can't climb it in March. I have been to Hakone 4x including in March and have never seen Mt. Fuji from Hakone. I know people get sick of me saying this but I have seen Mt. Fuji multiple times from Tokyo. I saw Mt. Fuji from the monorail at TDR at the end of June this year. I regularly see Mt. Fuji from Tokyo, even in the Summer. I've seen Mt. Fuji from Odaiba in March, I've seen Mt. Fuji from the Chuo line headed to Tachikawa. Now, if you want specific views or do something specific in Kawaguchiko or Hakone, then I totally get going there. But if it's just to see Mt. Fuji, you might be able to do that from Tokyo.

I will ask my friend where she stayed. We're on USA time so I've not had a chance yet. I know she went in March of 2018 specifically to see the snow monkeys.

I can't speak towards traveling to see snow because it's not something that appeals to me. I can see snow outside my window for 3-4 months a year. lol It's possible depending on temperatures you will get to walk through snow for 20+ minutes to see the snow monkeys.

Unless you time your trains well, it is going to take you a really long time to get from Shibu onsen to Takayama on day 7. You can take trains from Toyama to Takayama but they run a lot less frequently than the trains from Nagoya to Takayama. I also think if you like temples at all you should check out Zenkoji while in the Nagano area. I guess you could look into taking the train from Nagano to Matsumoto and then the bus to Takayama or Okuhida. I am not sure it would save you time though. If your goal is to get to Takayama on day 7 with time to see anything, I would definitely spend the night of Day 6 somewhere with better transit options to Takayama.

Since you want to go to Shirakawa Go, I might spent night of Day 6 in Kanazawa. You can then take the bus from there to Shirakawa Go and spend the night in Takayama. Then from Takayama you take JR to Nagoya and then onto Kyoto. (or take a bus depending on budget and such.) Since you're staying in Shibu onsen on Day 6, you can be done with the monkeys by 13 or 14:00 easily and on your way to Nagano and then onto Kanazawa. If you finish with the monkeys early you could see either Zenkoji in Nagano or Kenrokuen in Kanazawa. Heck, you could see Kenrokuen on day 7 in the morning and then take a bus to Shirakawa go and see it for a few hours before continuing onto Takayama or spend the night in Shirakawa Go and catch a morning bus to Takayama.

So I am proposing you change:
Day 5 visit Hakuba/whatever you want to do night Shibu onsen
Day 6 see snow monkeys and then possibly see Zenkoji or Kenrokuen night Kanazawa
Day 7 see Kenrokuen then travel to Shirakawa Go night either Shirakawa Go or Takayama
Day 8 explore Takayama night Takayama
Day 9 travel to Kyoto, see Kyoto (night Kyoto)

By making that change you'll overall be spending less time in transit and back tracking. If you pack light I would do more single nights, if you pack heavier, I would do 1 night Shibu onsen, 1 night Kanazawa and then 2 nights Takayama.

And I will get you that ryokan name!

Just on seeing Mt Fuji from Lake Kawaguchiko, we stayed there at a ryokan on the lake for 2 nights at the end of October. When we arrived in town (around lunch) you could just make out Mt Fuji behind clouds, kind of bits at a time. Luckily it cleared up the next day and we had spectacular clear views of it all the next day, it is massive (though strangely enough when you are walking around the lake it is easy to misplace where it is). But had we only been visiting for the first day to see Mt Fuji, it would have been a wasted trip, and the town itself is nothing to write home about. I'd only do it if I was staying overnight in a ryokan.

If seeing Mt Fuji from some distance is fine with you, but you want to go outside of Tokyo, I would suggest Enoshima on a clear day. Even if it isn�ft clear, you can still pass a great day in Enoshima and/or Kamakura.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Very very very rushes. And you need to pack and unpack your bags nearly every day.

You don't have enough time at any location to really relax and take in the sights.

