Japan Travel Diaries Pt.1 | Exploring Tokyo & Hokkaido (Hakodate, Lake Toya, Noboribetsu, Sapporo)
We have your disp. [Music] We spent 11 days exploring Hokkaido and more of Tokyo at the end of the summer of 2025. We got out into nature, relaxed at onens, and traveled by Shinkansen. Of course, we went on shopping sprees, dove into the foodie scene, and saw all the sites while we were there. Join us for our comeback tour through northern Japan. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hi. All right, we’re at LAX now. Just got through security. So, we’re going to Japan again for the second time in 2 years, but we’re obviously flying into Tokyo, but we’re going to explore Hokkaido. So, we’re going to get to see the northern prefecture, the northern island of Japan. We’re going from Tokyo taking the bullet train to Hakodate and then from Hakodate we’re going to Lake Toya and then Saporro Asahi Kawa uh and where we’re going to explore BA and couple of other places up there in the mountains. Do some hiking up at the national park. And then we’re going to go all the way back to Tokyo and spend a few days in Tokyo going shopping and all of that. So, See you in Tokyo. [Applause] [Music] All right. So, we made it off the plane. We’re on the train to get into Tokyo. Now, uh we’re staying in Ueno for the next two nights. Actually, just going to get into our hotel and chill and sleep. We’re so tired at this point. Um we’ve been up now for I don’t know like 20 or so hours. So, [Music] sorry my brain isn’t firing on all cylinders right now. It’s hot as hell over here. The room is tiny, but uh we kind of expected that. It’s a business hotel. So, give a quick room tour, though. So, here’s the door. And when you first walk in, you put your key in over there. And this is it. Very small. So, there’s a little desk over here. Little landing zone for slippers. There’s a fridge right there. Then a little bit of floor space. Then there’s a double bed. Then here’s the bathroom. And that is it. So tomorrow we’re going to explore a little bit of Tokyo. So we’ll see you in the morning. Ohio Gazimas. It is uh it’s actually somewhat early. It’s 8:11. Um, still adjusting to the time zone here, but we’re going to go get some coffee. And today, what we’re going to do is do some shopping. This is our only full day here in Tokyo until we leave for Hokkaido tomorrow morning. So, since we’re in the Ueno area, we’re going to hit up Akihabara. Um, but first, we’re going to go a little bit further north and check out some secondhand shops that are up here. [Music] Everything in Japan has a cute mascot. And this penguin is the one for their transportation IC card called Sua. [Music] Bueno station had this store dedicated to Suika Penguin merch. All right, so we just took the train from Ueno to Matsudo, which is about a 20-minut train ride northeast in the Tokyo Metro, and we’re going to go secondhand shopping. This is where a book off super bazaar is. But right now, we’re going to see if we can find the uni clothes that’s at this station because Amanda wants to get a bag over here. [Music] There’s a bowl of ramen in there. All right, so we hit the Book Off the Super uh the Book Off Super Bizaarre actually here in Matsudo and there were a handful of new Nintendo 3DS LL’s and I was able to pick one up. It’s hotter than hell, by the way. It’s like 94° or something like that. Um, so we’re on our way now. It’s only 11:30 and jet lag is getting us right now. It feels so much later. About uh a kilometer away from the book off is a soba restaurant that I found. Hopefully get some cold soba cuz we’re really hungry. [Music] Okay, it was an adventure ordering here with the all Japanese menu, but Not bad though. This soba place was a fantastic first real meal in Japan for this trip. It was tiny on the inside like a lot of Tokyo hole-in-the-wall noodle shops. It was so hot out and we had been walking around a lot, so we were all sweaty and this cold soba and tempura just hit the spot. I said this was hard mode because usually even with a place that only has a Japanese menu, there’s pictures and we can use the image function on Google Translate, but that didn’t work well this time. The owner of the shop was super nice and welcoming. Highly recommended. After lunch, we headed back towards Tokyo to check out Akihabara, the electric town. [Music] We’re in Akihabara. [Music] [Applause] [Music] We did a lot of the gacha pon machines in Japan because there’s a lot of cute stuff. But this one is for our friend Minicious, who’s the biggest Bulbasaur fan in the world. Bulbasaur. All right, Minnie’s going to open it. Okay, we spent a few hours checking out