dkrt

Hi FT'ers,

In 2009 my wife and I spent 11 days in Japan and loved it so much we are planning a return trip next year October 2011. Our first trip included most of the "south" - Hiroshima, Miyajima Kyoto, Nara, Hakone and Tokyo. This time we are looking to plan from Tokyo and east and north and looking for ideas and help.

We would fly into Tokyo and thought posssibly of going to Takayama before heading north. Definitely love the Japanese history and customs. We have stayed in ryokans and want to do so again.

Our trip will be planned for about 12 days or so and it is very probable that a few adult family members may join us. Big cities are not our first choice. Our stop in Tokyo on our last trip was nice and interesting but still a big city.

Don't mind going as far north as Hokkaido - actually want to include it if FT's recommend it. Budget is open at this point. And I do speak some Japanese so we are not afraid to travel of the beaten path - actually prefer it!

Arigato Gozaimashita

ksandness

On another thread, I recommended Kanazawa, the largest city other than Kyoto not to be bombed during World War II. It has a distinctive "feel" and culture.

If you're into history and want to go off the beaten path, Sado Island is a good choice, reachable by ferry from Niigata.

If there's no snow, I recommend taking the bus over the Japan Alps to Matsumoto, which is a castle town.

Nagano is good for an afternoon with its temple and attractive shopping street running between the temple and the train station.

Mito has Kairaku-en, one of the famous gardens of Japan, although October isn't the best time to enjoy it.

peachy3

My personal opinion is that I would never really venture into north of Tokyo into the depths of Akita, Sendai, Aomori and so forth, without visiting somewhere like Hokkaido first. Some people I have talked to have liked going there though.

Hokkaido is food-lovers land. Hokkaido has Sapporo which is actually not a very busy city but lovely. To the South-west you have Hakodate, which is very nice for seafood and we flock there when we can. Surrounding areas have scallops off the beach which are great. North of Sapporo you can go to Otaru where there are heaps of sweets and the famous unni-don (sea urchins on rice). Depending on the season, you can travel east to look at lavenders, but all in all, you could spend a good week or so in Hokkaido just going around, sampling the food, and enjoying the small cities.

Around Tokyo, Yokohama is a popular city, but is quite run down IMO and doesn't really have much to do. Yokosuka is near there and again, not much to see. Chiba is a big city and the surrounding prefectures of Saitama, Gunma, don't really serve much IMO either.

If you want a great cultural experience, I think Kyushu does a good job. Not many people travel to Kyushu as it is out of the way, but places like Miyazaki and Kumamoto have very friendly people and a lot of culture/onsens/ryokans for you to mingle with.

jpatokal

I would be tempted to suggest precisely the opposite. For better or worse, much of Hokkaido doesn't feel very "Japanese" to the first-time visitor: wide open spaces, rolling hills, sparsely populated, cow pastures, fields of grain, and many find it feels like eg. northern Europe or Canada. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's just not what people expect from Japan. Northern Tohoku, on the other hand, is much more quintessentially "Japanese": craggy coastlines, steep mountains and gorges, rice paddies and villages clinging to steep hillsides, hot springs, temples and shrines in the oddest places.

(And yes, I know you can find places in Hokkaido that have each of those as well, except maybe the rice paddies. But I'd daresay they're the exception, not the rule.)

So is virtually anywhere in Japan.

Again, YMMV, but Japanese small cities tend to be unattractive and interchangeable, and thanks to the brutal winter Hokkaido's smaller cities are worse than most. For me, Hokkaido's best attribute is amazing natural spots like eg. the Shiretoko and Akan national parks, but the distances in Hokkaido mean it's time-consuming and often expensive to actually get there.

Anyway, for a quick Tohoku sampler, you could do much worse than follow Basho's footsteps:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Narrow_Road_to_the_Deep_North

I spent a week doing an abbreviated version of this on my first-ever trip to Japan, and have been a convert to Tohoku ever since. ^

peachy3

Each to their own I guess =)

My partner and I live half in Japan and half in Australia and we don't particularly find Tohoku interesting at all... although I do have many friends who like going there, and evidently another one here!

As you point out, jpatokal, it is based on the interest of the traveller in the end. Good recommendations though!

Ichinensei

firstly, I would like to say that we here in Canada all live in igloos..

Secondly, I was in Hokkaido - went to Otaru, Sapporo and Furano. Didn't see any cows. Or sheeps.

I think Hokkaido is a nice relief from the Tokyo heat in the summer. It's also much more less populated and mad and so if the OP wants to see more than neon lights and madness, Hokkaido is not bad. I like Takayama and Kanazawa as well. And the op might want to go to Shirakawago as well.

manneca

Went to Nikko and loved it. It's north, but not that far, about 90 minutes from Tokyo. I wish I had brought my international driving permit. I would have rented a car and driven around. Spent three days in Nikko.

On the way back to Tokyo spent the night in Utsunamiyo (the place where if you don't get a train straight to Nikko you change) because we saw a banner saying that Utsunamiyo is the dumpling capital of the world and I love dumplings. Had a great time. Went to a dept store and bought a kimono for my niece. No one spoke English and I had a wonderful time explaining what I wanted. Had dumplings for four meals. Every kind of dumplings imaginable.