Hokkaido: Sapporo, Furano lavender and Shiretoko

1. Day 1: Arrive in Sapporo

   New Chitose Airport to your hotel in central Sapporo

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Sapporo
   Day 1 details

   Fly into New Chitose Airport (CTS), about 50 km south-east of Sapporo, and plan to land by about 3 pm. A driver meets you in arrivals for the hour into the city, where we stay two nights near Odori Park. Sapporo was laid out on a grid in the 1870s as the capital of the new Hokkaido colony, so it is one of the easiest Japanese cities to find your way around. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short walk: along Odori Park, past the wooden Clock Tower of 1878 and up to the TV Tower end of the park, while you hear how the week is paced. Then we sit down to a welcome dinner of Genghis Khan, the Hokkaido dish of lamb and vegetables grilled at the table on a domed iron pan, with a cold local beer if you like.

   Included

   • Pick-up at New Chitose Airport (CTS)
   • Evening orientation walk: Odori Park and the Clock Tower
   • Welcome Genghis Khan lamb dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening walk

   Activity: If you land later than about 3 pm, the driver still meets you and your guide catches you up at dinner.

2. Day 2: Otaru by the sea, then the beer museum

   Sapporo to Otaru by train and back, then the Sapporo Beer Museum

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Sapporo
   Day 2 details

   We take an early JR train west along the coast to Otaru, about 40 minutes with the sea right beside the line. By half past nine we are walking the Otaru Canal, finished in 1923 and lined with stone warehouses from the years when this was Hokkaido's main trading port, while it is still quiet; the day coaches and cruise passengers arrive later in the morning. Your guide then leads us along Sakaimachi Street, past the glass workshops and old merchant houses, to the Otaru Music Box Museum in its 1912 building. Lunch is sushi in Otaru, where the fish comes straight off the boats. We are back in Sapporo by mid-afternoon for the Sapporo Beer Museum, in a red-brick factory of 1890, and a tasting set of three beers. The evening is free: ride the ropeway up Mount Moiwa for the night view, or try a bowl of miso ramen, Sapporo's own.

   Included

   • Return JR train to Otaru
   • Guided walk along the Otaru Canal and Sakaimachi Street
   • Otaru Music Box Museum
   • Sushi lunch in Otaru
   • Sapporo Beer Museum with a tasting set

   Optional experiences

   • Mount Moiwa ropeway for the night view over Sapporo

   Free time: Evening free in Sapporo

   Activity: About 4 to 5 km on foot, all on pavement.

   

3. Day 3: Into the Furano valley and the lavender

   Sapporo to Farm Tomita in Nakafurano, then Furano

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Furano
   Day 3 details

   After breakfast our own vehicle takes the group north-east out of Sapporo and over into the Furano valley, about 130 km and two and a quarter hours with a coffee stop. Our first stop is Farm Tomita, whose lavender helped make this valley famous; from about early to mid July the purple rows run up the slope beside bands of red poppies, white baby's breath and orange California poppies, and outside lavender season the other flower fields still carry the colour. Entry is free. Lunch is in Furano, perhaps the local curry served with an omelette. In the afternoon we visit the Furano Cheese Factory and the hillside Furano Winery, then check in for two nights in Furano. The rest of the day is yours. As the light goes, walk up to the Ningle Terrace, a lane of small craft cabins in the forest whose lamps come on at dusk.

   Included

   • Farm Tomita lavender and flower fields
   • Lunch in Furano
   • Furano Cheese Factory
   • Furano Winery

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Furano

   Activity: Lavender usually peaks from early to mid July. Earlier or later in summer you still see the other flower fields.

   

4. Day 4: The Blue Pond and the hills of Biei

   Furano to Shirogane and the Biei hills, then back to Furano

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Furano
   Day 4 details

   We set out at 6:45 to reach the Shirogane Blue Pond, about 45 minutes away, by half past seven. The pond was made by a mud-flow barrier after the 1988 eruption of Tokachidake, and minerals from the volcano turn its water a milky blue around the drowned larch trunks; early in the morning the surface is often still and the car park nearly empty. Nearby, the Shirahige Falls pour out of the rock face into the Biei River gorge. Then we drive the rolling farmland of Biei, where wheat, potatoes and flowers are planted in stripes across the hills: the Shikisai-no-Oka flower garden, the viewpoints of the Patchwork Road and the single trees that became famous from advertisements in the 1970s. We are back in Furano after an early lunch in Biei, which is on you, and the afternoon is free for a nap, a bath or a walk in town.

