Oh hello, I didn’t see you there. Have you been waiting long?

Just kidding. I’ve got no excuse for my inexplicable 3 month hiatus from writing. So let’s just get back into it.

My return to Japan was ill planned, spontaneous and as a result somewhat underutilised. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have a good time. Ever since I made the decision not to include Hokkaido in my original 3 month itinerary I was dissatisfied with the idea of not going. It would have meant returning to London having been to just 4 out of 5 of Japan’s main islands. Well I’ll skip over all the dithering I did and just say that I eventually settled on returning to Japan for about two weeks at the end of August. And this time, I was going straight to Hokkaido. In my 7 days on the island, I managed to visit 4 destinations. Here’s how it went.

Because hotels were all booked up in Sapporo the weekend I arrived, I headed to Hakodate first on the southern tip of the island. It has a very intriguing history owing to how it was one of the few cities permitted to trade with western countries during the 1800s. The result of this is western style architecture found around the town and churches belonging to many different denominations near to the old port. I had an excellent day here checking out the most renowned sites, including the lovely Kosetsuen garden, the amazing Goryokaku Fort, the western neighbourhood Motomachi, and finally the sunset views from Mt. Hakodate, which I reached by cable car.

The day after I hopped back on a train heading north and visited Lake Toya. It is a place of extraordinary natural beauty; a volcanic caldera lake 10km in diameter, almost perfectly circular, with a picturesque little island in the middle. I was blessed to be visiting on a gorgeous sunny day which meant the lake was an astounding, dazzling blue. I hired a bike and cycled the road around the lake, which for me was quite a challenging physical endeavour, not least because of the heat. You know, for someone who never cycles recreationally, and seldom gets out of the city, I really was loving life on this bike ride. You only need to see the photos to understand why.

The following day I took the train once again and got off just a little up the coast to visit the famous onsen town of Noboribetsu. I was staying in a relatively budget hotel but was able to access the grand spa at the rather more upmarket hotel across the street, which was lovely. The onsen there was probably the largest and most beautiful I saw in Japan. Plus it was kind of unique in that you could buy alcohol while inside, so I had an amazing outdoor bath while getting pleasantly buzzed on sake. You can see the origin of the town’s hot spring water by taking a short hike to the nearby Hell Valley and bubbling Oyunuma Pond (the largest single hot spring in Hokkaido). The scenery was dramatic and otherworldly. I honestly cannot get enough of how contrasting and unexpected the scenery in Japan is!

The day after that, I finally made it to Sapporo, the island’s capital city. It’s probably most famous for its beer and its annual snow festival. Obviously, I wouldn’t be seeing much snow while here in August, so I made do with the other historical and cultural sites around the city. Actually, it doesn’t have much interesting architecture to speak of aside from the eponymous city tower and the Sapporo beer brewery. Probably the highlight of my visit was the amazing Morenuma Park, which originated as a garbage reclamation site but had been transformed by the vision of Isamu Noguchi. His concept for the park was for it to be as “one complete sculpture”. I spent several happy hours here climbing all the different hills and structures and admiring the glass pyramid. I would have loved to bring home a Noguchi lampshade as a souvenir, but for the sake of space, I just bought a tote bag. Still love it though. Otherwise, I enjoyed shopping and eating while in Sapporo. I was staying on the main shopping street, Tanuki-koji, and enjoyed eating pancakes and ramen again and again.

That was it for my visit to Hokkaido. I hardly did the island justice and was desperate to stay longer; but because of a commitment to be back in Seoul in just 7 days time, I had to head off a little prematurely. I definitely need to return here one day. I barely scratched the surface of what Hokkaido has to offer and I know its a treasure trove of incredible sights based on the little I had seen. Isn’t it wild that I spent 15 weeks backpacking one country and I still feel like I was rushing and hardly saw anything? That’s Japan for ya.