Hokkaido Trip and Shinkansen

We, a party of 4 are planning a trip to Hokkaido starting out from Tokyo from February 19 to March 02. I have several questions that needs answers, suggestions and or advise.

I would like to know based on my itinerary below, is it feasible to see the cities we are going in Hokkaido? The cities we are visiting in Hokkaido are: Hakodate, Lake Toya, Noboribetsu, Asahikawa, Abashiri and Sapporo.

This is my itinerary.
19-21 Feb: Toyko
21-23 Feb: Shinkansen to Hokkadate, changing train at Shin-Aomori.
Question: We got Green Car Japan Rail pass, and would like to take the Gran class. How much is the extra cost with the Green Car pass? Can we make reservation the same morning of departure?
23-24 Feb: Lake Toya - one night
24-25 Feb: Noboribetseu - one night
25-26 Feb: Noboribetsu to Asahikawa or Sapporo.
I checked on the train schedule from Shiraoi (after visiting museum) at around 3pm, we arrive Sapporo at 536pm or Asahikawa at 713pm. Should we stay the evening at Sapporo or Asahikawa?
26-27 Feb: Leave early morning train from Sapporo to Asahikawa. Or wake up early Asahikawa, visit the zoo, Asahiyama snow village, Ramen Village, Fraleet Alley, then take the night 7pm train to Abashiri, stay one night.
27-02 March: At Abashiri, early morning take the Ryuhyo Norokko train to Shiretoko, and may be visit Utoro(time permitting) if not then head back to Abashiri, take the aurora boat ride to see drifting ice, or visit the museum. In the evening, take train to Sapporo arriving at 1038pm.
Question: What is the train schedule for Ryuhyo Norokko train? Where can I find the train schedule? Is it covered by JR Pass?

02/28-03/02 March: Sapporo. Will be making day trips to Otaru, Yochi for the distillery.

#1: Is 3 days or 2.5 days enough for Sapporo city given that we have the evening on 26th to walk around in Sapporo?
#2: Is this itinerary do-able? Are we stretching it way too much, and should cut down places like Abashiri?
#3: Does this itinerary look do-able? Do you have any suggestions for this itinerary, like how it should be planned?

Any suggestions or advise is greatly helpful.

Thank you.

The Hokkaido Shinkansen will not be operating yet, it is scheduled to start on March 26. The GranClass fee from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori is 16,960 yen, regardless of whether you have an ordinary or Green pass. You can make reservations at any time before departure, there will normally be available seats (right now there are available seats in all classes for a train departing in 10 minutes), but it never hurst to make it earlier.

If you want to look up available seats, you can do it here: http://www.jreast.co.jp/

Right panel "‹ó�Ȉēà", choose your date (for example today October 4 is ‚P‚OŒŽ‚S“ú) and time (19:05 is ‚P‚XŽž‚O‚T•ª), make sure the train is “Œ–k�VŠ²�ü (Tohoku Shinkansen) and the departure station is “Œ‹ž (Tokyo), and set the arrival station to �V�Â�X (Shin-Aomorin, last one in the list). Triangle icon in the result page means there are available seats, X means there are none.

Hi Firas, thank you for your response. Yes, I am aware that Shinkansen to Hakodate isn't available at the time of my travel. I will look into the reservation page.

What about my itinerary? Does it look feasible? Do you have any suggestions on 25-26 Feb sector? Stay in Asahikawa or Sapporo? Is 3 days enough of time to see Sapporo city?

Thanks

I do not know much about Hokkaido, so I will leave that for others to answer.

By the way, you can reserve your Tokyo/Shin-Aomori Shinkansen seats online in English. Note that reservations open one month before the departure date, and you must collect your tickets at a ticket counter by 21:00 the day before departure.

http://www.eki-net.com/pc/jreast-shinkansen-reservation/English/wb/com...

Hi Firas,

Regarding your comment, "The GranClass fee from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori is 16,960 yen, regardless of whether you have an ordinary or Green pass." does that mean that if my JR Pass is ordinary class, and if I want to take the Green class I can pay for the difference?

Based on my itinerary, is it cost efficient to purchase the ordinary class JR Pass?

No, it is never possible to upgrade to a higher class seat than that of your pass by just paying the difference, you always have to pay the full price of the higher class seat. And since there is no GranClass pass, you have to pay the full price of a GranClass seat, no matter which pass you have. Likewise, if you have an ordinary pass and want to take a Green seat, you must pay the full price of the Green seat.

So, if you want to take the GranClass from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori, which pass you should buy depends on whether you want to take ordinary or Green seats for your trips within Hokkaido. Note that ordinary, local trains typically do not have Green seats, besides Shinkansens those are found mostly on limited express trains, and some rapid ones.

Looking at your questions more closely, I guess I can answer some of them, or at least give my opinion.

About whether you should stay in Sapporo or Asahikawa, for me this would depend mostly on the prices of hotels in each city. All else equal, I would prefer to stay in Asahikawa so that I don't have to take the train in the morning and can go out directly. However, if that means spending 10,000 yen more, I would stay in Sapporo (which, being a larger city, probably has cheaper hotels).

And as for the schedule of the Ryuhyo Norokko, it is not available yet. For that matter, train schedules in general are not determined yet for February, so for now you should consider the schedules given on Hyperdia or others as just a guideline.

