Vlogging our latest Hokkaido Road Trip. :D
This year, with the Japanese Yen dropping, the number of tourists there rosed significantly. Sometimes we just want an holiday that isn't tiring and stressful. Travelling in Hokkaido in the shoulder periods was amazing. A few weeks after Sakura blooming stopped we headed down for a slow and chill holiday, Itinerary down below!
Day 1: Touch down at New Chitose Airport. Immediately ran to Toyota Rent a Car to grab our slick Toyota Prius and drove off to Furano.
Day 2: Tour the Farms and Cheese factory in Furano. Head to Asahikawa and along the way check out Blue pond, Shikisai-no-oka and Hinode Park. Don't expect lots of flowers during late May and early June though! However there were hardly any tourists!
Day 3: Apparently the zoo at Asahikawa was a top attraction so we went to check it out. You can probably give it a miss unless you really like the bird, seal and penguin exhibits. We had a quick Sando Lunch at the Cafe outside the zoo and went to Abashiri to check into our Onsen Resort (Lake Abashiri Tsuruga Resort).
Day 4 and 5: Enjoying the resort facilities which includes onsen and an excellent buffet meals with fresh seafood. Nearby there's the museums which we checked out to learn about the geology and history of Hokkaido.
Day 6: Attempt to get on the nature cruise at Shiretoko but get denied by the wave :(. but we made do with Higashimokoto Shibazakura Park which was a damn cool park that bloomed purple pink flowers everywhere. Lots of tourists tho. Checked into a hotel near Mount Io which is a natural sulphur hot spring. You do know its natural when you alight and smell rotten eggs everywhere haha.
Day 7: Check out after another great refreshing onset and head down to see Mount Io, Lake Mashu, Lake Akan. Lake Akan has an Ainu village where you can experience the Ainu people's culture. Stop by Naitai Highland Farms to see the cows and eat beef burgers!
Day 8: Make your way back to Sapporo. We stayed at Obihiro along the way!
Day 9 onwards: long stay in Sapporo! We visited some cafes, shopped in the departmental stores and drank beer, sake and high ball nightly.
We actually stayed about 12 days in total :D Felt that it was just right.