16 days January itinerary check

Here's a rough itinerary for my January trip so this is not set in stone yet. I'm arriving first in the afternoon of 1/11/23 and wife will get there evening of 1/15/23. No plan on the 11th-15th yet but maybe stay in Tokyo and do day trips? I want to make sure all these plans are viable for the time of travel. Let me know what you guys think. Any advice on if I should take anything off or add anything is welcome.

11- I arrive at Narita 3pm No plan yet

12- No plan yet

13- No plan yet

14- No plan yet

15- No plan yet, pick up wife at Haneda around 7pm. Staying in Tokyo for the night

16- Going to Hakone early morning and spend the night there

17- leave early morning to Kyoto, Thinking about stopping by Sakai on the way before checking in at the hotel in Kyoto(not sure about this yet)

18- Kyoto Area

19- Kyoto Area

20- Kyoto Area, go to Osaka in the afternoon to Osaka-jo then Dotonbori til last train. Back to Kyoto

21- Leaving Early to Kanazawa and spend the night there

22- Leaving for Ainokura in the morning for a day trip and back to Kanazawa for the rest of the day and spend the night there

23- Leaving early for Kusatsu onsen and spend the night there

24- Spend the day in Kusatsu and leave for Tokyo around 2-3pm Stay in Asakusa until flying back

25- Kawagoe day trip and lunch, back to Tokyo for the rest of the day

26- Tokyo

27- Tokyo until noon and lunch then head to Narita for flight back

We usually don't plan our itinerary too detailed since we don't know how long we spend at each places so we likes to have a rough idea of which area we are going and just play by ears.

I'm planning on taking the Romance car to Hakone morning of 16th. So I'm thinking of buying Hakone pass then start JR pass going from Hakone>Kyoto

Here's my question, if I do 7days JR my pass would run out at Kusatsu onsen, so I will have to pay the for my way back to Tokyo and any transportation within Tokyo until end of trip. Is it worth it to just do 14 days pass for around 17,000JPY extra, or should I pay everything else separately for my solo trip and from the 24-27 including the trip to airport.

Also any recommendation for my solo 4 days before wife arrive?

Thank you for the help

Hi!

It looks like travel back to Tokyo from Kusatsu onsen is not so bad, it's about ~5700 yen including the bus to Naganohara Station. I am assuming if you are staying in Asakusa, you plan to take the Keisi Skyliner to Narita, which is not covered by a JR Pass. Kawagoe can be reached by JR or Tobu/Seibu, but Tobu is the fastest and even on JR it is only 770 yen each way. So unless you have a very expensive trip planned for the 26th (like a day trip to Sendai) I'm not really sure why you would pay for the more expensive pass.

Again, it would depend on what you want to do in Tokyo by yourself and what your interests are. If you want to take a lot expensive day trips without your spouse, then it might be worth it for you to have a rail pass, but you would again need to have a lot of expensive trips planned. In terms of what you should do, it really depends on your interests, whether you have been to Tokyo before which you don't say. There are lots of museums and things to do in Tokyo by yourself.

Good luck!

Thanks for the input. I did a solo trip once a decade ago and remember vaguely about it. I remember I split my time into a week each of stay in Tokyo and Kyoto and do day trips using the 2 city as home base. I did snow money park and Matsumoto-jo from Tokyo. I think I am interested more in the cultural and historical side of things.
At first I was thinking of doing a solo Kyoto round before wife arrives. But that would be even more complicated with the jr pass. So I’m thinking of staying in Tokyo and do day trips that possible could save me from jr pass but I’m not against getting 14 days for me and 7 for wife. The only thing I saw right now is a day trip to nikko in one of the days. Anything worth checking out for Tokyo side trip in January? I also don’t mind spending the night outside Tokyo during those time either.

should I consider going to hokkaido via shinkansen? It would be leaving first train on 12th and come back midday on 15th? Is it worth it or is it too far for that little time?

Regarding Hokkaido, tge only city you can reach by Shinkansen is Hakodate. Everything beyond there are normal slow trains. If you want to go flying might be the better option.

Also north of Japan will be in the snow most likely. If that’s something you want to see that’s fine. But it changes the type of tourism you can do. If going north is something you are interested maybe checkout if you see something interesting in Tohoku (under the snow).

No wife for 3 days? Do whatever you wanna do which the wife diesn't wanna do in Tokyo.

Considered Odawarra/Mishima to Kyoto separate ticket. And Hokuriku arch pass for the rest.

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2361_arch.html

I haven't done the costings though.

Do you guys think if I take one night away from Kanazawa and go to Nagano-Matsumoto, Snow monkey a good idea? Would I have enough time for both Ainokura and Kanazawa for 1 day and night if I arrive in Kanazawa from Kyoto around 11am? or is staying 2 night already good?

Or should I try to fit in Karuizawa and Matsumoto on 24th right after Kusatsu on my way back to Tokyo? Would I have enough time theoretically?

Actually scratch above. I just saw that I would be able to arrive in Kanazawa Earlier than expected. So now I'm thinking Kyoto>Kanazawa(9-10am)>Matsumoto(shouldn't spend too long there> back to Kanazawa for the evening?

Also since I can't update my itinerary here I'll post a link to my Itinerary that I constantly changing and updating. I'm using wanderlog to plan since it's a bit easier to see for me than writing it down on paper and a bit more organized

https://wanderlog.com/plan/qgzrcuyuzlokluah/trip-to-japan

Mind you I crammed a lot of stuff in the itinerary just so I don't forget places but I usually just play by ears when I get there and anything on there can be taken off if we don't have enough time.

Hi!

