Before You Book Hokkaido this Winter, WATCH THIS

All right so living in Japan for 11 years there are two things that I've learned. Number one, Hokkaido is very beautiful and number two, Hokkaido can be very ugly. So in this video, I'm going to show you the seven-day route that's going to change from the ugly part of Hokkaido to beautiful part of Hokkaido. This is the no BS seven-day route itinerary for Hokkaido that I would actually do in this winter. All right first, let's look at the data. In December and January, Hokkaido gets hit with blizzards that shut down trains every week. You will likely lose one to two days of your trip waiting for transport if you don't prepare. That's why this route that I'm about to show you isn't just a list of pretty places. With my engineering background, I designed this itinerary to minimize risk while maximizing fun. I call this the Murphy route. So this route follows the popular Murphy's law because everything that can go wrong will go wrong in Hokkaido especially during winter. All right, day one, arrival and the setup. So most international flights would arrive at the new Chitose airport. Your goal for day one is simple. Arrive at Sapporo before sun goes down usually around 4 p.m. Sapporo would be your base. So here you have two Murphys waiting. Number one, the annoying commute. So to survive the commute from the new Chitose airport to Sapporo, your plan A is to take the JR rapid airport train which is going to take around like 37 minutes. So what you want to do here is to pay around like 840 yen which is around 6 US dollars to upgrade to U-seat. This seat would guarantee you a reserve seat while having a rack to put your luggages. If the train suspended due to snow which is going to happen quite often, you want to go with plan B. For plan B is to take the bus. So walk out to the bus terminal and take the Chuo bus or Hokuto Kotsu which will bring you directly to Sapporo station. It will cost you around like 1,300 yen which is around 9 bucks. Murphy number two, avoid Susukino Strap. Susukino is the place where when you search would like pop up quite a lot and here where you can see like the Nikka sign and all the fancy stuff but you don't want to stay here. The reason being is very simple because your main station that you're gonna use a lot gonna be Sapporo station, right? And of course you can like take a train from Susukino to Sapporo but train could get delays. So when that happens you still need to go by walking and that's going to take around 20 minutes. You want to stay preferably on the north side of Sapporo station and from there you want to go grab dinner at Susukino. Alright going to day two, the romantic trip in Otaru. For day two, we're gonna head to the port city of Otaru and trust me when I said this, TikTok love Otaru. Here you can see like very good sushi and to be honest, no BS, it's stunning. Otaru is beautiful. It felt like you walk into European movie set with Japanese hospitality but to enjoy that movie though you need to pass the shoe test. Alright so Murphy number one, fix your shoes. Before you hop onto a train or on a bus going to Otaru, you first want to go to Daiso because what you want to find first is this thing called suberidome which means shoe spikes because the ice in Otaru is very slippery so this thing will literally save your life. Please buy it. Otaru is not that big. It's quite small so if you arrive there too early, let's say around 9am, you will notice yourself like finishing the whole thing by 2pm and then you will go to the canal by 2pm. You'll see oh there's no illumination because the right timing to go to Otaru is like from 11am. You want to arrive to Otaru by 11am. By 4pm though, you want to be at the canal and by 5.30pm though, you want to go back to the station. You don't want to wait after 5.30pm because around 6pm-ish, all people will go back to the stations and it's going to be very packed and the ride back to Sapporo from Otaru is not that short. Let's go to day three. This is the snow festival. Usually from February 4th to February 11th in Sapporo, there's going to be a snow festival and snow festival is like an annual thing where the defense force would build the ice sculpture. We're talking like a very huge ice sculpture like some of them the same size of like three stories building and yeah we have anime sculpture, we have buildings and also if you walk at the park, you're gonna see like a very small sculpture from characters that you know. Even Otani Shohei, snow festival sculptures, it's not as grand but they even have skates. They have like ramen where you can eat ramen while walking around and yeah there's a lot of food because it's a festival. There's like a place where you can just make snowman together with them. Yeah it's a good family activities but it fits certain people but it doesn't fit some too. Most people plan to go to snow festivals during night. What I would recommend is to do the double loop method which is you'll go around 12pm where the weather is nice, the sun is out. After you see the sculpture, you want to go down into the Chikaho. The Chikaho is basically like a tunnel. Hokkaido, especially in Sapporo, they have like this connecting tunnel. It's very warm, it has a lot of restaurant. You want to go down to Chikaho and enjoy your lunch, maybe do a bit of shopping. Then around like 4pm, you want to go up and see snow sculpture at night. That would be like a great strategy. Alright, day four. This is also one of my favorite days which is the powder hunt and we're talking about white powder but not the one that you're imagining right now. We're talking about the most famous powder in Japan which is called Japow. So Japow is this legendary Japanese powder snow. So the first Murphy that you need to be able to overcome here is to know what kind of ski experience or snowboarding experience that you like because your plan A is basically just hey let's go to Niseko right because that's what people in TikTok is doing and that to be honest like one of my most performing videos. Niseko, honest beginner's guide here if you want to see after you watch this video by the way. But I'm telling you that's not the only place that you want to go if you want to enjoy this Japow. There's like one place that's very close to Sapporo. It is called Teine. So it's located just like 45 minutes away from Sapporo while Niseko, three hours away from Sapporo. This place called Teine ski resort used to be a place where people host winter olympics. So it's not just a random ski area. The slope there is literally being used for olympics and the snow quality some would argue is different but I would say pretty close to what you will get in Niseko. The thing about Niseko is it's located in Mount Yotei. In Japanese it's called Yoteizan. And that mountain is very beautiful. It looks like Fuji-san. I know I mean it's in the thumbnail. I literally put like the signboard for Hokkaido just to make sure people