Heading to Hokkaido

Our 5 weeks in Japan gave us enough time to venture away the well-trodden paths around Tokyo and Kyoto and instead head up towards Hokkaido - Japans northern-most island that has only been colonised for 150 years. The major cities in Hokkaido are Sapporo and Hakodate, known for their beer and fresh fish respectively. We had a great time exploring the region, and it’s western influence certainly leads to a unique Japanese experience that we’d recommend anyone takes the time to see, and luckily we took a few photos for you!

Tuesday 10th: Kyoto to Sapporo

Well, I have not got much to say about today because we literally did 12 hours of travel! 3 trains all on time, all spacious and a lot of time to rest our very tired legs but we did not have enough snacks and were pretty hangry by the time we got to Sapporo at 8.30pm! We filled our tummies with zangi chicken set meals and then headed to bed.

Wednesday 11th: Sapporo

A very lazy morning meant we didn’t start the day until 10.30am! We were heading to the Nijo fish market via Odori park. We went into a subway walkway to avoid the station and next thing you know we were I’m an underground maze which was honestly incredible. We have no idea how far it fully went but we walked in it all the way to the park and saw multiple side shoots.

The markets themselves were a bit quiet by this point as you really need to be around for 6/7am but the restaurants were in full swing and we both enjoyed our set meal. Chloe’s was salmon-based, Mike’s was a whole lot of different fish, but both were delicious and we wished we had an unlimited budget to be able to afford more of the fresh sashimi and sushi!

Everyone knows that Sapporo is the beer capital of Japan so where else to head next but the Sapporo Beer Museum and Garden. We both enjoyed the free museum tour across 2 storeys and seeing the huge pan they used to create the beer. It was interesting reading about how they made beer become popular in Japan and the fact they had to get European influence to learn how to stop the bottles exploding! We were pretty amazed that most of their adverts targeted and depicted women drinking the beer which is the opposite to normal beer advertising in NZ at least. The best part for Mike was obviously the tasting room at the end where we tried 3 freshly brewed Sapporo beer. They were all quite similar but the middle one was his favourite, I didn’t love any of them.

We walked back towards the hotel via the Kitajohigashi Shopping street and the mega don Quixote shop before finding a Curry soup shop in the underground walkway for some Hokkaido speciality curry. The evening was super misty and the tall buildings were quite eerie with the low cloud, but we were back before the rain to do a couple of interviews.

Thursday 12th: Nopporo forest

We headed slightly out of the main city today to Nopporo forest and park. We expected to only be in the area for a couple of hours, but the Museum of Hokkaido and the open-air old village museum were actually super interesting and so different to anything we had done so far.

The museum informed us that the island of Hokkaido had actually only been part of the general Japan country for around 100-150 years which we found super interesting, and it allowed us to learn about the native Ainu people and their spoken only language. It took you through the ages of Japan as well as Hokkaido and all the information had been translated to English which was a really nice touch.

The Historical Open-Air Village was split into 4 sections - town, farm, sea and forest. It allows you to see old Japanese buildings from across the Hokkaido area and they have made it so you can go into the buildings and see the layout and furnishings. We loved to look in the shops and the houses, but our favourite has to have been the fisherman’s shed. There was an older Japanese man who toured us around the building and tried so hard with his English which made it very special. He was so good, and we were so grateful for his insights and pointing things/decorations out on the ceilings which we wouldn’t have noticed. An awesome insight into old Japan.

Tonight was Mike’s turn for job stuff so we headed back to the hotel around 7pm where I did our washing and he applied to different jobs! Hopefully we get this sorted soon because it’s rather disruptive to our evenings.

Friday 13th: Sapporo to Hakodate

We were heading south down the country today, but we had planned a stop off at Lake Toya for a few hours. We arrived to Toyako Onsen at around 11.30am but both felt pretty hungry so found a restaurant for lunch and boy oh boy did it have a stunning view looking across the lake towards the snowcapped mountain opposite. The curry and the chocolate soft serve were both delicious, but the view was to die for! Full bellies and happy humans again we went for a walk along the waterfront taking in some of the many statues and watching the ginormous koi carp swimming in the stunning clear blue lake.

There was a little park at the end which was a memorial park for all the eruptions which have happened in the area, and this allows us to learn about the walk up to Yu-Kun and Tama-Chan craters. It was another scorcher of a day, but the walk was eye-opening as it took you past 2 buildings which were destroyed by the 2000/2001 volcanic eruptions from the 2 craters at the end of the walk. The first was a public bath which had only been refurbished in 1999 but you could see the mud/lava splatters all over the walls and the rooms were just full of mud and rocks from the explosion. The second was an apartment block in which the whole bottom floor was engulfed with the mud flow, and you can see the damage from the bridge which clipped the corner as it was washed away. Thankfully no one was injured as they had evacuated but they must have lost most, if not all, of their personal possessions.

We continued up to the 2 craters pools which were so much bigger than expected and had beautiful colourful water inside them. Pretty fun to be able to say we had walked up an active volcanic fault like too. Sadly our time in Toya was up without a visit to an onsen, and we wished we had stayed for a night but we headed back to the station to get the train to Hakodate for a couple of nights.

After a few trains we arrived at our hotel just outside the Hakodate train station and went searching for dinner. There were lots of small izakayas in a small nearby food street, but lots of these were full of smokers and so we instead opted for a nearby yakitori place. Our table-charge starters consisted of a nice piece of fish and a somewhat less nice… whelk. Mike ended up having to eat both! Fortunately, the rest was tastier - various chicken skewers and some tasty noodles!

Saturday 14th: Hakodate

Hakodate is said to be the best place to get fish in all of Japan, so in the morning we made our way to the Ekini fish market to see what the fuss was about. The market was full of all kinds of fish-related products: scores of live crabs, plenty of fish, sea urchins, and even dried scallop “sweets”. We wandered around the markets for nearly an hour before we caught the tram to the Goryokaku Star fort.

The Star Fort was one of the later fort/castles built and thus had western influences in its design. It was never fully finished as the Shogun era ended during its construction. We called in a small temple next to the fort and picked up a star-shaped goshuin, before finding a yummy sushi train restaurant to gorge ourselves on Hakodate sushi. After a delicious lunch we went up the Goryokaku tower to get a view of Hakodate and, most importantly, Goryokaku itself.

We headed over to mount Hakodate for the evening and explored the historical churches before hiking up the mountain. On the hike up we encountered loads of field mice scurrying amongst ferns and flowers, and some pretty snails too. The view from the top was great, however hundreds of people had already camped out 2 hours before sunset and so we decided we wouldn’t wait around! We ended our evening by visiting a cool little brewery, Japan’s first concrete telegraph pole, and some tasty ramen for dinner.

15th June: Hakodate to Niigata

Well, we thought today was going to be a relatively quick day of travel, but we hadn’t realised that the total journey time was actually 6 hours, travelling all the way back to Tokyo before heading across to Niigata. But it was worth it as we arrived and had a lovely hotel with an onsen included!

For dinner we went to a food hall and had a local noodle dish, we can’t quite remember what it was called but it was super yummy and not a broth one which was a nice change. We then explored the mall area and had some fun on the Gatcha machines, alas we didn’t win anything but we still had fun. A day of travel turns out to be quite exhausting, so we headed back to the hotel nice and early to rest up!

What a great time and so much tasty fresh fish! Our next stop on our Japanese tour is the Chubu region, on the northwest coast of central Japan. We experienced the rural rice heartland of the country, and even saw some hot pool monkeys to boot! See you in the next post.