Air France Japan Area guides: Hokkaido and Tohoku

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Hokkaido and Tohoku guide

Two hours north of Tokyo by bullet train is the region of Tohoku – the unspoilt heart of northern Japan – where forested peaks are criss-crossed with mountain biking and hiking trails and ski pistes in winter, and there’s a hot spring bubbling up around every corner. The region is home to a number important historic temples, shrines and feudal towns, as well as playing host to four major summer festivals – the Nebuta Festival in Aomori, the Kanto Fesitval in Akita, the Tanabata Festival in Sendai and the Hanagasa Festival in Yamagata, all take place in August. The Nebuta Festival, during which illuminate floats depicting warriors are paraded through the streets, is one not to miss.

The magnificent nature of Tohoku extends north to the island of Hokkaido, which has some of the country’s greatest national parks and most remarkable wilderness areas. Carpeted in verdant forests and fields during spring and summer, turned red and orange in autumn and white with snow in winter, Hokkaido is a nature-lover’s paradise. It’s friendly, easy-to-navigate capital Sapporo is the place to stop for fine noodles and to see the famous annual Snow Festival sculptures. Head to the eastern Shiretoko Peninsula for an abundance of wildlife, including sea eagles, sea lions and seals, and natural wonders such as drift ice in winter. The Kushiro Wetlands are the place to witness the graceful dance of Japan’s iconic crane; while the mountains around Toya have an abundance of hot springs and crater lakes. Nearby Niseko and Rusutsu draw the crowds in winter for their unrivalled snow conditions.

How to get to Hokkaido and Tohoku

Air France offers 21 weekly* flights to Tokyo. Fly via Paris Charles de Gaulle from any of the following UK airports: London Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol and Newcastle. Booking online with Air France, you can arrange your flights all the way to Sapporo at Chitose Airport** in Hokkaido.

*Flights operated by Air France and Japan Airlines.

** Domestic flights in Japan operated by Japan Airlines

Adventure | Gourmet | Traditional | Cool and contemporary

Adventure

Go on an ice cruise
£20 per hour, Minami 3, Higashi 4-5-1, Abashiri city, Hokkaido (www.ms-aurora.com)
Cruise on an ice-breaker through huge chunks of drift ice that have floated south from the Amur river that runs through China and Russia into the Ohotsuku Sea off north-east Hokkaido. Boats depart daily from Abashiri throughout winter to see the frozen spectacle.

How to get there
Abashiri is a five-hour drive from Sapporo which is a 90-minute flight from Tokyo Haneda.
Camp by Lake Kussharo
(www.japan-guide.com)
Keen campers should pitch a tent on Lake Kussharo in eastern Hokkaido; the black beach on the eastern shore has naturally heated sand – simply dig a hole and create your own instant hot spring bath. The carater lake is also home to migrating whooper swans. Sunayu Camp-jo, Sunayu, Kussharo Kohan, Teshikagamachi, Kawakami, Hokkaido

How to get there
Kussharo Lake is a seven-hour drive from Sapporo. Sapporo is a 90-minute flight from Tokyo Haneda.
Ski off-piste
24-3 Higashiyama, Niseko-cho, Abuta-gun, Hokkaido (www.blackdiamondtours.com)
Discover for yourself why powder hounds love Hokkaido; back-country specialists Black Diamond Tours guide groups off-piste in the major resorts of Niseko and Rusutsu, but also mountains that haven’t yet seen much development.

How to get there
Niseko and Rusutsu are two hours’ drive from Sapporo. Sapporo is a 90-minute flight from Tokyo Haneda.

Adventure | Gourmet | Traditional | Cool and contemporary

Gourmet

Try Hokkaido's famous ramen
Minami 6, Nishi 3, Chuo-ku, Sapporo (www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp)
Hokkaido is known as the ‘breadbasket of Japan’ and its most famous dish is ramen. Line up at one of Sapporo’s best shops, Keiyaki in Susukino, for their miso ramen made with chicken stock and discover why there’s still a queue when they close at 3am.

