I love Matsumoto (in Nagano Prefecture), it's a lovely city located right in the midst of some beautiful mountains. Nara is also nice, but I'm a mountain boy at heart.
I'm planning a trip to Japan (my first), and I'm mostly interested in small towns or villages as day trips from somewhere that is already well outside of Tokyo. Would Matsumoto fit that bill?
Ideally I'd take a train out of the city and rent a car or bike in whatever smaller city I make my hub. Would love any other advice you have, and open to DMs/emails/etc. :-)
- Kurobe Gorge (industrial train ride into a beautiful deep mountain gorge)
- Kanazawa (middle size town with a beautiful garden and castle ruins - near Kurobe/Touyama)
- Izumo (100% inaka, one of the oldest shrines in Japan, traditional iron working museum, nice coast with a beautiful lighthouse, in day trip distance from the only real desert (!) in Japan in Tottori)
- Kinosaki (gorgeous onsen-only town, reachable by express train from Osaka)
- Kagoshima (has the huge active Sakurajima volcano right on the other side of the bay, many Meiji restoration landmarks, don't forgot to check what the satsuma maid group is up to)
- Hitoyoshi (a little town in a mountain valley pan in Kyushu, the mid point of the Hisatsu Line - a bit less reachable right now due to some washed out railway bridges, setting of Maitetsu VNs)
- Ikede (day trip distance from osaka, home to the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum & nice view of Osaka from the hill)
- Beppu (a not so big city that is effectively the onsen capital of the world, really - the Kannawa district that hosts the 7 hells is just bonkers)
- Enoshima (go by hanging monorail with tunnels (!!) from Ofuna, visit a beautifula island with calves, shrines, temples and botanical gardens, go back to Kamakura via Enoden - a cute old electric train that hugs back dors of peoples houses and runs on regular streets part of the way)
You can get two really good day trips out of Matsumoto: one for Matsumoto Castle and the inner city in general, and one for Kamikochi (https://www.kamikochi.org/). It's also easy to go from there to Kofun or Nagano.
For other advice I would recommend that at least one of your group speaks enough Japanese to ask directions, order food, use a laundromat, shop at a supermarket, describe what you want at a barber's, tell a doctor what you're ailing, ask a staff member where the lost and found is, that kind of stuff. Also note that New Year's and Golden Week are really awkward times to go and summer is hot and humid. Make sure to talk to your GP to make sure you have whatever vaccinations you need, I'm thinking of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in particular. Also make sure you take enough cash to get the most basic necessities if the airline manages to bungle your luggage. In short, just keep all the basic travel advice in mind and you'll be fine.
One of my favourite memories of my travels to Japan was when in Kyoto my buddy and I were standing at the corner of... I think it was Shijo and Karasuma? And we were heading to Sanjo (I may have mixed Shijo and Sanjo up, don't mind it), and I had just double checked on a map that we were heading the right way when suddenly a guy on a bike saw us standing there with our map and stopped. He decided to tell me and my friend about all the great places around Kyoto to go see temples, buy souvenirs, get a good drink, and so on.
A ways through his explanation someone else came up to us to ask us where we were going, and told us that our destination was simply straight ahead, and after saying our thanks we just kept listening to the guy rattle on. That kind of thing is what I really like about travelling, being a couple of thousand miles away from home, just listening to someone go on a ramble about whatever they think is interesting to talk about.
