Hokkaido Archives - 4corners7seas

Japan Sightseeing Guide

Tokyo obviously has more than plenty to see & do in its own right, and you can easily fill your free time between events (see here). But if you have a few days spare between, before, or after your events, why not visit some of Japan’s other sights and cities? It’s super easy to do this if you take advantage of the JR Pass, a hop-on hop-off rail pass for tourists which makes Japan’s otherwise pricey bullet trains very reasonable. Even if you don’t want to do anything quite too ambitious, there are some cracking daytrips and 1 or 2 night side trips you can make near Tokyo. And after all, if you’re flying all the way to Japan for the Olympics you might as well make the most of it and see as much as you can while you’re there.

Quick guides to major cities:

Tokyo
Yokohama
Osaka
Kyoto
Kobe
Nagoya
Sapporo
Hiroshima
Fukuoka

Some recommendations:

Western Honshu (main island)

Kyoto

If you only visit one extra-curricular city, it should probably be the old capital Kyoto. Far surpassed by Tokyo these days in terms of size, it remains a living treasure of Japanese history and traditional culture (while still being a sizeable modern Japanese city). For more on Kyoto see here

Nara

Another ancient capital and easily doable as a day trip from either Kyoto or Osaka, there’s a lot to see in Nara but the main draw is the Great Buddha at Todai-ji.

Himeji

Of the many castles throughout Japan, only a dozen are surviving buildings from the feudal era – the majority are modern concrete replacements. Himeji Castle (aka the White Egret Castle) is one of the originals, and renowned as the most beautiful of the lot.

It’s an easy day trip by bullet train from Kobe, Osaka or Kyoto, and if you have the JR Pass it’s a good little stop en route between Osaka and Hiroshima or Fukuoka – using the pass you can jump off at Himeji for a couple of hours and stroll up to visit the castle before carrying on to your destination.

Hiroshima

Another very rewarding city to visit, though in a very different way to Kyoto. As Hiroshima was completely destroyed in the 1945 atomic bombing, the city standing there today is entirely modern. But they did a great job of rebuilding and it’s a lovely city with probably the friendliest locals in Japan, and the Peace Park & Atomic Bomb Museum do an excellent job of acknowledging and recording this dark chapter. For more on Hiroshima see here

Koyasan

A large temple complex in the mountains of Wakayama to the south of Osaka. It works well as a day trip from Osaka and is also a popular place to stay overnight (temple stays are available). For access details and more pics see here

Tokyo Region

Mt Fuji

The Olympics take place during the peak Mt Fuji climbing season, which means two things. One, it’s the best time to do it (in terms of conditions, facilities, access etc) and two, it’s the worst time to do it because it’ll be jam packed. Mt Fuji is a crowded climb in regular years, and the Olympics will surely only make it worse.

For this reason I’d advise avoiding the busiest route, which is the Yoshida Trail from the Fuji 5 Lakes area on the north side of the mountain. This is the usual trail for hikers approaching from Tokyo, and where Fuji buses will drop you. There are 3 alternatives, two on the east side (best accessed by car, and the quietest trails) and the Fujinomiya Trail on the south (Shizuoka) side.

Back when I climbed Fuji I did the Fujinomiya Trail (as we approached from Kyoto), easily accessed via the shinkansen & a bus from Shin-Fuji Station. This trail will also be crowded, but not as badly as the north side. You can read more detail about that here

Kawaguchiko

If you don’t fancy actually climbing Fuji but you’d like to get up close for the views then Kawaguchiko (Lake Kawaguchi) in the Fuji 5 Lakes region does the job, doable as a daytrip or you can go & stay up there. It’s a thousand metres higher than Tokyo so the temperatures are less punishing in summer (it’s also famous as one of the best and earliest places in the Tokyo region for the autumn colours, though that’s obviously not a consideration during the Olympics). Search Hotels Combined for Kawaguchiko hotels.

Access is via the private Fujikyu Railway from Otsuki, which is on the JR Chuo Line from Tokyo Station & Shinjuku; Otsuki to Kawaguchiko takes just under an hour for 1,140 yen (plus a few hundred extra if you take the express service). If you have the JR Pass you can use it as far as Otsuki, you can jump on the Kaiji limited express which takes 80 minutes from Tokyo Station to Otsuki. If not using a pass it’s cheaper to take the rapid service as far as Takao, then the local service from there to Otsuki, overall this works out around 25 minutes slower than using the Kaiji limited express. Confused? Check the train times on Hyperdia (see here for an explanation on how to use it)

Yokohama

Yokohama’s often overlooked as just another part of the Greater Tokyo sprawl, but it’s a great city in its own right and with its own character. Yokohama International Stadium is being used for Olympic football matches (including the men’s final) and Yokohama Stadium (a different stadium!) will host the Olympic baseball & softball. Also the sailing will be down in Enoshima to the south of Yokohama – if you’re visiting for the Olympic sailing it would make sense to base yourself in Yokohama if you can’t find anywhere closer. Even if you don’t attend any events in Yokohama it still makes a good daytrip from Tokyo, perhaps in combination with nearby Kamakura. See here for my Yokohama guide

Kamakura

Home to the Kamakura Great Buddha and a number of beautiful temples, with some good hiking trails in the hills behind and views over Sagamihara Bay. It’s possible to visit Kamakura & Yokohama in one day e.g. head to the Great Buddha & Hasedera Temple first, then dinner at Yokohama Chinatown and maybe go up the Landmark Tower for the night views. Alternatively you could head on to nearby Enoshima (a popular little island just off the coast) from Kamakura; if you’re going to watch the Olympic sailing at Enoshima you can easily pop over to Kamakura from there.

Kamakura’s just 25 minutes from Yokohama Station direct on the JR Yokosuka Line, and at Kamakura Station switch to the Enoshima Railway (aka Enoden) for 3 stops to Hase Station from where you can walk up to Hasedera & the Great Buddha at Kotoku-in. Enoshima is just 20 minutes further along the same line; get off at Enoshima Station and it’s a 15-minute walk to the island over the bridge (see here for more info)

Nikko

The mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, unifier and first shogun of Japan, is one of the most important historical sites in the Tokyo region and one of the more impressive you’ll see in Japan. The lower Nikko area near the town is home to the historical sites, but you can also venture up into the Okku-Nikko (‘Deep Nikko’) area where there’s a significant altitude gain and thus cooler temperatures in which to enjoy the area’s lakes and waterfalls (Nikko is another famous region for autumn colours later in the year).

If you have the JR Pass you can take the shinkansen from Tokyo Station (or Ueno) to Utsunomiya then change to the JR Nikko Line, journey time 1h45. Without a JR Pass it’s a fair bit cheaper (and only a little slower) to use the private Tobu Railway; taking their Kinu express train from Asakusa and changing to the Tobu Nikko Line at Shimo-Imaichi gives a journey time of 2 hours. You can easily visit the mausoleum as a day trip from Tokyo, but if you also want to get up to Okku-Nikko you’ll need to either stay in Nikko or set off at the crack of dawn. Search Hotels Combined for hotels in Nikko

Hakone: the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park lies not far west of Yokohama, consisting of the Mt Fuji area and the Izu Peninsula.

