A journey through Northern Japan
A few months ago, I had the utmost pleasure of taking a 2-week vacation from work to travel through Hokkaido, the Northernmost part of Japan, with a good friend of mine.
There are two types of travelers: those who plan ahead and those who don’t. I belong to the first category of people; I enjoy the planning process as it makes up a huge part of the trip experience. There’s just something so satisfying about putting in the time to research and then being rewarded when the plans are realized. With this one being a longer trip, I took special care to create an itinerary that would best maximize our time there. While I am detail-oriented in planning, I don’t expect to stick to a set schedule so my itinerary is always left somewhat open-ended. I predetermine the general locations of where we will be but beyond that, I simply reference my customized maps with pins for attractions and activities I’m interested in. Marian and I had our flights booked, hotels and car rental reserved, received our Japan Rail passes — we were ready to go!
And so we set off for Japan on a late morning in mid-May and landed in Tokyo (well, technically Narita) after a 14-hour long-haul flight. Ah, it was so good to be back in Japan; this was my third time and I had never been more excited. We spent the first few days exploring with bright eyes and attempting to beat that old friend named jet lag. We left Tokyo and made a one-day stop in Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, known for melt-in-your-mouth bbq beef tongue, called gyutan, as well as uniquely edamame flavored sweets. I recall walking nearly 30,000 steps that day, partly to avoid paying for a cab and partly because exploring by foot is the best way to get the feel of any place. Luckily we had a nice ride on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to rest our feet the next day. After a mere 3 hours, we made it 318 miles north from Sendai to the very southern tip of Hokkaido Prefecture, the wonderful city of Hakodate.
There we ate likely the best food of our entire trip and wandered the sleepy streets of this coastal city that has both mountain and sea. After one full day in Hakodate, we continued north to Sapporo with an intermediate stop at Noboribetsu, a small hot spring resort city. We hiked along the trails of Jigokudani (Hell Valley), a volcanic caldera, also the largest source of hot springs in Noboribetsu and finished our brief visit with a soak at the natural foot baths of the sulphur river. In Sapporo we readjusted to the quicker-paced metropolitan lifestyle, walking briskly to keep up with the throngs of business men and women and students as we arrived just at the end of the business day. We checked in at the hotel and immediately went out in search of somewhere to have our supper. Marian and I ended up doing some restaurant-hopping; we began at a lamb bbq joint (a specialty of Sapporo), went on to have oysters and drinks at a trendy little bistro, and finally ended the evening at a quaint bar that served liquor infused soft serve ice cream.
The next day, we picked up our compact red Honda and began our self-driving adventures. Marian was the designated driver for the trip. We decided it made more sense for one person to do the driving so that we didn’t both have to adjust to driving on the other side of the road. It took her a few nervous first hours, but soon enough she was smoothly navigating the country roads to the various farms and parks on our itinerary. First off was Moerenuma Park, a munipal park with sculptures and architectural objects designed by Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi, then it was Furano Cheese Farm where we sampled a variety of dairy products including asparagus and kabocha flavored gelato, followed by a lavendar farm where we had more ice cream, lavender flavored of course. But it didn’t end there, we went to a melon farm and had even more ice cream: melon (of the cantaloupe variety) soft serve filled in the hollowed part of the cantaloupe slice. I was sugared out at this point so Marian ate most of it. I was happy to move onto savory foods for dinner, which we had at a popular conveyor belt sushi restaurant just outside of Asahikawa, our home for the next few days.
After a good night’s sleep, we were back on the road (after I sampled some sake and shochu at the local sake brewery – hey, it’s 5 ‘o clock somewhere). We drove several hours north to the highlight of our trip: Takinuoe Park for the Shibazakura (pink moss) festival. We timed our trip just to catch the Shibazakura bloom in its pink spendor. We hiked little ways to the highest vantage point in the park and took in the beauty of the pink moss covered fields. There we could see the colorful rooftops of the charming little town at the foot of the hills and the seemingly endless mountains surrounding the park on all sides. We had to taste the Shibazakura flavored soft serve, even though I was very much over ice cream, having had it every day of the trip thus far.
The sun was beginning to set when we arrived at our next stop, Kamiyubetsu Tulip Park. The technicolored tulips were in full bloom and the windmills nestled between the fields made it feel like we were in Holland! Families with little children laughing and running up and down the rows and rows of bouncing tulips filled the park with ebullience. We visited the gift shop and could not leave without purchasing little keychain tulip character plushies, modeled after the park’s mascots, “Tupit” and “Lip.” In high spirits, we began our drive back to Asahikawa. We were lucky to only have caught about 15 minutes of a heavy rainstorm, and made it back safe and sound. I did a quick search and found a well-rated yakitori shop minutes from our accommodation. It was smoky from both the grilling of the chicken skewers and businessmen’s cigarettes as smoking was allowed inside the establishment. We were seated with one other diner, an elderly Japanese man who introduced himself as a radiologist from the hospital in town. We were somehow able to communicate with our broken understanding of each other’s languages. He told us this was his favorite restaurant and he came for a few skewers and drinks after already having eaten dinner at home. After we had finished our meal and he had finished his, he bought and poured for us some hot sake before leaving. It’s exchanges like these with the jovial radiologist that I love about traveling, interacting with locals and getting a little taste of local life.
The third and final day of our car rental was upon us. Marian and I were both reluctant to bid our little red Honda farewell. We managed to fit in one more farm visit, where we had the best Hokkaido yogurt, before heading back to Sapporo.
Back in Sapporo, we rented bicycles and biked all through the city for only 600 yen (roughly $6) each for an entire day. With the increased mobility, I felt like I could go anywhere; this was certainly one of my favorite experiences of the entire trip.
The rest of our time in Japan was full of more delicious food, shopping until we could fit nothing else in our luggage, walking, and touring around museums, parks, temples, etc. And you bet we had more ice cream: hojicha, matcha, black sesame flavored; you name it, we had it. We even met up with a few friends, one of Marian’s friends from college who lived in Tokyo and one of mine who was in town for work (he lives in Seoul). The end of the trip came too soon, although my feet and wallet would beg to differ. Until next time…!
