Southwestern Hokkaido Getaway

Just like in 2013 and 2014, Haidee and I spent 2015’s Golden Week holidays (a string of back-to-back public holidays in Japan) to explore a little bit more of Hokkaido, Japan’s large northern-most island. This year, Dirk joined in on the fun too. Unlike previous years however, in order to take in vistas further afield we jumped on a train with our bikes and started the five day tour at Onuma Lake Park; some 275km or so southwest of Sapporo.

The plan was to cycle back towards Sapporo, following more or less the Japan Sea coast of southwestern Hokkaido. We wouldn’t cycle the full distance back to Chitose however (we now live in Chitose). The plan was to head to Niseko, and then hoof it back to Chitose by train.

All in all, the trip was a great success: the gravel road route I had scouted out ended up being snowed under (which allowed for my first ever experience of having to turn back during a cycle tour); we saw raging rivers; placid seas; roaring seas; had gusting 40km/h tailwinds; and great company along the way.

• Getting there: There are a couple of main Japan Rail train lines that head from the top of the Oshima Peninsula to Sapporo. The Muroran trunk line goes via the Muroran coast and Tomakomai, and the Hakodate trunk line goes to Sapporo via Niseko and Otaru. This allows for a horseshoe loop tour from Onuma on the former to the sleepy town of Kuromatsunai on the latter, via the gorgeous Japan Sea coast on the western side of the Oshima Peninsula.