Hi Firas,

The hotel prices vary not by much for one night for both cities. I was thinking about Noboribetsu to Sapporo since we can store our big luggage in the same hotel when we come back on 02/27/15 night. If we go head straight to Asahikawa, I am afraid 2.5 to 3 days is not enough for Sapporo.

I looked at the prices for JR Hokkaido pass and having to pay the full price for Gran Glass and Green class from Shin-Aomori, it is more cost efficient to purchase the JR nationwide pass. We just have to pay for the difference for Gran Class.

Anyone out there to help with suggestions or itinerary?

I would stay in takimotokan. It's the only hotel I know that has coach service from noboribetsu onsen to sapporo. It's faster than taking the train. The only problem is that it leaves about ten. So if you leave noboribetsu on the first train you'll be faster.

Your days spend is okay. Mostly due to Hokkaido not having shinjansen, travel times are long. So you can't pack more than you have.

Hi Jh,

Yes we are staying at the Dai-ichi Takimotokan, however we will be visiting the Ainu Museum at Shiraoi and taking train to either Sapporo or Asahikawa. Which city do you recommend?

it is more cost efficient to purchase the JR nationwide pass. We just have to pay for the difference for Gran Class.

No, you have to pay the full price of the GranClass seat (16,960 yen), only the base fare (10,150 yen) will be covered by your (nationwide) JR Pass. This is true for both ordinary and Green passes.

Erm, Firas... I hate to point this out... but you already mentioned that.

My question is are you staying in Shin-Aomori or going straight to Hakodate?
Not that Hakodate has nothing to do, but depending on the time you reach Hakodate you can cut a day from it. Hakodate needs a good 24 hours.
Morning in the market and brick warehouse. afternoon in the interesting western districts. night atop mount hakodate.

I would take Tokyo over Sapporo. sapporo architecture is funky but is lacking as a tourist destination outside of the snow festival time.
Their malls and pachinko parlours are funky.

Makes more sense to stay in Asahikawa. There is an accommodation adjacent to the hotel. 2 minutes in fact! It is the first building you come across. Washington hotel... of all the names....

I would feel bad if you miss Otaru. It is a small charming district that is more cosy than Hakodate. The only problem is that it is really small so you can cover it quickly and suddenly have extra time on hand. Also Hakodate has one of the three best night views in the WORLD. So that is hard to miss on. That is probably the only thing to consider when deciding whether to go to Asahikawa or Sapporo (OTaru)

1 day is good to see Sapporo main sights. half a day more for the lesser ones. 2 days for a leisurely pace. Again Tokyo has more touristy activities (I personally prefer Sapporo but can see little reason why anyone would agree with me).

Qn: How are you leaving Hokkaido? Your pass if 7 days would not last you and paying for a 14 day pass when the only shinkansen usage is up to Shin-Aomori is not worth the money. If you do not insists on the Gran Class, the JR East Pass is something worth considering.

The way I see it, it might be better off for you to fly into Hakodate, use a Hokkaido rail pass, and fly out of Asahikawa/Shin-Chitose or some other airport. Saves times and surely money. Of course the most fun and most time/cost efficient is to use a rental car. But the consideration is whether anyone can drive in snow conditions and know what to do if stuck in a ditch in the middle of a snowy road.

Hi Jh,

We are staying 2 nights in Tokyo, so that part is settled, since all of us are arriving from different countries, and meeting at the airport.

We are arriving str to Hakodate at 1:42pm, staying 2 nites and head out to Lake Toya at 8am.

Here is the scenario, if we go straight to Sapporo from Shiroai (after noboribetsu) then we can spend the evening at Susukino. We are mostly into food, cold weather and some shopping, although sightseeing comes with it. I am more of a historical buff, so some historical sights might attract me.

Alternatively, if we head straight to Asahikawa, the only night life(that i have read) is the Fraleet Alley n possibly Ramen Village. We can still do the both(shorter time) if we leave Sapporo early morning and take the night train at 7pm to Abashiri.

Either way, we have 3 full days in Sapporo, and we plan to allocate 1/2 a day in Otaru. There will be an extra evening in Sapporo should we opt to train after Shiroai Museum. Also we can leave our big luggage at the same hotel we are coming back to on 27th.

As for the JR Nationwide pass, we are using it for Tokyo Shinkansen to Shin-Aomori, limited express to Hakodate and for all Hokkaido trains. We activate our pass to start from 21-27, we should be fine. To Otaru, we purchase the Sapporo-Otaru train special ticket less than 2000 yen.

The primary reason for this trip is to enjoy the Shinkansen, and train trips. This is our first visit to Hokkaido, the next time we come back again, no more trains. lol

How do you feel? Stay the evening at Sapporo perhaps?

I mean, if given another way, we can fly to Sapporo on the same day, then go to Asahikawa, Abashiri, n work backwards to Noboritbetsu, Lake Toya, then Hakodate, take Shinkansen back to Tokyo, stay 2 nights.. What do you think about this route as well?

jh (guest)

I don't think Firas needs someone to defend him, but in this case, I have to come to his defense because the OP has on more than one occasion asked if just paying the difference is enough to "upgrade". His last post on 14:12 asked once again if all he has to do is pay the difference. He has asked repeatedly and has been answered repeatedly, so Firas was just reiterating the fact: If you upgrade from your pass to another, higher, level car, you must pay the entire seat fee, regardless of what level pass you have. You have to pay the entire seat fee for GranClass. You have to pay the entire Green Seat fee if you have a regular pass. I hope this puts an end to the "upgrade" fee.

My mistake there.