Rail pass advice & Itinerary check for Tokyo, Yamagata & Nagano

Hi Kenneth,

You could use a 7 day JR Pass to travel from Feb 7th to Feb 13th. These are the days that you travel the most and where the best savings can be made. Overall I don't think your itinerary is too busy.

Yamadera is not a big hike, though it may be closed if there's a lot of snow fall. Weather in Japan can be a bit extreme at times. A good alternative would be a visit to Matsushima.

Hope this helps!
Daniel

Hi Daniel San,

Thank you for your swift response! I will be changing my itinerary as I was not able to find any snowboarding school in Zao that offers English speaking snowboarding lessons. I will be posting another thread to seek your advice! Much appreciated!

Hi again!

Before you cancel, did you try snowjapan.com? lot's of resources on there for winter sports.

Hi Daniel San,

Thank you for your suggestion! I tried before briefly looking through snowjapan.com. However, there is either no available information or no availability of instructor (for e.g, there is no available snowboard instructor from MountainPro in Zao, etc). Even though snowjapan indicates that Zao Ski resort provides snowboarding lesson, I tried to email them this morning (Singapore timing) but there was no response. :(

Hi again,

Try their What's app or just call if you're in a hurry.

Hi Daniel San,

I received email from Zao Onsen Tourism Association & received awesome advices from them. I guess I was too impatient to wait for the email lol!! Zao Onsen Tourism Association has recommended a school that provides English speaking instructor.

However, my wife & I decided to concentrate on Nagano & yamanouchi instead for our trip this time & will visit Zao the year after instead.
Any way, thank you so much & I really appreciate the help & advices you have been giving. :)