Four possible places to visit

We have a spare day or two in our trip itinerary and are considering these four places:

Hakone
Matsumoto
Takayama
Shirakawa

What are the relative pros and cons of each, which would you recommend, and why?

Hakone - I've never been

Mastumoto - Has a cool castle, one of the loveliest in Japan. Has a few other low-key sights, and you could do a daytrip out of the city, with the right interests (there are some obscure old temples nearby, as well as a famous wasabi farm, for example). Apart from the castle, my personal favourite thing about the city are the views of the Alps from there.

Takayama - It's very, very touristy. Too touristy for me. There are a few places of interest around (it's home to the only surviving "governor's house" in Japan, the equivalent of a castle in the Edo period for regions controlled directly by the central government), and again, you can daytrip to some interesting and less touristy places in the surrounding region.

Shirakawa-go - It's even more touristy than Takayama. It's a small village that's become very popular with the selfie-brigade of tourists. It's certainly beautiful, and the houses are interesting, but you'll be seeing them with plenty of other people around. For me, it's the sort of place to pass through, rather than spend the night in. I much prefer other villages and old houses in the region - which are far less touristy - but also more difficult to visit on public transport.

Giora summed it up pretty well, though I am not as negative about Takayama/Shirakawago. As for Hakone, there you have a mix of different things, like: ok-ish nature, onsen, museums, old Tokaido road, ok-ish shrine and you can have a fun experience with different kind of transport: bus, train, boat, ropeway, cable car....

IMO, any of these four places is worth to visit, depending on your interests. A lot depends also on how they'd fit into the rest of your itinerary. For instance, Hakone is an easy day trip from Tokyo, while for instance Takayama is more remote and I would not go there for one day only unless you see other places in the area (Alps).

Hmn... though I generally agree with Giora and bamse I think I'd go one step further and say that I actually rather like Shirakawago. In fact, for reasons not completely under my control I've actually visited four times in the last three years (!), in mid to late October, and on one occasion spent a couple of nights at a nearby ryokan (not farmhouse). I agree that it gets crowded with bus tours - and they seem to be arriving earlier every year - but especially if you stay overnight and can visit in the morning and again at night it can be a very peaceful and interesting experience to walk around the paddies, fields, and especially of course the thatch roofed traditional farmhouses.

I recently posted a write-up and photo gallery of Shirakawago

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