I would decide which towns/cities/locations are really important to your and omit a few. That way you'll be able to slow down and enjoy yourself.

OK my friend stayed here:
http://www.ichizaemon.com/lang_en/?fbclid=IwAR1_iaJUPVuow_8efCUBCzxEiR...

When she went to see the snow monkeys in March 2018 and loved it.

Thank you everyone for all your advice! It's definitely helping us refine our itinerary.

Rkold you itinerary changes look pretty good, we'll definitely be considering the changes as we have pretty much decided that we only need one night in Shibu Onsen and Yamanouchi for the Snow Monkey Park and probably have no need to go Hakuba because we're not going to ski/snowboard on this trip, and we definitely don't wanna be spending more time than we need to on transport. Plus we were tossing up between Kanazawa or Takayama and now we can do both! And thank you for the Yamanouchi accommodation recommendation.

We understand Mt Fuji can be difficult to view depending on weather, so our trip to 5 lakes will be based on weather, and who knows maybe views from Tokyo will be all we need! Luckily we only plan on it being a day trip, so if we decide to not to it at the time we have all of Tokyo or other nearby places to look at enjoying!

I don't feel like our itinerary is too rushed at all. We have 4 nights in Tokyo, 4 nights in-between with some travel between multiple places but we finish with 4 nights in Kyoto. Plenty of time to relax and unpack while still enjoying day trips outside of Tokyo and Kyoto and also enjoying what they have to offer.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what else we could do in a day trip or within Tokyo were we not to got to Lake Kawaguchiko? We are happy to do pretty much anything, so no suggestion is unwelcome :)

Again, thank you all for your help so far

Typical daytrips from Tokyo are:
- Kamakura
- Enoshima
- Nikko
- Yokohama
- Kawagoe (I personally cannot recommend it)
- Chichibu
- Takaosan

My personal all time favorite is Kamakura. Specially Kita Kamakura. I could probably spend an entire week in Kamakura. But it depends on your interests.

You don�ft have that much time in Tokyo anyway so you might need all your time for Tokyo proper rather than day tripping. But you can decide last minute.

I second Kamakura, but would add Enoshima which can be done on the same day. I'd also add Bessho Onsen or Karuizawa if you have a JR pass

And I'm going to 3rd Kamakura. :D

The very first time I saw Mt. Fuji (faintly and in the distance) was from the viewing platform behind Kenchoji, if you climb all the way to top. I was honestly doing it just to see what was back there and the tengu statues are pretty neat looking as well. Mt. Fuji did look pretty dramatic.

Normally, I would not recommend this day trip, but if you have the time, (like decide against Kawaguchiko) and assuming you have a JR Pass, I would go to Mito and see Kairakuen if it's during the ume festival. It's really really beautiful and I think is more popular with the Japanese than foreign tourists since I rarely see it mentioned on this forum vs. other flower themed sites.

If you knock out Hakuba, you can see Zenkoji before going to Shibu onsen. You could also switch that out with day tripping to Karuizawa or Bessho onsen before arriving in Shibu onsen, but I think you would have a harder time giving either 1 night with the schedule you have proposed now. JR Nagano station has a plethora of large lockers so trying to find a place to store bags while you go to Zenkoji before going to Shibu onsen would be very easy.

I personally picked to stay in a less scenic part of Kanazawa near the train station, because it was easier with bags. I don't regret it. In Takayama I have only stayed at the Associa. It has its pluses and minuses. The onsen there are truly amazing, but it's 10+ minutes out of town and you can't walk it. There are free shuttles but you need to plan your schedule around them. I am not sure I would stay there again, though my daughter is still talking about the onsen.

I mostly go to Tokyo to shop now and see friends. I do a lot of day trips from it. (Last trip we went to Matsushima.) I do like Shinjuku Gyoen, but last trip we missed most of the flowers because it was so hot!

Good luck, I think your trip will be lots of fun, and I expect at one of these locations you will be able to touch snow. :)