Hokkaido was incredible and I want to call out a few highlights that weren’t really mentioned: We ate something called Jingisukan (named after Ghengis Khan), which is lamb meat that you cook on this grill on your table. It was delicious. And yes, we are eating mammal on this trip. It’s too hard to avoid in Asia. The fall colors. They were just starting to appear, but what we did get to see was worth it. Visiting an onsen. Even…
On our second day with the rental car, we visited the Sounkyo Onsen Village, another part of Daisetsuzan National Park, to see what we could find. I apparently didn’t quite know where we were going or what we were doing. Whatever. The village itself was lovely, though we really were interested in getting lost for a while in the nature of Daisetsuzan National Park. We took the gondola (they call it a ropeway) up the hill for some better views….
We’re officially in love with Hokkaido. Everyone should come here, twice. On second thought, one thing we loved was the feeling like we’d gotten off the Gaijin trail. We only saw a few white people in the several days we spent around the parks and onsen villages. So stay away! Most western tourists probably only make it to this island for the famed ski resorts, not for the national parks, like amazing Daisetsuzan. We’ve been using Asahikawa as a base…
On Tuesday, we packed up our things and headed to Tokyo Station to catch the Shinkansen to Hokkaido. The Shinkansen is the infamous Japanese bullet train. Our particular train goes as fast as 320km/hr (that’s 200mph). It was so fast! Service to Hokkaido just began in March, so the trains are new and pretty cushy. We definitely did a lot of “oohing” and “ahhing” over the speed and things flying by through the window. Here’s a video of my husband…