18- Day Road Trip through Rural Japan with deep snow, high mountains, and spring blossoms!

On this episode, we set off on our big trip over spring break at the end of March. We drive from our home in Kagoshima to the ferry port of Shibushi to catch the 14 hour overnight ship to downtown Osaka. After a few days with friends, we head up to Lake Biwa, obscured with air pollution, then weave in and out of the mountains and along rivers and coastline to see Japan’s northern alps, finishing this leg as we pass through the ski town of Hakuba, still buried in snow.

We spent 18 days on the road traveling from Kagoshima, Kyushu up through central Honshu and back over our spring break. We drove about 3,300 km (2,000 miles). We spent every night in our simple van conversion with our Alaskan Husky, Taku. Rural Japan is where our heart is and it is amazing to see!

Kagoshima to Shibushi to Osaka to Lake Biwa to Hakuba to Nagano to Snow Monkeys to Nikko to Niigata to Noto Peninsula to Kanazawa to Himeji to Hiroshima to home!