the sights and sounds of Akihabara, going retro video game and gacha pond hunting. So, now it’s time for a late dinner at a curry house chain. [Music] All right, it’s 6:00 in the morning right now and Amanda’s still sleeping, but I’m really hungry. I’ve actually been up since about 4:00. Jet lag is still getting me, but still getting decent amount of rest. But I’m walking right now to Sukia, which is Japanese chain. It’s a Gudon restaurant, rice, a beef rice bowl type of place, and super cheap. They’re open almost 24 hours, and there’s a ton of them around Tokyo. So, let’s go get some. [Music] We’re going to Hokkaido today. So, we’re um going to get some breakfast here probably at some point. Our Shinkansen reservations, the bullet train reservations are for 10:50ish this morning and I think it’s going to be around a 4 4 and 1/2 hour ride to Hakodate where we’re going to stay the night. This is the AC’s not working. It’s fine. [Music] [Music] [Applause] We bought the JR pass which is available only to tourists in Japan. The pass for most of your travel by train, Shin Kansen, and bus in the JR network for a certain amount of time. We got the 7-day one, which will cover all of our train travel to and within Hokkaido all the way until we get back to Tokyo again next week. Okay, I’m having to whisper a little bit because we are on the Shinkansen to Hakodate now. The Shinkansen are so fast, man. It’s always so fun to ride these. So, we’re just going to sit back and relax and maybe journal and lay on some handhelds and read a little bit while we go to Hakodate. I don’t think we’re going that fast yet, but these trains have a max speed of around 200 mph, and it is crazy how it feels. Do you have your [Music] [Applause] [Music] All right, we made it to Hakaco. Akodate. One thing that I want to mention is that the temperature difference between Tokyo and Hakodate is stark. It was like 97°. Super freaking humid yesterday. Here it’s like low8s and feels great outside. Just not sweating my ass off like I was yesterday and the day before. Now that we’re here, we’re just going to go check into our hotel and then we’re going to eat and explore. [Music] Hokkaido’s local beverage. Ooh, [Music] this is Lucky Perau, a popular local hamburger chain in Hakaco Date. We weren’t super hungry yet, so we got their most popular meal to share, which is the chicken fillet burger set that has crispy and juicy fried chicken tossed in a sweet and savory sauce, chili cheese fries, and their brewed ulong tea. We also added a blueberry vanilla shake and it was all so good. [Music] After lunch, we took the street car to the Juji Guy neighborhood, which was a very scenic and historic part of the city, to catch the sights and take pictures. We’re going up over there in a little bit. [Music] [Music] [Music] And now it’s ropeway time. [Music] Please watch your steps when getting off. [Music] It was so crowded at the Mount Hakodate Observatory, but we realized that most people go up there around dusk so they could see what’s considered one of Japan’s top nightscape city views, which is Hakodate from above. It’s called the Hakodate hourglass because being a port town, Hakodate gets pinched by two inlets of the sea that gets highlighted by the bright city lights at night. It was a spectacular view. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Good morning from Hakodate. We had a great night last night. Saw some sights. Went up to the top of Mount Hakodate, I think is what it’s called. We’re going to go get some coffee at I think this is a fish market over here and then it’s going to be onto Lake Toya. This fish market near the port is huge and super cool. There’s several buildings and outdoor areas all clustered together that sell mostly fresh seafood, fruit, and other foods that are popular. Hakaco Date is known for its seafood, which is what we want to get after coffee and before heading on the limited express train to our next destination. Oh, Chicago. We’re from Colorado. Yeah. Thank you. Look at that. Happy birthday, baby. Wow. There’s a lot of great little coffee shops in Japan, and Jujia Coffee was no exception. Amanda got a coffee with milk and a package of little cookies. And I ordered a pourover with katalana, which was a custard dessert that has caramelized sugar on the top, similar to a creme brulee. Super delicious. And the owner was extremely nice and fluent in English. So, we chatted with him for a while. After coffee, we checked out a little bit more of the market before grabbing some seafood bowls at a spot close to the coffee shop on the owner’s recommendation. [Music] [Music] All right, so we made it to Lake Toya. We’re