Planes, Trains and a Rental Car

I couldn't help myself - even though our trip from Hakuba to Rusutsu didn't include a train ride, we weren't quite sure how or when we were going to make it out of Hakuba. There was so much snow on the ground that most of the trains weren't running and our flight from Matsumoto to Sapporo was inches of snow away from being canceled. In fact, two days before we flew into Sapporo all departing flights were cancelled and videos of the airport showed the floors covered with people waiting to get out of Sapporo. But everything worked out just as planned!
So...after 5 days of watching record breaking snow fall, spending a few hours of soaking in the relaxing onsens, and listening to David complain about the slopes having too much snow (ha!) we left Hakuba and made our way to the northernmost part of Japan, Hokkaido. Known for its volcanos, onsens, ski runs and the Sapporo Snow festival (which we will get to next week), from what we've seen so far, it is just beautiful. We're looking forward to it's seafood, famous miso ramen and more epic days spent on the slopes (and in the hot springs).Read more