The easiest bit of the park to visit from Tokyo/Yokohama is Hakone, and it’s another good one to visit for cooler temperatures due the higher altitude (and again another good spot for the autumn colours later in the year). From Odawara Station you can catch the bus (around an hour) up to Lake Ashinoko, where you can take a boat cruise on the lake and ride the Hakone Ropeway; that’s plenty for a day-trip, and you can descend to Odawara and take the train back to Yokohama or Tokyo (half an hour by Kodama shinkansen). You can also stay up there at one of Hakone’s hotels or ryokan, and take your time to check out the various museums, the other ropeway (there are two, the other one being the Komagatake Ropeway up Mt Komagatake), ride the scenic Hakone Tozan Railway, and soak in the hot springs. You can get the Hakone Free Pass (see here) for 2 or 3 days which covers the ropeways, local buses, sightseeing cruise, and scenic railway. Check out the Hakone homepage here, and search hotels in Hakone here

Central Honshu

Matsumoto

Like Himeji Castle above, Matsumoto Castle (the ‘Crow Castle’) is one of the few surviving castles from the feudal era. Matsumoto’s also a good place to visit if you want to get out into the Japan Alps. Search Hotels Combined for hotels in Matsumoto

Japan Alps

Mt Fuji stands alone, visible from (but not part of) the Southern Japan Alps, but if you want to get into some proper alpine terrain it’s the Japan Alps you want to head to. There are loads of regions you could visit within the Alps, but the range is generally divided into 3 subranges – Minami (Southern) Alps, Chuo (Central) Alps, and Kita (Northern) Alps.

The easiest area to visit from Tokyo is Nagano Prefecture in the Central Alps, using Matsumoto as a base. You can take the limited express Azusa train from Shinjuku to Matsumoto (2.5 hours) and use that as a jumping off point for Kamikochi and/or the Kurobe-Tateyama Alpine Route.

Kamikochi is a small town nestled in the Central Alps, surrounded by some of Japan’s highest peaks. It’s known as one of the best hiking areas in the country, and this view of the famous Kappabashi bridge (named for the mythical kappa said to live in the area) is one of the classic views of the Japan Alps:

To get there take the local Kamikochi Line from Matsumoto to the end of the line at the excellently-named Shinshimashima Station (30 minutes), then a bus from Shinshimashima to Kamikochi (1 hour). You can do it as a fairly long day trip from Matsumoto, or you could camp or stay at one of the ryokan in Kamikochi. Note that these buses to Kamikochi don’t run in winter (from mid-November until late April). The JR Pass isn’t valid and the only IC card accepted is the local Kururu card, so you can’t use your Suica or Pasmo from Tokyo (or any of the others); be ready with cash! (see here for more on IC cards)

Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route: a sequence of varied transportation options enabling foot passengers to traverse the Japan Alps between Toyama and Nagano prefectures, involving trains, buses, cable cars, and a ropeway. The scenery’s spectacular and includes the Tateyama area (one of Japan’s most famous mountains) and the Kurobe Dam. The route connects Tateyama Station (at the end of the private Tateyama Line which starts from Toyama Station) and Shinano-Omachi Station (with JR rail connection to Matsumoto) or Nagano. For details see the homepage here

Shirakawago and Takayama: if you’re approaching the Alps from the west (perhaps while making your way back towards Tokyo after visiting Kyoto), another good region to visit is the Gifu Prefecture side on the west of the Central and Northern Alps, easily accessed on the Hida limited express train from Nagoya. The main draw cards on this side of the Alps are Shirakawago and Takayama – this is the region where they have all those traditional houses with the steeply sloped roofs to deal with the monumental amounts of snow they get in winter (Shirakawago especially).

Takayama’s an attractive little town in the mountains north of Nagoya with a well-preserved old quarter. The Hida Folk village on the edge of town features a collection of traditional local buildings, and for many Japanese the local beef actually beats the more widely-famous Kobe beef. Search Hotels Combined for hotels in Takayama and hotels in Shirakawago

The Hida takes 2.5 pretty hours to reach Takayama from Nagoya; some trains are called ‘Hida Wide View’ and have larger windows to enjoy the scenery.

To get to Shirakawago ride the Nohi Bus from Takayama (50 minutes, 2600 yen); from the main Shirakawago village of Ogimachi you can ride the bus to Suganuma or Ainokura even deeper in the mountains (another 30 to 45 minutes by bus), which are smaller and less crowded.

Nohi Bus also connects Shirakawago to Toyama and Kanazawa cities on the coast at the northern end of the Alps. From Toyama you can then do the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route through to the Nagano side to continue on to Matsumoto and Tokyo. If you just want to get directly to Shirakawago from Tokyo, ride the Hokuriku shinkansen to Kanazawa and take the bus from there.

Kanazawa: often referred to as ‘Little Kyoto’ due to its historical samurai and teahouse districts, medieval castle (gone but partially reconstructed, homepage here), and one of Japan’s three most famous landscape gardens at Kenrokuen (see here). The modern city is nice too, and Kanazawa’s a good place to spend a night or two before or after Shirakawago & Takayama. Search hotels in Kanazawa

Tohoku (northern Honshu)

The Tohoku region covers the northern part of Japan’s main Honshu island, covering the area between Greater Tokyo and Hokkaido. If you’re making your way overland from Tokyo to Sapporo for the marathons, or attending an Olympic football match in Sendai (Tohoku’s largest city), it’s well worth exploring the Tohoku region a little while you’re there – you’ll find your visit most welcome in a region still recovering from the 2011 tsunami. For Tohoku highlights see my post here

Kyushu

Nagasaki

Like Hiroshima, Nagasaki is a city rebuilt from the rubble of atomic devastation, and like Hiroshima it’s an attractive modern city with poignant reminders of the horrors of war – the peace park and A-bomb museum are moving tributes. There’s also the darkly fascinating Hashima (aka Gunkanjima, ‘Battleship Island’) just offshore, an abandoned old mining colony of forced labourers which was used for establishing shots of the villain’s lair in Skyfall (though the actual scenes were filmed on studio sets).

It’s not all heavy history though – Nagasaki also offers lighter sightseeing like Japan’s oldest Chinatown and various European-style buildings & districts dating to Nagasaki’s time as the country’s only major trading port during Japan’s period of isolation. Nagasaki’s 2 hours from Fukuoka’s main Hakata Station on the Kamome express train so it can work as a fairly long day trip from there, though if you’re wanting to take a Gunkanjima cruise as well as seeing the peace park & museum you’ll want to stay for a night or two; search Hotels Combined for hotels in Nagasaki

(note: the Gunkanjima cruises can’t actually land on the island at present due to recent typhoon damage, and until further notice they just take you around the island)

Mt Aso

A beautiful volcanic caldera lying halfway between Kumamoto and Oita, a couple of hours from each. See here for details

Hokkaido

Due to the anticipated heat in Tokyo, the marathon events were moved to Sapporo on the far northern island of Hokkaido, which should help a little (marathons in Tokyo in August would be a bad idea). Sapporo Dome will also host 10 matches of the Olympic football competitions, so it looks like quite a number of Tokyo 2020 visitors will be making the trek up to Hokkaido. If that’s you, see it as a bonus rather than a hassle, as it gives you the chance to see another side of Japan, especially if you take a trip out of Sapporo. See my Sapporo guide here, with suggestions for trips to other parts of the island.

