Hokkaido, Japan

Hi friends. I recently went to Hokkaido, and wanted to share some recommendations with you. It’s a 5-day, 4 night itinerary for Hokkaido, with an overnight stay in Niseko - but mainly with Sapporo as a home base. I went with my lovely parents. Note that I went in mid-October, so our main objective was seeing the koyo - autumn leaves viewing.

It me. Watching the autumn leaves from our private onsen at Zaborin.

BEFORE YOU GO

Getting a JR Pass: If you’re planning to take a lot of trains around the area, the Hokkaido Rail Pass is a good deal (being that you may pay 30-80 USD just for a one-way ticket, depending on where you’re going). We went for 5 days, and looked into the 3-day pass, which costs 17,400 yen (160 USD). However, in the end we decided against it because we were only taking the JR to go to-and-from the airport (about 9 USD each way) and then to Niseko (30 USD each way). It used to be that you had to get a JR Pass before you arrived in Japan (we looked into Lion Travel in Taiwan, who offers it — but needs at least 3-4 days of processing/delivery time). But now you can buy it directly in Japan, but it’s more expensive.

Hokkaido in October: We went in mid-October. Niseko was definitely colder than Sapporo. But on average, mornings could be chilly at 3 to 4°C, but 9 to 10°C when the sun was out in full force. We went a little before the autumn leaves were at their peak (it usually peaks around mid-October in areas such as Niseko) — but the autumn foliage was delayed this year due to unusually warm weather (aka, global warming).

Booking accommodation in cities: I am a fan of booking Airbnbs in the big Japanese cities. (You can read my guide to using Airbnb in Tokyo here). They’re cost effective and very utilitarian (plus, you won’t be home much anyway).

Booking a ryokan: Airbnbs in the Japanese cities are cost-effective, but the countryside of Japan is another matter. You’ll want to book a ryokan — a traditional Japanese inn, usually set in beautiful natural environs. Ryokans typically have all these elements:

• An onsen, or hot spring component. This can either be communal (open to all guests of the hotel, and even paying day guests) or private tubs directly in the rooms.

• Sleeping arrangements consist of bedding arranged on tatami (woven straw) mats placed on the floor.

• Guests are supplied with (and expected to wear) yukata, a casual kimono that can be worn around the ryokan.

• Meals are typically included in the total cost and include a multi-course kaiseki dinner as well as breakfast.

We stayed at a ryokan in Niseko called Zaborin. It cost 1800 USD a night for 3 people (although I had my own little tatami room separate from my parents). With the price of dinner and breakfast being bundled into the total cost, ryokan tend to be much more expensive than booking an Airbnb or hotel room (you will not find sub-100 USD ryokan, believe me). This is not the time to be budget conscious. You are paying for the experience.

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DAY ONE

We flew into Chitose Airport and took the JR to Niseko (Kutchan JR Station), with a stop at Otaru. It takes about 2.5 hours overall. I’m sure the trains are incredibly crowded in the winter, but they were very comfortable during October.

We arrived at Kutchan, where Zaborin had sent a car to meet us. It was about a 15 minute drive into the woods around the Hanazono golf course to reach the ryokan. We checked in, put down our bags, and then the staff drove us back into Niseko town proper to get some hot soba for lunch.

Afternoon was spent relaxing and doing nothing — the true essence of ryokan living. A soak in the private onsen looking at the autumn scenery, punctuated by sitting out in the chill air looking at autumn scenery, drinking tea while looking at the autumn scenery — you get the idea.

At night, we slipped on our yukata and enjoyed an 11-course, gut-busting kaiseki dinner. I feel asleep reading in the ryokan’s library.

DAY TWO

We began the day with breakfast and some more onsen time/scenery gazing until it was time to check out. The hotel driver took us to a trailhead that led towards Kagami-numa Marsh, a natural pond formed in the middle of a wetland marsh that juts out of the northeast face of Mount Annupuri in Niseko. The word kagami in Japanese means mirror, an apt name for the lake. If that sounds like it was taken from a guidebook, that’s because it totally was. The hike took about 2 hours, winding through serene yellow-clad birch groves. The car picked us back up and took us to Kutchan Station — and then were back on the train, on the way to Otaru.

Day trip to Otaru: We spent a few hours at Otaru. It’s an unremarkable city with a touristy canal that serves as a common day-trip destination for those staying in Sapporo. It is entirely not worth going to, and I would highly recommend skipping it altogether. Only a small stretch of the canal is suitable for strolling, and the picturesque brick warehouses lining the water have mostly been turned into uninspiring restaurants and a faux-German brewery (albeit one that makes the drinkable Otaru Beer).

Dinner near Sapporo Station: We arrived in Sapporo in the early evening and made our way to the Airbnb, which was right next to Sapporo Station. I’d highly recommend staying around the station during your time in Sapporo — not only if you’re planning on taking the JR trains frequently (the city is so small that using the metro is fairly unnecessary), but also just because unlike Tokyo, which has a number of vibrant, varied neighborhoods, much of the activity we saw in Sapporo — food, drink and shopping-wise — happened around Sapporo Station.

