2 weeks in Hokkaido with the Japan Rail Pass (Part Two: Day 9

Part One

Day 9: Abashiri Prison Museum

CARBS! Breakfast at Toyoko-inn Abashiri.

Abashiri is a town in north-eastern Hokkaido well known for the harsh winter, the Siberian drifting ice and Japan’s most notorious prison – Abashiri prison.

The original Abashiri prison opened in 1890. In mid 1980s, the site was cleared and most of the structures were removed to the slopes of Mt Tento and re-created as a museum. Abashiri prison museum is an open air museum, very well presented and gives you interesting insights into Japanese history and a way to understand the development of Hokkaido.

We took the 10:19 bus from Abashiri station bus stop 2 (¥240 with Abashiri bus company). The journey to the museum takes about 10 minutes and passes the current Abashiri prison along the way, make sure you do not get off the bus there if you want to go to the museum.

The admission fee is ¥1080, a bit higher than the standard museum fees in Japan, but it’s worth it. You can get a 10% discount with a web coupon

We spent a good 3 hours in the museum and then it was lunch time. Right outside the museum complex is ‘Kangoku shokudo (prison restaurant)’ where you can taste 2 types of real prison meals (currently served at Abashiri prison).

We went in at around 2pm and it was just at the end of super busy lunch hour, but we didn’t know that the restaurant closed at 15:30 and stopped taking orders at 14:30. We had prison meal A (¥720), prison meal B (¥820) and udon noodles with egg (¥610).

Everything was fresh and really tasty. For souvenir, I bought 3 sake cups that were made by the current Abashiri inmates.

We took the 15:36 bus back to Abashiri station. It was drizzling all day, but by the time we were back at the hotel it was really cold and the wind was blowing so hard. C and C’s mum made a clever decision of staying in the warm hotel room (we turned the heating on in the middle of August!), but I really wanted to see the old Abashiri prison gate, so headed back outside. The strong wind broke my umbrella and I walked on holding the umbrella with both hands whilst the wind pushed me from all directions. It was not a fun walk, but I found the gate.

Had the weather been kinder, I would’ve gone to see the ocean also, but I had to give that one up. Another thing we thought we might do this afternoon was to see the coral grass community at lake Notoro, but not in that weather! That evening we just relaxed in the hotel room, watched some Japanese TVs and munched on some Japanese snacks.

Day 10: Abashiri to Asahikawa – Aeon Mall

Abashiri is a very quiet little town. We initially booked the 12:35 train to our next destination, Asahikawa, but that was when we didn’t know that there really was not much going on in and around the Abashiri city centre…

Outside the station. Our hotel on the left.

Another great thing about the JR pass is it’s flexibility. Yesterday we made the choice of taking the earlier train (8:06, nothing in between!)

I went to the station with our passes and tickets and asked if we could change for an earlier train. The process could not be easier – old booking cancelled, new tickets issued (provided that there were seats in your chosen train), no questions asked, and the whole process usually takes only a few minutes.

The train was called Taisetsu and we enjoyed our 4 hours journey.

We arrived in Asahikawa at 11:50. I was really excited about arriving in Asahikawa early and having more time to explore the new city.

We first went to a tourist information centre in the train station, just to see what’s happening in Asahikawa. We checked in at our hotel (another Toyoko-inn), we left our luggage at reception and headed back outside.

We wanted to have lunch and C’s mum wanted to buy some warm clothes, so we went to Aeon mall right next to the station. Aeon malls can be found all around Japan. They basically are shopping malls for everyday-affordable things.

We first went to the food court and had the following:

‘Takoyaki’ octopus balls from ‘Gin-dako’. ¥580.

Udon and veg tempura from ‘Hanamaru udon’. ¥230 altogether.

C’s mum bought 2 lovely jumpers at Muji, we shopped around a little bit more and had choux pastries and coffee at ‘Beard Papa’s’.

Pastry (really good!) ¥160 each. Iced coffee ¥100.

