Again, I was too lazy to right, and until now, I think I should keep a record of this trip as it was meaningful one. Went to Hokkaido island during my Birthday, just want to be away to the land of my fav country in Asia and wanted to have the experience of winter in Hokkaido. Though it was not easy to move around (I fell a few times as the roads was covered with ice and was very slippery, even though I have stayed in Beijing for a few years, still a tropical guy like me, it is not an easy task to walk in the streets full of ice, haha), but nevertheless, I felt it was a worthwhile trip, full of life experiences.
I bought my JR pass-two weeks, which meant I was prepared to travel the island throughout as much as possible using Train/Shinkansen/subway with this JR pass. Please google to get more information about this pass, and I got a 14-day pass, which amounted to USD 402.00 (excluding courier service charge to your location).
Started from Tokyo, then Sendai, Aomori, Sapporo, Kushiro, Abashiri, Shari, Toro, Sapporo, Hakodate, Nikko, Tokyo, Kanazawa, Tokyo and back to home, close to two weeks trip in total.
Sendai-A first stop after Tokyo, actually heard of this name many times, but no chance to pay a visit and finally, have a chance to take a look and stay a nite here. Walked to the famous hillside, and the town a bit, before going back to hotel and take a rest. And also in this city that I stayed for the first time in a cube hotel, very classy, new and hi-tech, and what an experience.
Cube hotel-9hours Sendai city
Sendai hillside
It was at Sendai station, that I ate this birthday cake, and it is kind of meaningful for me, simple and yet significant. So I celebrated my birthday here at a little cafe in Sendai station while waiting for Shinkansen to take me to the next destination, that is Aomori.
After Sendai, the next destination was suppose to be Hokkaido Island but because we consider the to go to Sapporo direct instead of stopping by at Hakkodate and worrying that the direct trip to Sapporo will be too taxing, we stop at Aomori, the final JR station in Honshu island. It is kind of wrong idea to stop here as my traveling friend booked a hotel in another nearby city instead of Aomori city, hence we have to take a bus to this place, in the middle of no where and at the time the sky was getting darker, and later it snowed crazily.
Look at the street here, full of snow.
And it was also a kind of blessing and it was actually my birthday nite and the restaurant owner and another guest there treated me with a simple meal and also a glass of sake and the lady, who is the owner of the restaurant, gave me a pack of chocolate. Fabian is traveling together after we met in Tokyo Shinagawa station as he was also going to Hakkaido island.
Forgot to mention, getting the bus out of this city is also a problem early in the morning, especially when we have a shinkansen to catch and most locals cannot speak simple English, but somehow, they say when your karma is good, then you meet kind people that will guide you and we met one lady who helped us and also the bus driver who guided us in smattering English and we were dropped one bus station before the main JR station, which is like 400m walking distance. We were thankful for that.
Once arrived to Sapporo, it was already late afternoon, and we did just walked around the city. Can see that Sapporo city is very crowded especially with mainland Chinese tourists, and they even made some announcement in Mandarin, very interesting indeed. Find that the food here is quite high price and very similar or might be higher compared to Tokyo.
The next morning, due to the time of SHinkansen trip we booked earlier, and having enough time, we just kept our luggage at the hotel, and walked to a nearby park.
This was the depth of the snow, on the way to a park in Sapporo city. It was a nice walk and I think we walked like more than 10KM, two ways, they pick up our luggage from the hotel and then went back to Sapporo station.
And after this, we went to Kushiro, the place where it is famous for seafood and also where you can see a lot of cranes. Arrived here quite late and the hostel, Yasuzuka Hostel is quite a walking distance from the city and I had a big fall due to the slippery road (or wrong winter shoes that I am wearing).
Nite view, Kushiro city, passing the river you have to use the famous Nusamai bridge.
Kushiro, in short is a small city, but beautiful and they also has a seafood market, just next to the station. Here of course seafood is very famous, as it is next to the sea.
After this city, we took SHinkansen, and went to Abashiri, which is quite a distance away.
The reason I took this picture, as I was walking towards my hotel in Abashiri, was because of this thick snow level and it was really very hard to walk through all these but anyway, I managed it. And later, for another two nites, we changed to another hotel in a better location.
Upon reaching Abashiri city, it was already late afternoon, and the snowfall in this area is very high. I have a problem to walk and bringing my luggage and walking though the thick snow was really a big challenge (learned a hard lesson here, no more luggage in future, only backpack or knapsack for future traveling to countries with full winter and lots of snowfall). 
Part of Abshiri city, when we arrived. And as we were very tired, we just walked to the nearest Japanese chain restaurant and had a heavy buffer meals here. The next morning, check out and brought my luggage to the bus station and kept at the left luggage locker at Abashiri station, and went out for a walk.
we walked around the city, as we missed the bus ride to Shari and Shiretoko national park, hence we walked around the city, and finally we went to Abashiri lake which was quite beautiful place.
One of the smallest JR station in Abashiri area, and we used JR train service for an experience and also we were too lazy to walk back to Abashiri city.
I would specifically like to mention this restaurant in Abashiri, a family owned biz. On the first nite we were here, they gave us the sashimi and also chocolate, as it was St Valentine's day.
The sashimi
My dinner
Then the next morning, we took JR train again to Shari train station, and from there took the bus to Shiretoko National park, and lucky us, the bus took us directly to the park. One must find the time to visit this park, it is just amazing. We spent a few hours here, then too the bus to Otoro town, and spend 2 hours here before taking the bus ride back to Shari Station, then too JR train back to Abashiri city. Put another nite at Abashiri city and then we made our move to the south slowly, stopping a nite at Sapporo city, then another nite at Hakodate.
This is the hotel in Utoro town, on top of the hill and we went here for the onsen bath, managed to spent about 1hour here as by the time we found this place, it was a bit too rush and time was a bit limited.
Then using Shinkansen, we spent a nite at Sapporo and another nite in Hakadote.
Hakadote has changed a bit compared to the time I went there like 10 years ago.
Hakodate city, has changed and look different compared to the time I last went there. And they have more chinese tourists and again, one different thing from last was they allow you to bargain in the market where it was not the case when I was last there or a culture here. The price is usually fixed but somehow may be cause of toursim needs they changed.
After Hakodate, we moved to Nikko, and Nikko was just a revisit for me, and for Fabian it was his first time, hence I just accompany. As it is a world heritage place, not much changes here. We took Ramen here almost every nite, as it is the most convenient, taste good and relatively cheap.
Around Nikko
The famous bridge in Nikko.
After Nikko, I stop by at Tokyo for 3 more nites before my, and a day before my departure, I took advantage of my JP pass and went to Kanazawa which is on the west part of Honshu island whereas, Fabian went to Shikoku.
For Tokyo, I did not write much cause it is a revisit, and to a few places that I visited before, but this time around just accompany traveler companion as it was his first time. We went to Asakusa, and Shimbashi area, and also the electronic street for a walk.
Kanazawa is a first time for me, and it was only a day trip hence a bit rush as I have to make sure I get the train back to Tokyo as per the ticket I booked and it took close to 3 hours to for a way ride.
Unesco heritage KenroKuen, a very beautiful park.
The beautiful Kanzawa Station.
Part of Omicho market
It was overall, a very meaningful trip for me, first time to explore Hakkaido in winter and visiting Japan is always good, as it is my favorite country in Asia. Would like to go back, again and again.
Choong
Write-up in 29th Nov. 2017
