In November of this year, my fiancé and I plan to fly with two other friends to Japan, have an incredibly small wedding, and then rent a car to do a roadtrip honeymoon.
We greatly prefer to stay away from crowds, and out of the areas suffering “overtourism”. We would like to experience authentic places/interactions, and would prefer to stay away from sterile and curated events and locations.
We will have 16 days total for this trip.
So far, our plan is to:
Fly into Tokyo, stay for a few days to acclimate to the time difference. I understand that this is the most visited city in the country, but it is also the easiest to fly to for us, so this is where our trip will begin.
Take a train North to Sendai, get a hotel for a few nights, and a rental car. In our time here we plan to visit Kurikoma Quasi-National Park, Goshozan national park, and a few other small towns and hiking spots.
Drive to the Fukushima prefecture. Here we would do more of the same; national parks, jump around small towns, etc…
Drive to the Nagano area. We don’t have this part fleshed out too much, my fiancé saw a few cool hiking trails and hot springs that she wanted to check out.
We would end the trip by dropping off the rental car in a smaller city, taking a train back to Tokyo, and flying back home.
Does this trip seem realistic to do in 16 days? I’ve successfully driven in the UK and Ireland, do you think renting a car and driving in the areas I mentioned would be unwise for an American? Does it seem that we would succeed in our goal of finding authenticity and staying away from the largest crowds of tourists?
Any advice or criticism is welcome, thank you for your time!
by Suwannee_Gator