Hokkaido

Hokkaido is Japan’s northern frontier, and it rewards two very different kinds of traveller depending on the month. From December to March it’s a ski island, and Niseko’s reputation rests on hard numbers: more than 14 metres of snow falls there in an average season, the dry “Japow” that draws skiers from the UK and Australia who happily fly 12 hours for it. From mid-July to early August it flips entirely — purple lavender fields at Furano, alpine wildflowers on the Daisetsuzan plateau, and cool, dry air while Tokyo and Kyoto are sticky and 35°C. Those two windows are the reason to come; the shoulder months are quiet and cheap, but you’ll have travelled a long way to see a green hillside and a closed ropeway.

Sapporo is where you should base yourself, and it does more than just house you. It’s the food capital of the north — miso ramen, a Nijo market breakfast of crab and sea urchin, the Susukino izakaya district at night — and it’s the transport hub. The Rapid Airport train runs from New Chitose into the city in 36 minutes for ¥1,430 (about £7.50), and from Sapporo the easy day trips fan out: Otaru’s canal town is half an hour west, the Noboribetsu hot springs about 90 minutes south. In early February the whole city turns over to the Snow Festival, when Odori Park fills with building-sized ice sculptures.

The honest planning question is trains versus a hire car, and Hokkaido is the one part of Japan where the answer isn’t simply “take the train”. For the cities it is — Sapporo, Otaru and Hakodate are quick and cheap by rail, and the Hokkaido Rail Pass (around ¥20,000 for five days, about £107) earns back its cost over a couple of long legs. But Furano, Biei and the national parks have thin, infrequent services, and that’s exactly where a car transforms the trip — the Biei farm roads at dawn are a self-drive pleasure. The one firm rule: don’t hire a car here in winter unless you’re genuinely comfortable on snow and ice, because black ice and deer crossings make the rural roads treacherous when it’s cold.