Last December, I went to 5 new prefectures and spent Christmas in Hokkaido on the first week of my winter holiday (22-26 December 2008).


Sorry about the bad paint work. Hopefully you guys can decipher it. In order to step all the prefectures in Tohoku region, I had to take two different rail lines. First passing by Niigata, on way back I used the opposite route.

I spent 15090 yen on transportation (5k gone because of my stupidity), 3675 yen on accommodation (one day), 1660 yen on tourist spots, 6865 yen on food, 4115 on souvenirs (bought too much sweets), plus 1000 yen on misc stuff, total, 32,365 yen.

First I bought Hokkaido and East Japan Pass (北海道&東日本パス Hokkaido & Higashi-Nihon Pasu), can buy it from any JR stations. For visitors, you can always buy other JR passes. It is possible to go Hokkaido for just 10000 yen. The downside is you only have five days and, it takes at least 24 hours to reach Sapporo (札幌).

Then I bought reserved seat ticket for Moonlight Echigo, 510 yen.


My first ever night train in Japan. Moonlight Echigo has ladies coach too.

From Shinjuku station, it takes 5 hours and 41 minutes to reach Niigata (新潟). Basically I wasted one day because I used the ticket on Dec 22, 11 pm. One day gone after an hour. As I don't want to spend so much on accommodation, I made this trip short. It took me 30 hours to reach Sapporo ;)

Dec 23: I reached Niigata on 4:51 am. Then I hopped on another train to Murakami (村上). On the way, I put on my headphones and listened to moumoon's album. Slowly, I fell into deep sleep.

When I was awake, the train has stopped and nobody was in the train. Then I realised that I had to switch another train to Sakata (酒田) in Yamagata prefecture (山形県). I quickly dashed out the train and luckily, the train to Sakata was just nearby, I didn't have to run/take stairs to another platform. Safe.

Apparently not. Just when the trains started to move, I realised that I have left my baggage on the overhead rack of the previous train. OMG, 出師不利 orz

I quickly contacted the train conductor and asked him to 'secure' my baggage before it goes back to Niigata. I thought that I just have to return back to Murakami and get it (or ask JR staff to send it to Sapporo or whatever), due to the inefficiency of the train conductor, well I didn't rush him, partly was my fault, I found myself back in Niigata around 9 in the morning =.= 3 hours gone.


Lost and found centre in Niigata train station. Luckily I was using Tohoku & Hokkaido pass, no extra fares.

Once I got back my luggage, I had some time to kill before the next train comes, so I walked around Niigata station and had breakfast.


Salmon teishoku set, it was okay.

Since the trains in tohoku region are not that frequent, in order to reach Sapporo on time, I had to spend extra 3500 yen on express train. The Hokkaido & Tohoku pass was only for normal and rapid trains (aka slower trains). BUT, somehow luck was on my side, this cute train which was suppose to run during weekends somehow runs on Tuesday, because that day was Emperor's Birthday.


Kira Kira Uetsu, a very interesting train. It is just a rapid train with Shinkansen facilities (means slower train), so I only paid for the reserved seat, which was 510 yen.

Along the way, I got to see paddy fields and the beautiful Sea of Japan.



After an hour plus, I reached Sakata (酒田) at Yamagata prefecture (山形県). I had another one hour to kill before the next train, so I went to the nearby tourist counter and realised that in Sakata, they have FREE rental bicycles.



I put my luggage in the locker (Lockers are everywhere in Japan train stations). There are a bunch of tourist attractions around Sakata, since I couldn't really read the maps while cycling, most of the time I just wandered aimlessly. It started to rain/snow halfway, it was kinda interesting, cycling under the snow.


The town was basically quite empty. Nothing much going on.

Next, express train to Akita. I didn't have much time in Akita and straight went to Aomori.


My lunch and souvenir. Japan's Kit Kat has crazy amount of different flavours.

On the way, snow snow snow~　When I reached Aomori (青森), it was already around 8 pm. If it wasn't for that luggage lost incident, I might had 5 hours break in Aomori.


Left, dorayaki with apple filling, yummm. Aomori = Apples. Right: Aomori Station.

There are like two places you can go if you are nearby Aomori station. Triangle looking shopping centre called ASPAM and see the Aomori Bay Bridge.


I was wandering around in the middle of snowing, trying to look for some restaurant mentioned in wikitravel, and the town was basically empty when I was there. Ladies, do not wander around alone in the night.

After two hours wandering around Aomori station, I took the only express train covered in Hokkaido & Tohoku pass, Hanamasu Express. It was a 7.5 hours train ride to Sapporo.



That basically sums up my journey to Hokkaido. A lot of things can be happened in one day.