There are a cluster of department stores in and around the station — nearly all connected by passageways (no doubt due to the harsh weather in the winters): the main department stores are Stellar Place (the one directly inside the station), Daimaru (famous for its food hall), ESTA (popular with Chinese/Taiwanese tourists), and Tokyu. Since Sapporo is famous for soup curry, we ventured to a soup curry shop on the upper floors of ESTA called Rakkyo. It was incredibly good, and the waitresses spoke English. They also give you a bib, which is both cool and considerate. I recommend the chicken leg curry with cheese.

DAY THREE

It was raining all day, hard. If you want a list of things to do when it’s rainy in Sapporo, let me give you the rundown:

• Visit a brewery or beer museum: I wanted to visit the Asahi Brewery but you need to make a reservation in the days prior. So we went to the Sapporo Beer Museum. I was expecting some quasi-German tacky horrorshow, but the exhibits were extremely elegant, if a bit dry. It doesn’t really go into the process of beer-making — it’s basically a “path” through a bunch of signboards that take you through the history of the Sapporo brewery. I would say it takes 30 minutes, max. Afterwards, you will most definitely be wanting a beer, which you can get at the beer hall attached to the museum.

• Souvenir shopping: I mean, duh. We basically wandered around all the department stores that I mentioned above and bought souvenirs. If you’re looking for Hokkaido-specific specialities, you have to visit Rokkatei.

• Soak in an indoor onsen, or hot spring: I guess if you were really extra, you could take a bus to the hot spring town of Jozankei (we didn’t go, because we aren’t that extra, but I imagine it’s something like Wulai in Taiwan) and find an indoor hot spring to soak in.

Honestly, that’s all the things we could think of doing. We waited for literally 2.5 hours to eat at this revolving sushi bar in Stellar Place, but it wasn’t that memorable so I can’t even think of the name.

We got there right in time for sunset at Lake Shikotsu. Absolutely stunning.

DAY FOUR

I am definitely not one for organized tours. I went on a tour to Zhangjiajie National Park in China during Golden Week (I know, I know) and I legitimately had a mental breakdown in public. I can’t handle the rushed schedules, the obnoxious tour guides just trying to herd you to the nearest store to buy good so they can make a commission.

However, we had a bit of an issue — we were told to rent a car in Hokkaido to get around (understandable if you want to explore a large swathes of it unreachable by public transit, although I find that you can access many of the main points by public transport of some form). However, my mom was uncomfortable with the fact that the steering wheels are on the right side of the car, and the host of problems that might cause my dad, who hasn’t driven in some time. Since she completely ruled out renting a car, I begin to look into renting a private car for a day, which was prohibitively expensive — something like 600 USD per day (plus tips, plus highway tolls, etc). It wasn’t worth it for just the three of us.

That’s when I began looking into Klook and KKDay. Both are tour operators that operate within Asia and offer a variety of low-cost tours. Both interfaces are extremely easy to use, and I found a tour on KKday that covered most of the destinations we wanted to go (in this case, Lake Toya and Lake Shikotsu) for a 65 USD per person for a full day, including a lunch.

It ended up being a great decision. We met in Sapporo at 7:30am, boarded a nearly empty tour bus (it’s relatively low season in Sapporo, but I imagine in the winter/peak fall the tour group numbers swell considerably) and were on our way. The tour guide was from China and supposedly spoke Chinese and English, but I would say his grasp of English was…tenuous at best. Most of the party was from Taiwan or Hong Kong. He didn’t do much in the way of introducing any of the sights, which was perfect for my purpose (essentially, just find someone to ferry us around for cheap) — but might annoy someone who booked a tour for the purpose of being actually guided around the spots. It definitely was a rushed schedule at some points (and we spent 2 hours in this bullshit tourist trap fake Japanese village with a ninja show), but once the tour bus stopped at a destination we all pretty much got off and split off to do our own thing. The lunch was more than decent, and all in all, it proved to be a good “sampler plate” — seeing all the sights in a relatively shallow way to see if we would want to come back ourselves at another point.

I found Lake Toya boring and similar to Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan, their Hell Valley was extremely similar to Beitou (although you could do a hike to some hot springs which seemed nice) — but I would definitely go back to visit Lake Shikotsu in the fall again.

DAY FIVE

We woke up early and took the train back to the airport. Something I would definitely keep in mind for next time is that you can find most of the “must buy” Hokkaido souvenirs at the Chitose Airport — they have several drugstores (for your face masks and eye drops, etc) and a food hall with specialty stalls like Rakkyo (where you can buy the rum raisin cookies, for example). So I’d honestly just wait to buy anything, go a few hours early to the airport, and stock up on your way out.