Japan - From the Bottom to the Top! Last Stop - Hokkaido

Hokkaido was the last of Japan's 4 major islands to visit. I met up with my daughters (Tarin and Faith) in Tokyo and we took the flight north to Sapporo. Hokkaido is a true northern area much like Scandinavia with culture and climate to match - it was early May but I was amazed to see how much snow was still lying on the ground. The spring and summer last 4 months, the autumn and winter 8 months! The clues were there as I looked out the aircraft window!!

Winter was just ending as we flew in!

We hired a car headed off into the Hokkaido countryside. A lot of our time would be spent self catering so we made a stop at the amazing Aeon supermarket near the airport. 2 hours later we emerged - half the time was spent shopping the other half trying to work out what everything was! With no English on any of the products it's difficult to work out what many of the foodstuffs are - but it's an essential Japaneses experience. The fish counter was unbelievable - 2 full minutes to video it and I really didn't know most of these sea creatures existed!

After stocking up we headed into the centre of the island. First stop Furano - just a small detour because of a closed mountain pass! Like the UK driving here is on the left - the roads are deserted up here - we hardly saw another car! A far cry from people's impression of the crowded Japanese mega cities teeming with people. We settled down for the night in our friendly youth hostel and were served a totally delicious traditional Japanese meal - have I mentioned how good the food is here?!

Next day was beautiful, a clear (early) spring day. The Japanese love to go tree spotting. Cigarette manufacturers have cottoned on to this and featured these trees on cigarette packets and they have become famous all over Japan. We watched amazed as coachloads of tourists filed out and did selfies next to the trees and hopped back on again!

Next day we headed up to Asahikawa - visiting the Otokoyama sake brewery - fun to visit as long as you are not driving! There is a zero alcohol limit for driving so I had to wear a big sticker saying I couldn't sample while Tarin and Faith got stuck in!

Spring had really sprung and we went in search of Sakura (Cherry Blossom) in the local forest. There were lots of cherry trees and lots of buds - but no flowers yet! Too early!! The next day we went up the mountain road to to Asahidake. I had been planning some vigorous hiking but since the snow was still 10 metres deep and ski-ing was still taking place that plan went on hold! We had fun taking the cable car up the mountain.
Japan is a country of contradictions - health and safety is taken very seriously here but there are occasional blips - like being able to ski on this active volcano!!

Mount Asahidake - the middle photo shows an active fumarole (an opening in the mountain - you can see the volcanic gases escaping) which I'm guessing is best to ski around...

We finished the day off in a nearby hotel having an onsen - they had indoor and outdoor onsens - you could sit in the hot thermal waters surrounded by snow!

Bear country!

We then pushed towards the most eastern tip of Hokkaido - Shari and the Shiretoko peninsula. One of the many things that is done well in Japan are museums. A perfect example of this was The Museum of Northern Peoples in Abashiri. Many of the museums have English (and other language) headsets which tell you about the exhibits. It was a fascinating insight into the native people of Hokkaido (The Ainu) how they have survived in this sub Artic wilderness. Their culture and customs bore amazing similarities to Inuit, Sami and Siberian peoples.

The Shiretoko area is a pristine wilderness that is home to much wildlife - we spent the afternoon watching white tailed sea eagles at a local wetlands centre before heading to our hostel. The next day we were up early to visit the national park This is bear country - they are generally not active til the summer so the snowy weather was doing us some favours! At last we were able to a bit of hiking and got great views of the mountains

There's always some volcanic activity round the next corner in Japan!

Having reached the tip of Hokkaido it was time to moving back towards Sapporo. We spent an amazing day in the Akan National Park - beautiful weather and gorgeous onsens overlooking the lake

Soaking up the thermal waters and the scenery - Kotan Onsen Lake Kussharo

The next day we went to Bear Mountain. I'm not a fan of zoos and bears do particularly badly when enclosed. These bears were in a sanctuary with ability roam in a large area so I was happier about that and it was great too see those amazing creatures close up. The biggest bear bottom right weighed in at a massive 350kg!

The last place on our trip was Hakodate where we were hoping to see some good Sakura  - below is a picture of what we could have seen - if we had visited 4 days earlier!! By the time we got there practically ever single petal had fallen! But we still had our traditional picnic (Hanami) under the bare trees!

Luckily there were other attractions like a great seafood market and lots of old churches to wander round

And of course the sushi was amazing!!

                                      And we did eventually track down some.....

We headed back to Tokyo - the girls headed home but I had a few days in Chiba province to end with (see my Honshu blog) 

That was the end of an amazing 5 weeks in Japan - wished I had scheduled another couple of weeks but it'll need to wait to next time. Japan has got to be one of the world's most underestimated destinations. Really I want to keep how good it is all to myself but I'll tell a selected few! ;-) In my experience people have many misconceptions about this country...

Expensive? No more than the UK - eating out is certainly cheaper - you can buy great food in supermarkets and convenience stores and eat in in your hostel or hotel to help your budget - they all have cooking facilities. Beers and wine are similar in price to the UK. Budget hotels and good quality hostels are common . 

Language Barrier? Not really - there is a massive push to increase English with Tokyo Olympics coming up in 2020 Practically everyone speaks a smattering and more and more of the younger generation speak a lot. There is a lot of dual signage and everything works logically in Japan...

Food not to your taste? It's not all about Sushi! The Japanese eat lots of beef, chicken and pork. There is a strong noodle culture - the Ramen is sensational. Cooking for yourself is easy to do in hostels and hotels - it's a common thing to do. A trip to the supermarket is an amazing experience...

Travel - The trains can be expensive but rail passes make them affordable and as I have mentioned before the local buses are very good. Car hire is comparable to the UK and they drive on the left like all sensible countries! Japan is a big country though - you can't "do" Japan in a couple of weeks!

The people - inscrutable? Not a bit of it...helpful, super friendly, generous, polite, welcoming....I could go on but you are best to experience it for yourself....

So that's it for another trip...back to work now and back to thinking about where to go next...that's why they call me....

Wandervet