Hokkaido is Japan's north: wide, cold, and unlike anywhere else in the country. The landscape shifts from Hakodate's Victorian harbour to the lavender fields of Furano, the sculptural hills of Biei, and the geometric parkland of Moerenuma. It rewards slow travel and a car.
The food alone justifies the trip. Miso ramen rich enough to eat in a blizzard. Soup curry fragrant with Hokkaido herbs. Seafood pulled from the Sea of Japan that morning. This is a route through all of it, with Japanspecialist handling the logistics so you focus on the road.
The Ainu are Hokkaido's indigenous people: animist, non-agrarian, and with a culture entirely distinct from mainland Japan. Their world was built around the forests, rivers, and coastal waters of the island, and their language, ceremonies, and crafts bear no relation to anything else in East Asia.
The Upopoy National Ainu Museum in Shiraoi opened in 2020 as Japan's first national indigenous museum. Set beside Lake Poroto with a reconstructed village behind it, it is one of the most moving cultural experiences in the country, with immersive exhibitions on Ainu music, oral tradition, weaving, and the long history of the island before anyone else arrived.
Hokkaido is built for the car. Roads are wide, traffic is thin, and the distances - Hakodate to Sapporo, Sapporo to Furano, Furano to Biei - make sense behind a wheel in a way they never do by train. This is not a city-to-city destination. The landscape itself is the reason.
Nippon Rent-a-Car has desks at Hokkaido's major airports and shinkansen stations. An international driving permit is accepted from most countries. Roads are signed in both Japanese and Roman script, and outside of Sapporo the traffic is light enough that driving here feels genuinely unhurried.
Sapporo is Japan's oldest commercial brewery, founded in 1876 by Seibei Nakagawa, a young chemist who had trained in Germany. The original red-brick brewery building in the centre of the city is now the Sapporo Beer Museum, one of Hokkaido's most visited cultural attractions, tracing the parallel histories of Japanese brewing and Sapporo's industrial development.
The attached Sapporo Beer Hall is the real reason to go. Long communal tables, Genghis Khan lamb barbecue, and cold Sapporo Classic, a draft lager brewed exclusively for Hokkaido and unavailable anywhere else in Japan. It's the right way to end a day in the city.
For Hokkaido itineraries, Japanspecialist can arrange JR Pass selection and train tickets, including the Hokkaido Shinkansen from Tokyo and regional connections to Sapporo and beyond.
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