Last Updated: Jun 28, 2024

Northern Hokkaido

Exploring Japan’s Northernmost Extremes

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium.

For the longest time, I’ve been itching to feature Hokkaido on this blog. Alas, the prefecture is just so expansive that I’ve struggled to figure out where to begin. Trying to fit all of Hokkaido into a single article is a fool’s errand that would be akin to trying to eat a proverbial elephant in one sitting. At the same time though, this blog is all about Japan’s hidden gems so I also didn’t want to feature popular areas like Sapporo and Biei that have been covered to death already. Perplexed by the prospect of covering the prefecture, I inadvertently put off Hokkaido all this time. If you’ve ever wondered why there’s been a dearth of content about Hokkaido, know that this was the reason.

Luckily, the regional powers that be finally helped me put an end to my incessant dawdling. Just recently, I joined a group of four other travel industry representatives on a mission to Hokkaido’s most northern extremes. Here, our objective was to ascertain whether this remote part of Japan was suitable for overseas visitors (Spoiler Alert: It was!). Seeing as there’s no way that I would ever venture to an amazing slice of rural Japan and NOT write about it, the following is an in-depth account of my trip. Unlike with my usual style for area guides though, I’ll be…