We went back to the hotel (only a few minutes walk from Aeon mall/station) and our rooms were ready. We had 2 small rooms this time.

Economy double: ¥7600 per room per night. Single: ¥6100 per night. Both rooms looked exactly the same.

I went out again and just wandered around a bit,

had ‘furi-pote’ fries at Lotteria (hopefully the photos explain it all),

went to a supermarket in Aeon mall and bought our dinner.

Got this clams/oysters/scallops bento for C. It was reduced and I think I paid just around ¥300.

Day 11: Norokko sightseeing trains – Tomita Lavender Farm – Bus tour around Biei – Asahikawa ramen

Furano and Biei are located in the centre of Hokkaido and known for their beautiful landscapes. Initially, I wasn’t sure if we were able to see those areas without a car, but thanks to the JR pass and a very well connected bus tour, we had a great day trip to the picture-perfect Furano/Biei.

We started the day with another JR Norokko train journey. We took the 10AM Furano/Biei norokko train from Asahikawa to Lavender Farm. ‘Lavender Farm’ actually is the station name and used only in summer. This journey takes about an hour and a quarter and allows you to relax in the train and enjoy the scenery. Make sure to book your seat and use the reserved car as the non reserved car looked really busy and packed in both directions.

People who get off at Lavender Field station all go to one place – the famous Farm Tomita. This farm has been cultivating lavender since 1958 and is now one of the most famous tourist attractions in Hokkaido. It can be easily reached by short walk (5-7 minutes) from the station. Direction? just follow other tourists.

Our next norokko train was (strategically) at 14:21 which gave us a long 3 hours at Farm Tomita, but the time passed a lot quicker than I initially thought. It was a beautiful setting with wonderful views, lovely flowers and clean air.

We also fell right into the Farm Tomita strategy; the souvenir shops were all set up so nicely, the cafes had many interesting lavender/Hokkaido related snacks and all at very reasonable prices, there was no entrance fee so we felt more relaxed about spending money there… In short, we enjoyed snacking and shopping at the farm as well as the beautiful views.

Lavender coffee ¥300, Furano potato with butter ¥190, potato croquette ¥160, Furano milk ¥180.

All food items we tried were good, but the lavender coffee, the milk and boiled potatoes with butter really stood out. Hokkaido is well known for high quality dairy products and vegetables.

We took the 14:21 norokko train and arrived at Biei station at 15:01 where we took our tour bus. It is called Biyu bus and takes you to some of the major sightseeing spots in Biei.

The bus left at 15:30 from Shiki-no-jyohokan (kind of tourist information centre) just next to the train station. I believe the tour bus collaborates with norokko train, hence the perfect connecting time. Biyu bus is part of a JR company, but the rail pass can not be used as it is a sightseeing tour. Still, I think ¥2000 (per person) is a reasonable price. I had bought our tickets already in Sapporo station a week earlier as I wanted to secure our seats. However, later I realised that there was not much point in taking this tour in bad weathers. It really was a good thing that we were lucky with the weather that day.

The tour took us back to Shiki-no-jyohokan/JR Biei station at around 18:00. We took the next JR train back to Asahikawa.

Hokkaido is famous throughout Japan for its Ramen. Sapporo is known for its miso based broth, Hakodate salt based, and Asahikawa is soy sauce based. There are several well-known Ramen places in Asahikawa city. We went to ‘Baikoken’.

Basic soy sauce ramen costs ¥760. C added an ajitama-egg (+¥120).

Day 12: Leaving Asahikawa to Hakodate – Night view from Mt. Hakodate – Burger chains only found in Hakodate – Hakodate salt ramen

We are heading to Hakodate today. We first took the 10:30 Lilac train to Sapporo.

The journey between Asahikawa and Sapporo is only about an hour and a half.

We then took the 12:16 Super Hokuto train to Hakodate.

This journey took just under 4 hours.

