Hakodate Otaru summer 2017

I have planned for this trip since March and then messed up the fireworks date but that was mentioned in another post... and was so looking forward to practising my Japanese and see Kazuki-chan and explore Furano and take a long break away from work.

So 2 hours before my flight I was thinking if I should get travel insurance, because Japan is super safe and nothing much could go wrong but I thought I was taking Msia airlines so just in case, so hastily bought it. Turns out to be the best decision ever.

My flight was delayed in Singapore to KL, and my luggage didn't go on board the flight to Narita so I didn't collect my luggage in Narita. That turned out to be a blessing because I was going to take the 4 hours train from Tokyo to Hakodate and didn't have to drag it around. They were going to send my luggage to Sapporo directly, which I was going to stay for the second night. WOO travel insurance claim. Extra spending allowance!

I bought a 7 day JR pass for $339 so I could take unlimited JR trains for 7 whole days in Hokkaido. One trip from Tokyo to Hakodate would already cost me $280 so this is really value for money for travellers.

My Itinerary

13-14 Jul Red eye flight to Narita, arrived at 7.30am

14 Jul Shinkansen to Hakodate, go Mt Hakodate for the night view, overnight at Hakodate

15 Jul Explore Hakodate, train to Sapporo, overnight at Sapporo

16 Jul Day trip to Otaru, evening spent at Sapporo

17 Jul Explore Sapporo whole day

18 Jul Train to Furano, Lavender farms, Biel, overnight at Asahikawa

19 Jul Asahiyama Zoo, train back to Sapporo

20 Jul Train all the way to Shizuoka

21 Jul Explore Shizuoka

22 - 25 Jul Back to Tokyo

Hakodate is pretty boring, the only famous things are the night view (which I thought was meh with lotsa tourists) and the reportedly best burger in Japan: Lucky Pierrot 

Their tram system is pretty old school and cool thou. I also went to the star-shaped park, which was relatively small and shopping at the red brick warehouse bay area. 

The burger is really quite unique, I had two different burgers and I really love their patty and fries. Their Chinese chicken burger is just ok, but the breakfast burger patty is so juicy and soft. They mix different meat in a good ratio and grilled it till perfection. I didn't take a picture of that coz I was eating it on the train to Sapporo but I would go back for this if I pass by again haha. Oh the best thing is there's a huge onsen in my hotel hahah. Look at the face after onsen. 

I was so glad that I didn't have my luggage with me to drag around on trains, the only inconvenience is that there's no change of clothes but it was fine since the weather was cooling and I didn't sweat much. I collected my luggage at my hotel in Sapporo, headed to the bars till 1am. Surprisingly there were a few foreigners there together in one night: Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Usually there were none, and luckily some of the locals can speak English.

There are so many trains to Otaru from Sapporo so I just went there for breakfast. I still think the seafood market in Otaru has the best Kaisen don. Just look at the uni (sea urchin). The more expensive one is brighter in colour, sweeter and more creamy than the dull one. The dull one is also not bad, really fresh. This is legit the best kaisen don I  have ever had. No wonder so many people were on the waiting list in the shop.

Milk soft serve from a Hokkaido milk farm 

I had been to Otaru once before so nothing much there except the dessert shops like Letao etc. I went back to Sapporo for dinner before meeting Kazuki and friends.