Asahikawa

Having decided to skip Sapporo for now, I opted next for Hokkaido's second largest city and the place where Japan's coldest ever temperature was recorded (-41c). The city itself is fairly non-descript but it's a good base for exploring surrounding areas, in particular the small town of Beie and surroundings as well as various less popular (busy) ski fields. It's therefore a major advantage having a car here, so I decided to rent a car for the first time in Japan and err during a winter with the heaviest snowfall in 80 years - I have no winter driving experience.

The car I got was equivalent to a Mazda 2 but AWD and handled it all very well, a few slips and slides aside. Definitely experienced the full gamut of winter driving, roads completely covered in snow and ice in all its forms, from soft thick fresh snow, to slushy muck, and black ice (by far the worst and most dangerous). The car made it 'easy' to access some ridiculous scenery around the town of Beie, famous for its winter landscapes. This area has rolling hills that in summer are lavender fields but in winter become pillows of thick snow that isn't disturbed at all except by fox tracks.

I soon noticed the area has also reached the social media world and some sites are so popular/busy that police were had to control crowds and fences with cameras detect and warn you if you're too close to the fields. However, keep driving and you'll find countless other spots without the selfie crowd that only seem to focus on all getting the exact same shot and then leave. This area was a highlight of Japan and had some of the best and most unique scenery I've ever seen and likely ever will.

I also did a day of skiing in Asahikawa, which reinvigorated an old but far too infrequently pursued passion of mine; hurtling down mountains on snow. Managed to do it without a crash, was very wary noting the terrible state of my shoulders. The Kamui ski field is only a short drive from Asahikawa and has loads of runs from easy through to double black and off-piste. It was also super quiet on the lifts and that is not the case in Furano and other well known ski fields. I also tried langlaufen (cross country) skiing, fair to say I will never do it again, ridiculously difficultly - literally made it like 200 metres in 30min and was drenched in sweat!

Abashiri

As an avid reader of Antarctic/Arctic exploration and survival stories, my next destination was the fairly remote northern coast of Hokkaido with the hope of seeing drift ice. It's around 5hrs by train to Abashiri and the risk of not seeing the drift ice is very high as it doesn't appear every year (less with climate change), it's quite a short event, and the ice breaker ships don't always sail due to the weather. To increase my odds, I'd sneakily booked multiple ice breaker 'cruises' in case weather affected one or more. Turned out I was lucky: the drift ice was visible and the weather on the Sea of Ohotsk between Japan and Russia was good enough to head out.

I stayed in Abashiri for 5 days and did the ice breaker trip twice on the same day such was it's impression, really is amazing. It's the most southerly point in the world where drift ice can be seen and traversing it on an ice breaker ship is an awesome experience. Brought to life a lot of things I'd read so many times in books, the bizarre behaviour of the ice and strange effects it has on the sky above it, etc. The drift ice was also banking up on the shore of Abashiri town, making for interesting beach walks during the rolling blizzards that came through. An other-worldly setting it was, felt very far from everything. The town of Abashiri also felt in hibernation, all the fishing boats on land covered in snow and the main street just closed shops with metres of frozen snow piles on the footpaths.

Also did some ice fishing here on a huge frozen lake. The ice was 60cm thick and they drill a hole for you, give you a chair and a small stick with fishing line that has 5 or so TINY hooks to catch 'smelt', a fish about 10cm long that's apparently good for eating. You could even rent a tempura kit to cook them as you caught them! I err only caught one and sitting still on a frozen lake quickly began to freeze me up through my shoes so I didn't stay too long. I didn't eat the miniscule smelt (threw it back) but did try a rare (expensive) snow crab ramen in Abashiri, very tasty albeit incredibly rich.

Abashiri was definitely another Japan highlight.

From here I travelled by train back via Asahikawa to Sapporo, about 6 comfortable hours. There will be no post about Sapporo as I found it an uneventful place. After Sapporo I stayed in the famous coastal town of Otaru, known for its canal streets. Honestly I also found this place overrated but it could have been the fact I was down with a bad cold that would end up taking me down for a good week. I flew with with the cold (bad idea) south to Onomichi near Hiroshima, which is worth a short post.

Photos are split into Asahikawa and Abashiri.

Asahikawa gallery

Abashiri Gallery