Strong Island: Hokkaido

A Japanese woman once said to me that the top three places to go in Japan are: Tokyo, Kyoto and Hokkaido. Based on the success of my visits to the first two, I had high hopes for the two weeks I was due to spend in Hokkaido.

After a long eight-hour journey door-to-door from Hirosaki to Sapporo involving three trains, including an eight-minute change over period in Hakodate – which was reduced to four-minutes when my train was delayed (a train four-minutes late in Japan, I mean honestly) – I wasn’t expecting too much from my first evening in Hokkaido except a quiet night in. But within my first four hours there, I had: eaten some street noodles, seen some stand-up comedy (in Japanese), had some beers, befriended a man drunk enough to give me the full names of each member of Blue and Busted and literally bought a T-shirt.

'You know what mice are?' Sapporo

Yes, it’s fair to say I immediately liked Sapporo. This was furthered by visiting the Sapporo Beer Museum the next day. While the museum isn’t much to speak of, apart from convincing me that women like beer from the various old Sapporo Beer adverts around the place, it’s free and the bar offers three half-pints for £4, making it one of the cheapest places to drink in Japan (probable hyperbole). I think I’ll go round again! I then made a pact that I would only drink Sapporo while on Hokkaido.

Sapporo Beer Museum

Also while in Hokkaido’s largest city I did the inaugural city tower view that all Japanese cities have; went up the Mt. Moiwa for the city view from a different angle, continued my pointless mission to visit all of Japan’s World Cup stadiums (No. 5: Sapporo Dome), as well as literally buying more T-shirts.

Sapporo Dome

The Sapporo Dome is an impressive stadium, but not so much a stadium more a display of technological advance. Serving as both a baseball pitch for the Hokkaido Ham Fighters and football pitch for the J-League Division 1’s bottom team, Consadole Sapporo, the baseball pitch is the permanent fixture in the Dome, while the football pitch – where Michael Owen took a dive against Argentina a decade ago – sits outside the Dome, hovered in as the inner-stadium morphs to a shrine to the beautiful game. Hugely unnecessary, but impressive nonetheless. In fact, I was impressed enough to take the tour where the guide spoke at a thousand words per minute and even if I could fully understand Japanese, I wouldn’t have caught a word.

Sapporo

Also while in Sapporo I discovered my new favourite shop, for T-shirts at least, in Jumble Store. I’ve been to ones in other cities, though the ones in Sapporo were particularly good. Essentially a second-hand/out-of-date old stock sell-off shop, it is 1990s T-shirt heaven for the likes of me; picking up some garb that is deliciously un-ironic being that they are out-of-fashion originals. I’ve always needed a DC Shoes original Sony PlayStation blueprint T-shirt, and now I have one, along with my 1992 Dream Team on the cover of Sports Illustrated T-shirt.

After Tokyo and Naha in Okinawa, Sapporo was the place I would be staying the longest while here, but Hokkaido’s a big place and I had, sadly, to move on.

Wakkanai was next, arriving at Japan’s northern-most point after a six-hour bus ride. As the sun set, I walked up to Cape Noshappu, to see Japan’s second most northern point in the twilight. The next day, it was off to Cape Soya for the real thing in Japan’s northern-most point. At each, there were excellent views and some monuments, but little else, and there is only so long you can stare out at the Sea of Okhotsk.

Cape Noshappu, Wakkanai

In seeking entertainment, I went up the hills alongside the city, finding a trail to walk through in-and-amongst trees, streams and hills. At the end, I found a sign that seemed to imply that the trail was off limits and that I shouldn’t have walked along it. Oh well, I came out unscathed and having enjoyed it. Luckily for the evenings the most entertaining place was my hotel, providing free onsen, a free washing machine and free noodles from 21:30-23:00. What endless fun I had the two nights I was there.

From Ishigaki to Cape Soya

Two nights in Wakkanai was all that I needed, as I would have run out of clothes to wash in the evenings if I stayed any longer. While the opportunity to learn Russian was ever present, apart from saying that I have been to the most northern point in Japan there was not a great deal of interest there.

Wakkanai

Asahikawa was next after another long train ride involving a change at Nayoro. The first half of the journey from Wakkanai to Nayoro was a long but scenic one, with the endless mountains and trees associated with Hokkaido along the way. However, passed Nayoro, the scenery became less attractive and more urbanised as we reached Hokkaido’s second largest city.