How to get there
Sapporo is a 90 minute flight from Tokyo Haneda.
Sample the finest food
(www.maccarina.co.jp)
Don’t let the dubious name put you off seeking out Maccarina restaurant in Makkari Town near Niseko. Run by a French chef who trained in Lyon, it serves some of the finest food on the island. It’s so good in fact that the leaders’ wives dined here during the 2008 G8 summit.

How to get there
Makkari Town is two hours’ drive from Sapporo. Sapporo is a 90 minute flight from Tokyo Haneda.
Make time for a local delicacy
12-5 Inari-cho, Morioka-shi, Iwate-ken (www.jnto.go.jp)
From the Korea Peninsula to Japan, Morioka’s signature cold reimen noodles, made with flour and potato starch, started life somewhere north of Pyongyang before reaching Tohoku in the 1950s. Tuck into some of the best alongside local gourmets at Pyon Pyon-Sha – where they are served with kimchi, of course.

How to get there
Morioka is 2 hours 30 minutes by Hayate Shinkansen from Tokyo.

Adventure | Gourmet | Traditional | Cool and contemporary

Traditional

Spend New Year’s Eve with ogres
(www.namahage.co.jp)
Make for the Oga Peninsula in Akita to see the New Year’s Eve spectacle of Namahage, in which young people dresses as ogres, and carrying a knife and a wooden pail, prowl from house to house offering a new year blessing and terrifying small children. Learn more about the tradition, and see a re-enactment of the ritual any day of the year at the Namahage museum.

How to get there
Oga is six hours from Tokyo by shinkansen and local trains.
Fabulous fireworks
Omono-gawa riverside, Daisen-shi, Akita-ken
Sparks will fly as Japan’s best firework makers battle it out to be crowned champion at the annual national fireworks competition in Omagari in Akita. It is customary to shout ‘Tamaya, Kagiya’ at the very best illuminations – the family names of two famous Japanese pyrotechnicians who pioneered the art in the eighteenth century. Takes place annually on the fourth Saturday in August.

How to get there
Omagari Station in Daisen City is 3 hours 30 minutes from Tokyo by Hayate Shinkansen and local train.
Join in the rice harvest
Inakadate-mura, Minamitsugaru-gun, Aomori-ken
See the famous rice field art in the town where it all began, Inakadate in Aomori. From summer onwards, amazing pictures emerge in the paddies; they are created by the different types of rice planted in spring. Visit in late September and help harvest the creations.

How to get there
Inakadate is 5 hours 40 minutes from Tokyo by Shinkansen and local trains.

Adventure | Gourmet | Traditional | Cool and contemporary

Cool and contemporary

The coolest spot for skiers
Green Leaf Niseko Village, Niseko-cho, Higashiyama Onsen, Hokkaido (www.thegreenleafhotel.com)
Watch skiers descend Mount Annupuri from the only rooftop après ski bar in Niseko resort in Hokkaido. Altitude at the new Green Leaf Niseko Village, designed by New York interiors firm Campalimaud Design, has direct access to the slopes and a pit fireplace to cosy up by after a day on the powder.

How to get there
Niseko is 2 hours’ drive from Sapporo. Sapporo is a 90-minute flight from Tokyo Haneda.
The Sapporo Snow Festival
2-23 Kita 2 jo nishi, Chuo-ku, Sapporo-city, Hokkaido (www.crosshotel.com)
Hokkaido’s coolest annual attraction, the Sapporo Snow Festival (www.snowfes.com), takes place every February. Stay for the duration in the city’s most stylish rooms at the design-led Cross Hotel Sapporo, a stone’s throw from Odori Park, where the main action takes place.

How to get there
Sapporo is a 90-minute flight from Tokyo Haneda.
Travel on the fastest ever bullet train
(www.jreast.co.jp)
Follow the long streamlined nose of Japan’s fastest ever bullet train to Tohoku as it makes its debut run in March 2011. The new E5 series shinkansen will travel at 320km/hour from Tokyo all the way to Aomori on the newest stretch of the line, completed in December 2010.