Traveling abroad with a family with four young children is not easy, but Japan is one of the safest countries with a wide variety of attractions and great food. This combination makes it a popular destination in my household. The only challenge is that a family of six is hard to accommodate by Japanese standards. We need to plan out accommodations and what to do and where to eat carefully as Japan tends to be cater to small groups. In fact most hotels accommodate groups up to 3-4 people unless you know what to look for and book as early as possible to secure the few rooms that can accommodate a large family.
In our previous trips we travelled through the Kanto to Kansai regions of Japan, so this time we really wanted to experience other parts of this beautiful country. Our selection narrowed down to whether we wanted to spend time in Hokkaido or Kyushu and the choice was further easier to make given that we will be taking the kids during their summer break, which meant hot and humid weather in the Honshu and Kyushu islands. Thus, the vacation was focused on Hokkaido to avoid the muggy, hot heat the rest of Japan faces during the late June and early July months. In fact, during our stay, the weather for the most part was great in Hokkaido, outside of rain for a day or two during the first two days. We even needed jackets a couple of times in the mountain areas, but otherwise experienced very enjoyable weather.
Having settled on Hokkaido as our summer vacation destination, now came the fun part of planning. I also wanted to leverage some of our credit card points we accumulated and this would determine our itinerary based on what flights our rewards programs had available. Turns out my rewards program was limited to fly into either Narita/Haneda and then fly out of Narita/Haneda back to the US as opposed to flying directly to airports in Hokkaido. Fortunately, I knew that Japan had discounted domestic airfare for tourists as long as they purchased before arriving in Japan. I purchased 6 tickets from Haneda to Asahikawa for about $98 US a person using ANA Experience Japan Fare. Information can be found at:
https://www.ana.co.jp/wws/us/e/wws_common/promotions/share/experience_jp/.
I also read that Hokkaido transportation across the various cities is not as convenient as they are in the main island of Honshu. So renting a car was a must. Driving the car on the right side and with roads geared towards the left was an adventure in itself. I chose to use “ToCoo!” car rental as they had an English link for self-service. You can find their site at https://www2.tocoo.jp/en.
With the decision made, it came time to plan what to do and the cities to visit. Obviously food is big on my list but I also maximizing the time to see key landmarks and attractions of each town we visited. Additionally, as a family, we love visiting onsens and ryokans, and my wife wanted to take the opportunity to go back to visiting Tokyo Disney and Disney Sea. I also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to visit the Tohoku region along the way back from Hokkaido. With these goals in mind, the research and planning formed and I ultimately came up with the following itinerary which I plan to do a more detail writeup of each key locations in the upcoming weeks.
Days 1-3 – Tokyo/Disney Sea – Land in Narita and get Disney out of the way (I’m not a big fan of lines at amusement parks unlike my wife and kids who love amusement parks). I strategically booked the MiraCosta which was right in the park of Tokyo Disney Sea so I can go back and rest to get over the jet lag while the family enjoyed themselves. Food however in Disney Sea continues to be amazing as we were impressed last time we visited.
Day 3-4 – Asahikawa/Asahidate – Fly from Haneda airport to Asahikawa and pickup rental car. Make way to Ramen Village for some of the Shoyu Ramen for lunch which Asahikawa is famous for. Then drive to the Asahidake mountain to stay at Yumoto Yuzomanso ryokan to eat some awesome regional kaiseki dinner and then soak and relax at the onsen to relieve the aching muscles from the tortures of the lines from Disney Sea.
Days 4-7 – Furano/Biei – Visit Ashahikawa Zoo, then back to Ramen Village for more Shoyu Ramen goodness. Drive through Biei to see the beautiful roads and landscape of the region before using Chalet Fuyuri in Furano as our base for the next several days. Visit the Lavender fields and Melon farms at Farm Tomita and Tomita Melon House. Furano/Biei had a lot more to offer than we thought as we ended up visiting the Cheese Factory, Winery, Art Museum, local co-op, Jam factory, Blue Pond, waterfalls, and many more attractions. Additionally we were very happy with the local cuisine and had everything from nabe, soup curry, 3 days to make curry, wagyu sashimi, and more.
