Itinerary
- Day 1
- Day 2
- Day 3
- Day 4
- Day 5
- Day 6
- Day 7
Suggested routes
Idea 1 (Mika)
- Day 1: Kagoshima/Yakushima
- Day 2: Nagasaki
- Day 3: Beppu or Fukuoka
- Day 4: Sanuki/Izumo
- Day 5: Akita
- Day 6: Hokkaido (floating ice tour)
- Day 7: Back to Tokyo
Interests
- Onsen (hot spring)
- Artsy villages
- Maybe extreme snow
Ideas of places to go
1) Here is a list of winter festivals in Japan during the time we will be there including:
- Hachinohe Enburi folk festival and dance (Aomori February 17-20)
- A whole series of drift ice festivals in Hokkaido
- Yuki doro snow lantern festival (February 8-11)
- Namahage Sedo child scaring festival (Akita Feburary 7-9)
- Akita Inukko snow dog sculpture festival (Akita Feburary 8-9)
- Yokote snow festival with kamakura and bonden (Akita February 15-17)
- Wave Artists at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum (Tokyo February 19-March 7)
- Amakusa Festival of Food (Amakusa February 15-16)
- 8th Tenmatenjin Umeshu Convention (Osaka February 15-23)
- Tokamachi Snow Festival (Niigata February 14-16) including "giant snow sculptures and stage performances; and the Nakasato Setsugen Carnival, in which a local ski resort is covered in candles to create a surreal, beautiful scene; and the Muko-nage Festival, where young men who have married during the past year are thrown into snowdrifts."
- Kite-flying contest at Tsuda no Matsubara (Kagawa February 9)
- Uesugi Snow Lantern Festival (Yamagata February 7-9)
2) Yokai town (Sakaiminato, Tottori prefecture)
3) God's conference town (Izumo, Shimane prefecture)
- https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Izumo
- The conference is in October, so gods won't be around when we go.
Note: The government of Japan maintains this list of important intangible folk cultural properties. Several refer to events that occur during our window:
- Rokugō Kamakura (六郷のカマクラ行事) in Akita on February 11-15.
- the Mona Satoimo Festival (茂名の里芋祭) which is a kind of potato festival in Chiba on February 19-22.
- if you like oni, there is the Oni Festival of Toyohashi Shinmei Shrine (豊橋神明社の鬼祭) on February 10-11
- the Spring Hoe Festival of Higoshi Shinmei Shrine (樋越神明宮の春鍬祭) on February 11.
To do
- Watch kabuki
- Watch sumo
- Onsen (hot spring)
