"The Beautiful Northern Land" a Hokkaido Travel Page by konniemario

Not that I'm well-traveled around Japan, but Hokkaido is very different from the usual impression you have on Japan. Instead of narrow streets, Hokkaido feels more spacious. The streets in Sapporo are much wider and the roads more straight. Instead of temples and shrines, Hokkaido is more of a nature place where you see lots of greeneries and natural sceneries. Instead of old and historical, the places here are more modern and contemporary. If you look at a picture of a typical scene of Hokkaido..perhaps Canal town of Otaru or the hills of Biei, you'd think you're in Europe and not Japan! As quoted from Lonely Planet, "In a land famous for crowds, Hokkaido remains one of the few places where roads disappear into the horizon, forests are full-sized, and mountain range pullouts offer glimpses of grand vistas that seem more like the American West than diminuative Japan." Indeed, Hokkaido can be so different from Japan that it's actually a good escape to most Japanese who wants to enjoy some 'space', because although it comprises 20% of the land mass of the country, only 5% of the population lives here.

But of course, no matter how different and spacious Hokkaido can be, we still enjoyed the typical Japanese charms like the superb customer service, great-tasting food, efficient transportation and tourism system, etc. It's always amazing that despite the language barrier, it never feels that difficult to travel in Japan. Most people speak little or no English at all but it was never that hard to get around. All you need is to plan your trip in advance (book hotel, etc.), pop up to the tourism desk in the train station (they offer English service) and you're good to go. Even at times wherein you need to be asking someone, they will always try their best to point the right direction to you with their little English. And we're always going to be impressed with how detailed and specific are they in the minutest details in daily life...how they serve your food, how they pack your souvenirs, how heartfelt are their bows and smiles, how they rarely speak on their mobile phone in public because it would disturb other people, etc.

Summer and Winter is probably peak travel time in Hokkaido. Lavender fields for the former and the skiing for the latter. We visited Hokkaido in late September-early October but we don't have any regrets. Although it's a bit too early for the Autumn Foliage, but we still had a heck of a good time. What we enjoyed most is probably the food (still miss it...) which includes Salmon and Salmon Roe and some of the best ramen in Japan. Hokkaido is supposed to be known for its seafoods because of its location so aside from Salmon, the Snow Crab will be another famous delicacy here. Although Ramen is known to have come from the South of Japan, Hokkaido also boasts some great-tasting ramen. Another popular dish is the Mongolian Barbecue.

Flowers seem to bloom everywhere in Hokkaido even if we were there during Fall. Lavenders are gone but there are still some nice autumn flowers. We only made it to the south and center of Hokkaido but the north and east will have some mountains and seas as well.

Hokkaido is also known for the Ainu culture which is its indigenous tribe.

It's definitely an interesting part of Japan that we won't mind visiting again in the future...