Where in Japan do you recommend for some easy to moderate hiking in early to mid April with cool weather (warm/cool days, cold nights), sunshine, excellent scenery, and high-end accommodation nearby. We will have our one-year-old daughter in a backpack so nothing too challenging but still good exercise. Cherry blossoms optional , but would be a nice bonus! Many thanks!
Which part of Japan are you interested in seeing? There are lots of hiking options depending on which region or island you're on. If you're in the Kansai Area, I recommend Mt. Yoshino because it's the most famous place in Japan for cherry blossoms. It's a day trip from Osaka city. If you're in Tokyo, then I'd recommend heading to Nikko. Lake Chuzenji is stunning, and there are lots of hiking trails in the surrounding area. Plus, most of the snow should be melted in the lower elevations.
I hope that helps. Feel free to post with more questions.
Hadn't considered Nikko. Yoshino seems like it will be crowded, right? We're flexible, can fly into Tokyo, Osaka, or Nagoya, and will have 5 nights.
We're actually considering Nagano. Too cold? We want to avoid too cold/slippery trails with a baby on our backs. But seems the scenery there is spectacular. Or Would Takayama (too crowded during festival?), Matsumoto, Kamikochi, Kiso Valley, Shirakawa-Go, or elsewhere be better? We're hoping for a town/area nearby with high-end lodging, excellent restaurants/cafes, and ideally some cultural/historic site-seeing too.
Takayama does get crowded during the festival (April 14th & 15), but overall it's not a bad place to be positioned. Shirakawa-go is a wonderful place to visit as well, with lots of old thatched houses that you can actually stay in.
As far as Nagano goes, the prefecture is very beautiful and pretty big. Nagano city itself isn't that special of a place (compared to Takayama). Matsumoto is a lot closer to the Alps, and has a great bus terminal that is good for side trips. If positioned here, then you could take trips into Kamikochi, which will still have quite a bit of snow on the peaks, but should be accessible in mid to late april for strolls in the valley. Unfortunately, Kamikochi doesn't open until April 24th this year.
Keep asking questions and I'll try to answer them as best I can.
That's very, very helpful - thanks so much! We've moved our trip to early May in hopes that the hiking will be slightly better (warmer). We've been looking into Hokkaido a bit as it seems so beautiful but it sounds like the Alps might be more what we're looking for at that time of year. I will take a look at Takayama and Matsumoto, and Shirakawa-go too. Kamikochi is a valley, correct? It's probably where we would do our hiking, right? Do you know of any high-end places to stay in those areas that would put us near both good hiking and good restaurants? Many thanks!
Great to see your helpful replies to Mia and Steffan. We're travelling to Japan for holidays between mid-April and mid-May and have similar queries. We want to hike (not climb) and have considered the alps or Shikoku. We're not at all sure about the weather then in the alps - the Lonely Planet says not to -though we like the sound of it and don't know if Shikoku will have some long rewarding hikes.
Also if we're spending about 2 weeks in cities, mainly Kyoto, and two weeks hiking, how should we best handle Golden Week - full city accommodation, busy mountain huts, booked up trains etc. Best in the Kyoyo or the mountains?
Golden week is from April 29th to May 6th, but not all of those days are public holidays. The official holidays are Wed. April 29th, Mon. May 5th, and Tues. May 6th. You'll find that most people will have to work on Thurs. April 30th and Fri. May 1st, so I think the only days of concern are from May 3rd to May 6th. Accomodation does get booked out depending on where you go. Also, Golden Week is the official start of the hiking season in Japan, and lots of people head to Kamikochi to do spring skiing and climbing. Shikoku and Kyushu won't have any snow left, but Hokkaido will still have a lot, as well as Tohoku. Last Golden Week I went to Shin-hotaka Hot Spring and to Shirakawa-go. Neither places had any snow remaining. You only have to worry about lingering snow above 2000m.
I guess my main advice is to pick a destination that you'd really like to go, and have a back-up plan in case there is too much snow. The weather is usually perfect during Golden week (hence the popularity of outdoor pursuits). Any of the hikes around Mt. Fuji would be very pleasant this season as well. Additionally, if you go to Hokkaido or the higher elevations of Nagano you can see cherry blossoms during Golden Week.
Hmmm sounds like we may run into Golden Week crowds as we are going May 1-7. Will check hotels now! This may be a dumb question, but when you say "no snow" do you mean no snow on the trails (which would be good) or no snow on the peaks (not so good) in the Nagano area? Also, for Kamikochi if we had to choose would you recommend staying in Takayama or Matsumoto or staying in Kamikochi itself? Many thanks!
oh, i meant no snow on the ground at Shirakawa-go and Shin-hotaka. There will be plenty of snow on the peaks!
Personally, I'd stay in Kamikochi. It's so much more beautiful than the neighboring cities and has a nice feel to it. There are plenty of Japanese Inns in Kamikochi, many with their own hot spring baths! I can't recommend any hotels because I've only camped in Kamikochi, but there are quite a few to choose from. You can try doing a Google search for "kamikochi ryokan" and see what you can come up with. just make sure it's actually in Kamikochi itself, because you don't want to be stuck outside of the park (you'd have to take a bus in). As long as you can walk from the Kamikochi bus terminal you should be ok.
We had a look at Shirakawa-go and Shin-hokata and they look great. I think we might be homing in on Kamikochi with Shikoku as a back up plan. Did you do multi-day treks there or day treks? If multi did you use a guidebook?
(Mia - sounds like we might be bumping into you on the trek!)
i've done both day hikes and multi-day treks in kamikochi. you've got tons of options, and lots more if you've got a pair of crampons (you don't need the full 12-point ones unless you're climbing Oku-hotaka. even 6-point crampons will allow you to get pretty far up). there are plenty of relatively flat hikes in Kamikochi valley that can keep you entertained for a few days (no crampons needed). If you've got crampons, then you can climb to the top of Yake-dake and back in a day. The other peaks of Oku-hotaka and Yari will require at least 2-days. It's 22km one-way from Kamikochi to the top of Mt. Yari! Another option would be to hike up to Mt. Hotaka base camp. This is a place called karasawa (涸沢). hike 11km from Kamikochi and turn left at the junction in front of Yokoo-sansou (横尾山荘). The base camp looks incredible with all of the colored tents in the snow and the backdrop of Mt. Hotake towering overhead. check out this link to get an idea of the scenery during Golden Week http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~Dz2a-nkjm/mt.karasawa2007.htm
The Base Camp link looks fun - maybe try that out. We're busy trying to sort Kamokochi accommodation out now -will let you know how it goes. If you have any more ideas they're much appreciated.
