Everyone does the same Japan the first time. Tokyo, the bullet train, Kyoto, maybe Osaka for dinner. It's a fine trip. Lately, though, the places our readers are looking up sit well off that line: up north in Hokkaido, high in the Alps, down on the Kyushu coast. Fewer queues, more snow, better soup.
Hokkaido: lakes, drift ice and Japan's coldest city
Lake Akan is a caldera lake in a national park, with an Ainu village on its shore and hot springs that steam all winter. Asahikawa is Hokkaido's second city and, by most measures, its coldest; come for soy-based ramen and a zoo that walks its penguins through the snow. Out on the Sea of Okhotsk, Abashiri is where the drift ice comes in each February, followed by the sea eagles.
The Japanese Alps and the sake coast
Hakuba is a valley of ski villages under the Northern Alps, under three hours from Tokyo and buried in snow from December. In summer it turns into hiking country. Over the mountains on the Sea of Japan, Niigata is rice and sake country, a working port city that most visitors only pass through on the way somewhere else. Their loss.
Quiet alternatives near Tokyo and Kyoto
Ōtsu is nine minutes from Kyoto by train and feels a world away: temples on the hills, Japan's biggest lake at the bottom of the street. Kawasaki, squeezed between Tokyo and Yokohama, is better known for factories than for travellers, which is exactly why its temples, night views and back-street izakaya are worth a day.
Kyushu's warm southern coast
Miyazaki is the other end of the country from Hokkaido, in every sense. Palm trees, surf beaches, rugged Pacific coastline and Shinto shrines tucked into sea caves. It's where Japanese couples went on honeymoon before everyone started flying to Hawaii.
A Japan itinerary beyond the Golden Route
Each place above has its own 1, 2 or 3 day itinerary. In winter, fly into Hokkaido and pair Asahikawa with Abashiri and Lake Akan for ice, eagles and hot springs. From Tokyo, add Hakuba for the mountains, or Kawasaki for a short hop. Doing Kyoto anyway? Give a day to Ōtsu. And if it's warmth you're after, Miyazaki is a short flight south.
Open the full route, Hokkaido to Kyushu, as one trip →
Want to plan your own? String any of these into one trip, or open a guide and build a day-by-day plan around food, nature, temples or the coast.
Based on what Nomadist readers have been exploring recently. More from The Trend Report