Useful Links

Click the banner to pre-order your JR Pass and save 40 dollars, or see here for details on using the JR Pass:

Check train times on Hyperdia (see here for an explanation on how to use it)

For more transportation advice see here

How to get online in Japan

Check out my other Japan posts and Japan travel guide

The links to companies on this page (and links to these companies elsewhere on the site) are affiliate links; if you choose to purchase products or services from these links, 4corners7seas earns a small commission at no extra cost to you. If the information here’s been useful to you and you’re intending to purchase any of these products or services, I hope you’ll support 4corners7seas by visiting their sites via my links; thank you in advance should you choose to do so!

Japan Autumn Colours Guide for the Rugby World Cup

Hokkaido, Japan, Rugby World Cup, Tohoku, Tokyo

Buddha statue and autumn colours at Osorezan, Aomori

This post originally appeared on my Rugby Guide Japan website (which is archived here if you want to check it out), providing information for rugby fans attending 2019 Rugby World Cup matches in Japan. But obviously autumn is still autumn regardless of whether there’s a World Cup taking place, so the following suggestions should still be useful if you’re planning a trip to see the autumn colours in Japan.

The sakura cherry blossoms are among the most iconic images of Japan (along with bullet trains and Mt Fuji) but for many (myself included) the autumn colours are arguably even better, perhaps because they’re best enjoyed by going for a hike in the mountains.

The world cup being in autumn means visiting rugby fans have the chance to see this spectacle while in Japan, though it requires a little effort due to the timing. The leaves don’t really change in major cities like Tokyo and Kyoto until late November/early December, a few weeks too late for the tournament, but if you’re heading up north for games in Sapporo or Kamaishi the timing’s good for autumn excursions in Hokkaido or Tohoku. Alternatively the colours should be good throughout October at higher elevations in the mountains around the edges of Tokyo, making it a great time for places like Hakone and Nikko.

If you are going to be in Tokyo or Kyoto in late November/early December, lucky you. Check out my posts on the best autumn colour spots in Tokyo, and especially the best autumn colour spots in Kyoto.

Hokkaido

Japan’s autumn colour season starts in central Hokkaido’s Daisetsuzan National Park in late September before sweeping its way from north to south and from high elevations to low elevations.

The two matches in Sapporo are in the early days of the tournament in late September, so it’s perfect timing for a visit to Daisetsuzan.

It’s a pretty massive park with multiple entry points, but coming from Sapporo the easiest approach is to take the Asahidake Ropeway up from Asahidake Onsen and do one of the day hikes on the trails fanning out from the upper station (get trail maps and advice from the park officials).

To get there from Sapporo you can ride the train to Asahikawa (40 minutes), then take a bus (1 hour) from there to Asahidake onsen. Alternatively it’s around 3 hours by car.

It’s quite far for a day trip, though certainly doable if you’re okay with spending half of it getting there & back – alternatively there are a few hotels near the ropeway (see here), and see here for park info.

Autumn colours at Daisetsuzan, Hokkaido — Photo credit: see bottom of page

Tohoku

The Tohoku region covers the northern end of the main Honshu Island, including Iwate Prefecture where Kamaishi is located.

If you’re attending a match in Kamaishi, the Fiji-Uruguay game in September is too early but for the Namibia-Canada match the train ride through the mountains from Hanamaki to Kamaishi should hopefully be looking pretty fine. In the wider region there are loads of famous places for the autumn colours, though you’ll generally need to get to slightly higher elevations.

Here are some good places to visit in Tohoku, with expected peak colour time in brackets though they’re all worth visiting at any other time:

Osorezan (late Oct)

Buddha statue and autumn colours at Osorezan

Osorezan, which translates as Mt Fear or Mt Dread, is a volcano at the northern end of the Shimokita Peninsula and forms the northern tip of Honshu. The poisonous caldera lake in the volcano’s crater is an otherworldly place, and rightly so – this is the gateway to the underworld. The Sansu-no-kawa river which drains Lake Usori is like a Japanese River Styx, and blind mediums called Itako perform an annual ritual at Bodaiji temple on the lakeshore in which they channel the spirits of the dead to communicate with the living. It’s a very cool place to visit, and though the colours generally peak in late October they should already be looking decent in the days following the Namibia-Canada match. For more pictures and details see my post here.

You can get there from the Kamaishi area by riding the shinkansen from Shin-Hanamaki (or Morioka) to Hachinohe, then the private Aomori Railway from there; it’s a private railway as far as Noheji, then JR from Noheji to Shimokita Station, but the whole thing’s fully covered by the JR Pass despite the private railway section. From Shin-Hanamaki it’s almost 4 hours to Shimokita, and then a 45-minute bus ride gets you up to the lake from the station. If you’re making your way down from Hokkaido, you can take the Aomori Railway from Aomori Station to Noheji (45 mins) then JR from there, again all covered by the JR Pass despite the non-JR segment.

Yamadera (late Oct/early Nov)

Yamadera literally means ‘Mountain Temple’, and that’s exactly what Yamadera is. Some 1200 years old, it’s one of the coolest temples to visit in all Japan with an upper area accessed via a steep half-hour climb up the mountain. The hike’s well worth the effort, with rewarding views across the valley from some beautiful hillside temple structures. Again the colours generally don’t peak until late October, but it should already be looking pretty good if you visit following the Namibia-Canada match. To get there simply ride the Sanzen Line to Yamadera Station from Sendai Station (1 hour) or Yamagata Station (20 minutes); once you disembark at Yamadera Station, Yamadera itself is up the mountainside on the far side of the small town. Just follow the signs (or Google Maps) and it’s about a 10-minute walk from the station to the entrance gate.

For more info and pics of Yamadera see my post here.

Tazawako & Kakunodate (mid Oct)

The old samurai town of Kakunodate and nearby Tazawako in central Akita Prefecture can be visited easily using the Akita shinkansen on which they are one stop apart (or 3 stops on the local train). The lake’s a 15-minute bus ride from Tazawako Station, and the samurai district’s walkable from Kakunodate Station. Mid-October should be perfect timing for the autumn colours in Akita; it’s perfectly feasible to visit on a day trip from Morioka or Sendai (or even from Kamaishi), especially if using the JR Pass.

Tokyo Region

Tokyo actually gets some cracking autumn colours right in the city at the various temples, parks and gardens (see here for pics), but they won’t reach their peak until several weeks after the final. If you’re wanting to see some autumn colours near Tokyo during the tournament, try the following:

Tateyama-Kurobe (late Sep/early Oct)

This isn’t exactly close to Tokyo to be fair, but if you’re in the capital during the early stages of the tournament you’ll need to travel quite far to see some peak autumn colours. The best bet is probably the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route, a series of varied transportation links (various trains & buses, a ropeway, and a couple of cable cars) crossing the mountains between Nagano and Toyama prefectures. If you’ve ever seen those photos of buses driving between 15m walls of snow, that’s from the Alpine Route (though the snow’s all long gone by autumn); it’s also a really famous area for its autumn colours, and gets them earlier than most places due to the altitude. There’s a very informative website on the route here.

