Nagano’s macaques, Kanazawa gardens and Kyoto’s winter temples.
Start in Tokyo and leave from Kansai Airport. Between those flights, the route crosses Nagano’s inland mountains and the Sea of Japan coast, with different things to see in each place. Nagano brings Zenkoji’s pilgrimage streets and a day with the macaques at Jigokudani. Obuse adds Hokusai’s paintings and a chestnut-rice lunch. Kanazawa follows with seafood, garden craft and a museum built around reflection; Kyoto closes the trip with Arashiyama.
Choose mid-January through February if the snowy monkey-park walk is your main reason for travelling. That also puts the trip beyond the New Year closures that disrupt several stops. Snow depth, animal appearances and train services still depend on the day’s conditions. You’re planning a city-and-countryside trip, with one forest walk, rather than a ski holiday.
The three Nagano nights are all in the city. A station-area hotel gives you the east-exit bus to Jigokudani, the separate Nagaden railway for Obuse and a straightforward departure for Kanazawa. You’ll spend more time commuting to the monkey park than guests in Shibu Onsen, but you’ll avoid another hotel move. Choose the onsen town instead only if bathing and a traditional inn matter more than the Obuse outing.
Tokyo has just one full sightseeing day here. Hamarikyu, Tsukiji and Ginza fit together geographically, so you can enjoy a garden and a proper lunch without crossing the capital repeatedly. Two nights in Kanazawa leave an arrival afternoon for the market and a full day for the garden and museum. Kyoto receives the same amount of time: enough for a central evening and Arashiyama, while keeping the airport departure simple.
Book this route if you enjoy looking closely at a few places: Hokusai’s festival-float paintings in Obuse, the ropes supporting Kenrokuen’s pine branches, or the changing view across Tenryuji’s pond. Ten days won’t cover all of Tokyo or Kyoto, and the schedule leaves neither room for Takayama nor time on the ski slopes. Those are choices worth making before you buy the flights.
Hokusai’s large paintings for festival floats make Obuse more than a snack stop. The museum sits in a compact town centre, close to chestnut shops and Chikufudo’s main restaurant. You can spend a full day here without moving your bags from Nagano.
Kenrokuen’s yukitsuri ropes support spreading branches against the weight of snow. Installation begins around 1 November and takes about six weeks; the supports remain until roughly mid-March. Walk around the Karasaki pine to see the structure from several angles, with or without fresh snow on the ground.
Shigetsu serves Buddhist vegetarian food inside Tenryuji. Its Yuki meal comes with rice, soup and five side dishes, making lunch a chance to try several preparations of seasonal vegetables. Give the meal its own hour, then leave through the garden towards Arashiyama’s bamboo lane.
Best for
Think twice if
A ski trip, travellers needing step-free access throughout, or a holiday centred on hot-spring inns.
StartBooker answer
Begin with two Tokyo nights, then give Nagano three nights for its two day trips; finish with two nights apiece in Kanazawa and Kyoto. Use Nagano for Jigokudani and Obuse, then travel west on the Hokuriku Shinkansen. In Kanazawa, pair Kenrokuen’s winter pine supports with the D.T. Suzuki Museum; finish with an Arashiyama garden and temple lunch. This route suits January or February and includes no skiing. For winter 2026/27, book the snow-monkey outing through the park’s linked Webket page and use the new Ex24 bus from Nagano’s east exit.
The longest stay is in Nagano, where two day trips share one hotel. The other bases each have an arrival evening and a full day before departure. Pick hotels around the stations or streets below, then compare the room itself.
4 stops · swipe
1
Garden walks, market lunches and easy airport rail
Stay around Shimbashi or Shiodome for the opening two nights. Hamarikyu is within walking distance, and the Ginza Line serves nearby central neighbourhoods. This base favours the Day 2 plan over late nights in Shinjuku.
Watch out: Choose a room away from the railway if you sleep lightly.
Read the Tokyo guide →
2
Zenkoji, Obuse art and a Jigokudani day trip
Book near Nagano Station for three nights. The park bus leaves from the east side; Obuse trains use the Nagaden station. Keep both entrances in your phone map so you can leave the hotel without circling the building.
Watch out: A Nagano city hotel is separate from the Shibu Onsen inns.
