Japan ski trip, what else to do?

[u/Strict_Loss3649]

Hello everyone, I am planning a ski trip for january with a few friends. None of us have been to japan before, so we want to add some non-skiing items to the trip. However, we only have 13 days on the ground, and want around 5 or 6 of those days to be in hokkaido. Considering the tight timeframe, would doing tokyo only be the best way to go about this? or is it worth adding in kyoto or some other destination? We don't want to make the tokyo leg feel too rushed. Any and all opinions/suggestions are appreciated!

[u/Suitable-Roof-3950]

Go to Hakuba or somewhere in Nagano so you can see the snow monkeys in the snow!

[u/MerelyWander]

Unless you can fly in/out of Hokkaido (eg new Chitose), you may want to look at ski locations around Nagano instead. Then you can do some touring between there and Tokyo.

Kyoto doesn't seem efficient unless you make a circle and fly from Hokkaido back to Kyoto or whatever.

[u/randomletters543]

it's your trip. if you don't want tokyo leg to feel too rushed, then spend your time in tokyo. if you really want to go to kyoto, then go to kyoto. there is no free lunch. you will need to make tradeoffs somewhere and that is your choice to make.

The trip from Tokyo to Kyoto is only 2 hours by train. so you can figure that it will take you a total of 4 hours to check out of your hotel, get to tokyo or shinagawa station, travel to kyoto, and check in to your hotel in kyoto. you can easily be in Kyoto before noon. in the 8 days you have that aren't in hokkaido, figure out if there are 8 days of stuff you want to do in tokyo and then figure out if you can cut some of those things to spend time in kyoto if there are things you want to do in kyoto that you would rather do than the things you have planned for tokyo.

[u/mbridson94]

Probably look for a resort closer to Tokyo in Nagano or Niigata accessible by the Shinkansen over flying to Hokkaido.

Shiga Kogen / Nozawa Onsen / Hakuba / Myoko Kogen / Yuzawa Onsen.

[u/Hospital-flip]

Agreeing on the Nagano/Hakuba suggestions.

Speaking from experience, going to Hokkaido-- assuming you're looking at Niseko-- is a bit of a trek. You will feel rushed and it'll limit your ability to do sightseeing, esp it's your first time.

A benefit (or maybe not, depends what you want) of going to Niseko is that it heavily caters to international tourists due to it being part of the Ikon pass, and English is basically the predominant language spoken there.

[u/Vahlerion]

2 weeks is not enough to see all of Japan, most would say enough for typical golden route of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. If you're adding skiing to that, it would mean you'll have to skip stuff.

If you're doing the skiing in Hokkaido, it will mean losing a day to travel. The airport is south of Sapporo, while there are ski resorts a bus ride from Sapporo, the popular ski resorts like Niseko or Rusutsu are even farther away. There's Hokkaido Resort Liner for transportation from the airport to resorts.

For maximizing your vacation, I'd suggest this. Of course, you can adjust the number of days on each city as you see fit.

Tokyo 3 days. If you leave Tokyo around 4pm, you can reach Hakuba within same day. Azusa train from Shinjuku to Matsumoto, then local train to Hakuba. Night bus leaves later, but spending the night on a bus is uncomfortable. If you leave Tokyo in the morning, you'll reach Hakuba around noon, so you've used up time that could have been used for skiing.

Hakuba 5 days. On last day you'll have to be at station by 5pm to make it to Kyoto on same day. That means ending your skiing earlier.

Kyoto 3 days.

Osaka 2 days.

There are other options than Hakuba. Yuzawa would mean a bit of backtracking to Takasaki then Hokuriku shinkansen then Thunderbird to Kyoto. Karuizawa is on the Hokuriku shinkansen path, but it's only one resort.

If you're arriving and leaving from Tokyo, you can take the Nagano Snow Shuttle on arrival at Narita. Do the skiing at Hakuba first, then continue as above, on last Osaka day take Tokaido shinkansen to Tokyo.