Nikko (throughout Oct Oku-Nikko > early Nov Nikko town)

Site of the famous mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu (the first shogun of a unified Japan), Nikko also has a mountainous interior (Oku-Nikko, ‘Deep Nikko’) of lakes and waterfalls where the large elevation spread allows for an extended autumn colour season. The colours descend from the highest elevations throughout October, eventually reaching Nikko town in November; if you’re in Tokyo for a match in October, head up to Nikko and take the bus up to Oku-Nikko and you should be treated to some spectacular colours.

Nikko works as a fairly long day trip from Tokyo, though that’ll often mean only having time for the mausoleum – if you want to see Oku-Nikko too, either stay overnight (search hotel rates in Nikko) or make a super early start from Tokyo.

If you have the JR Pass you can take the shinkansen to Utsunomiya then change to the JR Nikko Line, journey time 1h45. Without a JR Pass it’s a fair bit cheaper (and only a little slower) to use the private Tobu Railway; taking their Kinu express train from Asakusa and changing to the Tobu Nikko Line at Shimo-Imaichi gives a journey time of 2 hours.

Hakone (late Oct/early Nov)

Another popular day trip or overnight trip from Tokyo, Hakone (in the mountains to the west of Yokohama) offers lake cruises and Fuji views, with the autumn colours usually peaking in late October. Again, it works fine as a day trip (and is closer than Nikko) but it’s also a nice idea to take your time and stay up there.

From Odawara Station (three Kodama shinkansen stops from Tokyo Station (35 minutes) or the stop after Shin-Yokohama) you can catch the bus (around an hour) up to Lake Ashinoko, where you can take a boat cruise on the lake and ride the Hakone Ropeway. That’s plenty for a day-trip, and you can descend to Odawara and take the train back to Yokohama/Tokyo or on to Shizuoka. You can also stay up there at one of Hakone’s hotels or ryokan, and take your time to check out the various museums, the other ropeway (there are two, the other one being the Komagatake Ropeway up Mt Komagatake), ride the scenic Hakone Tozan Railway, and soak in the hot springs. You can get the Hakone Free Pass (see here) for 2 or 3 days which covers the ropeways, local buses, sightseeing cruise, and scenic railway. Check out the Hakone homepage here, and search hotels in Hakone here

Kawaguchiko (early Nov)

The Mt Fuji climb’s already closed for the year by the time of the World Cup, but if you want to get up close for the views then Kawaguchiko (Lake Kawaguchi) in the Fuji 5 Lakes region does the job, doable as a daytrip or you can go stay up there. It’s a thousand metres higher than Tokyo so the autumn colours reach their peak a month or so earlier than in the city, generally in early November – if you’re in Tokyo for the final, that’s the perfect time to visit Kawaguchiko (though it’ll be nice throughout October too). Search Hotels Combined for Kawaguchiko hotels

Access is via the private Fujikyu Railway from Otsuki, which is on the JR Chuo Line from Tokyo Station & Shinjuku; Otsuki to Kawaguchiko takes just under an hour for 1,140 yen (plus a few hundred extra if you take the express service). If you have the JR Pass you can use it as far as Otsuki, you can jump on the Kaiji limited express which takes 80 minutes from Tokyo Station to Otsuki. If not using a pass it’s cheaper to take the rapid service as far as Takao, then the local service from there to Otsuki, overall this works out around 25 minutes slower than using the limited express. Confused? Check the train times on Hyperdia (see here for an explanation on how to use it)

See more Japan sightseeing suggestions here, and check out my quick guide to Tokyo

Daisetsuzan pic by Petr Meissner, used under Creative Commons

Sapporo Quick Guide

Hokkaido, Japan, Tokyo Olympics

Sapporo’s the main city on Japan’s far northern island of Hokkaido, and comfortably the largest Japanese city north of Tokyo despite being in by far the least densely populated part of the country (leaving the rest of the island very sparse). It’s a long way from the capital, and therefore suffers less sweltering temperatures in summer – the 2020 Tokyo Olympic marathon events were moved all the way up here for that reason.

Sapporo has a much more laid back vibe than Tokyo or Osaka, and feels much less crowded & clustered. It may not have a wealth of historical attractions (being a relatively young city), but it’s a pleasant place to spend a few days – I used to live there (for snowboarding purposes) and even once had 0.5 seconds of fame in a sports drink commercial filmed at Sapporo Dome staring baseball pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Sapporo Transportation

Being relatively young and therefore better planned, unlike most Japanese cities Sapporo is laid out on an easy to navigate grid. Roads run north-south and east-west, and addresses are given using grid reference points indicating the number of blocks from Sapporo TV Tower e.g. Susukino Station is at South 4, West 4.

The subway has three lines, with the Nanboku Line (green on the map) running down the central north-south axis connecting the main points of Sapporo Station, Odori, and Susukino; there’s also a tram line which may be of use depending where you’re staying, and buses going wherever the trains & trams don’t. IC cards are accepted on all modes of public transportation, the local version is Kitaca (issued by JR) but your Suica or Pasmo cards from Tokyo or elsewhere are all fully compatible too (for more info on IC cards see here)

Hotels in Sapporo

Most Sapporo accommodation is clustered around the 3 main stations along Sapporo’s central north-south axis – Sapporo Station, Odori, and Susukino. Most of the sights and shopping are in the same area, the nightlife’s mostly found around Susukino, and Sapporo Station’s the main transportation hub with JR lines and a bus station in addition to the subway.

You can use Hotels Combined to search all the online booking engines (Agoda, Booking.com, etc) for the best rates; here are some search links for the above areas:

Search Sapporo Station hotels

Search Odori hotels

Search Susukino hotels

Airbnb is also a great option in Japan, in fact in Japan it seems to work particularly well – most hosts arrange self-checkin & checkout systems, allowing you to arrive & leave flexibly without needing to meet someone for the keys (the key’s often left in a lockbox for you). The wifi is always super-fast, and I’ve never had an Airbnb nightmare in Japan (have had a few elsewhere). There was a crackdown in 2018 with the introduction of new regulations which led to a collapse in the number of listings available and accordingly a jump in prices, with a lot of travellers reporting that their reservations were suddenly cancelled as a result. It was all a bit of a mess at first, but you can be confident that any listings remaining on there at this point are legit. Prices went up unfortunately, but then so did standards, and Airbnb is still my usual go to for accommodation in Japan.

New users can get a $35 discount from their first Airbnb rental through 4corners7seas, simply click here and sign up.

Sapporo Shopping

An array of massive department stores (Daimaru, Esta) and electronics megastores (Yodabashi Camera, Bic Camera) are clustered around Sapporo Station, with a long shop-lined boulevard running from there down to Susukino Station. More interestingly, there’s an underground walking & shopping arcade running below the street the entire way from Sapporo Station to Susukino (with a branch also running under Odori Park to the TV Tower), with free wifi and chill out spaces (this underground route is a godsend in the Hokkaido winter, and can also be a nice cool alternative on hot summer days). Another shopping arcade (this one above ground but covered) called Tanukikoji runs east-west a few blocks north of Susukino Station (see here).