3
Seafood bowls, winter pines and contemporary architecture
Choose between the station area and central Korinbo. The station simplifies the two rail journeys; Korinbo puts dinner and the garden-and-museum day closer. With two nights here, either choice works without hiring a car.
Watch out: Omicho is a daytime market; Korinbo and Katamachi suit dinner.
Read the Kanazawa guide →
4
Arashiyama gardens, Buddhist food and an airport departure
Stay near Kyoto Station for the last two nights. It serves the JR train to Saga-Arashiyama and the Haruka to Kansai Airport. A central Shijo address suits the arrival dinner, but adds a journey with luggage on departure day.
Read the Kyoto guide →City days group visits and meals in the same area. Days 3, 6 and 8 move between hotels; keep those afternoons lighter. The timings below describe the sightseeing hours, with extra time for hotel check-in and getting to the station. Bring a day bag with water, a charged phone and your booking details.
From Haneda Terminal 3, take Keikyu towards central Tokyo; trains continuing onto the Toei Asakusa Line reach Shimbashi in about 21 minutes. Buy the destination ticket at the station machine, or use a transport IC card. Allow for airport formalities, the train and your hotel walk before planning an outing. If your arrival time allows, take a short walk around Shimbashi and Shiodome, with ramen near the station for dinner. Keep the evening simple enough to sleep early. Save Toritoh’s lunch address for tomorrow.
Base: Tokyo
Enter Hamarikyu at 09:00; admission is ¥300, paid at the garden entrance. Give the tidal pond, Nakajima teahouse and broad pine branches about two hours, then walk towards Tsukiji Outer Market. Toritoh Bunten serves oyakodon, chicken and egg over rice, from 08:30 to 13:30; aim for lunch before noon. It closes on Sundays, public holidays and market closure days, so choose another market counter when necessary. Afterwards, spend the afternoon browsing Ginza’s department stores. Finish the outdoor walk before lunch, leaving Ginza as the part of the afternoon that can run late.
Base: Tokyo
Take a morning Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagano, allowing roughly 90 minutes to two hours for the train. Reserve on Eki-net or at a JR station. Leave your bag at the hotel and head towards the Zenkoji streets for lunch: Fujikian makes soba with Nagano buckwheat and serves from 11:00 to 15:00, with last orders at 14:30. It closes on Tuesdays and Thursdays except national holidays; other soba shops line the temple streets. Spend about two hours at Zenkoji afterwards. The ¥800 ticket covers the inner hall, dark Okaidan passage and history museum. Go inside before wandering the snack shops, since the winter visit ends at 16:00.
Base: Nagano
Take the 08:00 Ex24 bus from Nagano Station’s east-exit bay 24. The winter 2026/27 timetable allows 50 minutes to the Snow Monkey Park stop. Buy the return-bus-and-entry ticket through the park’s linked Webket page before travelling, then join the boarding queue. It pays for the journey but does not reserve a seat; Ex24 boards passengers in arrival order. From the stop, allow about 40 minutes each way to the park, with extra time on snow or ice, and an hour at the pool. Use boots with good grip and warm gloves; the unpaved trail has steps and can be slippery. Winter opening is 09:00–16:00, with arrival at least thirty minutes before closing. Use the Snow Monkey Park stop again for the return journey. Choose an early-afternoon departure from its timetable, leaving time for the walk back and boarding queue; the bus takes about 55 minutes to Nagano. Read the park’s current access notice before leaving Nagano and skip the trail if access is unsafe. If neither day offers safe park access, stay in Nagano and visit the nearby Nagano Prefectural Art Museum when its calendar shows it is open. The macaques choose when to enter the water, so watch their interactions as well as the bath. Return to Nagano in the afternoon and try vegetable-filled oyaki dumplings around the Zenkoji shopping streets.
Base: Nagano
Buy a local Nagaden railway ticket to Obuse: ¥870 each way, allowing around forty minutes on a local train. Select a departure that leaves time for the walk from Obuse Station. Walk into the town centre for a 09:00 visit to the Hokusai Museum, giving the festival-float paintings and galleries about 90 minutes. Standard adult entry is ¥1,200; special exhibitions have their own price. For lunch, head to Chikufudo’s main Obuse restaurant, where the Yamazato set costs ¥1,540 including tax and pairs chestnut rice with vegetable dishes. Spend another hour on the lanes near the museum before returning to Nagano. Buy chestnut sweets after lunch, when you’ve had time to decide which ones you’d like to take home.
