Japan 🇯🇵 - Kanazawa

Tips 👏

• Check the live webcams online before driving to the Shinhotaka Ropeway. We drove all the way there only to find it cloudy at the top.
• Shops in Takayama's old city close quite early, around 5 pm, so arrive with enough time to stroll.
• Bring towel & change with you when exploring surroundings, there's a lot of 'wild onsen' with no facilities but that worth checking!
• In winter there's lots of snow on those roads, make sure to rent an SUV or at least get snow tyres. We were surprised to see they don't remove snow fast and the roads were tiny and icy.

Accommodation 🏠

In Kanazawa, we stayed at Hotel Amanek Kanazawa. It was super modern with spacious rooms and a great breakfast. The location was central, and having parking on-site was super convenient for our rental car.

For our stop in Takayama, we chose HOTEL WOOD TAKAYAMA. It had very nice, modern rooms and was super central with parking available. A really nice bonus was the lounge which offered free drinks and sake tasting.

Restaurants & Food 🍜

• Ippudo (Kanazawa): The famous ramen chain, great for a quick lunch and delicious lunch (still prefer Ichiran but very good too)
• Seasonal Fish and Vegetables (Kanazawa): An izakaya specialized in local crabs. We didn't have a great experience here because we pre-booked a set menu which we didn't liked, but other than that was quite authentic.
• Omicho Market (Kanazawa): A must-visit for food stalls. The croquettes were very good, but the beef sushi with golden leaves were amazing.
• Pari King (Kanazawa): Amazing selection of gyoza, including vegetarians.
• Hakusuien (Shirakawa-go): An amazing lunch spot where we enjoyed Hida beef cooked on a leaf, check it out!

Getting there 🚲

We caught an early flight to Kanazawa and picked up a rental car immediately upon arrival (the airport is 1h drive from the city). Having the car was essential for the later legs of the trip into the mountains and surroundings.

Duration ⏱

We spent four days total: two days exploring Kanazawa, one day in the Shirakawa-go and Takayama area, and a final day driving through the Alps to Hakuba.

Kanazawa 🏯

At this point we were a bit smashed of the trip, so we decided to take it easy. After a late & chill wake up and a random stroll in the city, we made our way to Kenroku-en Gardens, which are considered some of the most beautiful in Japan. It was a lovely place to walk around, with amazing views on the city.

From there, we walked to the Nagamachi samurai district to soak in the historical atmosphere and visit a couple of historic and traditional houses.

Shirakawa-go 🛖

On the second day, we woke up early and drove to Shirakawa-go in 1h. We crossed the bridge and visited the Kanda House, one of the traditional thatched-roof farmhouses. We strolled through the village, stopped at the local shrine, and took a short uphill walk to the observatory. The view from there is nice but over-hyped and require quite a steep hike (although it's possible to take a shuttle).

Takayama & The Alps 🏔

After lunch, we drove on to Takayama. We spent the late afternoon strolling through the old city shops and tasting sake at the Hirara Sake Brewery (super friendly) before everything closed for the evening. We wrapped up the day with a relaxing onsen at our hotel. Overall the little town was very nice and quite, with old-fashioned streets buzzing with food & souvenir shops (quite touristy again!)

The next morning, we drove toward the Shinhotaka Ropeway on snow-covered roads. Since the weather at the top was cloudy, we backtracked to the town of Hirayu. We originally planned to visit a large onsen complex hotel Hirayu no Mori but found it closed, so we opted for the local public onsen, Hirayu-no-yu. It cost only 300 JPY and was an incredible experience. It is very rustic with only a tiny changing room, but sitting in the hot water looking at the snow-covered trees was a highlight. Take a towel!

To finish the trip, we stopped briefly at Matsumoto Castle for a quick view and coffee before making the final drive to Hakuba for the night. Note that the castle is one of the most-well preserved in Japan, but we didn't had time to visit.

Hope this was helpful, you can ask us any questions on Instagram.