Japow 2026

Logistics Overview

2026 Links Aomori – Hakkoda – Kiroro – Kokusai

Japan seems to be a consistent place to get some POW. Last year we stayed on Hokkaido. This year we decided to check out the North end of Honshu Island, specifially the town of Aomori for a week, the a week in Otaru.

We left Vancouver on Thursday Jan 29 to arrive on a Saturday to have a day to get over the jet lag. At the small hotel we were able to catch a bus into town and pay for the ride with the Suica card which is used on all transit, easilty added to the Apple Wallet and easy to add the money you need to it. Once the money is in the Wallet it needs to be spent. Many major stores will take the Suica card. Very convenient.

We stayed at the Hotel Jal City Aomori.

When Jim and Tyler joined us we picked up our rental Nissan $hit Serena near one of the train stations. I found driving on the right side not bad, especially considering the snowy roads were more of a concern…

We then drove to Aomori Springs resort for three nights at the Rockwood Hotel and Spa. Great location, Buffet Breakfast and dinner, and an Onsen!

The end of the week in Aomori we stayed again at the Hotel Jal City Aomori and Skied the Hakkoda Ropeway one day and toured off the slopes on the next two days when the ropeway was closed.

We then flew from Aomori to Chitose, picked up a Toyota Noah mini van WITH SKI RACKS for our time in Otaru. The Noah was a much better handling vehicle than the Serena.

We were lucky to spend the whole week in Furukawa Onsen, Room 505 to ski Kiroro and Kokusai. We only skied these two areas since it offers some of the best skiing and touring in the area IMO.

We skied 3 days in each at Kiroro and Kokusai