Sapporo Nightlife

The Susukino area is the city’s (and indeed the island’s) main concentration of nightlife with all sorts of bars & izakayas, restaurants, karaoke, etc, densely packed into a few city blocks.

There are a few long-established expat hangouts which will be good bets for watching the Olympics on TV; best option is TK36 near Susukino Station (the new location of the long-running TK6 which recently closed down).

On the clubbing side of things Sapporo is a bit underwhelming for the size of the city, but if you find your way to the Booty (South 7, West 4) you’ll be on the right track. If you’re still going when they close, there’s a notorious after hours joint called Rad Brothers just a 2-minute stumble to the east at the intersection – in there I once witnessed a yakuza ladyboy glassing a drunk Russian dancing on the table with his pants round his ankles… in other words, it gets pretty rowdy.

Things to Do in Sapporo

Powder: if you’re there in winter, Sapporo is snowboard heaven. Hokkaido powder is justifiably famous, and you can hit some steep & deep at Teine Highland on the edge of Sapporo. For details of a few more nearby resorts see here

The three towers: Sapporo’s two most famous sights are the TV Tower & Clock Tower, and to be honest they’re nothing much to get excited about. But they are the symbols of the city, and for Instagram posers those are the must-get Sapporo selfie spots.

The Clock Tower (see here) is really just a small building with a clock on the roof, but it’s one of the oldest buildings in the city and houses a small local history museum (it’s located near the TV Tower at North 1, West 2); the TV Tower’s an actual tower (like a smaller version of Tokyo Tower) standing at the end of Odori Park, the centre point of Sapporo’s grid reference system, and you can go up to the observation deck (from where I took the pic at the top of this page) for 720 yen (see here).

The JR Tower at Sapporo Station (see here) is the city’s tallest building, and the observation deck on the 38th floor is almost twice as high as the TV Tower’s, for the same entrance fee.

View from the bathrooms at Sapporo JR Tower — Loo with a view, Sapporo JR Tower

Sapporo Beer Museum & Beer Garden: this was the site of a Meiji-era brewery, now a beer museum (see here). It’s free to browse the exhibits, and for 200 yen a glass you can try various beers in the tasting room. The attached beer garden (see here) has all-you-can-eat-and-drink deals, serving Sapporo Beer with Genghis Khan lamb BBQ (Genghis what? See food section below). It’s a 15-minute walk south from Higashi-kuyakusho Mae Station on the Toho Line (and there’s a massive shopping mall next to it called Ario).

There’s also the Sapporo Factory, a shopping mall built on the site of the very first brewery in Japan. It’s a pretty cool building, and it has a beer hall too in addition to all the usual fashion stores. The above two are better, but this one’s a bit more convenient being just a few minutes’ walk north of Bus Center Mae Station on the Tozai Line, or a 10-minute walk northeast of the TV Tower (it’s at North 2, East 4).

Mt Moiwa: small mountain on the southwestern edge of town, with a ropeway you can ride up to see the views from the observatory. There’s also a restaurant up there, and it’s 1700 yen for the ropeway (see here). The lower ropeway station’s a 5-minute walk from Ropeway Iriguchi (ロープウェイ入口) tram station, 25 minutes from the Susukino terminus.

Otaru: a small port town half an hour west of Sapporo with a historical canal district. It’s nothing too special, but if you’re looking for an easy half-day trip out of Sapporo it fits the bill. A few blocks northeast of Otaru Station there’s a ramen restaurant called Ramen Kyoya (らー麺京や) that I once stumbled into after a 21-hour ferry journey from Kyoto; the owner shouted me several glasses of beer while drinking a few himself and chatting (in excellent English), and the noodles were delicious. If you do visit Otaru, it’s a good lunch option on your stroll down to the canal (you can find it on Google Maps).

Eat: one of the best things to do in Sapporo is stuff your face. Obviously the entire country’s great for this activity, but Sapporo is particularly so with Hokkaido being notable for the following dishes…

What to Eat in Sapporo

Ramen: one of the representative dishes of Japanese cuisine, with differing local styles throughout Japan’s regions. Sapporo is miso ramen country, usually using thicker noodles served in a heavy miso-based broth with the standard toppings (chashu pork, bamboo shoots, soft-boiled egg, etc) often complimented with local Hokkaido ingredients like sweet corn and butter. Many Sapporo ramen joints also serve spicy versions, which is quite rare in the rest of the country. Spicy Sapporo miso is my favourite style, and cracking bowls of ramen can be found on random corners all over the city; the most obvious place to get a fix, though, is Ramen Yokocho (Ramen Alley), an alleyway in the Susukino nightlife district (at South 5, West 3) packed with famous ramen shops. It has its own homepage here

Crab (and seafood generally): the cold waters around Hokkaido are home to large and famously delicious crabs, and Hokkaido’s seafood is generally considered to be of particularly high quality. If you pay a visit to Nijo Market (near the TV Tower at South 3, East 1) there’s an entire crab section where you can have them cook you up a whole crab, or a claw, or a bowl of crab meat on rice. Also highly recommended is the kaisendon at the stalls within the market, which is basically a bowl of rice topped with assorted raw fish & seafood. For more on the market see here

Soup curry: curry rice is popular throughout Japan, which is recognisable as a fairly generic curry dish but a mild Japanese version. In Hokkaido it’s often served as a soup instead, and usually much spicier; essentially, think of a spicy curry-flavoured soup containing all the usual veggies and whichever you order of meat/shrimp/tofu, served with a bowl of rice on the side. Might sound odd but it’s actually really good. Try Garaku near Susukino Station at South 2, West 2.

Genghis Khan: named for the great Mongol lord (who according to local legend was actually born in Hokkaido, though there doesn’t seem to be much evidence for this) and pronounced Jingisukan in Japanese, this is basically barbecued lamb, sometimes on skewers, sometimes in strips on the grill. It’s usually eaten in an all-you-can-eat system where you pay a flat rate per person and they keep the food & beer coming until you tap out. The easiest place to try this is the Sapporo Beer Garden (see above). Highly recommended!

