Hokkaido and Tokyo, May 2026

[fair pollen]

Hey fellas. I’ve got a trip coming up in about mid-late May, where we’re exploring the wonders of Hokkaido prefecture and the busy streets of Tokyo. We’re also going to South Korea for a few days, but that isn’t relevant here. I’ve already compiled a thorough itinerary and planned most of the big ticket items, but I could use some other opinions on what I got. I’ll send the link to the doc below, it should be public access.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-YA5eb7QqS_GFOJU_YKnOLVthOgLFO14qGcIVTIRwR0/edit?usp=drivesdk

[south stump]

Looking goooddd, Ill just focus on the transport because thats what I'm good at xD. Theres a couple things ive noticed.

First, I think you should check up the train schedule between Tokyo and Hakodate, the trip should average around 4 hours and 15 minutes, not 3 hours and 35 minutes. You might also consider flying to Hakodate since, this is a considerably long time to spend on a train (saying this as a train nerd).

I see you made a few stops on the trip on the Limited Express Hokuto so i suppose flying wont be applicable here. But the flight returning to Tokyo from New Chitose is 366USD, this is nearly 5 times what it should cost (~80USD MAX), you might want to check that again. Alternatively, there are plenty of flights between Chitose and Incheon, if you want to skip Tokyo on that leg (~150-200USD).

[fair pollen]

Dully noted. Good call on the flight thing. The original plan was to do a stopover in Sendai before continuing north to Hakodate, but we ended up cutting that part out for efficiency’s sake. Without that stopover, taking the train is kinda inefficient so the flight is a good call

As for the Chitose to Haneda, I think I must have mis-calculated something. I’ll have to go back and check my notes

[south stump]

If you do fly and omit the Shinkansen both ways, you can probably skip the JR East South Hokkaido Pass and opt for one of the Hokkaido passes instead, theyre much cheaper and more appropriate regardless which ones you ended up picking

[fair pollen]

That’s also what I was thinking too. Might not even need a JR pass at all if the only trains I’m taking are local transit

[south stump]

Not necessarily, In Hokkaido you'll likely be making use of express trains often, their passes might make sense if you do

If you do fly, JAL and ANA offer special prices for tourist which may or may not be cheaper than what you can find on google flights or their official website, here's JAL's
https://www.jal.co.jp/world/en/world/japan_explorer_pass/lp/

[fair pollen]

Oh nice! I’ll have to check that out.

[south stump]

You dont need to fly JAL to japan to use this price too FYI

[fair pollen]

Oh yeah, I screwed up the price on the return flight to Tokyo - it’s $390 for the both of us, not per person. Even then that still feels too high though

[south stump]

yea it is, perhaps you set it to round trip?

[fair pollen]

Maybe. Gonna contact JAL’s customer service line and see if I can fix this

[south stump]

FYI

[fair pollen]

👍

Again, reaching out to see if I messed up the date or accidentally hit round trip

[south stump]

it could also be booking too far in advance, prices only lower to regular levels around 3-6 months in advance, if you book beyond that window, it might be expensive as the discount fares havent set in

[fair pollen]

Well crud, I really wish I knew that earlier

This is my first ever time solo planning a trip without any help, so I guess this is just a learning experience for me

[south stump]

ahhh mistakes do happen when solo planning, personally i've boiled everything down to an equation so...

it really depends but fares stay high far out, the explorer pass i sent doesnt get affected much but regular fare can be super expensive somehow

also in Japan its not that uncommon to purchase a ticket at the airport