rhouses
Sapporo. Yes
Obihiro. No
Kushiro. An even bigger no

I made the mistake of staying 5 nights in Kushiro. Absolutely nothing there. Lots of crumbling empty buildings that have been abandoned post early 90s. Obihiro. Again very little to see.
To be honest, the train journey is nothing special. For more scenic routes, you are better sticking to routes to Takayama in Gifu. Or maybe Takamatsu to Kochi on the island of Shikoku.

      Top of my list of places to visit. Had a v cool trip planned in 2020 which got killed by COVID, and haven’t got around to rearranging yet.

      We’d planned to spend a week in Hokkaido. Couple of days in Sapporo, a couple of days at a high end onsen in the mountains in Niseko (e.g. https://www.mokunosho.com/en/), and a couple of days in the East of the island (Shiretoko, Tsurui, Kiritappu, Kitoushi) looking at wildlife.

        vinnyt77

        vinnyt77 Cannot fault that itinerary Vinny. You’ll have great time.

            Henry fack you just killed my hokkaido trip. lol. ill definitely fly into sapporo and spend the night there. Ill need to figure two-three more nights. Let me look up gifu. The trails and hiking will need to be chill, dad is 75.

            Heart was set on Kushiro because the onsen spa looked amazing (La Vista) - right in the middle of a forest with a river running through it. Fox and deer coming right to the room. Everyone raving about the set meals. Had no plans of leaving the property, thought it would be a nice way to end the hokkaido leg.

                rhouses Sorry man! Niseko would be a better bet for an onsen as it’s fairly close to Sapporo. The train trip to Takayama can be done in 4 hours. Stay the night there then head on somewhere else.

                If you are thinking of getting the rail pass, don’t! The price has gone up massively. I would recommend inland flights to Sapporo using the JAL Explorer Pass site. For train tickets, get there early as the queues have become horrific now that people are no longer getting the rail pass.

                  The Japanese can barely conceal their disdain for Westerners or Koreans, fuck knows what they’ll make of Rhouses’ rabble.

                    I’m too Rhousesey for Milan, too Rhousesey for Milan, New York and Japan

                    bosstrabs ive grown up with the japanese, best friend in high school and roommates in college. Guess you could say they are worldly. My best friend is more Indian than Japanese, he just did a 5 year stint in India, he’s back, will spend a couple of nights in his town - the gyoza capital of japan. But yeah, not gonna lie, slightly nervous about being with the people and the hardcore language barrier.

                    Will not be taking cologne, just the odourless deo. Lol.

                      They say the language of love is universal. You’ll be fine mate 👍

                        JEETpanese

                        Visions of our man in Japan catastrophically clogging up the toilet system on a bullet train.

                        Sewage spurting, commuters covered in shit. The train derails because the driver jumped off.

                        The CEO of Hitachi forced to hang himself in an act of corporate contrition.

                        Anyway, have a nice trip mate.

                          mono-stereo lol. Lots of Harakiri being committed by the cleaning staff at each of the dawgz travel stops.

                              Millsy But the toilets will still be playing chill out music and pumping out potpourri as they spend hours breaking down a King Kong’s finger.

                                Guys - Please don’t make assumptions. Neither Pootpourri or “chill out music” are considered in scope here. A cursory glance at https://eurospec.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/EuroSpec-Toilets-for-railway-vehicles-v3.0.pdf would of told you this.

                                Section TOI-0014 provides further clarity.

                                "The toilet system shall be able to flush the toilet
                                every 90 seconds."

                                "The flushing capacity is to be sufficient for normal-use aswell as during peak-use and cause no limitations
                                on the availability.
                                This number of flushes is not to be used for calculating capacity for fresh- and waste water tanks.

                                The toilet system shall be able to flush a second time within 30 seconds after the first flush. This sequence shall be able to be repeated after 90 seconds.
                                The flushing capacity is to be sufficient for normal use aswell as during peak use and cause no limitations on
                                the availability. This number of flushes is not to be used for calculating capacity for fresh- and waste water tanks

                                Henry Did a bit of research, Sapporo looks like it would be worth a two night stay and good fun. Found a really nice jazz club, the royce chocolate factory, the nikka distillery and a sapporo beer museum. Plus some amazing nature attractions too. Any hotel and restaurant recommendations? Should we aim to stay close to Odori park/station?

                                    I will say one thing for the Nipponese.

                                    They do a sort of minced beef and potato croquette which is like the best ‘Northern English’ food item you could ever imagine, except tastier because it’s been made by Asians.

                                    You should just do a mukbang video of you eating lots of those.

                                      bosstrabs Korrokke. Even better with curry sauce. Ate so much of it in college (cheap meal), don’t really go out of my way to search them out. They’re basically called “chops” with the anglo Indians and my family.

                                        rhouses Anywhere close to Sapporo Station will suit you well. I usually stay in the JR East Mets hotel, which is modern and fairly cheap. The room includes free cans of GABA to help you chill and kip.
                                        You can get to Odori Park directly from Sapporo Station using the underground shopping mall which stretches south of the station. No need to go to street level as the underground walking network runs for miles. It’s pretty incredible.
                                        A day/afternoon trip to nearby Otaru is also worth it if you time.

                                            Henry oh that sounds like orchard street in singapore, the entire stretch is an underground air conditioned shopping mall alongside the metro subway. Took me two trips to discover, and far too many walks in humidity and heat.