Otaru

Roy, the driver, was very attentive and always arrived at the hotel early to wait for us. The advantage of hiring a car is the flexibility of the itinerary, which can be adjusted according to the weather and the children's mood.

The shop is great to browse, and there's a restaurant where you can eat while waiting for the sunset and night view. Since the chipmunk park closes early, it's recommended to come up early.

Easy to use, signal is available as soon as you get off the plane. Except for Mount Fuji, which is a bit remote and has no signal, there is signal everywhere else. 21GB is more than enough. Thumbs up! 👍

The shows at the marine park was interesting and worth a visit.

80-90% of the participants were Chinese, 10-20% were Japanese, and there were about two English speakers. The participation tickets (vouchers) arrive almost entirely in Chinese. The guide was Chinese, but he repeated the same explanations in Japanese, Chinese, and English, and was very kind and friendly. At famous photo spots, he would call out, "I'll take your picture," and everyone asked the guide to take photos for them. The participants were quiet on the bus, there was no lateness, and everyone had excellent manners. You can drink bottled water on the bus, but basically eating and drinking are prohibited. Some people were eating what they had brought before the guide explained that eating and drinking were prohibited, but after the explanation, they followed the rules and did not eat. Shakotan is too far from Sapporo, so it's difficult to go there alone, making this tour very convenient. The cape is a mountain path with many stairs and steep ups and downs, so it requires physical strength. Sneakers are recommended. In Otaru, there was 2 hours and 40 minutes of free time. Those who wished could inform the guide and the tour would end there. About half of the participants decided to leave without returning to the bus and went sightseeing by train on their own. There was quite a bit of walking involved in visiting the Shakotan cape and exploring the town of Otaru, so everyone was tired and slept on the bus ride back. We arrived in Sapporo while they were sleeping, and then everyone dispersed. It was a great deal to have sightseeing transportation provided to such a distant location, especially considering the early bird summer discount of 7,000 yen.

Our driver was Xiao Ma Yuhi who was very patient and always on time/ ahead of time. We are a family of 4 with 2 elderly and he helps us with our luggages and take initiatives to help us to check with restaurants on seat availability before we alight. He is also a very experienced driver and know nice places to go to which are not covered in websites. We booked him for 5 days and travelled from Sapporo>Furano>Biel>Noribetsu>Lake Toya>Hakodate>Otaru>Sapporo. Will recommend if you are looking for a safe, experienced driver who can speak mandarin.