A Perfect Winter Trip with the Hokuriku Arch Pass

A Perfect Trip with the 5-Day Hokuriku Arch Pass The difficulty of using this pass is that the locations are scattered. The pass covers two prefectures (Kyoto and Osaka) and six counties (Aichi, Gifu, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, and Shiga), and the attractions are very different: ancient temples, snowy scenery in Hokuriku, handicrafts in Kanazawa, amusement parks in Osaka, and a wide variety of food: Hida beef in Takayama, seafood from the Sea of Japan, and soba noodles everywhere in Japan. There are also many key experiences: gold leaf making, hot springs, skiing, temple retreats, and walking tours of ancient streets. There are many ways to combine these experiences. After discussing with my daughter and wife, we decided to focus on: Takayama (Hida beef), Shirakawa-go (snow and night views), Kanazawa (21st Century Museum, gold leaf experience, seafood market), and Kyoto (Fushimi Inari-taisha, Kiyomizu-dera, and Kamo River). Almost every hotel in this area has a hot spring. Some only have a large bath, but after a long day of travel, it's enough to soak your feet. To make the most of the JR pass, staying near a JR station is the most important consideration, so we didn't book a hot spring hotel or homestay. My daughter is now in the second year of junior high school, and her physical strength and energy are on par with ours, but our focus on travel has not changed: to cover as many points of interest as possible while leaving as much free time as possible. A basic principle is to travel without luggage as much as possible. The key to this trip is how to make the most of the pass and change hotels as little as possible. Here is our actual itinerary: D0: Arrive in Nagoya and travel to Takayama, stay at Takayama Associate, you can refer to our review of this hotel. On the first day of the trip, we chose the hotel breakfast because the hotel needs a shuttle bus to the station. The breakfast at this hotel is almost perfect. D1: Visit Takayama in the morning, and have yakiniku at the Yamatake Shoten in the afternoon. This is highly recommended in the ancient travel bible LP. The three of us ate nearly 800 grams of Hida beef, the only regret is that it took an hour to go to Takayama Jinya, and this extra hour was spent on every piece of sizzling meat. In the afternoon, take the Nohi Bus to Shirakawa-go, and spend three hours in the sun, leisurely and perfect. At 6:55, continue to take the Nohi Bus to Kanazawa, and stay at Kanazawa Mystays Castle, a cost-effective triple room. D2: Booked a tour guide from KGGN, who has lived in Kanazawa for 15 years. He took us to the teahouse, gold leaf experience, Kenrokuen, and Kanazawa Castle, and told us stories until 4 pm. We packed a few boxes of sushi and sashimi at the seafood market and returned to the hotel in the rain. D3: Go to Eiheiji Temple in Fukui. Eiheiji Temple is a unique temple in Japan, quiet and peaceful. We wore slippers throughout the tour, wandering in the quiet and distant place, as if we had traveled through time and space. Compared with the temples in Kyoto two days later, it was a world of difference. We were all very happy to have the opportunity to spend half a day in this paradise. Eiheiji Temple left us with the most memorable memories of Japanese temples. D4: Spend half a day in Kanazawa, free time, almost along the route of D2, Kanazawa is really worth spending half a day, free to walk around, the museum area, quiet and atmospheric. In the afternoon, go straight to Kyoto and visit Fushimi Inari-taisha. There are many crows, and there are many CEOs and COOs behind the torii gate. They also come to visit. D5: Go to Kiyomizu-dera in the morning, and there are crowds of people in front of the bus stop at the foot of the mountain. In the afternoon, we booked a night tour of the Osaka Aquarium. We were in the dark, and the fish were in the light, which was worth a night tour. The main transportation from D1 to D5 is covered by this pass. If you have time, you can book a reserved seat, if you don't have time, you can just get on the train, which really saves a lot of time. D6: Free time in Kyoto, walk through Nishiki Market, linger on both sides of the Kamo River, Hanamikoji Street, Kiyamachi Street, and stay the most on the Kamo River, watching the leisurely ducks, pigeons, and other unknown birds... A perfect trip...