Base: Nagano
Travel west from Nagano on the Hokuriku Shinkansen, reserving through Eki-net or a JR station. Allow around an hour to 90 minutes aboard, then leave your luggage at the Kanazawa hotel and head for Omicho Market. Most shops follow an approximate 09:00–16:00 day, though each counter has its own hours. Have a seafood rice bowl here for lunch, choosing the topping from the display instead of arriving with a fixed fish order. Spend two hours exploring the stalls and nearby streets. Buy perishable food only for today’s meal: you still have another intercity train ahead. The afternoon works best as a market visit, leaving Kenrokuen for tomorrow’s longer walk.
Base: Kanazawa
Start Kenrokuen at 09:00, paying ¥320 at the entrance, and give the paths and supported pines about two hours. In winter the garden opens at 08:00 and closes at 17:00, so this start still leaves time for an unhurried lunch. Continue to the D.T. Suzuki Museum for an hour with its galleries, corridor and water courtyard; adult admission is ¥310 at the museum. It closes on Mondays, or the next weekday when Monday is a public holiday, as well as over New Year and for exhibition changes. If day seven is closed, fit it into day six only if you can arrive before the 16:30 last entry. When neither date works, use the time for central Kanazawa’s shops and cafés instead. For dinner, seek out Kanazawa oden around Korinbo or Katamachi: fish cakes and other ingredients simmered in broth. Order a few pieces first, then add favourites.
Base: Kanazawa
Take a morning Shinkansen from Kanazawa to Tsuruga, then change to a Thunderbird for Kyoto. Allow two to two-and-a-half hours for the rail journey, including the interchange, and book the two trains together through the ticket seller. Settle into your Kyoto Station hotel before heading to the Kamo River around Shijo for an hour’s walk. Near the Minamiza theatre, Matsuba’s main restaurant serves nishin soba, buckwheat noodles topped with sweet-simmered herring, for ¥1,870 including tax. It closes on Wednesdays except national holidays, so use another Shijo restaurant that evening if needed.
Base: Kyoto
Take a JR train from Kyoto Station to Saga-Arashiyama, then walk about 13 minutes to Tenryuji. The garden opens at 08:30 and costs ¥500; spend 90 minutes around Sogenchi Pond before your Shigetsu Yuki lunch, ¥3,800, with seasonal vegetables, rice and soup. Send Tenryuji’s reservation form at least three days ahead and wait for staff confirmation; the restaurant closes on Thursdays, so book another Arashiyama lunch for that day. Garden admission is separate from the meal. Leave through the north exit after lunch for the bamboo lane, then take an hour or two for the river around Togetsukyo Bridge. Bring cash for the garden ticket; meal payment and admission use separate payment rules.
Base: Kyoto
For an afternoon international departure, choose a Haruka reaching Kansai Airport around 11:00, with at least three hours before your flight. The trip from Kyoto takes roughly 80–100 minutes. Book the train through JR-WEST ONLINE TRAIN RESERVATION, and collect the ticket the previous day with your passport and the physical payment card. Eat breakfast by Kyoto Station before boarding; at Terminal 1, you can buy hot pork buns from 551 Horai’s second-floor branch after 10:00. Eat them before heading through departures. Pack the ticket and passport where you can reach them without opening the suitcase, and leave the final Kyoto morning for getting to the airport.
Base: Kyoto
Use the exact station names below when reserving. The Tokyo and Nagano fares are ordinary reserved-seat Shinkansen e-tickets; the Kanazawa–Kyoto price has separate visitor eligibility. Airport and local journeys sit outside these three legs. Buy a seat for each traveller, including anyone who has their own transport IC card.
3 transfers
Tokyo Nagano
Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo Station. Regular-season Eki-net fare: ¥8,250 including the reserved seat.
Booking note: Reserve on Eki-net and link each traveller’s IC card; a paper-ticket booking costs ¥200 more. Local trains to Tokyo Station cost extra.
Nagano Kanazawa
Continue on the Hokuriku Shinkansen. Regular-season Eki-net fare: ¥8,970 including the reserved seat.
Booking note: Use Eki-net or a JR station ticket counter. Select the Kanazawa stop explicitly: some trains continue to Tsuruga.
