Hokkaido

Hokkaido is not a beach destination. Swimming beaches exist, mostly along the Sea of Japan coast west of Sapporo around Otaru and Ishikari, and on the Shakotan peninsula. Sapporo families head out to them on hot weekends. The season is short: the water warms enough to swim from late July to late August, when it reaches about 22°C at best, and the beaches go quiet soon after. The Pacific and Okhotsk coasts stay colder still.

The Shakotan coves have clear blue water and are good for a dip and a look at the rocks, but most of the sand is plain and functional. In summer, the lakes and onsen are a better way to spend time near water.

Much of Japan's best seafood, dairy and vegetables come from Hokkaido, and visitors eat close to the source. Sapporo is the place to base yourself. It has its own rich miso ramen, Genghis Khan grilled lamb, spicy soup curry and Sapporo beer, and izakaya with deep menus of crab, scallops, sea urchin and salmon roe. Hakodate's morning market and Otaru's canal-side sushi counters serve seafood bowls piled high with the morning's catch.

Away from the fish, Hokkaido dairy goes into soft-serve, cheesecake and chocolate, and melons from Yubari and corn and potatoes from the inland farms reach market stalls in summer. Yoichi is a long-established centre of Japanese whisky. Winter brings hot pots and crab. Niseko adds a polished resort dining scene in ski season.

Hokkaido's heritage is young by Japanese standards, so visitors will not find the temples and castles of the south. What it has comes from two histories. The first is the Ainu, the island's Indigenous people, whose culture is presented at Upopoy, the national Ainu museum on Lake Poroto at Shiraoi, and at the Ainu village on Lake Akan. The second is the Meiji-era colonisation, which left Western-style buildings: Sapporo's clock tower and grid-planned centre, Otaru's stone warehouses along the canal, and Hakodate's hillside Motomachi district with its churches and old consulates.

Hakodate also has Goryokaku, a star-shaped fort that was the scene of the last stand of the shogunate's forces in 1869. All of this makes for interesting stops between landscapes rather than a reason to come on its own.

Hokkaido's nightlife is Susukino, the dense neon district at the southern end of central Sapporo. Its towers hold hundreds of small bars stacked floor upon floor, alongside izakaya, karaoke boxes, a handful of clubs and ramen alleys that stay busy past midnight. It goes late and is easy to explore, though much of it is aimed at locals and some upper floors are hostess bars rather than places a visitor would choose.

In winter Niseko has a lively, international après-ski crowd. Elsewhere on the island, evenings end with dinner and a soak in the onsen.

Nature is the main reason to come to Hokkaido. In winter, Siberian air drops light, dry powder on the mountains of Niseko, Rusutsu, Kiroro and Furano, giving some of the most reliable deep snow anywhere. From Sapporo, the volcanic caldera lakes of Shikotsu and Toya are within easy reach, with crater walks on Mount Usu and the steaming Hell Valley at Noboribetsu nearby. Daisetsuzan in the centre of the island is Japan's largest national park, with high-alpine hiking across volcanic plateaus that turn red and gold in early autumn. In summer, the flower fields of Furano and Biei, cycling and canoeing take over.

The east is wilder and needs a trip of its own, several days with long drives or a flight. Akan-Mashu National Park has the deep blue crater lake of Mashu, often under fog, and the larger lakes of Akan and Kussharo. The Shiretoko peninsula has brown bears, sea cliffs and boat trips along a coast without roads. Red-crowned cranes gather on the Kushiro wetlands in winter, and drift ice arrives on the Okhotsk coast in late winter.

Sapporo is the natural base for day trips. Otaru is the best one: a canal port of stone warehouses, glass workshops and sushi counters, about forty minutes away by train along the coast. Further on, Yoichi is a whisky town with a historic distillery. Asahikawa, home to Japan's best-known zoo and a ramen tradition of its own, is about an hour and a half away by express, and Furano and the farm villages of Biei are a summer outing beyond it.

To the south, the onsen towns of Noboribetsu and Lake Toya make a day of hot springs and volcanic scenery. Hakodate, with its harbour, old quarter and morning market, deserves a stay of its own rather than a return trip. Past these, the towns spread thin.

Hokkaido works well for children, with the safety, cleanliness and good facilities found across Japan. In winter there is the Sapporo Snow Festival with its giant ice sculptures and slides, and resorts like Niseko and Rusutsu have ski schools and gentle slopes for children. Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa is famous for its penguin walk and for letting children watch polar bears and seals up close.

Summer brings flower fields, dairy farms where children can try making butter and ice cream, the amusement rides at Rusutsu and the bear park at Noboribetsu. The main challenges are the distances between areas and how cold midwinter can be for small children.

Sapporo is easy to get around, with a simple subway, a streetcar loop and a walkable grid centre. JR express trains link it with Otaru, Asahikawa, Noboribetsu and Hakodate, and buses run to the main ski resorts in winter. Away from these lines, rural trains are slow and infrequent and many lines have disappeared, so reaching Shiretoko, Akan, Biei or the lake country is far easier with a car.

Roads are good and quiet, but distances are long: the far east is a full day's drive from Sapporo. In winter, snow and ice make driving demanding for visitors not used to it. Many visitors fly between Sapporo and the eastern airports to save time.

Shopping in Hokkaido happens in central Sapporo: department stores around the station and Odori, long underground shopping streets that are useful in winter, and the covered Tanukikoji arcade with its drugstores, outdoor gear and souvenir shops. Food is what most visitors carry home, including chocolates, butter biscuits, dried seafood, melons and boxed crab.

Otaru specialises in blown glass and music boxes. Ainu wood carving and embroidery can be found at Shiraoi and the Akan Ainu village. The range is pleasant but limited, and serious fashion shopping is better done elsewhere in Japan.

For a developed destination, most of Hokkaido is reasonably priced. Sapporo has plenty of compact business hotels, and ramen, curry and set lunches are filling and inexpensive. Seafood at the markets and in izakaya often costs less than the same quality further south, and city transport and most sights are cheap.

The exceptions are worth knowing. Niseko in ski season is one of the most expensive places to stay in Japan, with prices pitched at an international crowd. Rooms in Sapporo during the Snow Festival and in Furano during the summer flower season book up and cost more. Car hire, long-distance trains and ryokan stays with dinner add up.

Live performance in Hokkaido is centred on Sapporo. Its Kitara concert hall, set in Nakajima Park, has excellent acoustics and is home to the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra. Each July the city hosts the Pacific Music Festival, an international training festival for young musicians founded by Leonard Bernstein, with concerts throughout the month. A large modern theatre in the centre takes touring musicals and opera productions.

The most distinctive performances come from Ainu traditional dance and mukkuri mouth-harp music, staged daily at Upopoy and at the Ainu village at Lake Akan. Beyond these, most live music and theatre is in Japanese and aimed at locals.

Bathing in hot springs is central to a stay in Hokkaido. The island has a huge number of onsen areas, and a ryokan night, with a soak, a long dinner and another soak, is easy to fit around almost any route. Noboribetsu has many types of mineral water fed from the steaming craters of Hell Valley. Jozankei sits in a forested gorge less than an hour from central Sapporo. Lake Toya and Lake Akan have baths overlooking the water, and Hakodate's Yunokawa is close to the city.

The outdoor rotenburo pools are at their best in winter, with snow falling on the hot water. Outside Sapporo, the pace is slow and quiet, and evenings in an onsen town are made for rest.