Ten Days in Hokkaido, Japan (August) with lots of great food.

We had a great time in Hokkaido and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Japan. One note is that the island is much bigger than I thought; we didn't make it to any of the amazing-looking national parks in the northern part of the island (another trip).

Some of our highlights included Hakodate for the seafood/wet market and an incredible selection of scallops, crab and uni prepared in front of you. We also loved Toya and the surrounding area, basing ourselves there for a couple days.

The Shakotan peninsula was a highlight with incredibly scenery with the nearby towns of Iwani (with a top-notch Picasso museum) and Otaru (with German beer culture) worth a visit. We also visited a fantastic open-air onsen and a tofu factory that had been in business for generations; we ate ours straight from the package.

Sapporo was a great contrast. It had all the urbanity of Tokyo without the mania. We enjoyed the beer festival, purchased yukata and noren at a traditional shop, ate amazing sushi at the train station, visited Daiso and witnessed a wedding at a temple. And of course the ramen mall where you have your choice of ten different ramen stalls.

The food and people were amazing, just like our other visits to Japan, and I would 100% return to Hokkaido and see places we missed on this visit.