Hokkaido itinerary 7 days: Sapporo, Otaru, Biei, Furano and Noboribetsu

An hour and fifteen minutes, the tower deck is paid. From New Chitose airport it is 40 minutes by train to Sapporo station. After check-in, walk to Odori Park, the 1.5 km park avenue through the centre that hosts the Snow Festival in February and a beer garden in July. Go up the TV Tower at the east end to see the whole park from above.

One hour, with dinner, 15 minutes’ walk south in Susukino. The alley has about fifteen counter shops with eight or ten seats each, and it is where Sapporo miso ramen made its name. Pick the one with a queue of locals rather than tourists, and pay at the ticket machine by the door where there is one.

One hour, 10 minutes’ walk from Odori. The crab, sea urchin and salmon stalls open early, and the counters inside serve kaisendon from 7 am. Arrive by 8 am, before the groups.

An hour and a half, contribution at the entrance. It is about 40 minutes by subway to Makomanai and then a bus to Makomanai Takino cemetery. Architect Tadao Ando covered a 13.5 metre stone Buddha with a hill planted with lavender: you walk through a concrete tunnel and only see the head, framed by the sky, at the end. The lavender blooms in July; in winter the Buddha is covered in snow.

Two hours, ¥ 2,100 return on the ropeway and mini cable car. Head back to the centre, rest, and take the streetcar to the ropeway station in the late afternoon. From the 531 metre summit the city spreads to the sea; stay from sunset into darkness, for one of Japan’s most celebrated night views.

One hour, free. Otaru is 40 minutes by train from Sapporo along the coast. Walk down from the station to the 1923 canal, lined by stone warehouses from the herring boom, now restaurants and breweries. Before that, have lunch at Sankaku Market, right next to the station.

Two and a half hours, free to stroll. The street keeps early 20th century merchant houses, now shops for blown glass, such as the Kitaichi Glass group, and sweets, such as LeTAO with its double cheesecake. At the end, at the crossroads with the steam clock, is the Music Box Museum, with thousands of boxes for sale. Head back to Sapporo in the evening and have jingisukan.

Two and a half hours, ¥ 1,000. Take the 7:30 am limited express from Sapporo to Asahikawa, 1 hour 25, and the 40 minute bus to the zoo. It became famous for showing animals from new angles: a glass tunnel beneath the penguins, a dome in the middle of the polar bear enclosure. In winter, from December to March, the king penguins take their daily walk through the snow.

Forty five minutes, free on foot. From Asahikawa it is 35 minutes by train to Biei; check in and take the bus to Shirogane Onsen, which stops at the pond. The milky blue comes from aluminium dissolved in the water, and the standing dead larch trunks complete the image that became a computer wallpaper. Clear days give the deepest blue; in winter, the pond is lit from sunset to 9 pm.

Twenty minutes, free, 3 km further on the same bus, at Shirogane Onsen. Groundwater springs from the rock in white threads, the white beard of the name, and falls into the Biei river, which has the same blue as the pond. The best view is from the road bridge. Return to Biei on the last afternoon bus.

An hour and a half, entry by contribution. It is 10 minutes by taxi from central Biei, or a ride across the hills on an electric bike rented near the station. The garden plants stripes of flowers in different colours that follow one another from April to October, with the Tokachi range behind; a tractor pulls carts over the hilltop.

An hour and a half, free. Take the Furano line train to Nakafurano; in summer, get off at the seasonal Lavender Batake station, a seven minute walk away. The farm planted lavender in the 1950s for perfume and became the symbol of Furano. The purple fields bloom in July, but other flower fields, the shop and the lavender soft serve run all year. Continue to Furano, 15 minutes by train.

One hour, free, late in the afternoon. It is a village of wooden cabins in a wood next to the Furano Prince Hotel, 15 minutes by taxi from town, with glass, leather and candle makers. At dusk the lanterns come on and the wood turns into a fairy tale set, with or without snow.

One hour, free. This is the longest train day: leave Furano at 8 am, change at Takikawa and Sapporo and get off at Noboribetsu, about four hours; a 15 minute bus climbs to the spa village. After checking in to your ryokan, walk the boardwalks over the 11 hectare crater that steams, bubbles and smells of sulphur: it is the source of the hot spring water.

Half an hour, free, a 15 minute trail above Jigokudani. The grey lake steams at the surface, around 50 degrees, with Hiyoriyama volcano smoking behind. Get back in time for the ryokan dinner and soak in the hot springs: Noboribetsu has nine different types of water.

An hour and a half, the ropeway is paid. From Noboribetsu Onsen, the bus takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to Toyako Onsen, and another 15 minutes to the foot of Showa-shinzan. The reddish lava dome rose suddenly from a wheat field between 1943 and 1945, and a local postmaster secretly recorded its growth during the war. The ropeway next door climbs Mount Usu to a lookout over the crater and Lake Toya.

An hour and a half, free on the waterfront. The almost round caldera lake has Nakajima island in the middle and the Toyako Onsen spa town on its south shore. Walk the lakeside and have lunch. Then the bus to Toya station and the limited express to Minami-Chitose take about two hours to New Chitose airport.