Super Hokuto was one of my favourite trains in this journey. Clean, modern and spacious. Plenty spaces to store luggage both inside and the outside of the seating area. Luggage storage has been such an issue in other trains including bullet trains in Japan. If possible, I recommend not to bring large suitcases for train centred journeys like this.

I wanted to try out Asahikawa’s famous sake ‘Otokoyama’, but didn’t really have the chance. So, I bought a can this morning at Asahikawa station. Otokoyama is brewed in Asahikawa. I really liked this sake; clear, mild and fresh.

We had already bought some lunch from a supermarket yesterday.

We enjoyed the lunch, sake and views, and arrived at Hakodate at 16:05.

Hakodate station was small, but modern, busy and lively with shops and a tourist information centre inside. Outside the station was immediately the famous morning market, next to the market was our hotel, Toyoko-inn.

This was our 3^rd Toyoko-inn since Abashiri. We made the hotel’s member’s cards (¥1500) and have been receiving discounts. We took 2 rooms in Hakodate. Economy double was around ¥6500 per room per night, single around ¥5000 per night.

There are 2 Toyoko-inns in Hakodate, and the ‘morning market branch’ where we stayed was perfect for tourism. Right next to the morning market and 2 key sightseeing city buses stop outside the hotel.

Hotel entrance is on the right. Pink sign in the centre is the bus stop sign.

Just bear in mind that the bus stop sign stands right outside the hotel, but the bus stops across the road, also Hakodate station bound bus stop is on a different street, but the hotel is literally around the corner. The hotel also sells a 1 day bus pass (¥800) and a 1 day bus/tram pass (¥1000).

After checking in, we bought 1 day bus passes and first took the ‘Motomachi and Bay area shuyu-go’ bus which is a loop line made for Motomachi/bay area sightseeing.

We did the full round to Hakodate station. From Hakodate station we took another bus, ‘Hakodate Mountain Climbing Bus’. The bus goes all the way up to Mt. Hakodate observatory. It costs ¥400 one way, but is covered with 1 day pass.

The view from Mt. Hakodate was awarded the highest rating of 3 stars in the ‘Michelin Green Guide Japon’. It was absolutely beautiful and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It was quite chilly and windy up there even in the middle of August, so bring a long sleeve top or a light jacket.

The returning bus leaves every 20 minutes during the evening of Summer time, but there was a very long queue and I might not risk taking the last bus! The Mountain Climbing Bus has 6 different time tables throughout the year, so always check beforehand.

The Mountain bus took us right back to our hotel as Toyoko-inn is one of the stops of this route. C’s mum went back to her room and C and I stayed out to get some dinner.

Lucky Pierrot is a fastfood chain only found in Hakodate. They have many branches all over the city and each restaurant has a quirky theme and unique decorations. We didn’t know what to expect, but were fascinated by the idea and simply had to see it. We went to the one nearest to our hotel, the Hakodate station branch with the ‘Art Decor’ theme. It was already around 9pm, but they were busy. There were Chinese tourists, Sumo wrestlers, Japanese businessmen in their 50s, and there was us.

We shared a shrimp burger (¥420), large fries (¥270) and a can of ‘Lucky Galana’ (¥120). Taste was considerably fresher compared to many other burger chains.

We then had ramen at ‘Tsutsui-te’.

Hakodate is known for its salt based broth ramen. C had a salt broth (¥700), I had the soy-sauce broth and swapped a pork slice for an egg (¥700). The broth was much lighter and less oily than many other places and I really liked it. Everything in the bowl matched well together and served its purpose.

Day 13: Hakodate Morning Market – Exploring the city of Hakodate – More Hakodate ramen – Yunokawa hotspring – Friendly food stall village

We woke up nice and early and explore the morning market before starting the day’s excursions. C had a ¥500 kaisendon (seafood bowl) at a restaurant called ‘Niban-kan’ and absolutely loved it. People were very kind and friendly at this restaurant. We also shared a squid ink cream custard (¥250).

