Zishaan Hayath Ride: Hokkaido

Notes from the Ride

Hokkaido in early summer is a strange kind of empty. The roads are wide and well made and there is almost nobody on them, and the further north you go the more that becomes the point.

The plan fitted in a sentence: get to Cape Soya, the northernmost point in Japan, then follow the sea home. Five days, 1370 km, a bike picked up outside Chitose.

What the plan didn't account for was how much of it would be spent stopping. A cable car into Daisetsuzan at dawn. An arch bridge at Lake Nukabira that sinks and resurfaces with the reservoir. Railway tracks running into the water at Shikaribetsu. Waterfalls at dusk. Then, on the fourth day, the whole west coast at once — the Ororon Line with the sea on one side, the moors and marshes of Sarobetsu on the other, and Mount Rishiri floating offshore like something drawn in later.

And the onsen. One most evenings, sometimes two, always the first thing after the bike was parked. By the end it had stopped being a reward and become the rhythm: ride, arrive, sit in very hot water, eat, sleep, ride.

Cape Soya itself takes about ten minutes. Everything either side of it took five days, which is roughly the correct ratio.

Day	Date	Route	Distance	Highlights of the day	Night stay
01	29 Jun, Mon	Chitose → Sounkyo Onsen	300 km	Picked up the bike outside Chitose and rode east into the mountains all day. Reached Sounkyo Onsen in the evening, and the first thing I did was get into the onsen.	Sounkyo Onsen
02	30 Jun, Tue	Sounkyo loop — Daisetsuzan and Mikuni Pass	175 km	A dawn cable car into Daisetsuzan National Park, then Mikuni Pass at midday, the Taushubetsu bridge at Lake Nukabira and the submerged railway tracks at Lake Shikaribetsu. Ryusei and Ginga waterfalls before dusk. An onsen at either end of the day.	Sounkyo Onsen
03	1 Jul, Wed	Sounkyo → Nayoro → Bifuka → Hamatombetsu → Cape Soya → Wakkanai	325 km	North through Nayoro, lunch at Bifuka, then out onto the quiet Okhotsk coast. Cape Soya in the late afternoon, the northernmost point in Japan. Wakkanai for the night.	Wakkanai
04	2 Jul, Thu	Wakkanai → Rumoi → Otaru	340 km	The Ororon Line down the length of the west coast, the sea on the right the whole way and Mount Rishiri floating out in it. Moors and marshes across the Sarobetsu plain. Sushi at Rumoi in the middle of it.	Otaru
05	3 Jul, Fri	Otaru → Yoichi → Furubira → Cape Shakotan → Cape Kamui → Chitose	230 km	Seafood at Yoichi, then a seaside onsen at Furubira. The Shakotan blue at both capes. Three hours back to Chitose to drop the bike.	Home

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