Hokkaido Side Trips

If you get the JR Pass you can take some really cool trips around Hokkaido before flying out of Sapporo, or you could also use it to travel overland from Sapporo down to Tokyo via the Tohoku region (see here for cool places to visit in Tohoku). Alternatively, Hokkaido’s also great driving country so you could rent a car and take a road trip to some of the following:

Daisetsuzan: Japan’s famous autumn colours don’t hit Tokyo & Kyoto until late November, but they actually start at Daisetsuzan National Park in the centre of Hokkaido in late September. If visiting during the Olympics you’ll see summer wildflowers covering the alpine meadows, and the conditions should be nice for hiking. The park’s huge, with a number of 2000m peaks criss-crossed by a multitude of hiking trails; if you’re not in for a multi-day trek, the easiest way to visit is to go up the Asahidake Ropeway and do one of the short hiking circuits from the upper ropeway station. From Asahikawa Station (a 40-minute train ride from Sapporo) take a bus (1 hour) to Asahidake Onsen at the base of the Asahidake Ropeway, or it’s a 3-hour drive from Sapporo. See here for park info

Abashiri & the Shiretoko Peninsula: Abashiri was the site of Japan’s most notorious prison, now a museum, and is also the nearest city to Japan’s truest piece of wilderness on the Shiretoko Peninsula. Abashiri’s an interesting place to visit on your way to Shiretoko, though for visiting the peninsula itself base yourself at the towns of Shiretoko Shari (which has the closest train station) or Utoro (a 40-minute drive or bus ride north of Shari); search & book hotels in Shiretoko. Utoro’s the northernmost town on the peninsula, from where you can take boat cruises up the coast or drive/bus over to Rausu on the east coast for whale watching and views of the controversial Russian Kuril Islands that Japan still claims. See here for more on that.

Wakkanai & islands: Wakkanai is Japan’s northernmost town, ~~from where you can take the ferry over to Russia’s Sakhalin in the summer months~~ (update: ferry service discontinued); from Wakkanai Park you can see Sakhalin on the horizon in clear weather. You can also take the short ferry trips over to the beautiful little Rebun & Rishiri islands, known for their excellent hiking. Search & book hotels in Wakkanai

Hakodate: this port city at Hokkaido’s southern tip is an obvious place to stop if you’re travelling overland between Tokyo & Sapporo. Take the Mt Hakodate Ropeway up to see the view of the city – the night view is Hakodate’s claim to fame. Also check out the star-shaped Goryokaku Park (it’s mostly known for being a great cherry blossom spot in spring, but also nice in any other season). Search & book hotels in Hakodate

Any questions about Sapporo? Give me a shout below and I’ll get back to you.

Useful Links for the Olympics in Sapporo

Click the banner to pre-order your JR Pass and save 40 dollars, or see here for full details on buying & using the pass:

Check train times on Hyperdia (see here for an explanation on how to use it)

Japan transportation guide

Search Hotels Combined for the best hotel deals in Sapporo

How to get online in Japan

Check out my other Japan posts and Japan travel guide

How to Take the Ferry to Hokkaido

Hokkaido, Japan, Overland travel

Most visitors to Hokkaido fly in, but to do it overland you have two options – bullet train or ferry.

If you have the JR Pass, the train’s the way to go – with the bullet train having recently been extended from Aomori through the Seikan Tunnel to Hakodate, you can now reach Hakodate (specifically Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Sation on the edge of town) in 4 hours with a direct Hayabusa train from Tokyo. However from there it’s still another 3.5 hours to Sapporo on the Super Hokuto express train – the shinkansen is currently being extended to Sapporo which will allow for direct Tokyo-Sapporo trains taking just 5 hours or so, but that won’t be finished until 2031.

For those without the JR Pass, the ferry is way, way cheaper than the shinkansen (so is flying of course, but the ferry is a nice scenic overland alternative). And if you’re aiming for Hokkaido overland from Kansai or Nagoya, the overnight ferry is surely a cruisier option than the train dogleg through Tokyo.

(There is actually one more option – using the local trains. But having spent 2 days of my life getting back from Sapporo to Kyoto this way (following a bizarre encounter with a scary scissor-wielding lady after my ferry was cancelled) I can say it isn’t a good idea unless you break it up and make plenty of stops (e.g. by using the Seishun 18 Kippu). There’s certainly plenty to see in the Tohoku region to justify it – though it’d be more fun with the JR Pass!)

Anyway, back to the sea routes. Ferries to Hokkaido’s ports of Otaru and Tomakomai leave from multiple ports on the main Honshu island; in addition to the shorter crossings from Aomori Prefecture, there are these long-distance routes:

Maizuru (Kyoto Prefecture)-Otaru
Tsuruga (Fukui Prefecture)-Niigata-Akita-Tomakomai
Nagoya-Sendai-Tomakomai
Oarai (Ibaraki Prefecture)-Tomakomai

I’ve taken the ferry to/from Hokkaido 5 times and it was a pleasant journey on every occasion. The one shocker was when my return ferry got cancelled due to storms, leading to above-mentioned ridiculous 2-day journey – I had to be back in time for work so couldn’t risk chilling & waiting for the next ferry. All of which goes to say, be aware of the possibility of cancellations and prepared to be flexible should that happen.

From Aomori Prefecture: as well as the above long-distance routes there are also a few shorter crossings from Aomori Prefecture at the northern tip of Honshu, which would be best if you’re road tripping it:

Hachinohe-Tomakomai
Omasaki-Hakodate
Aomori City-Hakodate

The Shimokita Peninsula is home to Osorezan (Mt Dread or Mt Fear), an otherworldly volcanic landscape which serves as the gateway to the underworld in Japanese mythology. It’s a fascinating place and if you are on your own wheels, or are travelling through Tohoku taking your time with stops, this is a good route to take. Ferries cross to Hakodate from Omasaki at the tip of the peninsula.

How to Book Japanese Ferry Tickets

The easiest way is online in advance with Direct Ferries here (I’ve never used them for Japanese domestic ferries as I haven’t taken one for a few years, but regularly do so for Japan-Korea ferries and they’re easy & reliable)

You can also just rock up on the day and buy a ticket in the terminal – I’ve done so every time (before the rise of OTAs) and never had a problem (no guarantee of course). Next time I’ll use Direct Ferries.

Ferry Terminal Access

Otaru is an attractive little canal town with good train connections to Sapporo (30-45 minutes); if you’re heading to Niseko you can do so directly from Otaru (as I once did) by staying overnight then taking a morning train to Kutchan (and local bus or taxi from there). The nearest station to the port is Minami-Otaru, a 20-minute walk away; Minami-Otaru is one stop east of Otaru Station i.e. one stop before Otaru Station when coming from Sapporo.

Tomakomai is the other way from Sapporo and slightly further out, an industrial port which I mostly remember for this bizarre situation I once found myself in there. It’s an hour-and-a-bit by train from Sapporo Station (or 45 minutes if you take the limited express), but then you have to get from Tomakomai Station to the port. Easiest way is by taxi, or you can take the bus from the bus stops outside (to the left when you com out of the north exit). If you don’t read Japanese you’ll need to ask for help with working the bus out; I’m not putting the bus times & numbers here as they change and there’s no easy way to keep track of the changes. To further complicate matters, ferries to Sendai/Nagoya/Oarai and Akita/Niigata/Tsuruga leave from different ports – Tomakomai Port (10-minute bus ride) for the former and Tomakomai East Port (30km away) for the latter. When departing from Tomakomai you’ll need to catch the bus from the bus stops outside the train station (ask someone to help you find the correct stop) or jump in a taxi. The navigation’s easier when arriving in Tomakomai, as they have buses waiting when you disembark, including buses direct to Sapporo Station (you should definitely take this option if heading to Sapporo); if you’re heading east first to Kushiro, Shiretoko Peninsula, Abashiri etc then take the bus to Tomakomai Station and the train to Minami-Chitose where you can transfer to the limited express trains coming though from Sapporo to points east.