   Included

   • Shirogane Blue Pond in the early morning
   • Shirahige Falls
   • Shikisai-no-Oka flower garden
   • The Patchwork Road viewpoints in Biei

   Optional experiences

   • Hire a bicycle in Biei for the Patchwork Road (e-bikes available)

   Free time: Lunch on your own and the afternoon free

   Activity: Short walks of a few hundred metres at each stop.

5. Day 5: Up Asahidake, down to Sounkyo

   Furano to the Asahidake ropeway, then Sounkyo Onsen

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Sounkyo Onsen
   Day 5 details

   Daisetsuzan is Japan's largest national park, and we drive about an hour and a half north to its western edge at Asahidake Onsen. The ropeway lifts us from about 1,100 m to 1,600 m on the flank of Asahidake, at 2,291 m the highest mountain in Hokkaido. From the top station a loop of about 1.7 km leads past small ponds, alpine flowers and, on a clear day, a view of the fumaroles steaming on the mountain, mirrored in Sugatami Pond. It is rough volcanic ground and takes about an hour. Lunch is on you at Asahidake Onsen. In the afternoon we drive round the mountains to Sounkyo, about an hour and a half, a gorge of basalt columns with the Ginga and Ryusei waterfalls dropping side by side down its walls. We stay one night at an onsen hotel there: a long soak, then a Japanese-style dinner with the group.

   Included

   • Asahidake ropeway, up and down
   • Sugatami Pond loop with your guide
   • Ginga and Ryusei waterfalls
   • Onsen dinner in Sounkyo

   Easier option: Stay at the top station viewpoint, or ride down early and sit in the free foot bath at Asahidake Onsen.

   More active option: With your guide, carry on past Sugatami Pond up the summit trail towards the steaming vents for about another hour on loose volcanic scree.

   Free time: Evening free for the onsen

   Activity: It is cool at 1,600 m even in July, and snow can lie on the path until late June. Bring a warm layer and shoes with grip.

6. Day 6: Across to the Okhotsk coast and Shiretoko

   Sounkyo over the Sekihoku Pass to Kitami and Shari, then Utoro

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Utoro
   Day 6 details

   Today is one of the two long road days, about 230 km and four hours of driving, because no shorter road links central Hokkaido to Shiretoko. We break it well. We leave after breakfast over the Sekihoku Pass and across the onion and wheat farms around Kitami, then reach the Sea of Okhotsk for a sit-down lunch on the coast near Shari. The last stretch follows the shore to the Oshinkoshin Falls, which drop about 30 m beside the road, and on to Utoro, the small fishing town at the gate of the Shiretoko Peninsula, listed by UNESCO in 2005. In the late afternoon we walk from the Shiretoko Nature Center through the forest to the Furepe Falls, where groundwater pours straight out of a cliff into the sea, and look out for sika deer on the meadow. Dinner is at our hotel; Utoro has few restaurants.

   Included

   • Sit-down lunch on the Okhotsk coast
   • Oshinkoshin Falls
   • Shiretoko Nature Center and the Furepe Falls walk
   • Dinner at the hotel in Utoro

   Free time: Evening free; watch the sun set into the sea from the Utoro waterfront

   Activity: Furepe Falls walk: about 2 km return on a flat forest path, 40 minutes.

7. Day 7: Five Lakes at opening and a boat under the cliffs

   Utoro to the Shiretoko Five Lakes, then a boat along the peninsula

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Utoro
   Day 7 details

   We are at the Shiretoko Five Lakes when the park opens at 8 am, while the light is low and before the tour buses. Everyone can walk the elevated boardwalk, about 800 m each way, flat and step-free, out across the bamboo-grass meadow to the first lake, with the Shiretoko range rising straight behind it. Shiretoko has one of the densest brown bear populations in the world, so from 10 May to 31 July the ground trails round the lakes may only be walked on a tour with a registered nature guide; we book one, and you choose the boardwalk or the guided short loop past two of the lakes, about an hour and three-quarters. Lunch is in Utoro. At 2:45 pm we board a sightseeing boat out of Utoro harbour for about 90 minutes along cliffs that no road reaches, to the Kamuiwakka Falls and back, watching the shore for bears, eagles and seabirds. We are back on land by about a quarter past four, and the evening is free before dinner at the hotel.

