Hokkaido was never high on my travel list; heck, I had never included it in the list for the longest time, but here I am — writing to you from Hokkaido, having reached northern Japan’s island a few hours earlier.
I am here with my friends — Vi, Yin and Charles, who joined me from Singapore.
Our initial plan was to rent a car and drive around the island for the entire week, from one small Japanese town to another. But unfortunately, only after arriving here did we learn that Charles’ driving license—the only valid one among the four of us —is not valid in Japan.
After a long, frustrating back-and-forth between the car-rental company and us, we gave up and bought a last-minute, expensive JR pass.
Following a satisfying meal in a small food stall at the airport, we are now on the train to Otaru, a small seaside town. The train ride will take us around one hour, just enough time for me to start munching on local Pocky and hot green tea I managed to bag right before we caught the train. Vi and Charles are discussing how to get to our Airbnb from the station; bless their planning minds, I will just follow.
After a night there, we moved to Furano to take some Instagrammable pictures of Farm Tomita. After that, the plan is to have a proper Japanese-style R&R at Lake Akan before coming back to Sapporo for a few days of shopping and seafood eating while staying at Guesthouse Waya.
To be honest, it doesn’t matter where we go or what we do for me. I am just so glad to be with my friends in Japan. Life can get any better than this.
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