Maizuru
The port’s a 20-minute walk from Maizuru Station, if you take the fastest route. On ferry days there are buses meeting passengers off certain trains (ask the JR staff at the station), or a taxi will do it in 10 minutes. Walking takes you through the town centre – nothing too lively but you’ll find ramen joints and convenience stores etc. Arriving to Maizuru in the evening you can just about catch the last train that makes the connection to Kyoto at Ayabe (with a second change at Sonobe; double check this using Hyperdia as details may change), but you have to absolutely leg it; if you take a wrong turn you’ll miss it. If you don’t fancy that, have heavy luggage etc, you’ll want to have a taxi pre-booked to meet you off the ferry, or just book a room in Maizuru (not a bad idea – it’s a lovely bit of coastline and you can visit nearby Amanohashidate, one of the so-called 3 Great Views of Japan)

Tsuruga
Although not in Kyoto Prefecture, the port of Tsuruga in Fukui Prefecture is actually more convenient than Maizuru for Kyoto City, being just 50 pretty minutes away on the Thunderbird express via the Kosei Line running up the western shore of Japan’s largest lake, Biwako (or about 2 hours by local trains with changes, check Hyperdia). From Tsuruga Station it’s a 10-minute taxi ride to the ferry terminal. You can get a meal or stock up on snacks in the vicinity of Tsuruga Station.

Niigata is a fairly large city and the port’s a few miles out from the centre. Eat & stock up in the busy shopping area near the station then take a taxi (15 minutes) or bus (use Google Maps) to the ferry terminal.

Akita
The terminal’s a 20-minute walk from Tsuchizaki Station, which is one stop north (7 minutes) of Akita Station.

Sendai
This one’s a bit of a trek from central Sendai; either take the Senseki Line to Nakanosakae (20 minutes) then a taxi (10 minutes) from there, or the bus direct from Sendai Station. The routes are clearly explained here. When disembarking in the morning from Hokkaido, buses wait to take you direct to Sendai Station.

Oarai
You can actually buy combo bus & ferry through-tickets all the way from Tokyo (Mito Station) to Sapporo, see here.

If you prefer to make your own way to the port use the Joban Line from Ueno Station, it takes around 2 hours taking the JR limited express then switching to the private Kashima Rinkai Railway (see Hyperdia for details), and the ferry terminal’s a 20-minute walk or quick taxi ride from Oarai Station.

Nagoya
The ferry terminal’s a 20-minute walk north of Kinjofuto Station, the last stop at the southern end of the Aonami Line (25 minutes from Nagoya Station).

Aomori City
From Aomori Station you can walk it in half an hour, or jump in a 10-minute taxi.

Any questions about any of these routes? Give me a shout below and I’ll get back to you.

Search & book Japanese ferry tickets on Direct Ferries.

Check out my quick guide to Sapporo

Also see my pages on ferries between Japan & Korea and the hydrofoil service between Fukuoka & Busan, and my Japan overland guide here.

Viewing the Disputed Kuril Islands from the Shiretoko Peninsula

History, Hokkaido, Japan, Russia

View from the road over the Shiretoko Pass — View going over the Shiretoko Pass (note the snow – it was June!)

Hokkaido’s remote Shiretoko Peninsula in the far northeastern corner of Japan was a place I’d wanted to go ever since I spent a ski season in Sapporo. At the time I’d made a trip out that way to Abashiri (famous for its once-notorious prison) and taken an ice-breaker cruise out on the frozen Sea of Okhotsk, but the Shiretoko Peninsula is largely closed off in winter so I hadn’t been able to visit.

It was a neat little trip anyway, the icebreaker cruise in particular:

But having not visited Shiretoko at that time, I wanted to go back to northeast Hokkaido again in summer to see the peninsula, and even more so to catch a glimpse of the controversial Kuril Islands.

This island group, consisting of Kunashiri, Eterofu, Shikotan, and the Habomai Islets, was taken from Japan by the USSR at the end of WWII, and is still claimed by Japan as its Northern Territories.

I’m not getting into the whole history lesson and debate surrounding the rival claims, but history has seen the Kuril Islands (and Sakhalin, directly north of Hokkaido) change hands a number of times – you can read a full explanation of all the changes of possession here.

For me as a traveller with a close interest in Japan & Russia, these islands have always had a certain allure. I doubt I’ll ever go there due to the effort involved – they’re not off-limits, but due to the lack of regular transportation from the rest of Russia and the absence of any transportation from Hokkaido, they’re quite time-consuming and expensive to get to (they’re administered from Sakhalin, and to get there you have to go via Sakhalin by irregular light aircraft flights or long ferry crossings)

But you can see them easily from Hokkaido’s east coast on clear days – from the Nemuro area’s Nosappu Cape you can see the nearby Habomai Islets and Kunashiri, and from the east side of Shiretoko you can also see Kunashiri.

So, when I was leaving Japan a couple of years ago and thinking that I may never be back, or at least not for a long time (incorrectly – I’m tapping this out on my iPhone while sat on the bank of the Kamo River in Kyoto!), I finally made the trip up to Shiretoko.

It’s a pretty long way from Tokyo – I broke the journey with a visit to Sendai & Ishinomaki (where I’d volunteered after the 2011 tsunami) to see friends and see how the reconstruction was going, and then took the overnight ferry from there to Hokkaido and finally a 7-hour train across Hokkaido to the town of Shiretoko Shari.

The road to Utoro on the Shiretoko Peninsula — Beautiful weather for the ride up to Utoro

This town is a short bus ride (one hour) from the peninsula’s main town of Utoro, and is the closest you can get by train. If you’re keen to properly explore Shiretoko, it’s better to stay on the peninsula itself in Utoro (west coast) or Rausu (east coast); but I was rushing it and decided to base myself in Shari for 2 nights and just make a day trip over to Rausu from there.

The bus schedules for this (changing in Utoro) gave me half a day in Rausu; I was hoping to jump on a whale watching cruise (pods of orcas are frequently seen), but the schedule doesn’t work – if you want to whale watch, you need to stay in Rausu at least one night or Utoro for 2 nights (you can do it as a day trip from there, but not Shari).

So with whale watching out, I simply hiked up to the Rausu Kunashiri Observatory to try and catch a glimpse of Kunashiri. It wasn’t looking promising, with a dense fog rolling in off the sea; conditions on the west coast were clear that morning and the views were lovely going over the Shiretoko Pass, but on the east side Rausu was completely enveloped. There was little for it though other than to hike to the viewpoint anyway and hope to see something.

Rausu, Shiretoko — Looking down on foggy Rausu

It takes about 45 minutes to hike up the road from Rausu’s main street, I’m not sure if there’s a hiking trail but the road’s fine (it’s just an access road, so very few cars). Perhaps halfway up I heard the thrashing and crashing of something big coming up through the undergrowth on the slope next to the road… as Shiretoko is serious bear country, home to enormous Ussuri bears as well as the slightly less massive Asian black bear, I cacked my pants and legged it away up the road before it emerged (bear attacks are increasingly an issue in Japan). Looking back, I watched and breathed a sigh of relief as a deer hopped over the crash barrier onto the road; she froze when she saw me, and as I was slowly pulling out my camera and framing the shot, she bolted back the way she’d come.

