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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Footos3003 on 2025-01-03 16:46:33+00:00.

I’m starting to think about my next trip to Japan, and thought I might do a report on the first road trip we did in Japan last year:

Itinerary Overview

• Day 1: Nikko
• Day 2-3: Aizuwakamatsu
• Day 4: Tsuruoka/Mount Haguro
• Day 5 Akita/Kakunodate/Lake Tazawa
• Day 6 Hirosaki/Lake Towada
• Day 7: Sanrikku Coast
• Day 8: Matsushima
• Day 9-17: Tokyo

Driving route

Background

• Went with my wife (34yo both) in April, this was our 3rd trip to Japan.
• Since we had already seen most of the usual touristy places, we wanted to do something a little bit more off the beaten path. We decided to rent a car for this
• Our goal was to finally go for the sakura season, but avoiding the crowds by doing it in the Tôhoku region. Not only is this region less visited overall, but sakura bloom later there so we could avoid the early april rush. Unfortunately, 2023 had a very early Sakura season, so we ended up mising them for most of the trip…
• When I travel with my wife in Japan, our main areas of focus are usually temples, nature, historic towns, and Japanese gardens (which are probably my favourite places to see in Japan)
• Our trip was 17 days in total, but the 2nd part was in Tokyo and mostly dedicated to shopping/leisure, so I will mostly focus on the Tohoku road trip
• We covered around 1400km in 8 days, which represented around 3h of driving per day. This might seem packed, but the pace felt honestly perfect, we never felt like we had to rush for anything and our itinerary left us plenty of time for unplanned visits.

Trip Report - 8 days Tôhoku road trip

Day 0 (Tokyo):

• We arrived in Narita in the evening, and just went to Tokyo to sleep and prepare for the next day

Day 1 (Nikko):

• Took of the train from Tokyo to Nikko then picked up our rental car at the Nikko station
• We started by exploring the temple area: Rinnoji, Tôshô-gu and Futurasan-jinja.
• On the way we also did the small Japanese garden (Shôyô-en), and the Shinkyō bridge.
• After the temple area we went to the Kanmangafuchi abyss. Very calming place, and strangely the slight rain really suited the place. We didn’t see anyone else there. Unexpected highlight of the day
• We then took the car to the Kegon Waterfalls, and headed back to our hotel in Nikko

Day 2 (Aizuwakamatsu):

• We left in the morning to drive to Aizuwakamatsu. On the way, we stopped at Tō-no-Hetsuri cliffs. Having a car for these kind of places is really nice, as they are usually not worth the hassle by public transport, but driving makes them much more accessible.
• Arrived in Aizuwakamatsu (old samurai city), we started with the Aizuwakamatsu castle and Oyakuen garden. We came across a school trip in Aizuwakamatsu castle, as there were dozens of students visiting when we were there.
• We the Suzuzen lacquerware shop, a 200 year-old shop which sells traditional Aizuwakamatsu lacquerware.
• We headed back to our hotel, a luxury ryokan with an amazing private bath on our balcony, with a view on the whole area.

Day 3 (Aizuwakamatsu):

• We continued Aizuwakamatsu with the historical Nisshinkan samurai school. Beautiful place with a rich history. They show movies about its history, and also provide basic kyûdo introductory class which we took.
• After that, we followed the scenic Tadami train line (except we did it by car), visiting the Enzoji temple (photos were not allowed) and admiring the view of the Tadami bridge
• We then left Aizuwakamatsu to drive to Tsuruoka. Instead of the highway, we took the scenic road following the coastline. We stopped on the way several times to enjoy beautiful viewpoints, or hang out at the beach
• Just before Tsuruoka, we checked out at our hotel, another beautiful luxury ryokan with a gorgeous inner garden and private onsens.

Day 4 (Tsuruoka/Dewa Sanzan):

• After enjoying the onsen and inner garden of the hotel, we left for the Kamo aquarium, mostly dedicated to jellyfish.
• Next we went to Mount Haguro, doing a short hike in the woods until the wooden pagoda. I really like these forest temples.
• After mount Haguro, we stopped at Gyokusenji a nearby temple with a beautiful garden (did I mention that I love Japanese gardens?). The temple doesn’t seem well known, but the garden is amazing. I’ve visited close to 30 gardens in Japan, and I would easily put Gyokusenji in my top 5. Large and impressive stroll gardens like Korakuen, Byōdō-in or Kenrokuen are usually more famous, but these small temple gardens have such a unique calming atmosphere (similar to Sanzen’in in Kyoto for those who have been there). We enjoyed the view of the garden from the temple for almost 1h completely alone.
• We finished Tsturoka with the Honma art museum, doing both the museum and its garden. We then drove to Akita and did a little bit of shopping around the station.

Day 5 (Akita/Kakunodate/Lake Tazawa):

• We started with Senshu Park in Akita, which is supposed to be a nice Sakura spot. Unfortunately sakura season was already over in Akita at that time.
• We moved to Kakunodate and its samurai houses. The historical neighborhood is really nice, but the sakura festival was honestly underwhelming. It was probably the most touristy place that we did, with strangely more people than in Nikko.
• We then drove to Tazawa lake. The area is really beautiful, especially Gozanoishi jinja, with its torii right in front of the lake. We then continued to Hirosaki.

Day 6 (Hirosaki/Lake Towada):

• We took the whole morning to visit the area of the Hirosaki Castle. The castle itself is okay, but the whole park is really nice, and we finally managed to get blooming cherry blossoms! The festival around the castle was huge and very lively. There were tons of families enjoying a weekend picnic. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip!
• As a weird sidenote, we probably had the best pizza of our life in Hirosaki (and I’ve been to Italy 4 times). Pizzeria Napoli doesn’t look like much but it’s absolutely delicious!
• Still around the castle, we went to the Fujita Memorial garden. very nice stroll garden, and a wonderful example of borrowed scenery.
• On the outskirts of Hirosaki, we also visited Seibi-En, a garden that served as inspiration for Ghibli’s Arrietty
• We then moved to the Towada lake. This was the first destination that was really disappointing, and even a little bit depressing. The area isn’t particularly interesting except for the panomaric views, and it looks like it was meant to be a huge leisure resort that it never took off. Half the hotels are in ruins, most shops are closed, and the huge parking lot had only 2 cars parked. We just stayed to have a drink in the only cafe that was opened, and continued further.

Day 7 (Sanrikku Coast):

• Starting from Towada city, we first visited a small mostly unknown mountain temple, Hakukasan Hokoji. I found it randomly on google maps and couldn’t find much info about it online, but it’s a stunning place, beautiful temple, pagoda and garden. Probably also now one of my favourite temples in Japan. We were able to enjoy it alone as we didn’t see anyone else there either., which adds a lot to the charm.
• We then started our drive across the beautifull rugged Sanrikku Coast. We had several stops to enjoy the wonderful views like Kitayamazaki or Unosu cliff.
• We drove along the coast to our hotel Houraikan Inn. This was a special stay, as the hotel is famous for having been almost destroyed by the 2011 tsunami (it’s located right on the seafront), with the employees and guests miraculously surviving thanks to a small escape route to the moutains behind the hotel. The owner reopened the hotel after reconstruction and she still tells the stories to the guests.

Day 8 (Matsushima):

• We continued driving south along the ocean, until we reached Matsushima
• In Matsushima, we visited a few temples and gardens**:** Entsuin, Godaido and Zuiganji, and then did a short sightseeing cruise of the Matsushima Bay.
• We then drove to Sendai, returned our car at the station, and took the Shinkansen to Tokyo

**Days 9-17 …

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