▫ Singapore Airlines Suites Class from Singapore to Tokyo
▫ Three Days in Tokyo: Off the Beaten Path
▫ Sapporo, Otaru and Cape Kamui: Scenic Self-Drive Guide
▫ Furano, Biei, Sounkyou and Asahikawa: Amazing Autumn Colours
▫ Jozankei, Noboribetsu and Hakodate: Unparalleled Beauty
▫ Scoot's ScootBiz Class from Tokyo to Singapore
While it is possible to rely on trains and buses to get around in Hokkaido, it's really inconvenient and time-consuming. So unless you're planning on only sticking to the cities, you really do need to rent a car. There are quite a number of rental car agencies in Hokkaido; we went with Toyota Rent a Car. Costs are reasonable:
▫ 8-day car rental ¥67,918
▫ One-way charge (for returning the car in Hakodate) ¥7,560
▫ 9-days Hokkaido Expressway Pass ¥8,700
▫ Petrol and Parking (estimated) ¥20,000
Toyota Allion 1.8 with only 500km on the clock
Just a few comments which you may find interesting if you're considering a rental:
1. An International Drivers Permit is mandatory if you have a non-Japanese license.
2. Navigation is extremely easy: Cars come with English GPS and you input locations based on map codes and/or telephone numbers.
3. Calculate your ala-carte expressway toll charges before picking up your car, so you know up front whether the fixed-fee Expressway Pass makes financial sense.
Our eventual destination today is the charming town of Otaru, but let's take a pit stop along the way: Shiroi Koibito Park, which is just before the expressway entrance. If a friend or a colleague has ever been to Hokkaido then you're probably not a stranger to the island's #1 top food/snack souvenir.
The company that makes the Shiroi Koibito (白い恋人) chocolate cookie is named Ishiya, and this 'park' is actually its factory. Over the decades both the snack and the factory have become so popular that it's now a really nice tourist attraction.
Outdoors could be quite pleasant in the right weather; we didn't stick around to find out thanks to umbrella-breaking winds. Inside, the main attraction is the factory/museum tour (¥600 for adults). The self-navigating tour starts off with a few rooms with historical chocolate-y stuff - packaging, labels, cookie tins and hot chocolate mugs.
The route then leads on to views of the factory line itself. There's a surprising amount of disclosure here that we didn't expect: The entire production line is on display (behind panes of glass, of course), and graphics on the walls give information about baking temperatures and various ingredients.
The factory tour ends at the cafe and 'experience' areas - where you can (for around ¥1,000-¥1,500) play around with decorating your own cookies! We opted for the 'Halloween Cookies' set - it's October after all. The experience takes around an hour, and involves cutting your own dough, waiting for it to bake, and then chocolate decorating. It's a whole lot of fun - highly recommended particularly if you have appropriately-aged children.
Finally, there's a huge open area where the company sells its merchandise, and where you'll probably see dozens of tour groups buying dozens of boxes of the Shiroi Koibito (and other) cookies. We're a little amused, truth be told, because there really isn't any reason to buy here in the factory. Shiroi Koibito is so ubiquitous nowadays: It's sold everywhere, from hotels to souvenir shops around the island, and even at New Chitose and Narita airports, so it makes sense to just buy at the tail-end of your trip.
The exception being certain seasonal snacks, which will be clearly labeled 'Not available in Narita Airport.'
It's close to dinner time once we're done with the factory, so we drive to Otaru and head to our accomodation for the next two nights: Grand Park Otaru. The ¥11,680/night rooms are positively humongous by Japanese standards, but annoyingly at our visit there were no more non-smoking rooms available.
For dinner we decided on 焼肉 (Yakiniku): Assorted cuts of meat grilled over red-hot Japanese bincho-tan charcoal at Gyu-Kaku. Perfect food for a cold rainy night.
One thing I dislike about Japan is the prevalence of smoking rooms in hotels. You aren't always guaranteed a non-smoking room, in which case you're given a "deodorized room." As you can imagine, this description is a lie: there always is that lingering, dank stench of smoke.
Anyways, since we've allocated the entire morning to exploring beautiful Otaru, let's start with the Otaru Canal! Perhaps it's cos of the continuing dreadful weather (windy, rainy, cloudy, wet, cold), but this was honestly one of the most underwhelming, not at all scenic 'attractions' of this trip.
You really do need a wind-less day with clear blue skies for the canal to look its best. Or a snowy one.
No matter, we head then to the Sakaimichi Main Street - lined by dozens of shops with a curious mishmash of European and Japanese-influenced façades.
Shopping-wise, Otaru's known for music boxes (there's even a music box museum, which in true Japanese style is really a huge store rather than an actual museum), and glassware. We weren't really interested in the former so we skipped those shops, but we did spend a ton of time picking out various little cute miniatures from the glassware shops!
After buying our share of the miniatures for display on tables/shelves back home, we head over to LeTAO to get our cheesecake on! LeTAO, Otaru's most well known confectionery maker, has 3 or 4 shops in the area - we headed to PATHOS, which is the newest & biggest.
On the eat-in menu: Hokkaido soft serve ice cream (always delicious), and LeTAO's signature 'double fromage' no-bake mascarpone cheese cake. Unlike other Western-style cheesecakes, the Japanese ones tend to be very light and fluffy.
Oh, the cafe also serves coffee, but it's weak and uninspired.
We also bought a whole Chocolate Double - which I like more than the normal, plain cake. Maybe it's cos we just like anything chocolate.
We rounded up our ½ day in Otaru by hunting down a cheap cafe to have a cheap lunch in. Randomly came across this one on the Sakaimichi street, with lots of students eating inside, so ... what better indicator of good cheap food than this, right?
Well, turns out the food wasn't too bad for a cafe that does 'everything' - I mean ... hot plate hamburg steak and ikura don from the same kitchen? It's perfectly serviceable given the low price.
After lunch we paid the ¥2,000 parking fee (4 hours parking at ¥500/hour) and headed out of town! The last few days have been absolutely sh*t for weather - cloudy, rainy, windy, wet. Destroyer-of-umbrellas windy. So we really have our fingers crossed hoping the weather gives us a break as we drive past Shakotan Peninsula to Cape Kamui!
The route is quite pleasant, with windy roads alternating between picturesque coastal drives and tunnels. Lots of tunnels. Annoyingly, though, the speed limits are a maddening 40-50 km/h (25-31 mph), which makes for a slow, boring drive.
Eventually we reach the parking lot, where there are more vending machines than there are buildings. Weather's still gloomy but at least no rains, so we're lucky today!
Or not. The pathway to the lighthouse at the end of the cape is closed due to strong winds, which is a huge bummer.
By lighthouse, we mean this lighthouse. Would've been nice to be able to hike there and see what the view's like. Ah well, at least the view isn't half bad from the shore.
Having come all this way, we stick around for a romantic sunset before heading back to Otaru.
No dinner photos ... we were too lazy to go search for an actual restaurant in town, so we walked to the Aeon Shopping Mall attached to the lobby of the Grand Park Otaru. There's a supermarket with fruits and ready-made dinners, some fast food restaurants, and a food court. We ended up trying the battered salmon at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Hopefully you've enjoyed this post on Otaru and Cape Kamui. In our next post, we write about the very scenic areas around Furano and Biei en-route on our drive to the delightful Sounkyo Onsen!
And if you haven't read it already, our previous post in this series covered Sapporo, Mount Moiwa the Curb Market and Ramen Yokocho. If you have any questions, do leave them in the comments below!
