My wife and I (both late 20-s) are planning to spend September in Japan, and we thought it would be nice to start with a week in Hokkaido. We don’t plan on renting a car, so the trip is more or less JR oriented (we will get the Hokkaido JR pass). This is just the first week of our trip out of a month total, we won’t neglect Honshu, we just wanted to make sure this part made sense before we finished planning the rest.
**Day 0 (September 2nd)**: land in Narita, take local flight to New Chitose, arrive in Sapporo close to midnight and go straight to hostel.
**Day 1**: A chill day in Sapporo to get acclimated. We are considering either taking a private culinary tourand then just a walk around Odori, or going to the historic village. Evening around Susukino.
**Day 2**: Train to Asahikawa then to Biei, a day in Biei just walking around. Return to Asahikawa in the evening and sleep there.
**Day 3**: Bus to Asahidake Onsen, take the ropeway to Sugatami, do a hiking trail from there. Possibly a soak at Asahidake Onsen, then back to Asahikawa for the night.
**Day 4**: Train to Shiraoi through Sapporo (Should be \~3 hours total), a few hours at the Upopoy Ainu park, then a train to Noboribetsu, spend the evening and the night there.
**Day 5**: A day around Noboribetsu, mostly in Jigokudani. the rest of the time just relax in the town and go to an onsen. In the evening take a train to Toya, spend the night in a hotel by the lake.
**Day 6**: A day in Toyako – Volcano science museum, hike on mt. Usu. watch the fireworks in the evening, spend the night by the lake again.
**Day 7**: Train to Hakodate, a day in the city. Maybe a walking tour or a trip up the mountain if we’re not too tired by that point. Have dinner somewhere nice around the bay, then head to the hostel.
**Day 8**: Take the shinkansen to Honshu.
We have a few questions:
1. We land in Narita at 17:35, then take flight to New Chitose at 20:00, land there at 21:50 and hope to be in the hostel in Sapporo (about 5 km from the JR station) by midnight. Does that make sense? how badly can that go wrong (for instance if the flight to Sapporo is late, will we suddenly be stuck with no public transport to/inside the city)?
2. Is Biei worth an entire day? We understand it’s mainly just walking in the countryside and looking at flowers, which we are fine with, but how much time is it reasonable to spend there? Is that day better spent in Sapporo or somewhere else near Asahikawa?
3. In general, is it too much moving around? the idea was to try to not have any single day with too much travel and still experience as much of the island as possible in a week without a car. On the other hand, we don’t really have time to just stay anywhere for a while, and we’re wondering if we might miss some of the experience of Hokkaido because of that.
4. Any recommendations for good local restaurants and/or bars in any of these places would be really welcome! The local food and beer are some of the things we are most excited about.
Thanks! 🙂
4 comments
1. Yes, but check what is the check-in time of the hotel before booking, worst case book close to the hotel and take the train next morning.
2. Not a Hokkaido specialist and did not fo…
3. I personally do not mind changing city every day, it’s more a question of how long you spend in the train (like 2-3h is ok for me) and at what time you are in the train, usually I avoid between 9am and 5pm as it’s when most attractions are open.
4. I usually do not really search for that, check the app Untappd, I use it to track the beer I try and to find breweries where I can go try new beer.
Try cape kamui in Otaru
1 – Possible but when you reach CTS, take a bus to Sapporo stn, after that I think it would be quite late so chances are you might need to get a cab.
2 – Personally haven’t been to Biei but I heard there’s nothing much there. Half a day should suffice (source: friends who have been to Biei). However I have been to Furano (very near Biei) and I would definitely recommend a visit there. Cycling around Furano and looking at the fields of flowers was one of my favourite moments in Hokkaido. If you want to know more about Furano , drop me a DM!
3 – It’s an alright amount of moving around (if you are travelling with a backpack) else a luggage would be quite inconvenient . But I personally would change one of the days in between (towards the end) to a rest day where I’d just do nothing. You would probably be drained after so much travelling each day.
4 – I have recommendations for food in Asahikawa, Furano and sapporo. Mostly sushi though. Drop me a DM if you need them!
*Also I’m surprised that you’re not visiting Asahiyama zoo. People usually go to Asahikawa for that.
*Might be a long shot but another place I’d recommend is Wakkanai (northernmost part of Hokkaido) and for that reason, I think it’d be hard for you to go there. Train ride from Sapporo is around 6 hours one way… haha. But i really enjoyed it the last time I went.
2. I would personally skip Biei in September. It’s nice, but you’ll see a lot of the same type of scenery elsewhere in Hokkaido.
Upopoy/Noboribetsu: just to give you an idea of my trip last weekend and scheduling. We got to Upopoy around 11A and left at 4P. I feel like we could’ve spent another hour or two at Upopoy. If you can, try to budget for and make reservations for HARU RAN NA restaurant at Upopoy. We had a car and it took us about 45 minutes to get to Noboribetsu. I’ve been to Noboribetsu a few times and I think an overnight stay is too short.