Hiiiiiii guys!
I just came back from a whirlwind trip around Hokkaido, Japan – can’t believe we managed to hit all of our desired stops from Sapporo to Otaru to Furano to Jigokudani to Lake Toya to Hakodate back to Sapporo all within 4 days! Kudos to my boyfriend’s dad who drove fastly but safely heehee 🙏🏼
I was honestly quite stressed out the week before our Hokkaido trip because I was rushing work + worrying about our itinerary. Road trips are the ultimate anxiety triggers for a worry wart like me and so I was very keen to ensure a smooth pickup to start our journey. So instead of going straight to the car rental agencies like I usually do, I decided to book via KKDay! The benefit is everything is in English and you can select your pickup timing & location easily. The KKDay staff are also super helpful in answering my gazillion queries in proper English!
The pre-trip experience is already a stark contrast to my previous road trip to Khao Yai from Bangkok where we also booked with Budget but was stumped by the laggy website in Thai and poorly translated English. All the insurance options and various car selections also confused us. Booking through KKDay is much smoother cos’ everything is preselected for you!
On the morning of our road trip, we took a train to Sapporo Main Station and walked a short distance to the Budget Car Rental agency. We were super kiasu so we reached at 8 am on the dot (I asked the KKDay peeps what time was the earliest we can pick up) and there was nobody in front of us. The lady at the counter wasn’t very fluent in English but luckily they had a guy who can speak Mandarin and we went through all the paperwork relatively quickly!
Say hi to our beloved 小黑 🚓 I booked the WA car model from KKDay which is for 8 pax and 5 luggages but we had 7 pax and a gazillion luggage 🧳 so we were slightly worried the car wouldn’t be big enough. But we drove back to the hotel first and just managed to fit all our belongings in!
Our first stop was Furano for the colourful flower fields and Shirogane Blue Pond! It was just a 2 hour drive and we paid a few highway tolls on the way for a faster journey. Can I just say that o m g Japanese rest stops are the most amazing places on earth? ⛽ The toilets are fancier than Ritz Carlton’s with more tech gizmos than NASA. Let’s just say my butt was very well taken care of.
I don’t really love their convenience stores though compared to those in Taipei & Bangkok. Prices are on the high side for one, and maybe cos’ I can’t read the labels but every Japanese canned drink I have gambled with tastes like detergent. I do have a soft spot for their egg sandwich and grape gummies though!! So we raided the store on our first stop and stocked up enough for a zombie apocalypse. What’s a road trip without foooood?
Best part of road trips – stopping for random sunflower fields! Or anything that catches our fancy really. We chanced across this gorgeous sunflower field that was completely void of pesky tourists (except for us)!!
I basically shrieked bloody murder when we drove past and Uncle Robert did a Daytona-worthy swerve into an empty lane. On hindsight it was probably private property and we likely trespassed but owners were possibly too polite to chase us away. We spent 15 minutes conducting our personal photoshoot in the fields against the mountainous backdrop and trooped back happily into our warm car to continue onwards.
Soon we pulled up to our first pit stop – Farm Tomita! To be completely honest, our map reader was a little new on the job and we actually parked in Tomita Melon House and we mistakenly took photos with many melons until someone realised this wasn’t the place. Our Instagrammable rainbow flower fields were next door!
This was the sight that greeted us when we rounded the corner, panting, from the wrong farm! Absolutely beautiful – so beautiful and I got so overexcited that I didn’t even notice the looming rain clouds. We bought a few lavender and melon soft serve cones at the entrance and was all ready to start snapping when the raindrops started to fall 🙁
Fortunately, it took about one and a half comes before the rain cleared up (but not before I had bought a transparent umbrella out of desperation to still take my photos in the rain). I loved running through all the lavender fields in aircon weather as the sun came streaking in through the clouds ⛅
After Farm Tomita our next stop was Shirogane Blue Pond in Biei, a short drive down. It was a little crowded for our liking but we still managed to snap some nice photos! The turquoise water is due to natural minerals dissolved in the pond – the whole scene looked pretty magical but also toxic like if I fell in I’ll turn into one of the Powerpuff girls.
We got some breathtaking shots though, so glad the skies cleared up already! It is basically just a one way path to the pond with plenty of good photo spots.
After visiting the famous blue pond, we decided to pop by the Shirahige Waterfalls as it was nearby! There are a few pebbly carparks you can park at so any is fine, then it’s just a short walk to the bridge overlooking the waterfalls over a very steep cliff. I’m not a huge fan of heights but the sight was truly majestic. After satisfying my FOMO with some mandatory shots, I scuttled off the bridge to buy a very lopsided Cremia cone. There isn’t much to explore here and in autumn, the sun sets really early so we set off to find some dinner before it got too dark.
Furano is quite a small town so we went straight for an omurice diner highly recommended by several websites – Yuiga Doxon. It is an inconspicuous little double-level wooden hut that we nearly missed driving past – parking is available onsite. When we alighted, the warmly lit interiors and amazing smell of piping hot meals reminded me instantly of cold Colorado winters and cozy log cabins 🙂
I fell in love with this quaint little restaurant at first sight, with their cute handmade cardboard menus and homely decorations. It was soooo comforting to rest our feet after a long day of exploring and to tuck into a overflowing dish of creamy omurice drenched in glistening demi-glace sauce and heaps of stewed meat. Pure heaven 🥰
After one of the most satisfying dinners of my life, we loaded back up into the van and headed back in the dark to Sapporo for the night! I adore chasing sunsets and soaking in the sights on road trips ~
And this concludes our exciting first day road tripping in Hokkaido, Japan with KKDay – stay tuned for our next few days of adventures!
Thank you 小黑 for carrying us safely around Hokkaido!
If you are booking your next holiday with KKDay, don’t forget to use my KKDay promo code SALLY10KK for 10% off! 💰 #KKDaySG
