Disclaimers:
- This trip was expensive. Yes, a road trip in Hokkaido can be done on a smaller budget. We didn’t do that.
- Covid-19 was on our minds the entire trip. We tried to walk the fine line of practicing safe behaviors and supporting the small, local businesses that need revenue right now.
- This trip was not for the lactose intolerant. We ate soft serve every single day of this trip.
Day 1: Utsunomiya –> Hakodate
We took the Shinkansen from Utsunomiya Station to Hakodate (about a 4-hour trip) in the late afternoon, arriving around 10pm. Because of the late arrival, we booked a business hotel near the morning fish market so we’d have a quick start the next day. Fun fact: the shinkansen we took passes through the world’s longest tunnel with an undersea segment! (source: Wikipedia)
Day 2: Hakodate –> Cape Kamui –> Otaru –> Sapporo
We woke up early to explore the morning fish market in Hakodate. I got the impression that during a regular year this market would have been really packed. This was Friday morning at the beginning of Japan’s long weekend kicking off the Obon Holiday (summer vacation in Japan). Maybe because we were early (around 7am), or because of the virus, there were only a few groups of people walking around. The highlight of the market for us was the huge tanks where customers paid to fish for live squid. The staff then cut and prepared squid sashimi to eat on the spot. Squid so fresh it is still moving…for breakfast!!
After we finished up at the market, we walked to the Toyota Rent-a-Car location to pick up our wheels. We booked a Toyota Tank (that we promptly named Tony) online a couple weeks in advance. The checkout process was very straightforward. If you have rented a car in the US, the process will be familiar even if you’re dealing with a language gap (like us). After that, we were free to hit the road for the first of our long driving legs this trip.
The road from Hakodate to Cape Kamui was a nightmare. Like, a beautiful nightmare, but still. I think we caught the tail end of a typhoon, the conditions on the road were extremely windy and wet. We arrived at Cape Kamui around lunch time, but were unable to hike the trail out to the cliffs due to the, no exaggeration, 30mph winds. So, we ate some noodles and soft-serve and moved on. Otaru, a famously beautiful canal town about an hour south of Cape Kamui was not much better. ALTHOUGH, we were able to experience the (gray, cold) canal without the crowds of pesky tourists! So, we trucked on to Sapporo.
In Sapporo, I booked…basically an American hotel – complete with English-speaking foreign staff. The hotel was beautiful, trendy, and the best part…included a nightly happy hour at the rooftop bar/patio. Wine is served from 5-6:30pm FOR FREE. After a few glasses of wine, we shed the weight of a less-than-ideal travel day and walked to dinner at Terra Farm to Table, a restaurant that looks like a tree-house and serves fresh/local/seasonal foods. It was a pretty incredible meal.
Day 3: Sapporo (rest day)
After the disappointment of the previous day, I was happy to see sunshine and blue skies in Sapporo. We checked off the main tourist sites: tv tower, clock tower, Odori Park, Nijo Market, Tanukikoji shopping street, etc. Plenty of information on these spots online if you’re planning a day trip in Sapporo. Andrew and I share the opinion that most cities are just…kind of the same. Lots of tall buildings. Pretty convenient. The main highlights for ME were the tasty foods we ate:
- Breakfast: hotel breakfast! This will become a theme. Our hotel drops breakfast off at the door in a basket to give a “camping” feel to your stay. Breakfast consists of thermoses of soup prepared with local Hokkaido ingredients, fresh bread you can toast in your personal in-room Balmuda toaster, and coffee.
