Taiwan and
Japan

Across the date line

• We flew into San Francisco from two different cities that morning and met at the gate.
• Then the afternoon nonstop to Taipei, about 14 hours. It lands around 8 PM the next evening, so you lose a whole day crossing the date line. Sleep when the cabin goes dark.

Night market on arrival

• From Taoyuan Airport we took an Uber into the city: about 50 minutes, door to door. It's the easy choice at night or in the rain. The Airport MRT express is the cheaper option, 35 to 40 minutes to Taipei Main Station.
• We stayed at Grand Hyatt Taipei in Xinyi, right next to Taipei 101. For New Year's Eve that location is the whole point: you can walk to the fireworks and walk back.
• We dropped our bags and went straight out to Raohe Street Night Market, a short taxi ride away, before it closed around midnight. Grilled corn on a stick was the first thing we ate in Taiwan. At the temple-gate end, look for the black pepper buns (hujiao bing) baked on the walls of a clay oven.

Pull out some Taiwan dollars at the airport ATM. Night markets, small breakfast shops and taxis still like cash. Pick up an EasyCard at any 7-Eleven or FamilyMart for the MRT and buses.

Breakfast sandwiches, and New Year's Eve under Taipei 101

• Breakfast at 巨林美而美 仁愛店, a neighbourhood breakfast shop on Ren'ai Road. The sandwich with meat piled on top was really good, and so was the tuna crepe. One of our favourite meals of the whole trip.
• A second, early lunch at Hawker Chan, the Taipei branch of the Singapore stall that was the first street-food hawker to win a Michelin star. The soy sauce chicken is the thing to get.
• We had booked haircuts for the four of us that afternoon. They didn't turn out well, and we wouldn't book a salon on vacation again, especially for colour.
• Dinner with friends at YEN, the Cantonese restaurant on the 31st floor of the W, with views over Xinyi.
• Then a New Year's Eve party at ATT 4 FUN, the nightlife mall a block from Taipei 101, for the midnight fireworks off the tower. Low cloud sat on the top of Taipei 101 all night, so at midnight the fireworks lit up the fog in pink and green. Less of a view, more of a glow, and still worth it.

Taipei's MRT runs all night on New Year's Eve, but the stations at Taipei 101 and City Hall are packed after midnight. Walk 15 minutes to Xinyi Anhe or Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall instead, or stay close enough to walk home like we did.

A slow New Year's Day

• A late start after a late night. Taipei is quiet on New Year's morning, and a lot of small shops open late or not at all.
• We picked up pastries from a bakery run by a friend's family, and otherwise rested up for the week ahead.

Hanfu, capybaras and a hot spring night in Yilan

• A morning bus out to Yilan with a big group of friends and family. Through the Hsuehshan Tunnel it's only about an hour from Taipei, though weekend traffic in the tunnel can add a lot.
• First stop, a red-brick old street where we rented hanfu, traditional Han Chinese robes, and wandered around in them for an hour. Silly and fun with a group.
• Then Zhang Mei Ama Farm, where you walk among capybaras, Valais blacknose sheep, sika deer, alpacas and wallabies and feed them long leaves. The sheep are pushy, so hold the leaves high.
• We stayed one night at Hotel Royal Chiao Hsi. The rooms have their own hot-spring tubs, and the town's springs are clear, odourless and not too hot.
• Dinner was the hotel's big buffet, which suited a rainy day perfectly. It rained on and off all day, which is normal for Yilan in winter, so plan on ending the day in the water.

Jiaoxi works on its own as a day trip too: buses leave Taipei about every 15 minutes, and the free public foot baths at Tangweigou Hot Spring Park are a short walk from the bus station.

Taipei to Niseko in one day

• An early taxi from Jiaoxi back to Taoyuan Airport, arranged by the hotel, about an hour.
• Scoot's late-morning flight to Sapporo's New Chitose Airport, about 3½ hours. It's a budget airline: no outside food or drink on board, and check-in counters close an hour before departure.
• From the airport, Niseko is about two hours by road. A taxi or Uber costs several times more than the shared airport bus or the train, so most people take the bus. Book it ahead in ski season.
• We stayed three nights at Setsu Niseko, in Hirafu village. Pricey, but we'd happily go back. Book the private onsen when you book the room; we got a 45-minute slot that first night, and it was the best way to end a long travel day.

Fill in Visit Japan Web before you fly. It gives you QR codes for immigration and customs, and the line moves faster with them.

