Day 7
Morning: Kenrokuen
I booked my tickets via Bushikaku instead of Willer Express and JapanBusOnline which I found some are more expensive by more than 50%. If fellow forummer need help on this let me know. Kanazawa is snowing that day so is really fun for someone never experience snowing before    Took the conventional commuter bus instead of Loop Bus since I'm at Kanazawa station early. The garden itself during winter is really majestic, worth the second visit.



Afternoon: Takayama
Booked Nohi Bus via JapanBusOnline from Kanazawa to Takayama. Tried their rice cakes, walk around the old streets and visited some shrines. Went to Harada Sake Brewery to try their sake. For 300¥ they allow visitors to try 12 kinds of sake once and let you keep the cup.

Only regret is didnt take train to Hida Furukawa visit around and take the photo at the train station.

Day 8
Morning: Miyagawa Morning Market + Shirakawago
During Winter market opens at 8am, but only 5 stalls when I visited on Saturday. Street itself is very nice to photograph though at early morning. Took bus to Shirakawago walk around village and visited the Outdoor Museum. The museum is a must visit if you want to see the collection of Gassho Zukkuri. There's little to none tourist here yet this place offers one of the best photo taking spots in Shirakawago.





Afternoon: Suganuma + Ainokura
Took Kaetsuno World Heritage Bus to Suganuma and is quieter than Shirakawago. Final stop at Ainokura check in Yomoshiro as per sweetpez recommendation. Host were very courteous, the second best after Hana Hostel at Fujisan Station.



Day 9
Morning: Shirakawago
After wander around Ainokura Village and took photo at the viewpoint, took bus back to Shirakawago explore remaining of the area and took bus again to Takaoka Station for Light Up Tour.



Evening: Shirakawago Light Up
From Takaoka I joined the Kaetsunou bus tour to Shirakawago for Light Up. Apparently the Shiroyama viewpoint usually open for public to ascend during daylight is closed during light up and only allow descend. Anyway the viewpoint is crazily crowded during the light up but the view is really magical so can see why so much ppl flock to there.   After that return to Takaoka from Shirakawago I took overnight bus to Tokyo from Toyama.



Day 10:
Morning: Tokyo Station + Yushima Tenmangu
Mainly visit area around Tokyo Station and went to Yushima Tenmangu to see plum blossom. No tourist around and plenty of room to check out the plum blossoms. Absolutely gorgeous to look at. 



Afternoon: Akihabara
Revisit Akiba to reconfirm prices, item availability and souvenirs shopping. For plastic models, I noticed Radio Kaikan AmiAmi is the cheapest, followed by Yellow Submarine. Tools/accessories wise Yodobashi Camera Akiba definitely got more choices and cheaper than RadioKaikan.

Had lunch at Kasugatei as per Chinti recommendation. Have to say such ramen is refreshing to chow. Love every bit of it. 

I did check the Kitkat store forummers mentioned here, sadly apart from Tokyo Banana the rest of the Kitkats can be found in Don Quijote at cheaper prices.

Evening: Odaiba
Quick stop at Odaiba area to see Tokyo Bigsight then to Oedo Onsen Monogatari finally to DiverCity and surrounding area before concluding the trip.



Dear Admin;

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I'd like to ask, if let say I wish to stay in one place in tokyo, meaning everytime go travel will come back to the same place at night, which area to recommend to look for?

For now mar22 first bloom mar29 full bloom. You need to pray that there is no strong wind / rain those few days before you arrive because a big storm will wipe everything out. If conditions are calm then 1st April still will be very nice, trees will be mostly pink and the petals starting to drop so it's like raining petals (hanafubuki)

I can say you will most likely miss the counter. By the time you take the shuttle train to the main building and then pass immigration and then customs checks, it would be way pass 10pm. All the tourists and sales counters are on the ground floor. Arrival is the on the 1st floor.

Right, thought the same too, bought just the nankai ticket where the counter will be open until 11pm. Thanks!

My first time going japan. i will be in tokyo during mid of next month, hows the weather there like? like genting?

And landing in haneda at 10:15pm, am i still able to catch the trains to city? kayabacho area

too bad wanted to buy disneyland tix from klook, but the collections counter are closed by the time i reach 

9:15pm and 10:15 pm alot big diffrence.
10:15pm will have ANA flight from Singapore, Emirates from Dubai , Hawaiian Air from Honolulu. Emirates A380 will bring 500+ passenger into Haneda at that time, custom section will bottleneck

I see. Appreciated your input. As for side trip, have you did any side trip to mount fuji? To Hakone or Lake Kawaguciko? I'm planning Lake Kawaguciko thou.
Any recommendation on other options of JR passes? Thanks.

Gonan be challenging for sure and the double beds in Japan are small so gotta be careful with that as well. A lot of them are like 120-130cm beds.

Like this for example, APA Hotel in Tokyo


How many nights and when are you going? Care to share the budget?

Safety rating 10 before 12am
Safety rating 7 after 12am to 3am

Subway last train at 11 - 12am period are worst of the worst
I give 3 out of 10