Abashiri & Asahikawa

Travel Plan is on end Feb 2013 from Sapporo - Abashiri - Asahikawa - Sapporo

Put up a night at Abashiri and go for Ice Breaking Cruise on next morning, should I stay one more night after IBC or proceed to Asahikawa? Is 3D 2N too much time to spend in Abashiri?

Should I proceed to Asahikawa and go to Zoo the next day or spend more time in Abashiri since it is a 6 hours train from Sapporo. Any tours suggestion after Ice Breaking Cruise?

Appreciate suggestion and advice.

If you are interested in the sea ice I really recommend the Sea Ice Museum; sadly the amount of sea ice has been decreasing in recent years and it not guaranteed that you will see much - if there is no ice you can still take the Icebreaker on a cruise of the cape which is also enjoyable and see the ice up close at the museum.
If you stay overnight, get up early and ask your hotel to phone the Icebreaker and ask which cruises are running on that day and which will have the most ice then you can visit do the early cruise and then the museum, or vice versa, depending on conditions.
The Prison Museum and the Museum of the Northern Peoples are also close by the to Sea Ice Museum so you could visit them together.
I think you could do all this and get that last train to Asahikawa at 17:18.
I have written a blog about my experience here:
http://nihon-go.org/2010/02/04/abashiri-sea-ice-museum/

When staying in Abashiri I recommend you try the restaurant Yakiniku Beer Kan, run by the Abashiri Brewery, you can try many type of naturally coloured beers including one made with sea ice!
http://nihon-go.org/2010/02/04/yakiniku-beer-kan-abashiri/

Thanks, Kaphine

At last I received reply or advice.

I thought I must make booking for Aurora earlier inorder not to miss the cruise. Will it be no vacancy if I do it in the spot?

I too are planning for my trip to Abashiri, and this site I have found for the weather forecast for the drift ice, it takes some reading, :
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/seafcst/1030.html
Hope this is of some help.

and this :
http://www.yr.no/place/Japan/Hokkaido/Abashiri/