My partner and I are heading to Japan next Feb/March for 2~ weeks (last few days of Feb, mostly early March). This is our fourth trip, we are very comfortable traveling in Japan.
For this trip we're flying into Osaka and out of Tokyo. We haven't seen the Gifu/Nagano prefectures (basically the north side of Chūbu between Osaka and Tokyo) so that's where our focus is this time. We also haven't been in Osaka since our first trip 10 years ago, I'm wondering how busy it'll be!
I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how to hit up the cities and spots we want to see, and not sure whether to rent a car to drive between places or take the train. We've rented a car before – in September in Hokkaido. We are comfortable driving in the snow, coming from Canada. We'd be sure to check for winter tires and the ETC card for toll roads.
I also want to mention we are comfortable city hopping/staying in a place for just a night or two, and are able to do fast-paced travel days!
Day 1-4 – Osaka
Day 4 – Osaka -> Rent a car to go to Meihan Sportsland (tentative, as this depends if there is a drift event this day. If anyone has Meihan tips, please share!). If no Meihan event, we were debating going from Osaka to the Ghibli Park in Nagoya for the day instead.
Day 5 – ? -> Takayama – starting point depends on previous day.
Day 6 – Half day trip to Shirakawa-go from Takayama.
Day 7 – Takayama -> Matsumoto (leave earlier from Takayama)
Day 8 – Matsumoto -> Shibu Onsen (stay overnight in ryokan, this has to stay in the itinerary as we love doing ryokan stays w/ onsens to recharge)
Day 9 – Shibu Onsen -> Nagano (swap to cheaper hotel in Nagano. See the monkey park before we leave Shibu Onsen).
Day 10 – Nagano
Day 11 – Nagano -> stop in Karuizawa for a few hours? -> Tokyo
Day 12 – 15 – Tokyo/Yokohama.
I'm debating renting the car from Day 4 through Day 6, returning it after we get back from Shirakawa-go. Does anyone have experience driving in this area (Japanese Alps?) in early March?
Another thing is if Meihan doesn't happen, it might be better to skip Ghibli Park too (sadly) and either move up the trip a day or spend an extra day somewhere, etc. – so I'm looking for ideas for that.
Is it enough time in Matsumoto?
Thanks in advance!
by janimsa