Night skiing in Hirafu

• A slow morning after the travel day, then rental gear from the ski shop in our hotel. We picked it up at 3 PM so a one-day rental would cover tonight and all of tomorrow.
• Night ski tickets are sold near the Hirafu Welcome Center. Grand Hirafu lights up a dozen runs every evening in high season, roughly 4 to 7 PM, and the snow under the lights is something else.
• Dinner after skiing was fried chicken and gyoza, which hit the spot after a cold evening on the hill.
• The free Hirafu village shuttle loops between the lifts, the hotels and the restaurants, so you don't need a taxi in town.

Niseko gets famously deep powder, and almost every day of our stay it snowed. Goggles that work in flat light help more than you'd think.

Milk Kobo, yuzu ramen and lessons

• We took the local bus to the dairy. Take a numbered ticket from the machine as you board through the middle door. The screen at the front shows the fare for each number, and it goes up the longer you ride. Pay the exact fare into the box by the driver as you get off; there's a change machine there too.
• Milk Kobo, the Takahashi dairy farm shop a short ride from Hirafu, was some of the best dairy we've ever had. The milk soft serve, the drinking yogurts and the cheesecake are all worth it. The string cheese was fine but not special.
• Lunch at AFURI, the Tokyo yuzu ramen shop, which has a branch right inside Setsu. Get the yuzu tsukemen (dipping ramen). Everything else was fine, but that one we'd order again.
• Snowboard lessons in the afternoon for the beginners in our group, while the rest of us rode.

The slow train to Otaru, then Sapporo

• We left Niseko by local bus and train instead of a transfer. The bus from Hirafu to Kutchan Station ran very late, so give it slack or take your hotel's shuttle if it has one.
• From Kutchan, the JR Hakodate Line runs through snowy farmland and along the coast to Otaru, about 1¼ hours. It was the right choice and a great ride. Then the Rapid Airport train on to Sapporo, often from the same platform.
• In Otaru, a walk along the Otaru Canal and its old stone warehouses, which looks its best under snow, then Hokkaido melon at Poplar Farm in the Deanukikoji food alley. They serve soft serve in half a melon. Pricey, but fruit in Japan always is, and it was very good.
• We stayed one night at JR-East Hotel Mets Sapporo, right by Sapporo Station.
• Then two dinners. First, unagi at Kadoya, an eel restaurant open since 1957 and the best unagi we'd had. A bit pricey, worth every yen.
• An hour later, Soup Curry GARAKU: soup curry is Sapporo's own dish. Get the chicken, go one spice level hotter than you think, and add cheese on the rice. The regular rice is plenty.
• Walk it off past the Sapporo TV Tower, lit up at night at the end of Odori Park.

A seafood breakfast, then Tokyo

• Breakfast at Kitano Gourmet (Kitano Gurume-tei) in the outer market of Sapporo's central fish market. Some of the best scallops we've had, and the salmon was great too. They run a free shuttle from Sapporo Station and central hotels if you book the day before.
• The JR train from Sapporo to New Chitose Airport takes about 40 minutes and runs every 12 minutes or so.
• An ANA flight to Tokyo Haneda, about 1½ hours. ANA's domestic priority check-in has its own security lane straight to the lounge, but it's hard to find, so ask.
• Three nights at Park Hyatt Tokyo in Shinjuku, the Lost in Translation hotel. It reopened in December 2025 after a 19-month renovation.
• Dinner was a Japanese course meal with the lights of Shinjuku below, including thin-sliced fugu, then a look at the pool under its glass pyramid.

From Haneda to Shinjuku, the train takes about an hour with a change. A flat-fare taxi takes 30 to 45 minutes, which was worth it with ski bags.

teamLab Planets and sushi in Tsukiji

• teamLab Planets in Toyosu: the walk-through digital art museum where you wade barefoot through some rooms. Book a timed ticket ahead, and wear shorts or trousers that roll up above the knee.
• Late lunch at Sushizanmai Tsukiji Ekimae. A solid sushi chain when you're hungry; we waited about 30 minutes.
• Dinner at Fuunji, the famous Shinjuku tsukemen shop. The noodles were great, but the thick fish broth was too heavy for us. If you prefer cleaner flavours, have soba instead.