understand this is not Fuji-san. This is Mount Yotei in Hokkaido. Anyway if you want to go to Niseko though from Sapporo it's quite tricky because you cannot take a train there. I mean you could but you will be stranded I think in Kuchang and then there you need to walk for a long time. So what you want to do is if you want to go to Niseko from Sapporo for a day trip there's like a specific ticket area just to buy your tickets. So you can buy like your mountain pass, your bus pass. You can literally buy everything there and it's just located I think it's in the north exit of Sapporo station. I would recommend you to go to Grand Hirafu if you're new you've never been to Niseko before because Grand Hirafu is the biggest ski resort in Niseko. Alright day five. This is the relaxing day. This is the day that you're gonna enjoy the more than 1,300 years old Japanese relaxing traditions. Yes we are talking about onsen and the thing about onsen is if you're in Hokkaido there's like a place called Noborisetsu and Noborisetsu onsen is like one of the most famous hot springs in Hokkaido basically and yeah although it's like it sounds amazing it looks amazing but the logistics are very painful in the ass. Hear me out. The first Murphy that you need to be careful with this is the price is very stupid. You're gonna pay around like 400 bucks to 500 bucks on average. That sounds more like a tourist trap. So yeah so what you want to do though you do this thing called day trip hack. You need to go to Daiichi Takimoto-kan. It's like a Disneyland for onsen. So they have a lot of onsens there. We have like around 35 different baths. You can go for just the bath not the stay. For around like 2,500 yen which is around 17 bucks you can enjoy as a daily use guest package here. Alright day six. Day six is what I call the last supper. Your job is basically to eat. It's all about food. If you're watching a lot of like travel vloggers like Kara and Nate and when they went to Sapporo which I think is this video. I like the videos man. It's very fun to watch them enjoying their stay in Hokkaido Japan but I'm telling you when they went to this alley to eat ramen. Ooh if you are a Japanese or if you stay in Japan for more than let's say five years you're like oh this is a big mistake. In Hokkaido there are three food pillars that locals recommend and I don't think people knows about this. I'm gonna unpack all of that to you today. Ramen, sushi, and gengisukan or the lamb barbecue. So let's talk about ramen right. So most tourists when they go to Hokkaido they will go to Ramen Yokocho just like the famous alley in Sapporo right. I mean it's photogenic. If you just go here to take photos by all means do that but if you go here to eat ramen big mistake. The locals in Hokkaido recommend these three places. First is Shingen. Second is Sumire. Then the third is like Menya Saimi. Shingen is known for its mild sweet creamy broth while Sumire is known for its rich thick layer lard on top. So Menya Saimi is known for its ginger miso broth which is a bit clean and a bit light. So if you are looking for a comfort food that you want to drink the broth till the last drop I recommend you to go to Shingen. And if you are looking for a heavy explosion of flavors then Sumire is your choice. But if you want something balanced not too heavy then I would recommend you to go to Menya Saimi. And trust me there are more there's even a rank of ramen in Hokkaido and they change every year. I recommend these three places a lot and I talked to dozens of them. All right second pillar is sushi. Here's the thing the sushi level here is crazy. It's way different than the level they will get in Tokyo because in Tokyo when we talk about premium sushi all you can think of is nigiri sushi. You know the sushi where they serve you in front of you like they do it like this and here's your thing. But in Hokkaido though even the conveyor belt sushi is premium. Guys it's crazy. It's called Triton and one more is called Here you can eat like a massive scallop. You can eat like a salmon caught raw overflowing on top of your sushi. All of them like gonna cost you around three bucks each. It's pretty crazy. I mean you just need to spend like around like 25 bucks 25 US dollars and then you're gonna eat like a king. You're gonna fill your stomach fast. But the Murphy here is the place is very popular. It will get packed before I think around 4 30 p.m. So you want to arrive before that. All right section three which is very Hokkaido thing. This is the lamb barbecue or they call it as gengiskan. This is kind of like their traditional food. They're everywhere. Literally everywhere. And tourists in Hokkaido will go to Daruma. But if you are locals though you will go to Itadakimasu. So Itadakimasu have their own sheep. They literally grow the sheep out. The texture is insane. It's gonna melt in your mouth like butter. All right finally day seven. This is your final day and day seven is all about leaving Hokkaido safely. Because you would think if you're in Tokyo or in Kyoto or Osaka you're like okay the flight's around like 12 p.m. So let's leave around like 10 maybe. But guys Hokkaido the train always delay and always freeze because of the snow and everything. You're gonna miss your flight and that's a huge damage that I don't think you should risk. So my suggestion is to go to the airport four hours before your flight time. And I know when you're like okay four hours I go there and then you arrive there and like then what the hell I'm gonna do four hours here right. I have two hours to spend in Hokkaido airport. Guys they know that in Michitose airport you can eat. I'm telling you you can eat the Hokkaido delights. They have ramen dojo. If you don't have time eating ramen during your stay on day six you can eat on day seven. We're talking about like big ramen places like Ichigen or Keyaki. On second floor guys they have a literal onsen. On second floor in an airport. So here you can enjoy the fresh hot spring while enjoying the jet fuel smell. And then you can get on your long flight in a very relaxed clean state. Highly recommend. So get to airport early, eat your ramen, enjoy your hot spring bath. I hope we can see you again when you come to Japan. And look I didn't make this video because I want to get views. Although getting views would really help me a lot. But I make this video because I wish people have told me like five years ago that going to Hokkaido you will face this kind of like problems right. Coming here without knowing that I've failed a lot. I mean I went to Niseko longer than I should. I spent more than I should. And also if you want to use the app that I use for this video do scan this QR code or refer to the link in the description. Yeah this is all me trying to figure out how to help you guys to travel very well in Japan. But yeah I hope you guys enjoying this like how I enjoy it making for you guys. Love you guys. See you in the next one. Bye bye. Okay.