Have you thought about instead of trying to day trip to Matsumoto from Kanazawa, going from Ainokura to Takayama for the night? You could then take the bus from Takayama to Matsumoto and then from Matsumoto take the train to Nagano and continue onwards to get to Kusatsu. Going from Kusatsu to Naganohara to Tatsuki to Tokyo is going to be cheaper than trying to go through Karuizawa, particularly if you don't have a pass. If you want to go there, it makes sense to go before Kusatsu. It will keep you always moving onwards and will not involving taking a 3.5-3 hour each way trip and then just circling back or depending on what you plan to see in Kanazawa, you could on the arrival day in Kanazawa go to Ainokura and then return for the night and then the next morning see what you plan to see in Kanazawa before heading to Matsumoto. Matsumoto is just in the general direction you plan to go and is a much shorter trip to Karuizawa or Takasaki than from Kanazawa.

For options of things to do on your 3 days alone you could: go to Nikko, go to Kamakura, go to a museum, visit Narita-san, there is just a lot that doesn't involve expensive train trips unless you want it to involve expensive train trips.

Good luck!

While Ainokura is nice it’s also difficult to reach (even by car). In an already busy schedule I would drop it. It would give you considerably more hours in Kanazawa or Matsumoto.

Are you a car enthusiast or Gundam fan?

There is Tokyo Auto Salon on 15-16 Jan which you can use your time on 15 Jan.
Yokohama has Gundam Base and Kirin Beer Factory Tour.

If you are interested in history when you arrive at Narita, the National Museum of Japanese History may be a good choice.
https://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/english/index.html
The Tokyo National Museum in Ueno has a New Year's exhibition in January.
https://www.tnm.jp/?lang=en
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3054_tokyo.html
Hatsumoude at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa or Meiji Jingu Shrine in Harajuku might also be good.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3001.html
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3002.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsum%C5%8Dde
Check out more about Kamakura here.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2166.html
My recommendation is Hasedera and Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. I have never been to Hokokuji Temple.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3101.html
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3102.html
Hiking trails are also recommended, but not recommended in January as there may be snow.
If you have time, please visit Enoshima as a set.
https://www.discover-fujisawa.jp/sightseeing/route/

While not absolute necessary, Ainokura is one of the places higher on our list of things we both wanted to see. Though I did bring your point up to my wife and we agree that we will decide when we get to that day if it is feasible or not, if not then we just do more Kanazawa.

Is doing Matsumoto as a side trip from Kanazawa feasible? I'm thinking of going from Kyoto to Kanazawa arriving around 9am and dropping our stuff at the hotel then straight to Matsumoto. Spend an hour or two then back for Kanazawa rest of the day.

I have Asakusa on one our Tokyo days so we probably will get to sensoji plus our hotel is there anyway. Those museum looks good so I already added to my solo days but not sure if I should stop by before checking in with my luggage or should I drop those off before coming back here.

Hasedera also looks good so I'll add Kamakura in one of the solo days too.

I already have Nikko for one of the solo days and will look it up and make it more detailed in a day or two.

These are really good advice. Thanks a lot guys

Would I be able to do Kamakura morning then Yokohama afternoon? Or would Kamaura takes up the whole day? Not a car or gundam fans but the gundam factory looks pretty interesting.

Um, I could spend a week in Kamakura. But if you only want to see Hasedera then yes, you can fit in more into your day. Eg Yokohama.

Would I do Kyoto - Kanazawa - Matsumoto - back to Kanazawa in 1 day? Never. Unless the only objective of that day was to spend as much time as possible on a train. Google maps gives you a good idea of travel time needed. Add time for going to your hotel and to the castle in Matsumoto and visiting it… and you’ll run out of time and daylight pretty quick.

Maybe you are right. I'd just be adding 3 hours of train time on top of a couple hours at matsumoto. Looking at google map even if I go Kyoto>matsumoto>kanazawa I'd arrive back around 2-3pm with only an hour at matsumoto. I'm trying to see if I could fit Matsumoto in somewhere or if it's worth replace something else with? Maybe do a trip from Tokyo instead?

If you had to pick between sakai and matsumoto what would you pick? If I'm not going to Sakai I think I can take one night off of Kyoto and go to Nagano for a night instead?

I have never been to Sakai, so I would recommend Matsumoto.
By the way, is Sakai（坂井） from Fukui prefecture? Or is it Sakai（堺） from Osaka prefecture?

You mean Sakai by Osaka vs Matsumoto in nagano prefexture?
My choice would be Matsumoto. Sakai has a smalll old town a bicycle museum and some old graves that you actually cant visit. Matsumoto has one of the 12 surviving castles, nice landscape and and old town part plus more.

I checked the itinerary here.
https://wanderlog.com/plan/qgzrcuyuzlokluah/trip-to-japan
It turns out that Sakai was in Osaka.
I haven't been there, but if you don't have time, I think you should cut Sakai and spend your time in central Osaka.
The National Museum Of Japanese History is near Narita Airport, so if I go, it will be the first or last day.
However, I will arrive at 15:00 on the first day, so I won't be able to make it in time.
Because it closes at 16:30.
The museum usually closes at 17:00.
I didn't know if Jodoji Ishibashicho on January 18th actually existed.
If you have time from Higashiyama Jisho-ji, please try walking the Philosopher's Path. (It may be difficult to walk all the way, so please use the bus in that case)
i think january 21st is going to be hard.
There are many good places in Kanazawa, so it would be better to go sightseeing in Kanazawa on this day.
I don't have any plans for January 24th, so if I put Matsumoto in, why not make January 23rd Matsumoto, and January 24th Karuizawa and Kusatsu?
You can go to Matsumoto via Nagano Station.
What if the schedule for January 25th is postponed to January 26th?
Asakusa should be visited in the morning of January 27th or between January 12th and January 15th.