at the Toya Kango Hotel. Just checked in and getting settled into the room. But we have such a great view out here, too, of Lake Toya, the little island that’s in the middle. We’re probably going to go take the ferry here in a little bit once we rest up a little bit because we had to take the express train from Hakodate to Toya station and then from Toya station over here. It was a bus that was about 30 more minutes or so, but a little bit less than 3 hours. We’re going to go explore. I think there’s going to be some fireworks later. I know we have dinner at the restaurant and we also have breakfast. This is all kind of included. And then we also have the onen since this is a rioon. We have private on senden time sometime around like 7:20 or something like that. It’s going to be a cool day. [Music] Fore! Foreign! Foreign! [Music] Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? This is a Japanese style dinner. And there’s so much stuff here. Looks like there’s like a custard thing here. There’s some kind of vegetables. There’s sashimi under here. They just delivered some shrimp tempura. Something going on here. Some meat, chicken, pork maybe, and then some kind of potatoes. This is cooking right now. But this is pork. Oh, it’s hot. Needs about 10 minutes. And then there’s this rice thing going on over here. Woo. And it looks like this might be dessert. Got some miso soup, some rice. [Music] Very nice. [Music] Oh my god. [Music] Just waiting on the fireworks now. [Music] Holy Whoa. Oh wow. Oh my god. Oh, that’s huge. What the Oh [Music] Today we’re going to Nobsu. Noetsu is a small natural hot spring town near central Hokkaido. After taking a train to Noorivetsu station, we’re going to take a bus up to the Jigokani Valley, which is known for their geothermal activity being in a volcanic crater. will soon be arriving. We’re hiking a trail that features a natural hotring foot bath and stunning views of mountains and geysers. Along the way, we’ll also spot some stone demon statues scattered around town. It’s a hobby off, too. Heat [Music] [Music] [Applause] up here. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat up [Music] here. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] So, I realized why this spot was open. It’s because we’re downstream of all these people’s feet. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] All right. Had a packed morning this morning already. Had breakfast buffet at the Lake Toya Hotel. Then had to jump on their shuttle to go to the Toya station. And then we stopped off at one of the little towns on the way to Nobody Betsu in order to do some secondhand hunting. Went to a hard off over there. Then jumped back on the train and now we’re in Nobodyu and exploring. We already did the natural hot springs footpath. Very uh Spirited Away, magical chemicals in the water. It was nice. My feet are nice and pretty, nice and soft now. That was really cool. And then uh we just explored I actually don’t know what this area is called, but I’ll put it somewhere. Kind of reminded me of Yellowstone. It was like a little mini Yellowstone here in Japan. It’s really cool. [Music] You got to waft it. Smells like sulfur. [Music] We just came down from the national park. We’re in their little town of Notoriz right now. There’s a ton of shops and restaurants over here. I think we’re going to get some ramen. [Music] Oh, that looks so good. Matcha [Music] matcha waffle mochi thing. It is this one. This one. And then that one is this one. All right, we just got to Noatsu station. We had a great time at the national park, but we are on our way to Saporo now. Just waiting on the limited express train. I think it’s going to come here in about 30 minutes or so. Got our stuff out of the coin lockers and just waiting now. So, see you in Sabort. [Music] [Music] One by one. One by one. [Music] First night in Saporro. What time is it right now? 8:05. And it actually feels really nice right now. It’s about 68°. Breezy. It was raining a lot earlier. Walking to get some soup curry right now. I think Hokkaido or maybe Saporro is famous for that. That’s kind of one of their dishes. And we’re going to stop by a secondhand store um right before we go for some retro game hunting. [Music] So, we were heading to dinner. We stopped by Suduga, which is a secondhand store. We got distracted and we found a nice new 3DS LL for Amanda, a nice red one. And that took up a lot of time. And we had laundry that we were doing here that we needed to get back to. So, it was like 9ish 9:30 at that point and we decided to just go back to the hotel. Had to grab our laundry from the washing machine, bring it back up, fold