CHAPTER 02 — holidays [B]eneath northern skies

Northwards for the holidays

Summary

Draft — Tentative. Travel north from Tokyo through Ibaraki and Tohoku, giving Sendai a substantial stop before reaching Sapporo for Christmas and New Year. The proposed Sapporo stay is 2027-12-24 to approximately 2028-01-07. Departure from Tokyo is selected for 2027-12-15, matching the end of Chapter 1; transportation remains unbooked. Additional Tohoku stops and night allocations remain TBD. Document review and approval are pending.

Part of the travel plan.

Copyright and licence

Copyright © 2026 Akane SHIMOKA. This document is released under the MIT License. See the root LICENCE.

Dates and continuity

Dates use local Japan calendar dates. ~ means approximate. Overnight travel and transfer times remain TBD. The selected shared boundary with the Tokyo chapter is December 15, 2027; the December 8 alternative is no longer selected.

Expected stay

Budget

Reporting currency: TBD. Fixed planning exchange rate: €1 = ¥160. Display converted EUR amounts to the nearest €10, rounding halfway values away from zero; retain unrounded values for calculations and round each total or range endpoint only at the end.

Planned expenditure total: TBD. Known subtotal, if useful: TBD; unknown amounts: TBD.

Refundable deposits and payment timing: TBD. Total cash needed including deposits: TBD.

Expected income, tracked separately: TBD.

Trip-wide costs and emergency reserve: overall budget recap; allocation or exclusion TBD.

Transfer costs owned elsewhere and excluded here: TBD; link to owning record.

Earlier-departure comparison

The user has selected December 15 as the Tokyo departure date. The current Tokyo budget reflects that choice. The comparison below is retained only as historical context for the unselected December 8 option; it is not part of this chapter's current budget or an open date decision. That earlier option would have added seven northern nights while removing seven Tokyo nights.

At the Tokyo sharehouse ceiling of ¥100,000 per 30-day month, seven fewer nights represent approximately ¥23,333 in assumed rent savings, subject to actual billing and notice terms.

These are sensitivity examples, not supplier quotes, selected rates, or a complete chapter budget. EUR uses €1 = ¥160 and is rounded to the nearest €10. If Tokyo rent does not decrease, there is no rent saving to deduct. Separately price the actual route, additional local travel or activities, baggage, fees, holiday accommodation, the outbound connection to Kyoto, and contingency; compare net changes without duplicating costs already present in both scenarios.

Transportation

Arrival

Arrival from Tokyo: previous chapter’s outbound record. That chapter owns the transfer cost; excluded here. Route and cost remain TBD.

Origin, destination, date or window, time zones, mode, cost and currency, booking certainty, evidence, luggage, and timing constraints: TBD.

Local movement

Routes or passes, dates, costs, certainty, evidence, luggage, and timing constraints: TBD.

Departure and connection

This chapter owns the transfer to the next chapter, or the final return journey.

Origin, destination, next chapter / final return, date or window, time zones, mode, cost and currency, booking certainty, evidence, luggage, and timing constraints: TBD.

Overnight housing and shared-booking cost allocation: TBD.

Preparation and open decisions

Review of dates, housing nights, arithmetic, transfer allocation, and itinerary recap: pending.

Sources and assumptions

Revisions