Six Lights of Northern Japan

Landing at New Chitose at midday, met by a private car, and straight to a sea urchin lunch in Sapporo. In the afternoon, Shiroi Koibito Park with its castle garden and chocolate factory, then free time on Tanukikoji and in Odori Park. Dinner is a welcome of three crabs at a fifty-year-old Sapporo restaurant.

New Chitose Airport · Shiroi Koibito Park · Tanukikoji · Odori Park · three-crab dinner

The family in kimono, on three vintage rickshaws through Otaru’s red-brick warehouses and along the canal, with a photographer alongside. Then a music box made by hand at the century-old music box hall, and lunch by the canal. In the afternoon, on to Lake Toya and a lake-view suite. After a kaiseki dinner, in yukata on the private terrace, the fireworks open over the lake and the sky at once.

Otaru Canal · kimono and rickshaws · the music box hall · Lake Toya · fireworks from the terrace

In the morning, the five big suitcases go by Kuroneko courier straight to the Tokyo airport, and the family travels light from here. The Mt Usu ropeway to the summit for Showa-Shinzan and the whole of Lake Toya, and hand-churned gelato at Lake Hill Farm facing Mt Yotei. Two and a half hours to Hakodate, then a car with a police permit takes the family to the summit of Mt Hakodate at the blue hour, as the city lights come on below.

Luggage forwarding · Mt Usu ropeway · Lake Hill Farm · permitted car to Mt Hakodate · Hakodate Bay

The famous seafood breakfast at La Vista, then an easy walk through Goryokaku, the Motomachi churches and Hachiman-zaka. At midday, GranClass on the Hayabusa Shinkansen through the Seikan Tunnel, back to Honshu. At Sendai, the Great Kannon, and by evening Shouhakutei in Tendo, where the bags have already arrived. A Yamagata kaiseki dinner and the hinoki spring bath in the room.

La Vista seafood breakfast · Goryokaku · Motomachi · Hachiman-zaka · GranClass · the Seikan Tunnel · Sendai Great Kannon · Shouhakutei

Up Mt Zao by ropeway to the Okama crater lake, the Witch’s Eye, a blue-green that September light makes hard to describe. A fine Yamagata lunch, then Shine Muscat grapes and early apples picked at a premium orchard. In the late afternoon, Ginzan Onsen: matcha at a tea house, then dusk on the Taisho-era wooden street as more than a hundred gas lamps are lit one by one. Dinner is Yamagata and Yonezawa wagyu over charcoal.

Okama crater lake · Yamagata lunch · orchard picking · Ginzan Onsen · the lamps at dusk

A morning flight from Yamagata to Haneda, and a private car to the Tsukiji Outer Market for an Edomae seafood lunch. Free time in Ginza in the afternoon. At dusk, Shibuya Sky: 230 metres up on the open roof, watching Tokyo sink into the blue hour as the lights come on. A farewell dinner, then the airport and the night flight home.

Yamagata → Haneda · Tsukiji Outer Market · Ginza · Shibuya Sky · night flight home