Best time to visit Hokkaido

December to February is arguably the best time to visit Hokkaido and the Japanese Alps for travellers who want something genuinely extraordinary. Japan in winter is a different country.

The alpine village of Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Gifu Prefecture, receives some of the heaviest snowfall of any inhabited place on earth. The traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, built with steep thatched roofs specifically to shed the weight of snow, sit buried to their eaves in white. In the evenings, the village is illuminated with warm light filtering through the snow. It looks like a scene from another century. Because in most respects, it still is.

Further north, the ski resorts of Niseko and Furano in Hokkaido receive world-class powder snow, consistently rated among the finest in Asia. But the winter appeal of Hokkaido goes far beyond skiing. The ice floes that drift south from the Sea of Okhotsk in late January and February create one of Asia’s most dramatic winter seascapes. At Abashiri, on Hokkaido’s northeastern coast, icebreaker cruises push through the pack ice while Steller’s sea eagles circle overhead. It is unlike anywhere else on earth.

Cherry blossom season in Japan is genuinely one of the greatest natural events. The sakura front, the wave of flowering that moves northward from Kyushu to Hokkaido between late March and early May, is tracked by the Japan Meteorological Corporation and followed by national obsession. For good reason.

The best time to visit Japan for cherry blossoms is late March to mid-April in most of Honshu, Tokyo, Kyoto, and the cities in between. But the crowds in these places have grown dramatically. If cherry blossom is your primary reason for visiting, consider going somewhere most travellers do not.

The remote castle town of Hirosaki, in northern Honshu, has 2,600 cherry trees around its feudal castle. The crowds are a fraction of Kyoto’s. The mountain village of Takato, in the Japanese Alps, is known among Japanese travellers as one of the finest cherry blossom spots in the country, virtually unknown internationally. And in Hokkaido, the sakura season arrives in late April to early May, a month later than Tokyo, offering a second chance at the spectacle in a far wilder setting.

EE recommends: Pair cherry blossoms in the Japanese Alps with a ryokan stay in the historic post town of Nagiso or Tsumago on the old Nakasendo highway. You get the blossoms without the crowds, and a glimpse of Edo-period Japan that most visitors never find.

Japan has some of the world’s great walking routes. The Kumano Kodo, on the Kii Peninsula south of Osaka, is one of only two pilgrimage routes in the world to hold UNESCO World Heritage status alongside the Camino de Santiago. It passes through ancient cedar forests, past waterfalls and mountain shrines, on paths that have been walked for over a thousand years.

The Nakasendo, the old mountain highway between Tokyo and Kyoto, passes through the preserved post towns of Magome and Tsumago in the Kiso Valley, where the Edo period feels genuinely present. For expedition-minded travellers, these routes offer something that temples and bullet trains cannot, a Japan experienced at walking pace, through landscapes that tourism has barely touched.

Ready to see Japan differently? Whether it is winter wildlife in Hokkaido, alpine hiking in the Kita Alps, or walking the Kumano Kodo, we build Japan expedition itineraries that go beyond the standard tour. Get in touch with the Exclusive Expeditions team to start planning.