A sketchbook journey to rural Japan

Our hiking adventure in the land of brown bears and hot springs

Last August, my husband and I embarked on a 3-week hiking trip to northern Japan.

I had originally intended to do lots of sketching during the trip, but once I got there I realized that I couldn’t muster much energy for drawing. At the time, I was in the midst of pretty severe creative burnout. So instead, I used my Moleskine journal as a tiny scrapbook, collecting stamps, ticket stubs, and adding the occasional doodle in our down time on ferries and car rides.

This was an excellent decision because I was able to refill my creative reservoir while we traveled. But despite the hundreds of photos that I took, I still felt like I missed out on something by not documenting all of our stops in my sketchbook.

Fast forward six months…

I had a little wiggle room in my schedule this week, so I revisited my travel memories and filled in the gaps in my Japan sketchbook. Because although the experience is long over, I don’t think it’s ever too late to consider the ways a trip has left its fingerprints on our lives.

When we travel, elements of our physical bodies actually become that new location. The food we eat becomes part of us by way of muscle, bone and fat, the shining sun tans (or burns, in my case) our skin, the foreign air we breathe oxygenates our blood, and the new experiences and memories reroute our brain patterns. Our trip may be over, but it will always be a part of me. So I hope you enjoy this playful sketchbook tour through northern Japan!

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The spark to go to Japan came from my husband, who loves to cook and had been working his way through a Japanese cookbook for many months. He pitched the idea of a hiking & food tour through the lesser-travelled northern part of the country. I was instantly onboard with the idea, on one condition: that he plan the whole thing. And he did!

Prior to this trip, I’d always thought of Japan as being super crowded and urban. But in our research, we learned that there’s actually a huge region—the northern island of Hokkaido—that is almost entirely mountains, wilderness, farmland, and small towns. While focusing an entire trip to Japan around Hokkaido isn’t the norm for tourists (especially during non-ski season), we were excited about the opportunity to explore the more rugged, wild side of Japan.

Stop #1: Sapporo

We stepped off the plane in Sapporo to the hottest day ever recorded in the city’s history…a balmy 97.5 degrees! The intense heat—paired with jetlag from the 14-hour time difference—meant that we did lots of 4 - 10 AM exploring followed by long naps in the afternoon with fans blowing directly at our faces.

Stop #2: Akan-Mashu National Park

We rented a car and drove 4 hours to the park, where we stayed at the Airbnb of a super sweet woman named Mayumi. She invited us to accompany her to the public hot-spring bath every evening, her nightly ritual. We took several shorter hikes along glittering Lake Akan, but our most intense trek was to the sputtering volcanic summit of Mt. Meakan. This was our first taste of the widespread geothermal activity in Japan—there are 27,000 hot springs throughout the country!

Stop #3: Daisetsuzan National Park

Daisetsuzan is known for its huge numbers of brown bears, a slightly less aggressive relative of the North American brown bear. We observed lots of bear poop and holes where bears had pawed for the roots of skunk cabbage, a favorite food. Our biggest hike here was climbing Mt. Kurodake, which involved taking a cable car up part of the mountain, followed by a ski lift, followed by a strenuous all-day hike. The alpine flowers here were magical, my favorite being dicentra peregrina, the alpine bleeding heart.

Stop #4: Wakkanai

Situated just 27 miles from the Russian coast, Wakkanai is the northern-most town in Japan. We had just a quick one night stop here so that we could take the ferry to Rebun Island the next morning. All the road signs are in both Russian and Japanese and the streets are lined with restaurants serving up Russian cuisine.

Stop #5: Rebun Island

We hopped on the ferry and spent a few days enjoying life on “flower island”. Rebun is famous for its rare arctic flowers, some of which aren’t found anywhere else in the world. Wildflower season was winding down this time of year, but the scenery was still stunning! A highlight here was staying in a traditional Japanese inn that had just a few rooms and dished up freshly-caught seafood for every meal. Rebun Island’s sea urchin is widely known as being the best in Japan. It tasted like a bite of pure ocean: intensely briny and somehow an amalgamation of every flavor of fish.

Stop #6: Rishiri Island

Rishiri ended up being the pinnacle of the whole trip. The island forms a perfect circle with Mt. Rishiri rising up to a point in the center, so you can see the mountain no matter where you are on the island. Our first day, we hiked to the top of Rishiri, a blood-pumping effort that was worth every minute. The following day, we circumnavigated the island on bicycle, passing through fishing villages where locals busily dried strips of kelp on the shore and waded for sea urchins.

Stop #7: Tokyo

After 2.5 weeks in the remote north, we flew into Tokyo for our final 5 days. The hustle and bustle was a definite shock to the system, but it was exhilarating to be in such an iconic metropolis. We visited art exhibits and gardens and did a little window shopping in the fancy areas, where I’m positive that we stuck out like a sore thumb in our hiking clothes and Tevas.