Hey all, thanks to everyone who gave feedback on my last itinerary, I revised it quite a bit based on the advice and am fairly happy with it now, but if anyone has any more input on it, I’d love to hear it! 🙂
I live in Japan, so the border is of no concern to me. I also can’t drive, so renting a car is out of the question.
I found some cheap flights from Tokyo to Mamenbetsu Airport, so decided to start my trip in Shiretoko, and I’ve added Wakkanai to the trip too. If any of the days don’t look feasible, or if you’ve got any recommendations for the places I’m going, please let me know!
Thanks, if you took the time to read this I really appreciate it!
|Day|Location|Place|
:–|:–|:–|
|1|Utoro/Shari|Fly to Memanbetsu, stay overnight in Utoro if I can get there, Shari if not.|
|2|Shiretoko|Walk around the Shiretoko Five Lakes.|
|3|Shiretoko|Maybe go on some nature tour? Thought about hiking Rausu but I’ve already got a few hikes in this trip! Head back to Shari in the evening to make the journey the next day a tiny bit shorter.|
|4|Wakkanai|10 hours on the train to Wakkanai, chill for the evening.|
|5|Rebun/Rishiri|Morning boat to Rebun, walk around the island on one of the nature paths, boat to Rishiri in the afternoon.|
|6|Rishiri|Wake up early and hike Mt. Rishiri.|
|7|Wakkanai/Asahikawa|Return back to Wakkanai on the boat, check out Cape Soya, train to Asahikawa. If I had time I’d like to go to the famous ramen place in Rishiri too, so I might see if I could squeeze that in for lunch if public transport timings work out.|
|9|Asahikawa|Chill day, maybe go to the zoo.|
|10|Furano|I’ll probably use Asahikawa as a base for these few days – check out the flowers in Furano.|
|11|Biei|Cycle around Biei, check out the blue lake, onto Asahidake Onsen in the evening.|
|12|Daisetsuzan|Hike Asahidake, either stay in Asahidake Onsen again or head on to Sapporo in the evening.|
|13-15|Sapporo|Chill in Sapporo. No specific plans other than a day trip to Otaru to walk around and go to the whisky distillery.|
|16|Noboribetsu|Explore the area and chill in the onsen.|
|17|Lake Toya|Check out Lake Toya, and then on to Hakodate in the evening.|
|18|Hakodate|Explore Hakodate.|
|19|Head back|Hopefully go to the morning market, and then head on the Shinkansen back down to Tokyo.|
5 comments
You have days 12-14 missing.
Of the top of my head, I would add a day in Hakodate to perhaps visit Onuma Koen area, which should make a very nice day trip in the summer. Other days should probably be used as reserve days to use on Biei/Furano area or Daisetsuzan – if you run into post-tropical storm/weather front.
Will it even open in August?
More of just a question, are there through-hikes you could do?
If you’re thinking of going to Nikka’s Distillery keep in mind that it is about ~30 mins train ride from Otaru and trains are somewhat infrequent so you should probably start your day out at Nikka and then head to Otaru afterwards to avoid doubling back. Also Otaru has a lot of glass shops if you’re looking for that sort of thing. Kitaichi glass outlet has some pretty good deals and they’ll ship whatever you buy to Tokyo so you don’t have to worry about carrying it for the rest of your trip.
If you can make it to rishiri miraku its amazing, probably my favorite shoyu ramen. However, even if you can’t they are currently at the Shin Yokohama Ramen Museum so you can try it there too.
I’m hoping to hike Rishirisan one day! Do you have more specific itinerary for how you plan to do that? (Where you plan to stay, which of the two paths you plan to take, what you plan to take with you, etc.) I’ll definitely be saving your post for future reference. I’ve always wanted to do a solo trip to northern Japan. Good luck!