Asahikawa Train Station

Asahikawa surpassed Oita as the cleanest train station I have ever been to, but served largely as a stopping point for trips to Daisetsuzan National Park and Biei. At the Tourist Information Office I was aided by a woman that should get a job at the Too Much Information Office, providing me all the information I required, as well as setting me up with a meal and a place to get pissed for the evening. Oh, and she once stayed in Bournemouth, likes a pint, and loves football and swimming. Asahikawa for me though was little more than Tokiwa Koen and Ishikari River, where I went for nice, long runs each of the two mornings I was there.

Tokiwa Koen, Asahikawa

Despite being a stop-off point for visiting Daisetsuzan National Park, Asahikawa is still a two-hour bus ride away. With less than helpful bus scheduling, I wouldn’t be allowed a great deal of time for my day trip to Japan’s largest national park. In the time I did have there, I decided to visit its ups and downs, starting with the Ginga and Ryusei falls along the Sounkyo Gorge, where I luckily didn’t come across any of the advertised bears.

Sounkyo Gorge

Next it was on to Mt. Kurodake, being that it was nearest, and used the ropeways to get close to the peak. Despite the good views from up there, I was disappointed to not be able to get to the peak due to the melting snow making the slope slippery, leaving me to nearly take out a Chinese woman. Despite the good views and sights seen, I left a little disappointed due to not having enough time to fully explore the park as I would want – though that would take a good week or so.

Daisetsuzan National Park

Like many Japanese advertisers, if there was one image I wanted to get while in Japan it is a picture of a lone tree in a green field in the rolling hills of Biei. Self-described as the most beautiful villages in Japan, I wandered the farmland of the area south of Asahikawa in search of the perfect photo. Luckily – as with pretty much my entire time in Hokkaido – the weather was perfect: hot, with bright blue skies.

Biei

Finding endless fields with the mountains of Daisetsuzan National Park as a backdrop, I couldn’t find a lone tree in one. Needlessly obsessed, I walked for hours around the scenic, European-like fields covering myself in sweat and T-shirt tan until I found an image I deemed good enough. Making cycling friends along the way (‘what did you just say?’), I only got to explore the Patchwork Road area of Biei, with more still to discover, though I had an appointment with a bus back to Sapporo and time was running out.

Biei

By this point, with only two weeks left until I return to London, I was knackered, and my next two days in Sapporo were fairly uneventful. I watched Japan make Ali Al-Habsi yearn for his Wigan defence in my new favourite pub, Jersey Bar, as Japan comfortably beat Oman 3-0. (As a side note, Man U new boy Shinji Perfume River had another good game for the Samurai Blue, though playing on the left wing, putting in balls like Ashley Young, you do wonder if Sir Alex wouldn’t be better off looking to strengthen in other areas first.) I then went to the town of Otaru the next day, but was too lethargic to be interested, and so made my way back to Sapporo for some rest, and to literally buy another T-shirt.

Otaru

My final stop in Hokkaido was in Hakodate: a random mixture of various foreign influences, unsurprising in a port town. Parts resemble Scandinavia, with wooden buildings reaching up the cloud-covered mountains, much like in Bergen. Other parts seem to resemble scenes from bad early 1980s American films set in scenes of urban decay (reminder: must watch Police Academy). Though, like Wakkanai, Hakodate is larger than it seems; the train station and hotels seemingly away from the city centre and central hubs.

Cloudy Hakodate

Tiredness and the one piece of bad weather I had in Hokkaido aside, I had moments that I didn’t enjoy in Hakodate, mainly being repeatedly attacked by a crow that seemed to have it in for me, hitting me with its wings as it flew by once and trying to claw at my head twice. The chicken shit always attacked from behind as well. Wanker! I did have some good moments though: a quick stop at the Hakodate Brewery being one, though it did mean I broke my only drinking Sapporo rule.

Moon over Hakodate

With less than two weeks now left before I’m back in the U-to-the-K, Hokkaido was my last real flourish in Japan before I have to start sinking back down Honshu and into reality. Scenically, definitely some of the best parts of Japan I have been to, and in Sapporo, one of my favourite cities here. But Hokkaido is a large island and I only got to see certain parts, and the parts I did go to weren’t fully explored. I could spend a good couple of months here making long bus trips from place to place to see what are undoubtedly some of Sun Origin’s best spots, as well as literally buying some more T-shirts.

Sapporo Beer Museum

But with two and a half months of travelling solo, I’m probably ready to head back home, in need of rest and some more stability after over ten weeks on the road, as well as being a little sick of having to hit pubs/bars/restaurants/beer museums alone each evening. Probably for the best then that I am now heading south back to Tokyo, but not before another couple of stops along the way. My ferry to Honshu awaits…