3 Weeks In Japan In Winter?

Hi all,

I'm looking ahead to this Christmas and New Year and my first thoughts on how to spend my 3 week holiday is to get a three week rail pass for Japan and see the country more (went to Tokyo for 10 days a few years back.

I've had a wee read and I know Japan is for the most part cold and reasonably dry in winter. I'd like to know if anyone has any experience of being in the country at that time? And what kinds of things do people recommend I should definitely get out and do when I'm there? I'd like to see Sapporo and Hokkaido all the way down to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Like I said I've seen Tokyo so I'd only look to spend maybe a few days there, and I'd most likely fly in and out of Narita.

I've spent 6 weeks in Jan.-Feb. in Hokaido twice for work. Depends on what you're used to and what you like, but I found it brutally cold and miserable. No way in hell I would go there in the winter for holidays. I've also been there in the late summer and it was quite nice.

I would highly recommend checking into an onsen for some awesome soaking in a hotspring. We really enjoyed a town on the western coast called Kinosaki. They are famous for crab and natural hotsprings.

I lived in northern rural Japan (Honshu) for 3 years. Much of that time was winter . Seriously it snows from oct to may in northern Honshu. There's great skiing and snowboarding north of Sendai. I personally am not a fan of cold weather (have no idea how I survived) but here are a couple cool/interesting things I saw while there:
Statue of liberty in/near hachinohe
The burial place of Jesus Christ (and his brother. Evidentially after he arose, he snuck off to Japan and he and his brother married some Japanese girls and stayed in northern rural Japan until they died at age ~150)
The snow monkeys near Aomori --- which can be viewed while lounging in outside
I never saw it because it's not my thing, but the world's largest arcade is somewhere in Aomori prefecture (and they do have awesome arcades in Japan even for a non-gamer like me)