Sapporo Is the Best Launch Pad
for Exploring All of Hokkaido

The prettiest old port town in Hokkaido. The Otaru Canal (大運河) is lined with Taisho-era red-brick warehouses that are now glass-cutting studios, music-box shops, and some of the best fresh sushi in Japan. Honestly, this is the easiest and most rewarding trip from Sapporo — a quick JR ride and you're there.

The Nikka Whisky distillery that Masataka Taketsuru founded in 1934 after learning the art of distilling Scotch whisky in Scotland. The distillery tour is free, you'll see copper pot stills over 80 years old, and you get one to two free tastings — and since it's on the same line as Otaru, you can easily do both in a single day.

The deepest caldera lake in Hokkaido, so clear in summer you can see right to the bottom — no surprise it's rated one of the "cleanest waters in Japan" by the Ministry of the Environment. Popular activities include canoeing, diving, and glass-bottom boat cruises to view the underwater world. In winter there's the Ice Fantasy festival with spectacular ice sculptures.

Ever soaked in a mountain-top hot spring here? Noboribetsu is known as the best onsen town in Hokkaido — with up to 9 different types of hot spring (sulphur, iron, salt, alkaline, and more), all drawn from the same geothermal source. The highlight is Jigokudani (Hell Valley), a churning green hot-spring crater wrapped in sulphurous steam — you can walk the 30-minute loop, and admission is free.

A perfectly round caldera lake formed by the eruption of an ancient volcano, ringed by the still-active Mt Usu, which last erupted in 2000. Ride the ropeway up Mt Usu for a close-up look at the crater, take a cruise around the lake, and enjoy resort dining in the lakeside Toyako Onsen district.

A zoo often called the "best in Japan" — not for its size, but for a design philosophy that keeps the animals in settings as close to nature as possible. Watch polar bears swim above a glass tunnel, seals dart through a vertical water column, and the most famous attraction of all: the penguin parade walking through the snow in winter — you'll have your camera out the whole time.

Furano is the "heart of Hokkaido," both geographically and in the Japanese imagination. The endless purple lavender fields at Farm Tomita in July are the iconic image that makes so many people want to visit Hokkaido. Beyond lavender there are poppy fields, sunflowers, and flowers of every colour — and in winter it becomes a world-class ski resort.

Biei is famous for its Patchwork Hills — fields of green alternating with gold and lavender purple across rolling, wave-like hills, so beautiful they were used as a Mac OS X Leopard wallpaper. The biggest highlight is Aoi Ike (the Blue Pond), a small pond with a mysteriously deep blue colour created by aluminium hydroxide mixing with volcanic water — so lovely it's hard to believe it's real.

At 2,291 metres, Asahidake is the highest peak in Hokkaido and in Daisetsuzan, Japan's largest national park. It's known as "the first place in Japan where the leaves turn" — colour starts from mid-September, before lower areas turn in October. Ride the ropeway up to the 2,000-metre zone blanketed in gold, red, and yellow foliage. In winter it's a backcountry ski area with the deepest snow in Japan.

Hakodate is the city the Japanese rank as having one of the world's 3 best night views (alongside Hong Kong and Naples). The view from Mt Hakodate looks down on a city set in an hourglass shape between two bays, the waterfront morning market sells fresh hairy crab from 6 am, and the Motomachi district preserves Meiji-era Western buildings more completely than anywhere else. Note: this trip is far — you should stay overnight.