SuY

My husband and I are interested in doing an active vacation in Japan at end of August. Never been there before. We are both pretty active and was hoping to do a 3 day hike or so out of a 7 day trip. We don't have any preference on a particular area so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Does anyone have any ideas/recommendations? Thanks!

KimJapan

Go to the mountains in the Nagano area, or better yet, Hokkaido. August is very, very, very, very hot...and I mean hot. We have gone to Bangkok in August for relief...I'm not kidding.

http://www.outdoorjapan.com/hiking-c...roduction.html

http://www.traildatabase.org/countries/japan.html

These links will get you started I hope. Once more for emphasis...it's really HOT, so go north and go up high.

mrwunrfl

Take a look for info on Tazawako. It is just off the Akita shinkansen line in Tohoku between Morioka and Akita. I believe that there is hiking in the area around the lake (Tazawa).

You can also visit Nyuto Onsen in the same area. Visit Kakunodate and see the samurai houses.

Tazawako looks like it is far from Tokyo but it is only 3 hours away on the Komachi shinkansen train.

There is a 5-day JR East Pass that would apply to this travel (and/or Nagano) for 20,000 yen. Or the 7-day all-Japan JR Pass for 28,300.

mrwunrfl

The JNTO website page for Akita-ken.
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/RTG/RI/toh.../tazawako.html

The following PDF is also from JNTO
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/RTG/PTG/pdf/pg-204.pdf

AmandaH

Hi there,
YES! Hokkaido! come here!
end of August is a good time because most of the domestic visitors have returned to office and school..
I'd recommend the Taisetsu/Daisetsu Mountains in the center of Hokkaido - you can go up one side - hike across and come down the other end..both sides served by public transport...very beautiful!!!
Or go east to Shakotan in Hokkaido, the newest World heritage Site, home of bears and birds and stuff...

and Hokkaido is not so hot in summer...lots of youth hostels and friendly lodges to stay in

amanda

SuY

Thanks much for the suggestions. Didn't realise it would get that hot. A couple of suggestions that I was given include Kamikochi-Yarigatake-Hotakadake or the Tateyama-Tsurugidake. Any thoughts on which is better from a weather/crowd standpoint?

KimJapan

Both the Tateyama route and the Kamikochi route are beautiful and busy. If Hokkaido is out of the question, either Tateyama or kamikochi would be great, or the Akita route mrwnrfl mentioned.

mrwunrfl

I visited Kamikochi at the end of May '04. There were plenty of walkers and quite a few hikers w/packs. Weather was cool. I got to Kamikochi on the second or third bus from Takayama that day and got a bus ticket for later in the afternoon that day. Got the next-to-last ticket and the bus was full. There were no traffic issues though. It occurred to me at the time that it must get crazy during the summer, tho. I would not plan that visit for the weekend, for sure.