Shinjuku to Harajuku to Shibuya

• Kameya, a tiny standing soba counter near Shinjuku Station: good, fast, cheap, and open around the clock. A perfect first stop.
• Then the walk south: Meiji Jingu shrine through the forest, past the wall of sake barrels, then the crowds and candied strawberries on Takeshita Street, the shops and thrift stores along Cat Street, and down into Shibuya.
• In Shibuya, the rooftop park and shops at Miyashita Park, iced matcha, and Shibuya Crossing as it got dark.
• Dinner at Ichiran, the tonkotsu chain where you eat alone in a little booth and order on a paper form. It's touristy and we'd still go back.

With more time, book Shibuya Sky online for a slot near sunset. The Godzilla head peering over the Toho building in Kabukicho is a fun detour on the way back to Shinjuku too.

Shinkansen to Nagano, bus to Hakuba

• The Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Nagano takes about 80 to 90 minutes. We booked reserved seats online ahead of time.
• From Nagano Station's East Exit, the Alpico express bus runs to the Hakuba Happo bus terminal in about 70 minutes. No reservation needed; you can pay on board with a contactless card.
• Four nights at Hakuba Panorama Hotel, near Happo.
• It had snowed all afternoon. After dinner we walked to a little shrine near the hotel, lit up and deep in fresh snow.

Alpico runs an app-based shared night taxi in Hakuba from about 5 to 10 PM. Book it early in the evening; close to pickup time on a busy night it may not find you a ride.

Happo-One, and our best dinner in Japan

• A bluebird day on Happo-One after the fresh snow. We sorted snowboard rentals in the afternoon for the next day.
• Dinner at Yamanami, a teppanyaki counter. Expensive, and one of the best multi-course meals we've had in Japan. We walked in early without a booking and the chef squeezed us in. Book ahead; they take reservations online now. The beef tenderloin and the scallops were our favourites.

A day at Goryu

• Hakuba Goryu, a short shuttle ride down the valley. Clear skies and big views of the Northern Alps all day.
• The Hakuba Valley shuttle buses link the resorts and the villages and are free with a lift ticket. Pick up the timetable at your hotel, because they don't run often.
• Dinner at Asuka: a hotpot that was exactly what we wanted after a day outside, decent yakitori, and a yuzu beer we'd go back for.

Snow monkeys, Obuse and Zenko-ji

• A small-group day tour from the Hakuba bus terminal, about 8 AM to 5:30 PM.
• The Snow Monkey Park (Jigokudani): about a 30-minute walk along a forest trail, snowy and icy in winter, to the hot spring where the macaques soak. Wear boots with grip.
• Obuse, a small town known for chestnuts and the painter Hokusai, who worked there in his eighties. The Hokusai Museum has two festival floats with his ceiling paintings. We wished we'd had more time in town.
• Zenko-ji in Nagano, one of Japan's most important temples. Walk up the shopping street through the Niomon gate, with its huge guardian statues, and buy oyaki on the way: Nagano's stuffed dumplings, ours filled with pickled nozawana greens.
• Back in Hakuba, dinner at a small yakitori izakaya near the hotel.

A tour makes this day easy from Hakuba, since the monkey park, Obuse and Nagano are in three different directions by public transport.

Back to Tokyo for a night in Ginza

• A 6:30 AM bus back to Nagano and the Kagayaki, the fastest Hokuriku Shinkansen, to Tokyo Station by 9:45.
• We dropped our bags at Hyatt Centric Ginza, two stops away on the Marunouchi Line, and went shopping.
• Ginza is good for the big flagships in one walk: Uniqlo, MUJI, Don Quijote, Daiso, and the Mitsukoshi and Ginza Six department stores. Their basement food halls are great for snacks and gifts.
• A last dinner with friends: an omakase sushi counter in Ginza, course after course on a stone plate.

Japan's tax-free shopping changed on November 1, 2026. You now pay the tax at the till and get it refunded at customs when you leave, so keep your purchases and passport handy at the airport. Spend at least ¥5,000 before tax in one shop on one day to qualify.

Tsukiji Outer Market, then home

• A morning walk through Tsukiji Outer Market. Graze on tamagoyaki and grilled scallops from the stalls, but skip the sit-down sushi here: it's tourist-priced and not the best.
• A last bowl of abura soba, the brothless ramen you mix yourself, before heading out.
• To Narita: the Ginza Line to Ueno, then the Keisei Skyliner, about 45 minutes to the airport.
• The evening flight home lands in San Francisco the same morning, before it left Tokyo.