Today, we wanted to take trams also, so we bought a 1 day bus/tram pass (¥1000). I just realised now that we should’ve bought 2 days bus/tram pass yesterday for ¥1700, so we could’ve taken trams yesterday too…

We used the ‘Motomachi and Bay area shuyu-go’ bus and went to see some of the well known places in Hakodate.

We went back to the Hakodate station area and went to a tiny ramen joint called ‘Kamome’ just across the morning market. We again ordered both salt and soy-sauce based broth ramen (¥600 each). Similar to yesterday’s ramen, light but flavourful. I really liked Hakodate ramen.

We took a tram to Yunokawa onsen hot-spring and went to our separate ways from there. C and his mum only used the free footbath hotspring near the tram stop and headed back to the city centre. I went to a hotspring bath in a hotel called Takuboku-tei just a few minutes walk from the tram stop.

The spacious public hotspring bath is on the 11^th floor and offers nice views of Hakodate. It costs ¥800. You will find shampoo, soap, cotton buds, almost everything you’ll need there, you just need to bring your own towels.

Later, we met in the hotel and headed out for dinner. Not far from Hakodate station, we found a food stall village called ‘Daimon Yokocho’.

There are many different stalls: ramen, seafoods, tempura etc, and the place looked so much fun. We went to ‘Ikaya’ and ordered squid gyoza dumplings (¥430), potato gyoza dumplings (¥420) and a bottle of beer (¥600 and about 600ml).

Everything was so tasty and people in the restaurant were super friendly. We could not have asked for a better last evening in Hokkaido.

Day 14: Morning market – Leaving Hakodate to Echigo-Yuzawa – Giant riceballs – Sake tasting – Arriving Tokyo

The last day of our Hokkaido journey and also our rail pass.

The hotel’s excellent location allowed us to enjoy the morning market again before the check out without any rush and hustle.

We went to the same restaurant with ¥500 seafood bowl, but this morning, C had a squid and sea urchin bowl (¥1500) and added tuna (¥250) and crabs (¥450).

We bought some biscuits and sweets from Hokkaido for souvenir, had some melon slices (¥300, best melon I ever had…), and went back to the hotel. We packed, checked out, walked to the station with enough time to browse souvenir shops.

We had airbnb booked in Tokyo from that day, but as we wanted to utilise the rail pass to the max, we headed towards Nigata rather than going straight to Tokyo.

From Hakodate station, in order to take a shinkansen bullet train, one needs to go to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto station. We took the 10:05 rapid train and arrived at Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto at 10:23.

We took the 10:49 Hayabusa shinkansen to Omiya (arrived at 14:38) where we changed to the 15:06 Max Toki shinkansen to Echigo-Yuzawa (arrived at 15:59).

Max Toki. Our first double decker shinkansen!

Our destination was Echigo-Yuzawa station itself, the home for Ponshu-kan Sake and Rice Museum. Ponshu-kan is well known for its sake tasting, but there are shops that sell various rice/sake related goods/products, a cafe, an ‘onigiri’ riceball shop and even a bath! It probably goes without saying that Nigata is really well known for its rice and rice based products.

During the train journey today, we skipped lunch and only snacked, because we wanted to eat the rice in Nigata!

We went straight to ‘Yukinto’ onigiri (riceball) shop. It is a small place, but there are a couple of tables so you can sit and eat there. They make gigantic riceballs using Nigata rice.

Price starts from ¥470 depending on the filling and comes with pickles and miso soup. You could easily make 3 normal size onigiri with 1 Yukinto onigiri and the price is completely fair. It was so wholesome and tasty, and so much fun to eat!

With our stomaches full, we went to the sake tasting. It is vending machine style; you pay ¥500 and get 5 coins to spend on the machines.

The difficulty was choosing from 93 different sake varieties! The machine only pours out small tasting potion, but after trying out 5 different sake in the first round (sharing with C), I was already struggling. You’ll need to use 2-3 coins for some high-end sake. In the end, we tried 13 different sake and it was really fun and interesting.