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Help with Itinerary Towada - Hachinohe

Hello I am finally making my dream trip to Japan 1 week down near Osaka and Kyoto, 2 weeks in Tokyo. During my 2 weeks I was hoping to make one trip from Tokyo up north to Hachinohe. My plan is to go from Tokyo to Towada on a Friday morning and spend the night locally in Towada and explore some sights. Saturday afternoon I wish to travel to Hachinohe so i can experience the Tatehana Wharf Market and also explore Kabushima island and tanesashi beach. I will probably camp at Tanesashi Saturday night. Can someone help me with this Itinerary? Will i be able to use my JR pass to get to towada from tokyo then to tanesashi from towada? Is it worth going to Towada then hachinohe or should i just focus on hachinohe? Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • Hi,
    You could do very well with a 14 day pass. You certainly have the time to see Tokyo, Kansai, and Aomori. If warm enough, a hike along the Oirase Stream would be one of the best you'll ever take.
    http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3775.html
    You can also enjoy the lake cruise on the lake.
    http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3778.html
    There is a bus schedule at:
    http://www.jrbustohoku.co.jp/route/detail/?PID=9&RID=13&BID=410
    and it's covered by the pass.

    Since you are already seeing Tokyo, you can largely skip Osaka during the day. After the temples of Kyoto close down around 5PM, you can zip over to Osaka for the evening. At night the city comes alive and has some great places to see, such as Dotonbori, plus the night views from the Umeda Sky Bldg and Abeno Harukas Bldg are wonderful.
    On another evening, you could also go and see Kobe.

    Instead, I suggest you take at least half a day and see Nara - it was also a former capital and has some of Japan's best sights. Nara is often neglected by some tourists, which is a shame. Missing the Todaiji Great Buddha would be a tragedy. Nara Park has a lot of other great places, such as Kasuga Shrine, Kofukuji Temple, and feeding the many deer in the area.
    Seeing Himeji in the region with Japan's best castle is also very worthwhile.

    Good luck.
  • Thank you. I should have mentioned my first week I will make day trips from Osaka 1 trip to hiroshima and miyajima. 1 trip to kobe and 1 to nara probably half days. I will explore Osaka only a small portion. then 2 days in Kyoto to explore temples.

    For the Aomori section Where do you recommend i stay? I only have time for Towada and Hachinohe Should i spend all day Friday in towada and sleep in towada and saturday make my way to hachinohe to catch the market sunday morning?
  • The bus from Towadako to Hachinohe is about 2 hours 15 minutes, so if you did the overnight there you'd mostly miss the busy times in the morning markets in Hachinohe (especially the Wharf Market & Hachinohe Minato Morning Market, but less so the Hasshoku Center).

    It depends on your priorities of course. If it were me, I'd make the Oirase stream and Towada a day trip. It's 2 hours by bus to the start of the stream walk at Nenokuchi, the walk itself is about 2½ hours, and if you want to do a lake cruise, it is about 50 minutes long. That's enough to see the area and relax a bit - as shown on the bus schedule I linked to, the morning bus from Hachinohe leaves at 8 AM and last bus returning to Hachinohe leaves at 3:20 PM. That would allow you an early morning arrival at the market(s).

    The other issue is cost. Most places to stay around Towadako are rather upscale and pricey (but could also be a memorable experience). Hachinohe though has places like Toyoko Inn and at about ¥5200 a night is very reasonable. That said, maybe you had your heart set on staying by the lake overnight, so I can't decide for you.
  • Thanks so much that helped me alot. I was thinking of going friday but do you think I can go from Tokyo to hachinohe early morning saturday then take bus from hachinohe to towada lake explore Oraise stream and catch a return bus back to Hachinohe saturday evening? If I could do this the trip would be perfect because Sunday I can be there for the markets and head back to tokyo sunday night. And it saves friday for another trip. Would that work? Saturday tokyo - hachinohe early morning train then bus from hachinohe to towada explore 3 to 5 hours then bus from towada back to hachihone saturday evening?
  • If you have not used it already, please use Hyperdia to check rail schedules, routes, fares, etc.
    http://www.hyperdia.com
    The earliest departure from Tokyo is around 6:30 - if you look at the bus schedule, that would get you to Towada at around noon - leaving you at most about 3½ hours to see the lake.

    So could you do it? Yes - but is it worth it? With over 4 hours of bus travel round trip on top of the 3 hours from Tokyo, not really, in my view.

    For the rest of your trip in Kansai and beyond, you also might look at what is there to see what you want to do more.
    You can see previews of some of the best places to see there on:
    https://www.youtube.com/user/thejapanfaq/videos
  • You are right I think I will leave northern japan for another trip. That is alot of time spent traveling and not enough time spent enjoying. I will try to find more local things to do. Thanks for all the responses it really helped make my decision.
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