September 6, 2025
Day 4 — Sapporo to Wakkanai
Today’s agenda was the train/bus to Wakkanai, which was departing Sapporo at 7:30 am. We were up nice and early again, residual jet lag harnessed for productive purposes. We made the very difficult decision to forego the hotel buffet, which opened at 6:30. The ride to the station would be short, but we still had to faff around and get our bikes into Rinko bags, so we gave ouselves plenty of time. This turned out to be the correct decision.
The ride to the station was short and quiet, though the streets were still alive with young folks at the tail end of last night’s bender. I think we actually spent more time pointlessly waiting for traffic lights than in motion.
Once at the station, we presented ourselves with our bikes at the ticket office, where we confirmed we had the required rinko bags we were ushered to a quiet area to once again, work on the bikes.
Well the Rinko bags were an exasperating disaster. There was absolutely no way to make the whole bikes, even partially disassembled, fit in the bags we had. At one point I looked over to see the ticket staff having a good laugh at us. I asked the main ticket guy if what we had was OK — we had heard horror stories of station masters insisting on perfection, and our setup was far from it. He asked through Google Translate if they came apart further, I said no, and he shrugged and said that was fine. Ok then.
We then lugged our two big duffel bags and two janky bike bags in stages to the elevator for Platform 6, then in stages up and off the elevator where we waited for our train, with good time to spare.
Sometime around 7:15 we started to have doubts that we were in the right spot. The train that was there was headed south, and did not seem to be loading in a hurry. I found the signboard — no evidence of a train to Wakkanai. I ran back to Marilee and told her to start dragging stuff to the elevator while I sorted out what platform we were supposed to be on. I couldn’t see it on any of the signboards, so I ran back to the gates and collared the ticket guy. Platform 7, not 6.
I then ran back to Platform 6, let Marilee know the situation, and she picked one of the bikes and hustled down the stairs. I followed with the second, and we plunked them on the platform and I then sprinted back to Platform 6, got both duffels in the elevator, then ran to the escalator for Platform 7, where I could hear the announcement that the train to Wakkanai was about to leave as I barged my way up. We hucked everything into the train, and literally as the bikes were were put on, the door closed and the train started moving. Gah.
The rest of the train ride was anticlimactic, and we spent it simply recovering from the panic. As Marilee reported in the previous post, due to a washout the train to Wakkanai would stop at Horonobe, and passengers transferred to buses. Not welcome news for us given the extent and complexity of our baggage situation, and sure enough getting our stuff from the train to the buses, then into the baggage hold was an enormous PITA.
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Once at Wakkanai, we once again found a spot to work on the bikes, though at a more leisurely pace. It was 1:30 in the afternoon, and the campground was only few km away. We spent a good amount of time recuperating in the train station waiting area, which had a fancy grocery/souvenir shop, a lunch counter, a ramen restaurant and a Seico mart. Some iced coffees and Onagiri, and we were good to go.
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The short ride through town was pleasant, but soon we had to veer off uphill to the campground, which involved a hilariously steep but mercifully brief climb.
This was our introduction to Japanese campgrounds, and we found it pleasant, clean and well appointed, with taps and sinks, well maintained garbages and bathrooms with running water. More than what’s provided at many BC Parks campgrounds for $20. We also noted that everyone was quiet and calm — if there was free camping on the edge of a decent sized town back home it would be party central. We set up, and tucked into our conbini assortment of rice rolls, relieved to be done the travel part of the trip, and looking forward to decompressing and getting into the rhythm of riding again.
Today's ride: 11 km (7 miles)
Total: 63 km (39 miles)
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