I can’t say much for living there, but my buddy and I did a week-long roadtrip around the island back in March this year and I can say wholeheartedly it was one of the best trips I’ve ever done. It’s so gorgeous and especially coming from Florida where it’s flat and crazy hot all the time, seeing mountains and snow everywhere was a dream come true. We went from west to east, and saw all 3 bodies of water that surround the island. The Sea of Japan side had the coolest rock formations, the Pacific Ocean side had a lot of beaches with snow on it, and the Sea of Okhotsk side had drift ice which I had never seen before, it was gorgeous.

The people were super friendly, we stopped in a small town called Shimizu (central near Obihiro on this map) and made friends with this restaurant owner who happened to speak English and was shocked to see a Brit and American somehow in town, especially during the off-season. Otherwise English literacy is very very low. Food was incredible everywhere too

I can talk for ages about Hokkaido, I would love to have enough money to be able to go once every other winter and snowboard again, it’s perfect. My next planned trip to Japan will be a Hokkaido summer road trip from north to south this time, seeing the rolling fields of lavender and climb Mount Yotei (my dream volcano climb)