Days 7-10- Sapporo/Otaru/Yoichi – Visit the capitol of Hokkaido and it’s just as popular neighboring canal town of Otaru. Food to target is the crab courses and miso ramen which Sapporo is famous for. In Otaru, we had the fried chicken and found some interesting ice cream, from squid ink to sea urchin. We also had some amazing cheese cake at Le Tao and Kinatoyo. My wife and I also spent time at the Nikka Whiskey factory and really enjoyed ourselves with the samples.
Days 10-12 – Shatokan/Niseko – Made a visit the scenic Cape Kamui in Shatokan. While at Shatokan, eat uni harvested from the local waters. Of note is that Shatokan only allows uni harvesting from June to August and sports some of the cleanness and riches waters due to the currents and flows from the Sea of Japan meeting the Pacific Ocean. We then made our way to the highlight of the entire trip for a 2 night stay at the beautiful Ryokan Zaborin for more Onsen and amazing Kaiseki meals. Additionally we made visits during the day to the nearby towns and attractions such as Tomaru for their amusement park and Tree Trekking at Niseko for the kids to burn off some restlessness, while at night we all enjoyed the amenities of Zaborin.
Days 12-13 – Hakodate – Drop off the car and visit the local eats and scenery at Hakodate. We made sure to try shio ramen that the town is famous for especially with the golden rock salt. We also tried squid ink shio broth which was delicious. Lastly we finished up for our stay in Hokkaido with a visit to the Hakodate morning market for some seafood breakfast around the market. Eat everything from catching your own live squid, murasaki and bafun uni, and a 10 pound snow crab.
Days 13-14 – Sendai/Matsushima – Take the Shinkansen to Sendai and travel to the scenic coastal town of Matsushima. We used our trusty JR Pass which we activated back in Sapporo. The limestone formations of the tiny islands were beautiful. We stayed at Ryokan Komatsu Kofutei for more onsen and kaiseki meals after all the sightseeing.
Day 15-16 – Mt. Zao – go back to Sendai and wait for driver to pick us up to go to our last Ryokan of the trip. We ended being the only guess at ryokan Chikusenso that night, so we had the whole place to our selves.
Day 16-20 – Tokyo – Travel by Shinkansen back to Tokyo. Stayed at Capitol Hotel near Roppongi. Can’t get enough of Tokyo for the its diverse yet amazing food scene. Additionally I had to make a trip back to Tsukiji before they moved to their new location. We also booked several Michelin restaurants that I was impressed last time I was here, but my wife did not get to try including my favorite restaurant Jimbocho Den and was able to score reservations back to Sukiyabashi Jiro (Ginza) which she’s been wanting to try. We also made reservations for the first time using opentable japan for L’Effervescence, which is a first for me as i usually use my concierge at the hotels to book reservations. We also met with some local friends for drinks and dinner and always have a blast whenever we meet.
This was another great family trip to Japan. In fact, we really enjoyed Hokkaido, maybe even more than the Kanto and Kansai regions as the food and sites and sounds were very diverse. From mountains, farms, cities, small towns wilderness, and beautiful coast lines, Hokkaido was an unforgettable experience that we will forever cherish our times together.
I have a few questions TIA regarding re-fueling for the rental car. Is gas station self service or full service? Will credit card work? Any security measure requirement such as 5 digit zip code here in US? TIA
Hi Chi Yang,
The ones I went to in Hokkaido were all full service. The staff member will come out and help you. I used cash and visa my other time. I believe only major ones such as Visa, Amex, and MasterCard are accepted. Make sure you try to get one with no foreign transaction fee. No security requirements in japan.
Thanks a lot. We are going there in late October.
Chi – Have fun and be safe. One thing to watch out for that I didn’t mention is to look out for the toll booths if you use the highways. We didn’t buy a etc card, which auto reads and used cash lanes instead. There was only one lane for cash so you may want to look into the etc card from the rental company if you want to save yourself some time.