GOING SOLO IN JAPAN – 3 Maizuru to Sapporo Last Updated: June 29, 2022

( 1995 )

Boat Journey

My first visit to Hokkaido was in 1995. Hokkaido is the Northern most island of Japan. We were going there to attend a meeting in Sapporo – Capital city of Hokkaido.

On this visit all our internal travel was in slow motion. We didn’t use plane journey.

We were in Maizuru, a port city, in Kyoto prefecture. We found that there was a ferry from Maizuru to Otaru, a port town on western coast to of Hokkado.

We took this opportunity to travel by a ferry that goes across North Japan sea. We were on ferry for 2 nights, doctors from the hospital came to give us help and farewell. There were very few people on the ferry. We had a very comfortable cabin for ourselves.

Due to language problem there was very little conversation with anyone. Next evening it was announced that there will be a film show. So, we along with few others waited to see the film. But the show was cancelled. There was one gentleman who was a mountaineer, who tried to to talk with us. Being a mountaineer he was interested in talking about  Mount Everest. He showed us his album of various peaks he had climbed in Japan. When he heard that we were going to Sapporo he offered to drive us to our hotel in Sapporo. 

We disembarked around 4 am and his car was parked at the very front of the line. On disembarking he first drove us around Otaru where along the canal there were lots of large buildings which served as warehouses. And than we drove to Sapporo. Still it was very early in the morning so after some driving around in Sapporo, he dropped us at our Hotel in downtown area. 

After the conference was over as usual we wanted to do some sightseeing in the area.  At that time I had very little knowledge of the geography of this island.

With help of our friend we decided to visit two destinations .

Naka Furano

It is a town which is endowed with nature and scenery of the Furano Basin.

It is the treasure house of farm produce in Hokkaido which developed through agriculture and in 1999 was declared the town of clean agriculture promotion since reclamation in 1895, and produces safe high quality farm products.

Naka means middle. It was a day trip to Naka Furano which is located in central  part of the island. We went there by train. In Japan, for all tourist destinations they have a very special train for tourists. The train here is decorated in Lavender colour. This is season for fields filled with stretches of Lavender flowers. We couldn’t get seats on this train while going there, but on return we travelled on this special Lavender train.

 Naka Furano is popular at this time of the year for flower beds of many different flowers. Very special are the flower beds of Lavender flowers.

We walked around the area. There was a shop with everything in Lavender colour including the Ice cream.

You can take part in fine food and events in the Nakafurano color at the lavender sightseeing birthplace Farm Tomita which is dotted with lavender fields such as the Hokuseiyama Lavender Garden.You can enjoy the colorful flowers not only lavender, but sage and sunflowers.

A superb view overlooking the Tokachidake mountain range and the beautiful rural scenery can be seen when ascending by lift.

The next destination was to visit lakes in the eastern part of Hokkaido.

Lake District

We wanted to visit Lake Akan and Kusharro which are like hot water springs and one more lake name Lake Mashu. It is said that Lake Mashu is difficult to see as it remains covered in clouds like Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania

As there is no western style hotel available near the lakes we had to stay in Kushiro.

We were introduced to a doctor couple who had worked at Hokkaido university and were told that his wife speaks English and likes to help foreign students. The couple met us at the station and  welcomed us.

 We stayed at a hotel close to station.

Next morning she picked us up and took us on a full day tour of the lakes.

Knowing that we are vegetarians she had packed sandwiches and fruits for our lunch. On the way we stopped at the Crane centre established for breeding of beautiful Japanese cranes.

The red-crowned crane, also called the Manchurian crane or Japanese crane, is a large East Asian crane among the rarest cranes in the world. In some parts of its range, it is known as a symbol of luck, longevity, and fidelity. 

After enjoying the lake district, we again travelled by train to Hakodate.

Hakodate is one of the main cities on Hokkaido. 

Looming over the town is 334m-high Mount Hakodate. The mountain’s summit, reachable by aerial ropeway gondola, offers dramatic nighttime views. At its base is Motomachi, a neighborhood of steep streets with Western-style, early-20th-century buildings.

One thing not to be missed is the night view Hakodate. We took a bus tour which was filled with all Japanese people.

The guide was talking non-stop in Japanese about – I believe  history of this town. All the people clapped when she ended.

We reached the top of the mountain by bus.One can go by rope railway also. The night view was superb.

We had one more free day in this city. So next day we visited Onuma Quasi-National Park located 30 minutes away by JR express train from Hakodate. The landscape consisting of an active volcano, Mt. Komagatake, lakes and islands, is a grand sight.

As I said earlier this is slow motion travel.

So again we took a train from Hakodate to reach main island. In those days there was no Shinkansen to Hokkaido. The train went through a long under water tunnel.

We came out at Aomori, again changed the train and reached Morioka.

On the way we stayed for one night to visit Toshiba’s main factory.

After 2 night’s stay we reached to Narita international Airport.

This is our longest train Journey in Japan.