Hokkaido
I know spring has just started but I am getting excited for summer! Today I started planning my summer trip to Hokkaido. This is my dream Japan trip, some people dream about going to tropical Okinawa but I want to go see the beautiful national parks in Hokkaido.
Hokkaido is the second largest island in Japan and is considered a wilderness. According to my National Geographic: Traveler Japan guidebook, Hokkaido “represents 22% of the national landmass but holds only 5% of the population.” Hokkaido is famous the Snow Festival in February where people carve sculptures out of ice and for dairy farming. GOODIE COWS! It is also possible to take a ferry from one of the national parks to Russia.
The plan is to visit four of the national parks there: Shikotsu-Toya National Park (one hour from Sapporo), Daisetsuzan National Park (in the middle of Hokkaido), Rishiri-Rebun-Sarobetsu (in the North of Hokkaido), Akan and Kushiro-Shitsugen National Parks (in the east of Hokkaido). I have information on the Youth Hostels written down and in the information on how to get to the national parks. The next part of the plan is to figure out order I should visit the parks and how I should get to the cities they are by.
I currently have three travel guidebooks sitting on my desk: National Geographic: Traveler Japan: the second edition, Lonely Japan: Japan, and Lonely Planet: Hiking in Japan. This is going to be my first solo trip traveling Japan as I think all of the other ALTs are going to be busy. Hmmm…I wonder if Hiromi would be interested in going or if she is going to have to work. I don’t know if she has ever been to Hokkaido. Oh well, it is a thought.
The next thing I need to find is nice size map of Hokkaido with the train lines and airports marked on it so I can figure out how to do this trip. It would also be nice to have a map with the Youth Hostels on it.