   Included

   • Shiretoko Five Lakes at the 8 am opening, with a registered nature guide
   • Lunch in Utoro
   • Shiretoko sightseeing cruise from Utoro to the Kamuiwakka Falls and back, about 90 minutes (2:45 pm sailing)
   • Dinner at the hotel in Utoro

   Easier option: Walk the elevated boardwalk only: about 1.6 km there and back, about 40 minutes, flat and step-free, with a view of the first lake and the mountains.

   More active option: The guided short loop on the ground past two of the five lakes, about 1 hour 45 minutes on a forest path. Guided parties are capped at 10, so a full group splits between two nature guides.

   Free time: Evening free after the cruise

   Activity: The cruise runs only in calm seas; if it is cancelled, we try the 8:30 am sailing the next morning before we leave Utoro. From 1 August the ground trails need only a short park lecture, and our nature guide still walks with us.

   

8. Day 8: Volcano lakes to Lake Akan

   Utoro to Io-zan, Lake Kussharo and Lake Mashu, then Akanko Onsen and the Bokke

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Akanko Onsen
   Day 8 details

   Our second long road day, about 190 km and three and three-quarter hours of driving, runs south through the volcanic heart of Akan-Mashu National Park, with a stop roughly every hour. First is Io-zan, a sulphur mountain where yellow-crusted vents hiss beside the path. At the Sunayu beach on Lake Kussharo, Japan's largest caldera lake, hot spring water rises through the sand: dig a hole and warm your hands. After lunch in Teshikaga we climb to the rim of Lake Mashu, a caldera lake known for its deep blue water and for the fog that often hides it. We reach Akanko Onsen at about 3 pm. Your guide then walks the group through the lakeside forest to the Bokke, where grey mud bubbles and pops out of the ground at the water's edge, about 20 minutes each way, and the rest of the afternoon is free. After an onsen dinner we watch an evening Ainu performance at the Ikor theatre in the Akan Ainu Kotan, one of the largest Ainu settlements in Hokkaido. The lake cruise waits for tomorrow's first sailing, when the water is calm.

   Included

   • Io-zan sulphur vents
   • Sunayu hot sand beach on Lake Kussharo
   • Lunch in Teshikaga
   • Lake Mashu observatory
   • Walk to the Bokke mud pots with your guide
   • Onsen dinner at Lake Akan
   • Ainu performance at the Ikor theatre

   Easier option: Skip the Bokke walk and go straight to the onsen.

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Akanko Onsen

   Activity: Short walks at each stop. Io-zan smells strongly of sulphur. If the Shiretoko cruise moved to this morning, we leave Utoro at about 10 am and reach Akan by about 4:30 pm.

9. Day 9: Lake Akan by boat, the cranes and Kushiro

   Lake Akan cruise from Akanko Onsen, then the Akan International Crane Center and Kushiro Airport

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 details

   After an early breakfast we walk down to the pier for the first sailing of the day on Lake Akan at 8 am, about 85 minutes round the lake with the volcano Oakan-dake rising over the eastern shore. Halfway round, the boat stops for about 15 minutes at Churui Island, where the marimo centre shows the lake's marimo, rare balls of green algae. Back on shore by about half past nine, we drive south out of the hills towards Kushiro, about 70 km and an hour and a quarter. On the way we stop at the Akan International Crane Center, where red-crowned cranes, the tall white and black birds with a red crown that were once nearly lost in Japan, are kept and studied; in summer the wild birds are off nesting in the marshes, so the centre is the place to see them up close. From there it is about 20 minutes to Kushiro Airport (KUH), arriving at about half past eleven. Your guide sees you to check-in. Book a flight leaving after about 1 pm; Kushiro has direct flights to Tokyo Haneda and to New Chitose.

   Included

   • Lake Akan cruise at 8 am, with the stop at the marimo centre on Churui Island
   • Akan International Crane Center
   • Drop-off at Kushiro Airport (KUH)

   Activity: Book a flight leaving Kushiro after about 1 pm. If the lake is too rough to sail, we leave earlier and take more time at the crane centre.

   

Wildlife and weather: Hokkaido summers are mild, usually in the low to mid 20s C in the day, with no rainy season like Honshu's, but mountain and coastal weather turns quickly. Lavender peaks in July. Shiretoko has a large brown bear population: we follow the park rules, walk with a nature guide where they are required, and often see deer, foxes and, from the boat, bears on the shore.

• Sapporo2 nights
• Furano2 nights
• Sounkyo Onsen1 night
• Utoro2 nights
• Akanko Onsen1 night