Aug 19, 2023
Long road trip recommendations?
Apropos my blog post about our recent Tohoku Road Trip (which I highly recommend fwiw), are there any road trip routes you would recommend on Honshu? Bearing in mind, we'd be starting from Saitama. Thank you! https://www.city-cost.com/blogs/Saitama/G6ajW-living_shopping_aomori_iwate_miyagi_akita_yamagata_fukushima
Irish, Mom of 4, currently also living beside the In-Laws. 25+ years back and forth between Ireland and Japan! I also write on my personal website: insaitama.com
Best Answer
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on Aug 27
The temple area was crowded for us, but I don't know how that compares for people who live closer to big cities. It wasn't Tokyo level crowded, but we're not even used to Sendai level crowded anymore so it was a lot of people for us. We went through Nasu, too, though briefly. Nasu Animal Kingdom was pretty amazing all by itself, but we also stayed at an onsen hotel in the area that we really enjoyed. When you come back through Tohoku, Ouchijuku is really fun (though I didn't like it as much as a similar attraction in Takayama, Gifu) and I'd also recommend Yamagata's Ginzan if you haven't been. All you can do is eat soba and tempura, take some pictures, walk around and maybe stay the night, but it is gorgeous and has a similar back-in-time sort of feel.
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on Aug 20
We also did Tohoku by car several years ago which was great. Another road trip we really enjoyed was going down to Shikoku to tick off the four prefectures there. A pit-stop in Nagoya to break things up is a good idea (whether it's an overnight stay or just somewhere to stretch your legs) as the whole thing is probably 8 hours driving time from Tokyo/Saitama -- we were living in Tokyo when we did this trip! The Kariya Highway Oasis is an amazing rest area around the Nagoya area which is a fab place to stop. The itinerary you can do once you get to Shikoku is limited only by your interests, because there's a ton to do! A few places I really liked were Kochi Castle and Hirome Market (Kochi), Ritsurin Garden (Kagawa), Naruto Whirlpools (Tokushima), and an old abandoned copper mine in Ehime which gets the nickname of Japan's Machu Picchu. We did the whole trip in about a week, and looking back I would have liked a bit more time, but it's certainly doable in that length with quite a packed schedule!
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on Aug 21
@genkidesu this is great information, thanks a million. I Love a good rest area, thanks for the tip. I haven't road tripped in Shikoku before. Nor had we in Tohoku, until now we always went by shinkansen to the Tohoku region. But we'd such a great experience driving it, we're hooked now! Someone suggested to me on FB to do Noto Peninsula so we are thinking of combining it with Toyama, Ishikawa and Fukui. Its years since I've been to any of those prefectures and Kanazawa is the only place in those prefectures that I visited more than once.
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on Aug 22
@Saitama Fukui is one of my favorite prefectures, very underrated! We did it by car a few years ago as well, but had combined it with a trip to Takayama in Gifu. A Toyama + Fukui + Kanazawa trip sounds wonderful, there's a cool beach on the Noto Peninsula (Chirihama Beach) which you can actually drive on as well because the sand's so compacted!
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on Aug 25
I'm so glad you enjoyed Tohoku! Living in Miyagi, I'm always happy to hear about someone enjoying spaces further north than Tokyo. We recently took a road trip to Tochigi, hitting up lots of zoos and animal parks and aquariums but also making time for Nikko and some really delicious food. I'm not really the navigator for these trips but if you've not already bored yourself with Nikko or Utsunomiya before now, consider stopping by on your way out or back, or go for a day trip which would be a lot easier for you than us. The only other place I've seen a bit of in Japan is around Gifu prefecture. If you really want to see some castles, driving through Aichi, Gifu and Nagano will show you some things. My favorite is Inuyama-jo in Gifu, but Matsumoto-jo in Nagano has a hidden ninja floor, so there's a lot to enjoy in the area. Also the historical Gifu towns of Tsumago and Magome are like stepping back in time. If you add in a visit to the ancient houses of Hida Takayama, it would be easy to believe you'd just stepped off the TARDIS or into a Kurosawa movie. It all depends what you want to do or see, and these probably fit best if you're a bit of a history nerd.
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on Aug 26
@JTsu I love the idea of Aichi, Gifu and Nagano. The latter is the only one I've seen a bit of, but the other two I've only really passed through. I'd love to take the time to see more of them and I definitely need to visit Tsumago and Magome. If I go back up to Tohoku, I really want to see Ouchi Juku, I was sorry we didn't take the time to visit there on our last visit. That reminds me to watch @tomuu 's YT video about it!! Thank you so much for the suggestion. Yes, Nikko is a doable day trip for us, luckily, not that we go often. Nikko certainly has its charms, but I actually prefer Nasu, its one of my favourite places in all of Japan! Did you find Nikko very busy this past trip? I was wondering if, now that Japan is back 'open' its going to be crowded all the time, or maybe just in Autumn.
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on Aug 27
@genkidesu Shikoku! Years ago, friends and I took a trip from Matsuyama City to Cape Ashizuri. Matsuyama City has an excellent castle (one of the 12 with an original castle keep), Dogo Onsen, Tobe ceramics, and the Botchan train ride. We stopped at Uchiko for the kabukiza and Ozu for Garyu Sanso, Uwajima for the castle, onsens, and awesome food, then the spectacular scenery on Ashizuri Skyline road to Ashizuri Misaki. On the way and at Ashizuri are many of the Shikoku 88 pilgrimage temples.
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on Aug 28
@TonetoEdo My dream is to do the full 88 temple pilgrimage some day! I think it'd be such a special bucket list item to complete. Definitely want to go back and explore more of that entire area, we had such a compressed timeframe on our visit that I still feel like there's so much more to be seen.
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on Aug 28
@genkidesu Me, too. When I retire, I want to walk the pilgrimage. Just like you, I think there is a lot more to experience on Shikoku. I didn't get a chance to visit Tokushima and Kagawa Prefectures because there was so much to see and do in Ehime and Kochi Prefectures.
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on Jan 15
It's not Honshu, but renting a car from Sapporo and going around Hokkaido was one of my fav experiences in Japan ever. No particular destination in mind, and just drive enjoying the nature until we are near somewhere interesting, and then staying the night at a park! Also, good food is literally everywhere in Hokkaido!
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on Sep 27
@JapanRamen the nature there really is top notch. A few years ago I did some sightseeing in north eastern Hokkaido during winter on a several day trip out of Monbetsu, down through the Shiretoko National Park area, and then down to Nakashibetsu. Really stunning part of the country and great for outdoorsy lovers.
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on Sep 29
@JapanRamen sorry I didn't see this in real time. I would love to do a journey through Hokkaido some day - preferably in summer, to escape the heat of the Kanto region! Thanks for the suggestion.
12 Answers