Tokyo to Hokkaido

I am planning to travel to Japan on Dec. covering Tokyo and Hokkaido for 10 nights. Any suggestion or recommendation on how do I plan my itinerary?

Do the things you want to do in Tokyo, then fly to Hokkaido. Without shinkansen extension into Hokkaido yet, train takes forever.

Be prepared for cold and snow.

That is not entirely true. The shinkansen does go to Hokkaido, but only to Hakodate. With only 10 days though you may want you travel by air instead unless you love trains. It's about 5 hours to Hakodate from Tokyo and the JR East South Hokkaido rail pass would be best if you were doing the long train ride.

The Shinkansen does go to Hokkaido, but only to Hakodate.

The Shinkansen goes not to Hakodate Station in Hakodate City,
but to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station in Hokuto City, Hokkaido,
where you can make a transfer to the Hakodate Line
and catch a Hakodate Liner for Goryokaku and Hakodate.

Simon YK Cheng:
Any suggestion or recommendation on how do I plan my itinerary?

What do you hope to do?
How are your preferences?
Do you skip tourist spots in northern Kanto and in Tohoku?

Semantics. It goes as close to hakodate as it can. The other person said it doesn't go to Hokkaido.

Well, I said it doesn�ft go *into* Hokkaido, which you can argue is true, since we�fre talking about the edge. Semantics aside, we�fre talking about a heck of a long train ride versus a 90 minute flight.

Did this trip twice. Once by airplane, once by train.

Honestly, I prefer the last option, at least if I have the time to do that.

Shinkansen trains (and even the Hakodate Line ones) are more comfortable than a plane. You can stop and quickly feel a place or eat or buy something or just stretch your legs. Maybe Morioka, where the station is more central than Shin-Aomori and you'll be farther from Tokyo in comparison to Sendai. The scenes are also cool, specially yet in Hokkaido.

But it takes time. I leave Ueno ~10:30AM and arrive ~19:30 I think. By the way, note that if chose the plane you must go to HND/NRT and from CTS. It's not just the flight time.

Do you know what specific things you want to see? Where in Hokkaido? It's a big place.

I've done the shinkansen trip to Hokkaido but only because I was going to Hakodate and Noboribetsu Onsen first before heading to Sapporo. I wouldn't bother if you were planning on going straight to Sapporo. I caught the plane back to Tokyo from Sapporo after travelling extensively around Hokkaido for a couple of weeks.