10 Nights Camping Across Hokkaido

Japan on a shoestring budget:

We explored the northern most part of Japan known as Hokkaido. Why only Hokkaido and not more popular destinations like Tokyo? Well firstly we travelled to Japan in June which is rainy season as well as hot and humid weather however not in Hokkaido. The weather was still very pleasant by us. Secondly Hokkaido is known for its nature which we prioritize on our travels and thirdly because it is extremely cheap especially the way we did it which I will explain.

E-Visa was only $20 for South Africans, and they did not require us to book a flight prior to the application, on top of that we only paid for it once our visa was approved. Our return flight cost only $350 from where we are based in Mongolia. This would have cost us around $2000 from South Africa. This was baby Hafsa last free flight since she was still under two at the time.
Instead of paying $100 a night for accommodation, we decided to rent a car for $40 and camp throughout our ten-day road-trip.

Camping is free and quite common in Japan. Some nights we slept in the car, some nights in our tent. We used the natural hot springs as our showers. Public toilets in Japan are very clean and often come with bidets.

We ate from supermarkets which were cheaper than South Africa and we had the most incredible sushi at bargain prices.

National parks are free in Japan and that’s where we spent most of our time. Hokkaido is known for its breathtaking lakes. Bins are rare in Japan, but the place was still spotless. Everyone is encouraged to take their dirt back with them to dispose of them at recycling centres.

Japan was the cleanest country I’ve been to out of the 33 countries I’ve travelled to at age 33.

00:00 Intro
01:09 Day 1
02:19 Day 2
09:29 Day 3
15:37 Day 4
21:31 Day 5
26:44 Day 6
30:42 Day 7
34:54 Day 8
42:41 Day 9
48:15 Day 10
49:32 Day 11

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