Kanazawa Kyoto
Shinkansen to Tsuruga, then Thunderbird to Kyoto. The Hokuriku One-way Ticket costs ¥6,500 for eligible foreign-passport temporary visitors.
Booking note: Buy through an overseas travel agency outside Japan; this ticket is unavailable on JR-WEST’s online reservation site. Present your passport for collection and reserve both trains.
Intercity journey times exclude hotel transfers and station waiting time.
Allow roughly ¥320,000–478,000 for two adults over ten days, sharing one room for nine nights. That adds the room, main-rail, local-transport, admission and food amounts below. Accommodation and meals are planning allowances, not hotel quotes or fixed menu packages; the named transport and attraction prices were checked on 4 October 2026. Flights, shopping, travel insurance, hotel taxes, luggage delivery and any agency fees are extra. The route uses ordinary reserved seats and meals ranging from market lunches to one booked temple meal. It doesn’t include a private driver or ski equipment. When comparing rooms, use the price for both people and the entire stay, since a nightly figure alone can hide a breakfast package or tax collected on arrival. Tax bands use each guest’s taxable accommodation share, including room-related service fees but excluding meals and consumption tax. For this winter, Tokyo charges ¥100 at ¥10,000–14,999 and ¥200 from ¥15,000, with cheaper stays exempt. Nagano began charging on 1 June 2026: ¥200 nightly for its first three years, exempt below ¥6,000. Kanazawa takes ¥200 at ¥5,000–19,999 and ¥500 from ¥20,000, with cheaper rooms exempt. Kyoto’s bands are ¥200 below ¥6,000, ¥400 at ¥6,000–19,999, ¥1,000 at ¥20,000–49,999, ¥4,000 at ¥50,000–99,999 and ¥10,000 from ¥100,000.
Booking tips
Compare Nagano Station hotels for all three nights together. Look for the bed arrangement, room size and somewhere to hang outdoor clothes; the east-exit bus and Nagaden railway will be your two day-trip departures.
The map connects the four overnight cities along the rail journey. Its markers show city centres, so use each day’s named station or attraction for the final walk. Obuse and Jigokudani are outings from Nagano; neither adds an overnight stop.
Nagano
No. The three intercity journeys total about ¥23,720 per adult with the tickets described, below the ¥50,000 online price for an ordinary seven-day pass. A pass starting on Day 3 also expires before the Day 10 Haruka. Nagaden’s railway and monkey-park bus are outside JR coverage.
No. The park describes an unpaved forest path and steps, with no wheelchair or cart access. The city visits don’t remove that barrier at Jigokudani. If the forest walk is unsuitable, give Nagano’s second day to an accessible museum or town visit and arrange its specific access with the venue.
No. Jigokudani’s pool is for the macaques; visitors watch from outside it. Human bathing is prohibited. This itinerary stays in Nagano city and includes no booked onsen session. Choose a Shibu Onsen stay instead if a hot-spring inn is a main part of the holiday.
Yes, if you want the Sanmon and Scripture House as well as the inner hall, Okaidan and museum. The three-location adult set costs ¥1,500, compared with the ¥800 inner-hall ticket used in the plan. Allow another hour and buy the set at the temple.
It needs changes. Hamarikyu closes 29 December–1 January; the Suzuki Museum closes 29 December–3 January. Hokusai closes 31 December and opens for shorter hours on 1 January, while Chikufudo’s main restaurant also closes that day. Mid-January onwards fits these visits more easily.
Stay near the airport on the final night. Day 10 assumes an afternoon international flight and a train arrival around 11:00. An early departure can require leaving Kyoto before suitable rail service. Travellers using Terminal 2 also need its shuttle transfer from the railway side of the airport.
Mention your dietary needs in the reservation form’s Remarks box. Shigetsu serves Buddhist vegetarian cuisine, and the form specifically asks about food allergies; let staff answer your ingredient questions before confirming lunch. Chikufudo’s vegetable-style set is a separate restaurant dish, so ask that restaurant about its own ingredients.
Reviewed by StartBooker
Last checked 2026-10-04
Updated
How this route was checked: Transport prices and winter 2026/27 bus changes were checked against the railway, bus company and park notices. Attraction and restaurant pages supplied entry prices, hours and booking details; independent travel publishers informed timing and day-trip coverage.
53 references reviewed
Some photos provided by Pexels.
Compare routes by length, stops and transport.
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}