Originally Posted by
dontsh00t
2. I will be carrying one big, heavy luggage (the biggest size that can be checked as baggage, which annoyingly requires a reservation on shinkansens now) and a carry-on sized backpack. I can wrangle it and carry it up/down stairs for short distances, but not too many (and moving around with it in the snow would suck).
Have you considered luggage forwarding? You could send from airport to wherever you will be spending second night and it should arrive the next day. Just carry what you need for first day in backpack.