Hokkaido: Japan's Wild North by Car and Onsen

Hokkaido is Japan with the volume turned down and the nature turned up: a fifth of the country's land and a twentieth of its people, where brown bears outnumber convenience stores and every town hides a hot spring.

A rental car is essential. From Sapporo, loop east through the Daisetsuzan mountains — Japan's first autumn colours in September, its deepest powder in winter — then north to Abashiri for the winter drift ice and the prison museum, then down the Shiretoko peninsula, a UNESCO wilderness where waterfalls pour straight into the Sea of Okhotsk.

The food alone justifies the flight: uni and king crab at the morning markets, soup curry in Sapporo, and dairy — soft-serve, cheese, butter — that will recalibrate what you expect from Japan. End every day in an onsen; the volcanic island has thousands, and the best are the free outdoor rotenburo by rivers and lakeshores.

Timing matters: February for the snow festival and drift ice, June for empty roads and flower fields, September for the earliest autumn in Japan. Avoid Golden Week; Hokkaido is one of the few places the whole country agrees to visit.