Trip Day Seven & Eight: Karuizawa, Harajuku and Night Train to Hokkaido
Filed under: Time Off
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago at 10:07 pm. Comments
As usual, the photos and videos are up on flickr.
Day 7: Karuizawa
Day 8: Harajuku
The most interesting part might be the experience of taking a night train from Honshu to Hokkaido.
The cheap seat-only carts (like this one) were filled by mostly tourists, whereas the couchettes (bed carts) were occupied by locals. I had no problem sleeping on the reclined seat, but it got uncomfortably cold at night and I had to wrap myself in pants (didn’t bring a jacket).
How to go to Hokkaido with a JR Pass:
17:56 - 21:00 東京 Tokyo => 八戶 Hachinohe
21:17 - 22:18 八戶 Hachinohe => 青森 Aomori
22:45 - 06:07 青森 Aomori => 札幌 Sapporo
It’s not exactly fun, but that’s the cheapest way to do it since it’s fully covered by the JR Pass. Plus I got to save money on a night of accommodation. Now that I have done it once, I might do it again.
Arriving Sapporo at 6 a.m. was harsh, but I will save that for the next post.