Winter 2025 Itinerary and Tokyo Airports

 

This 2025 trip is a 14 day

Itinerary

Tokyo - Kanagawa - Aichi - Nagano - Gunma December 8 - 22, 2025

• Honolulu - Haneda (+1)
• Tokyo Metropolis - Ginza district 2 nights
• Kanagawa Prefecture - Hakone 1 night
• Aichi Prefecture - Nagoya 3 nights
• Nagano Prefecture - Matsumoto 3 nights
• Gunma Prefecture - Shima 1 night
• Tokyo Metropolis - Asakusa district 1 night

Tokyo Airports

There are two major airports in Tokyo that have direct flights from Honolulu to Tokyo: Narita and Haneda. Both have an international terminal and a domestic terminal. Both have a train station downstairs. Both offer pocket wifi booths that we use to pre-order our pocket wifi device once we get in.  There is really no difference unless you have to hang out in the airport for a while. If that is the case, Haneda has more things to do prior to going through security. If you have access to the Sakura Lounge (you have status on JAL or Hawaiian/ATMOS), then Narita has the larger, nicer lounge. Even if you are not in business class, if you have Gold status on ATMOS (formerly Platinum on Hawaiian), you will see Sakura lounge printed on your ticket. You are allowed to bring one guest. The decision usually just comes down to the cheaper deal. 

Narita

 

Narita International Airport is in the Chiba district, about 37 miles away from central Tokyo, or the Tokyo Metropolis. Although Narita is farther away,  there is a direct train, the Skyliner that is a limited express from Narita airport to Ueno. Our friends usually stay in Ueno and travel from there. We actually like to stay at Art Hotel Narita for one night and then head over to Ginza in the morning after the Japanese buffet. The hotel has a free shuttle to and from the airport so we take that both ways and head to our next destination after the mid morning checkout time (after Big Spazz goes to the onsen one last time). 

Side note on onsen/public baths

Big Spazz loves to go ofuro, which is a traditional Japanese deep soaking tub. If you have yonsei in Hawaiʻi, you probably have sugar plantation roots. The Japanese camps would have these public baths with the bathing done outside of the ofuro, and then once clean, the ofuro is used for soaking away the sore muscles and strains. It does wonders when we are traveling and doing about 20,000 steps a day.  Both of us also grew up with ofuro in our family homes. My grandfather in Lahaina had a redwood furo in the outside shower on a small platform. In two of our homes in Hilo, we have ofuro, or at least space for one with large shower and benches right outside the ofuro. When my mom and I lived in Wakayama, the outside of the furo in the apartment was powered by a propane tank outside. I think the Lahaina furo used wood. 

When we travel to Japan, I am making a list of hotels with bathing facilities and that becomes the go to so that Big Spazz can enjoy the "spa" facilities every night and morning. It is a very nominal fee (an onsen charge), that as the only adult in our nuclear family with no tattoos, he may as well enjoy.

I, on the other hand, am not allowed, so we end our stay at a ryokan with private outdoor facilities. More of that in the Kashiwaya Onsen post. The policies are very specific. No one with tattoos is welcome in the hotel public baths, even if you can hide a small tattoo with a sticker. The exception I have found is in Hokkaido. My son, a tattoo artist, also says that the hotels are very strict, however, public baths, even in Tokyo are more lax as long as there are not too many tattooʻd individuals in the facilities at once. There is still a yakuza stigma to tattoos so research first and ask (tattoo. . .ok?)

I will write in another post on the "how to" of onsen, but in short, most facilities are not onsen unless you specifically go to an onsen area, usually in the mountains like Shima, Nagano, Hakone. Onsen means that it uses natural hot spring water.  Rotenburo are open-air onsen, Ken's favorite so that he can sit outside in the cold air then go back into the hot water. When I list our hotel choices, I will say if there is an outdoor, rotenburo option. Most hotels, though, have what they call a daiyokujo, even if they call it an onsen. Daiyokujo just means a large bathing space. They have men's facilities and women's facilities.

Hakone 

Hakone is in Tokyo Central. Because it is close, we go on local trains, so to Ginza, there is one line change, from the Keikyū line to Higashi Ginza station. It will look like a transfer, but for this train line only, it changes to the Asakusa line at the Senkakuji station. Either way, we never know if we can find elevators, so try to go with a backpack and a rolling carryon versus a large suitcase. If there are no visible elevators or escalators, know that the trains are underground for the most part, so stairs could be your nemesis. 

This is one of those do what I say, not what we did photos. My husband brings gifts for all of the hotel front desks and individually wrapped cookies and candies for people we meet along the way that help us out. My carry on is on the left, he has this larger luggage, a bag and a carryon, plus a backpack. We brought too much for 14 d00ays so we ended up sending our bags ahead at almost every hotel. The issue is really the airport to the first hotel and the last hotel to the airport. We have also done other things like leave our big bag at a train station locker or even an airport locker, but next time we will just wash clothes more and pack smaller. Regardless, we will continue to send the bags, because the price is worth the convenience.

Sending bags from hotel to hotel

Unlike our friends who stay in one place and radiate from there. we wanted to follow the mountains in the middle of Japan this year, so we sent our bags from one hotel to another. Give about a day for transfer, so most times we would send our bags the afternoon prior to leaving. For our Matsumoto to Gunma to Asakusa leg, we were just staying overnight at the ryokan so we actually sent our bags to Asakusa as we were checking out to go to Gunma. 

The price for a 160 cm and a 140 cm bag (one large roll bag and one carry on size roll bag) was about $26 in 2025. The front desks all have services and they will call your receiving hotel first to ensure that you are indeed going to stay with them. You need to pay in cash (yen) and it is helpful to have the actual address and phone number for the next hotel. I use the hotels.com app to find and reserve rooms, so they have the address and phne number on the app as it gets closer to your check in date.