Japan Travel Forum

Hi,I'm in the middle of organising where we'll go and stay in Japan and my husband now says he wants to stay out in the country in a village somewhere- something like a rice village in Bali. We'll be in Japan in mid-September. We have to stay in budget places. We don't speak Japanese, but will have phrasebook, dictionary and enjoy trying to communicate. JR pass. Just get off a train somewhere random and hope?? I gather it's not quite the done thing to rock up somewhere without having booked in advance.

This is a good question for the forum on www.japan-guide.com imo.

Thanks for alerting me to this Japan website! Very useful.

Glad that you find it helpful. I planned an entire 2-week trip almost from this site and the forum there alone.

Hi!
How about these two? I heard these two are popular for visitors from foreign countries.

http://www.harenet.ne.jp/villa/

http://www.chiiori.org/default.html
(I've been to Iya Valley. It's isolated area but in deep mountains. Really good place!)

My favorite out of the way location in Japan is the Niigata coastline. Murakami is great little sea side town, amazing value for the quality of the amenities, food, Japan's best rice, and of course the nations best nihon-shu. I compare it to Provence in France. In Septmember, it's still warm enough to swim in the ocean.

http://www.pref.niigata.jp/sangyorodo/kankoshinko/en/contents/area/msa/history/index.html

The places around Nagano are really quaint. You might like to take a look at my Nagano page for some "off the beaten path" tips with some locations. Agree with the previous poster that Niigata is lovely too.

Cheers,
Rhianon

Hi Sfumato Pants, Thanks for this tip about Niigata and Murakami. I've looked at the links several times. The inns seem only to have Japanese language on their websites. Have you been to Yuzawa? I'd like to see 'Snow Country' setting. Is it worth staying there in mid-September without the snow crowds?

Hi Hydrangea, I'd love to go to the Iya Valley and chiiori farmhouse. Wouldn't it take a lot of waiting around for buses? How long would it take to get there by train etc from Kyoto or Hiroshima?

I've spent a fair amount of time in the Echigo Yuzawa area. Being a ski resort area it has a different feel at the various times of the year. September would no doubt be quiet, some restaurants and sevices would be closed due to their seasonal nature. There are a lot of hiking trails in the area which attract people throughout the year.
I stayed in a large hotel like ryokan last August, which was very nice, as I had it all to myself. The feeling was a bit creepy at times though without the crowd, a bit like the "Shining".
I would recommend a car rental in that area, for short term use. Things are spread out far and wide.

Your question, is it worth it to stay there in September? I would say no, I would recommend the coast. The real joy of Yuzawa is to soak in a steaming outdoor pool with the moon above, surrounded by 5 feet of snow.

At this time of the year I like the beach, my favorite ryokan in Murakami is:
http://www.shiomiso.co.jp/
...right on the beach.

Some more info:
http://www.enjoyniigata.com/en/accommodations/

I'm going on and on here, but if you don't care about the ocean, I really like this place/town (Shibata).

http://www.senkei.com/

The Ryokans in this area are largely owned by farming cooperatives, or families, which take a great pride in the local produce, and they do show it off in the food and drink.

Shibata and Murakami both sound great and I appreciate your comments about Yuzawa in September. Once stayed in the Haworth Youth Hostel in Yorkshire on a cold November night and there was no-one else there - the winds whistled through the old building. There's a difference between a quiet country place and a spooky, deserted one.
We live in a beach suburb and I walk the dogs there most days,so rural Japan has more allure for this trip. Thanks for all your ideas, SfumatoPants. If you think of anything else, I'd be interested in any other suggestions. The Japan Rail Pass just cost us a lot, so we'll stick to trains and not add car hire expenses to a 16 day trip.

We just have returned from 24 day long trip around Japan. We were driving and staying in small villages and towns without making any reservations. We were visiting many cute places but none of them had a train station. You would have to get a bus or rent a car. Prices were usually around $60-70 per night for 2 people with breakfast, dinner, AC, TV, onsen, parking.
We had no problem comunicating using our phrasebooks. BEsides many people even in remote villages spoke some english, also if they did not spoke they were able to read and understand english.
The only cute place that I could think as having JR station was Kiso-Fukushima on Chuo-Line north of Nagoya. IT was not a village, but a cute town. Magome (south of it) is so much more nicer but you would have to take a taxi from the Ochiaigawa station.
Shirakawago village is a magical place but the nearest train station is 32 km away in Tsunogawa. Ryokan in Shirakawago was $70 per night for 2 people and it was located in one of those old houses (world heritage place).

Your trip sounds brilliant and the prices are manageable, too. I hope the Aussie dollar does not continue to slip in value in the next four weeks before we leave for Tokyo. We'd love to visit the thatched house village, but it does sound hard to get to. How much was car hire for 24 days and what did you pay per litre for petrol?

The village was not hard to get to at all. THere was brand new highway - TOKAI-HOKURIKU EXPRESSWAY going straight to the village. This highway was not on the map and not in the Navi. Looks like they just finished the 10 km tunel (YES, 10 km tunel!) and they finally connected the two pieces of the highway. Coming from south don't take Hida-Kiyomi exit, continue on the highway and take Shirakawago exit which is located on the end of that long tunel.
We hire the car for 18 days (the remaining days we spend in Tokyo) for little over $1143.89 from Orix company. We did not make reservation, just went to the Haneda airport and ask for the car on the spot. It was risky as there was many rental places and none of them had a car, finally nice girl from Orix told us she has brand new Mazda Demio. The petrol was more than in US but I think cheaper than in Europe. Anyway, Japan is really not that big, our car had a good milage and we didn't feel like the gas was overpriced at all. We also didn't feel like highway fees were not worth paying for. They were, what they were but you were able to get worry free and fast from point A to point B. If you try to do it on the regular road, you will have to be extra careful of the interaction with the other cars, bicycles, etc.
I just found a bill from ENEOS gas station. for 17.18 L we paid Y3023. It was in TOkyo across our rental car place. The service on the gas station is fabulous. NOt only they will wipe all your windows, but also will stop the traffic so you can get out of the station onto the road. And if you let them know you need to make a U turn, they will stop the traffic in both directions, hehehe
We paid cash everywhere, as not every place handles foregin cards. You can get a cash on every post office, even in the most remote village. Just look for the orange letters JP. ATM works only when the office is open and they close around 14 or 15 on Sundays. Most pensions and ryokans take creditcards if you run out of the cash.
As for all those brand new highways, there is few of them that GPS does not have in the system. The best way to get the newest map is to pull over to the highway office located right after you pay your highway toll on every highway (the little building next to the till booths).
Going to the village on the TOKAI-HOKURIKU EXPRESSWAY you must stop on the Hirugano-kogen rest stop located between Takasu and Shokawa exits. They have to best soft serve ice cream made from cow milk that was milked the same morning.
All the rest stops on the paid highwy are fantastic. Not only they ahve shower facilities, but also they specialize in local food and local souvenires that are the same price or cheaper than enywhere else. The food in the "trucker" (as I call it) restaurant on those rest stops is actually not bad, cooked to order and very cheap.

Dear Jawnuta, Sorry i've taken so long to reply, but your detailed advice is immensely helpful and I've been really looking into it! Thank you SO much! It's fantastic.

You are very welcome ;-)
I am in process of sorting our ... 30 GB of pictures (and short videos) from Japan and will start writting my pages and tips soon.
If you have any more questions feel free to ask!