Feeling bad for her wasted effort, I continued on up to the observatory, where I gazed out over an empty void, an impenetrable sea of fog. Quite funny really, going all that way to look at Kunashiri and then not be able to see it! Should you also be weird enough to want to visit Shiretoko in order to see the Kurils, I’d advise having a flexible schedule and being ready to stop in Rausu for a few days – foggy conditions are common up there.

So I gave up and entered the observatory’s museum, which gives the history in some detail, stating the basis for Japan’s ongoing claim:

…they also have a bunch of propaganda displays like this (outstanding Engrish fail on the first one):

It’s all pretty interesting if you’re into your history & politics, but what I really wanted was to catch a glimpse of Kunashiri, so I went back up on the roof for as long as I could before needing to head down for the last bus.

And just as I was about to do so, the fog suddenly started shifting, revealing a peak here and a peak there as it rolled by; watching for 10 minutes or so, I got a good look at the overall outline of Kunashiri, though my photos are all terrible with only one point ever visible at a time, and the clouds closing just as fast as they opened. These are the best couple:

So, as you can see, I didn’t see it very clearly at all! But I did see something at least. And I was struck by how close it really is to Hokkaido; you’d be across in twenty minutes with a speedboat, if not for the fact the Russian navy would sink you first!

It really is a case of ‘so near, yet so far’. Given that ten thousand Russians now call Eterofu and Kunashiri their homes of 3 generations and counting, it seems unlikely that they’ll ever be Japanese territory again – there are very few Japanese remaining who ever lived there, and very few who would want to live there now even if they could. The return of the unpopulated Shikotan and Habomai was proposed by Russia some years ago in exchange for Japan dropping its claim to Eterofu and Kunashiri, but this was rejected by Japan. Seems to me that’s the best offer they’ll ever get, though.

Who knows, it may yet happen – if it does I’d expect a regular ferry service would then start from Hokkaido, so perhaps in future it will be possible for travellers to visit these remote Russian-held islands from Hokkaido.

Until such a time, you’ll have to either make do with looking from afar, or actually go and visit them from Sakhalin.

(~~In the summer months, Sakhalin can be reached by ferry from Wakkanai at the northern tip of Hokkaido, see here~~ (update: not any more); there are also daily flights between Sapporo and Sakhalin)

For practical information on visiting Shiretoko, see the Japan Guide page here

Any questions or comments about the Shiretoko Peninsula or the Kuril Islands? Give me a shout below!

With the recent extension of the shinkansen system to Hokkaido, it’s easier than ever to get to Shiretoko overland. Click the banner to pre-order a JR Pass for a 40-dollar saving:

For more posts on Japan, click here; check out my quick guide to Sapporo here

For my Japan snowboarding guide, click here

Check out my guides to hiking in Kyoto and Tokyo

For my Japan overland travel guide, click here

A Suggested Hokkaido Ski Tour Route

Hokkaido, Japan, Snow

Hokkaido’s powder is legendary, and the larger resorts like Niseko and Furano have been popular for years now with international powder hounds, especially those from Australia and New Zealand (what with the opposite hemisphere seasons and the lack of jet lag involved between there and Japan).

But there’s a lot more to riding in Hokkaido than just those main resorts, and in fact your chances of scoring all day freshies are better at quieter local hills like Teine than they are at busy Niseko.

So if you’re going riding in Hokkaido, it really is a good idea to visit a bunch of hills rather than limiting yourself to a single major ski resort; the best way to get around and hit a few different hills is of course to have your own wheels and do it as a road trip (rental cars can easily be arranged from New Chitose airport).

That may not be an option for many visitors though, but even for non-drivers it’s still possible to use public transportation to get around a few ski hills during a short trip to Hokkaido.

As an example route, here’s what I did a few years ago when I was living in Kyoto; I don’t suggest following the exact same timings, as I only had a week off from work and opted to travel by ferry as a money saver, so it was a really rushed trip – I’d previously lived in Sapporo so didn’t mind rushing it so much, as long as I got my Hokkaido powder fix! You’d want to do it a bit slower, perhaps with a few days in Niseko and a few in Sapporo, but it should give you an idea of a route you could follow and the transportation you could use, adapting it to start and finish from the airport if you’re flying in & out.

(in the event, my return ferry was cancelled and, following an alarming encounter with an angry lady armed with a pair of kitchen scissors, I ended up enduring a time-consuming, expensive, and stressful 2-day journey back to Kyoto by local train… full story here)

My Hokkaido Ski Tour Route

Map of my ski tour route in Hokkaido — 1:Niseko 2:Rusutsu 3:Teine

I arrived by ferry from Maizuru (in northern Kyoto prefecture), a journey of some 21 hours, docking at Otaru late in the evening… long-distance ferry travel in Japan is a good way to go if you don’t have the luxury of a JR Pass – it’s a nice, relaxing, cheap alternative to flying, and you get to see some beautiful stretches of coastline you’d otherwise likely not see… just be prepared (see above!) to be flexible in case of bad weather cancellations. For more on taking the ferry to Hokkaido see here

After checking into a hotel, I went in search of some food and chanced upon one of the best ramen shops I’ve ever been to; the owner, one Matsubara-san, spoke great English and shouted me a few beers as we chatted (the place is called Ramen Kyoya (らー麺京や) and you can find it on Google Maps).

After a night there, I caught the first train to Kutchan (the town next to Niseko), took a local bus from the station up to Niseko itself, checked into a guesthouse, and then got out on the slopes.

The following day, I checked out and caught the morning Donan Bus to Rusutsu, taking all my stuff with me; leaving my bags in a locker I got an afternoon lift ticket, rode for a few hours, and then caught the evening bus onwards to Sapporo.

I then stayed in Sapporo for a couple of nights, riding at Teine and celebrating New Year with friends, and then headed back to Kyoto (as noted above, that didn’t exactly go according to plan and the journey home was rather eventful)

Obviously the schedule I was on was super tight, and this was a very rushed itinerary; but if you adjusted it to start from New Chitose airport, have a few days in Niseko, hit Rusutsu for a half-day en route to Sapporo, and then have a few days in Sapporo while hitting Teine, Kiroro, and Kokusai before flying out, you could hit five hills in a week – though I personally dig Teine so much I’d probably go there on every available day in Sapporo.

You could also tack on a visit to the resorts further inland like Furano to make it a 10-day or 2-week job. Furano is easily reached by train or bus from Sapporo, and can even be done as a (long) day-trip from there.

However you do it, enjoy being up to your ass in the best powder you may ever ride!

Need to book a JR Pass? Click here to order:

Should you get a JR Pass for your itinerary? Click here for more info

Have you been to Hokkaido? Any comments or questions about the where to find the best powder? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you.

Also check out my quick guide to Sapporo

For more posts on Japan, click here

For my main Japan snowboarding page, click here

Check out my guides to hiking in Kyoto and Tokyo

For my Japan overland travel guide click here, and see here for Hokkaido ferry options