- Snack: soft serve paired with booze at Milk Mura
- Lunch: sushi bows at Nijo Market
- Dinner: Hokkaido’s famous miso ramen with corn and butter in the original ramen alley
Day 4: Sapporo –> Tarumae Garo –> Jigokudani (Hell Valley) –> Lake Toya
Back in the car! Google estimated that this drive would only take ~3 hours, so we didn’t feel the need to rush any of our stops. Tarumae Garo is just a quick scenic stop off the highway about an hour outside Sapporo en route to Jigokudani. There’s a lovely little stream with a steep embankment you can walk down assisted by some ropes. I don’t know who is in charge of the ropes that end up on Japanese hiking trails. Like 80% of the hikes I’ve done here include AT LEAST one super steep section assisted by kind of dubious-looking ropes tied to trees and rocks. It was raining again and Andrew was starting to really kick himself for forgetting his rain jacket…
Another hour on the road and we made it to Jigokudani. Despite the wind, we saw some really amazing scenery on our first day driving. But, Jigokudani was our first taste of the strange beauty of volcanic Hokkaido. There are hot steam vents and sulfuric streams nestled into this deep valley. We followed the walking trails to Oyunuma Pond, a sulfurous pond with a surface temp of 50C. It was absolutely stellar. After sufficient marveling, we hit the small town at the base of the valley for a quick lunch (pizza and more ice cream).
Our third and final stop of the day was at Lake Toya. There’s a small hot spring town, Toyako Onsen, at the south edge of the lake. I read online that during the summer months there are nightly fireworks displays viewable from the lake shore. The site I found said that displays “may be canceled” due to Covid. We decided to go for it on the off chance that we could finally see fireworks in Japan. Not disappointed! Which was lucky, because the hotel I booked was a total bust. We checked in too late to order the hotel dinner and got stuck eating combini food in our teeny-tiny tatami room complete with water damage, peeling wall paper that reeked of cigarette smoke, a very old toilet (with no bidet function?!), and shared communal showers. Not my best pick.
Day 5: Lake Toya –> Mount Usu –> Yubari –> Furano
We woke up early on day 5, partly to get a jump on the day and partly because…we just didn’t want to spend a lot of extra time in that hotel room. I did manage to book breakfast through the hotel for 7:30am so we put on our hotel yukata and scarfed down some fish and pickles (classic Japanese breakfast) and were out the door before 8:30.
After checking out, we arrived at the base of Mt. Usu shortly after the ropeway began running for the day. I think during a normal high season (July/August) the parking at Usu costs somewhere between 200-500 yen. But, when we showed up there were only 5 other cars in the lot and parking was free. The ropeway normally costs 1800, but there was a discount while we were there of 300 per person. Which was good, because the visibility was absolutely 0 while we were there. Just, literally in a cloud. Still cool to see some of the steam vents and learn about the volcano (most recent eruption in March 2000) in the cheesy gift store “eruption experience” room. Several tvs in the room show eruption footage while the ground kind of shakes a bit.
After the brisk walk around the top of Mt Usu our main objective was to get out to Furano to see the famous flower fields, cheese factory, and Ningle Terrace (an area where local artisan crafts can be purchases). On the way to Furano, we happened to drive near the town of Yubari, which I only recognized as the famous melon variety grown in Hokkaido. Some quick google mapping led us to the Melon Dome. To be totally honest, we only stopped to rest and eat some soft serve. Totally worth it, can recommend.
It rained most of our drive, but cleared up around Furano. We made a quick stop at the cheese factory before heading into Furano city for a kaiten sushi lunch. After lunch we decided to check out Farm Tomita, a very famous lavender farm in Hokkaido. By early/mid-August we had missed the main lavender season, but there are a lot of other really beautiful flower fields. There is also a gift shop where we got, yeah, more soft serve. The lavender soft serve has a just a subtle flavor of lavender and really pretty color. Which ended up on both Andrew’s t-shirt and face mask.
After a few quick pictures in the flower fields, we popped over to Ningle Terrace to see the local crafts. Ningle Terrace is set up in the woods next to a ski resort. The cabins are very cute and in the evening the string lights give it a really charming atmosphere. We still had a lot of travel ahead of us this trip and most of the crafts are delicate items, mainly paper and wood crafts, so we didn’t trust ourselves to purchase anything here. Walking around the cabins was still really enjoyable!
We ended the day at an Airbnb. The host was a lovely older woman who, despite not speaking any English, provided several dinner recommendations. After dinner, the host gifted me a hand-sewn face mask. That night, we fell asleep drinking combini booze and watching Spirited Away like a couple real Japanophiles (weebs).
