Gifu or Nagano? Plus tips for Travel?

I am planning to visit Japan for 4 weeks. But, for now, my planning focus on the first two weeks which is during mid-late November. I seriously striving for a snow experience.

For those two weeks, I will be spending with my dad. I want him and me to have a snowy experience. The matters I would take into account would of course first be experience of snow, next would be places of interest to visit because just a snow experience does not validate going there, last but not least would be expenses. Do help with JR Pass suitable with this and according to memory, there are JR Pass that could accommodate two people so do correct me if I'm wrong

I was checking out some parts. And it seems Nagano has a lot of snow potential but Gifu has quite a sum of places of interest. So, which is better? Though I won't be there for long as I will be heading down to Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kyoto (These will be barely visited during the first two weeks, I will explore them more in the following two weeks.) I would be there for around a week max.

By the way, which is better, Going down then up then down or Going up then down then up?

For the first part, it would be going down to Yokohama, Tokyo and spending a few days in each to the simple hot spots for Autumn Viewing, then going up to Gifu or Nagano, then going down and hang out a little in Tokyo to say goodbye to Dad, then going down to Osaka-Kyoto and then up again.

For the second part, it would be going up to Gifu or Nagano, then going down to Yokohama, Tokyo and spending the days until 29Nov when I would say goodbye to Dad, to proceed down to Osaka-Kyoto and then up again.

One final tip asking, what side trips should I do? As you can see, I'm only mentioning the cities I would be going to. Not the cities along the path to the cities I would be going to.

So, I would love to read your replies to my request.

Hi,

If you want snow, Hokkaido is obviously the place to be. This could also factor into how to travel, south to north or the other way around.

Just as Hokkaido is the place where the cherry blossoms bloom last, winter reaches it first. Moving from Hokkaido or Northern Honshu downwards is always a good idea if you're into snow. Stocking to the mountainous interior of Japan is tip number two in this case, as these places see the most snow.

For side-trips, just use this site. You can stay at hotels in the major cities and do day trips from these cities to nearby cities. For example: Staying Osaka could see you going to Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, Okayama, etc. Japan-guide can get you the information you need for that.

For the Japan Rail Pass: The pass is person-bound. You can only get one pass for one person and the max length is 3 weeks. (You could of course buy another 1 week pass to fill in the last week of your trip if you want/can).