it, and at that point it was already almost 10:00 maybe. So, this is what we’re having for dinner. We’re having Konini stuff. We went to Lawson, which is right next to our hotel, and that’s what we’re having. [Music] Today is our only full day in Saporro. This is our chance to get out and eat, shop, and explore in the capital of Hokkaido. Amanda and I were reflecting on the trip, and we both agreed that we wish we had an extra day in Lake Toya and an extra day here in Saporo. There were just so many more things on our list for both of these places that we could fill another day with, but I guess we’ll just have to save that for our next trip to Japan. [Music] [Applause] After getting a cup of hot matcha at the tea shop and fluffy pancakes at a cafe, we took a train to Nakanoshima to check out a store that sells Japanese salvaged denim. [Music] I love the pair I ended up picking up. And though they were pricey, they’re such great quality and should last me for years to come. [Music] Afterwards, we decided to check out some crane games and gacha pon machines to work up an appetite for lunch. Yeah. [Music] Hello and welcome to station. Oh, you got the one you didn’t want. What is that? You’re so goofy looking. I don’t What is that? Oh no. Who is that? What are you? An idiot sandwich. All right, attempt number two. Let’s see who we get. Is it him again? Is that all that’s left in there? All right, one more. One more. One more. One more. Are you serious? Yeah. Oh my god. Somebody’s going to get one of those guys. That looks different. Oh, that looks different. Oh. Oh, there you go. Oh, yeah. [Music] All right, after some shopping, we just finished up a late lunch at Swag Good Swag Soup Curry. Who’s so good? Now we’re going to go on this ferris wheel, which is just right outside up there. Figure out how to get up there. 65. Yeah, there she is. I wanted to do this. I like it. Oh god. [Laughter] Poor [Music] baby. Having so much fun. [Music] We’re at the Saporro Beer Museum and it’s completely covered in scaffolding so you can’t really see it. Sure. It’s still cool inside though. [Music] [Music] Got my alcohol free and Amanda got a little ribbon sodie pop. Kai [Music] So Amanda’s not with me right now. She’s back at the hotel room. We had a full day of exploring, playing tourist. I was able to get some Japanese denim, which I’m really happy about. Was able to secure a PS VA on the retro game hunt. And we got some soup curry and went on the ferris wheel that let us get a really cool view of Saporo. Now I’m on my way to another Hard Off and Poke Off Super Bizarre. The hunt continues for retro video games. So that’s one of my side quests while we were in Japan this visit. So probably have another late night dinner. We’re thinking maybe a conveyor belt sushi place and then tomorrow we are headed off to Asahikawa. So we’re going to take a train from Saporro station to Asah Kawwa. And then in Asahwa we’re actually renting a car and we’re staying in BA. There’s mountains and a national park over there. Hopefully do some hiking. We’ll see. Weather permitting because it has been rainy today and yesterday. And I believe it’s actually supposed to rain again maybe in the next couple of days. So, we’ll see what the trail conditions are like. Hopefully, it’s not super muddy. But yeah, a lot of adventure ahead of us. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] seat reservations. Please do not smoke in this train. All right, so we’re on the train to Asahikawa now. We’re leaving Sapora.
We’re back in Japan! 🇯🇵 This time, we explored even more of Tokyo and took an unforgettable journey through Hokkaido — from Hakodate to Sapporo, Lake Toya, Noboribetsu, Asahikawa, Biei, and Furano.
📍 End of Summer 2025 was the perfect time to visit Japan’s north, with stunning natural beauty, cooler weather, and fewer crowds. Join us as we soak in the views of Jigokudani (Hell Valley), hike through Daisetsuzan National Park, hop on scenic train rides, indulge in amazing Japanese food, and do some serious shopping in Tokyo!
🍜 Expect:
Local eats & street food
Scenic sightseeing spots
Unique shopping finds
Train travel tips
Hidden gems in Hokkaido & Tokyo
🎥 This is Part 1 of our Japan 2025 travel series – don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode!
#JapanVlog #HokkaidoTravel #TokyoVlog #Japan2025 #TravelVlog #Sapporo #JapanFoodie
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:53 Day 1 – LAX to Tokyo
03:15 Day 2 – Ueno, Matsudo, Akihabara
08:27 Day 3 – Tokyo to Hakodate
16:14 Day 4 – Hakodate to Lake Toya
23:55 Day 5 – Noboribetsu, Jigokudani, Sapporo
31:54 Day 6 – Odori Park, Tanukikoji, Beer Museum
AloJapan.com