The Top 5 Things We Did in Hokkaido

Chad and I got back from our trip to Sapporo at the end of January/ into early February and I’ve finally had some time to sit down and reflect on everything we did. I was really nervous to travel up in northern Japan for the first time but we absolutely loved it. We had the most amazing time in Hokkaido and can’t wait to go back (hopefully during the spring or summer next time!).

We went for Sapporo Snow Festival, which has been a long time dream of mine, and it really did not disappoint. While the main draw originally was for the Snow Festival, we took the time to visit some places outside of Sapporo, too. Here are my top 5 favorite things we did on this trip to Hokkaido.

#5 - Sapporo Snow Festival

The snow festival was truly incredible! The snow sculptures and ice sculptures we saw were fantastic and really amazing to see in person. It was fun to walk around and see different sculptures of pop culture characters, different mascots, shows, and other creative carvings. While the snow sculptures were super cool to see, some of the ice carvings in the Susukino area were even more amazing!

I’ll share a little more about Sapporo Snow Festival in a separate post later!

#4 - Photoshoot at Lake Shikotsu

One of the things I always recommend is taking the time to book a photographer for a trip, especially to a new place! Chad doesn’t love photos, but making the time to take these photos in all of the different places we’ve been to has been so worth it. I’ve never regretted booking a photoshoot for our vacations. This trip and this photoshoot felt extra special, all thanks to our photographer, Hsin Photography!

We had originally planned to shoot at a park that happened to be nearby where we were staying in Sapporo, but the weather leading up to our trip had been absolutely horrendous. I was in contact with Hsin prior to our shoot and we chatted a bit back and forth after Chad and I had arrived in Hokkaido and discussed our meeting. I let Hsin know that we were flexible and because of the crazy weather if they needed to reschedule or change locations we were totally open to that. They suggested we shoot at Lake Shikotsu, which was crazy since it was somewhere we had thought about visiting anyway so it worked out nicely.

One of the greatest tips I can give for traveling (and for life in general) is to be flexible! It’s easy to get carried away and really hold on tight to plans or things you have in mind, but the best things in life tend to happen when you’re flexible, open to change, and willing to hear out the expert you’re hiring. I’m so glad that we were open to changing up the location because it ended up being such a magical part of the trip. Hsin took us to Lake Shikotsu, but on the side of the lake that people typically camp in. Since it was winter the campgrounds were closed, but their friend owns a small restaurant/ rest stop there so we parked there and had virtually this whole area to ourselves to take photos. The lake looked so peaceful and the scenery was something out of a movie. We were able to take such beautiful photos and the snow really came down towards the end of the photoshoot and it made everything feel and look so much more magical.

We had lunch with Hsin and her friends afterwards and we had such an amazing time. Hsin’s friend who owns the cafe had a pet hawk (?!), and they even had spam musubi on the menu so we had to try lol and it was so good! It was such a fun experience that we never would have had if we had stayed firm to original plans and been unwilling to go with the flow and listen to our photographers suggestions!

#3 - Otaru

I struggled with narrowing down what I wanted to do in Otaru for this trip and actually considered staying over night or for a day or two in Otaru, but ultimately decided against it since we were already doing two different hotels for this trip. We’ve crammed several different cities and hotels into a few of our trips and it ends up feeling far too exhausting but more on this in a future post.

We had a lot of fun wandering around the city and searching for a necklace for me to get as a souvenir (since Otaru is known for their glass we were on the hunt for the perfect piece). It was nice to wander around the city, take in the sights, and have some great food. I was bummed we missed out on a ramen spot I wanted to check out (they sold out earlier in the day and we had no idea), but we ended up having dinner at a small place that turned out to be Chad’s favorite meal of the trip! There were several spots in Otaru that I wanted to eat at so I hope we find our way back there again sometime to try it all out, but we ended our night there at a small restaurant called Western Food Kinoshita (I know, western food in Japan sounds crazy, but I actually really love Japanese style western foods, especially an omurice!). Chad had the stewed lamb and he absolutely loved it. The space is tiny and run literally all by one dude so it was nice to take it slow, chill out, have a relaxed meal and then venture back out into the snow. If you find your way there, remember to be patient as it truly is all a one man show, seating, hosting, cooking, cleaning, he literally did it all by himself. The place was cozy, warm, and welcoming even to us as foreigners.

#2 - Dinner at The Jewels

Now my favorite meal of this trip was our first dinner in the city at The Jewels. I had done some research and since I am a lover of high views, I wanted to check out Mt. Moiwa. Once I found out they had a French Japanese fusion style restaurant up at the top I knew we had to try it! They book reservations out in advance, you have to select the course/ menu from their seasonal menu when you book it, and it required us to choose the same meal. I was a little hesitant at first because the menu was so fancy sounding and we don’t usually pick the same things when we dine. Since we were going to celebrate Chad’s birthday while we were there I figured I’d pick a course he would probably like so I selected the duck. I never eat duck (I’m pretty sure so far in my life I’ve never even had duck) so I just thought I would let Chad eat the duck for me and I would be fine with the rest of the courses. I was stunned to find that the duck ended up being my favorite meal from the entire trip! The presentation was amazing, the duck was perfectly smoked, juicy, tender, and so very tasty.

Every course was beautiful, tasty, and the view alongside with it made everything all the more enjoyable. The dessert at the end of the meal was also a huge highlight for me (Tip: there’s no need to add on an extra dessert at the end like we did, we were so stuffed full we ended up taking home the cheesecake we couldn’t finish!).

We paid for the luxury seats which were in like the fanciest and most secluded area of the restaurant; it was so romantic. There was even a surprise engagement at the private section right next to us! I highly recommend this place and splurging for the more premium private seating if you want a special night out. If not the extra fancy premium seating, the food itself was totally worth the trip up there.

#1 - Jozankei

We actually started off our trip in Jozankei which was probably the highlight of the trip for me. We stayed at The Grand Blissen Hotel and let me tell you this was probably one of our favorite hotel stays we’ve ever had. The hotel is a little off of the “main” area in town and overlooks the river; you can even see the Futamitsuri Bridge from the hotel. I was really looking forward to the in room private onsen since I have a lot of tattoos now and looking for tattoo friendly onsen was becoming a little difficult. I highly recommend splurging on the hotel room with an onsen, it was 1000% worth it in my books.

One of our favorite things was how peaceful, relaxed, and quiet this little town was. We spent our mornings watching deer on the mountainside from our room and soaking in our private onsen. The days were so relaxing and truly magical. I only wish we spent more time out there. I’m sure we’ll make our way back out there again some day.

Honorable mentions for some of the other fun things we did:

Played darts at a few different spots throughout Sapporo (we love DartsLive boards and play at home here in Hawaiʻi, too)

Couple’s massage (it was such a relaxing massage and the girls at the spa were soooo very sweet)

Costco Japan (we bought a sushi platter and ate it at the food court along with some other food and it was such a great meal)

Gachapon hunting (Chad and I love a good gachapon so we spent a good amount of time going to a few different gachapon spots in Sapporo, but I will say it wasn’t as good as some of the Tokyo spots we’ve been to)

Earcleaning! (We visited an ear cleaning place, but I really wish I had time to do the ear acupuncture piercing thing she offered on her menu!)

Let me know if you want to hear more about some of the other fun things we did in Sapporo!