Things to definitely do
Day 1 (1/3?)
- ? Kobe
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
- Kanazawa
- Jigokudani (snow monkey onsen): http://wikitravel.org/en/Jigokudani_Monkey_Park
- Hokkaido (1/12)
Potential things to do
- Kobe
- Mizunuma Station (a train station with a hot spring) 11AM-8PM: http://www.mizunuma-sb.com/facilities.shtml
- Jigokudani (snow monkey onsen): http://wikitravel.org/en/Jigokudani_Monkey_Park
- ]http://wikitravel.org/en/Yagen_Valley Yagen Valley] in Aomori which seems pretty rural
- Notoya Ryokan (an awesome inn) in Obanazawa, Yamagata which is a town the highest snowfall in the entire world
- Nyuto Onsen (a secret onsen village) and Kakunodate (the site of some samurai training houses) in Akita
- Hirosaki which is has a big float museum and a decent looking hostel
- Itayanagi A very apple themed village with apple street lights and more
- Yurihonjo which is comprehensively covered on wikitravel and is an hour south of Akita (city)
- Sado Island
- In Tokomachi, Niigata there are two cool art hotels. House of Light by James Turrel and Yume no Ie by Maria Abramovic (an art hotel where you get uniforms and sleep in boxes). Both seem reasonably priced.
