Back in December 2024 our family flew to Hokkaido for one reason: none of us had ever seen snow. I was 40-something and had never stood in a real snowfall. Tokyo in December never gets more than a light dusting, and Brisbane, where we live now, obviously has none at all. We finally went, and this post is the honest version of how it went, plus the Cantonese podcast video (with English subtitles) where I tell the whole story in about three and a half minutes.
Short version: Hokkaido is the right place for a first snow trip. Just don't plan on driving.
Why Hokkaido for a first snow trip?
Because Tokyo doesn't count. Even when it snows in Tokyo, it never settles into anything serious. Hokkaido is a different climate altogether. On our coldest morning there it was about minus 14°C, and snow was lying everywhere, ankle to knee deep.
There was a practical reason too. Cathay Pacific had a deal that let us route through Hong Kong with a stopover, so we could fly Brisbane to Hokkaido and visit family in Hong Kong on the way. That turned one trip into two, which is why the deal mattered more to us than the fare itself.
What does walking on snow actually feel like?
Colder than you expect, and colder than it looks. The dry powder underfoot squeaks, and the cold creeps up your legs within minutes. I'll be honest: after one trip I rate snow walking as an experience worth having once. Standing in falling snow is genuinely special. Walking through it for days is work.
Is Asahikawa Zoo worth visiting in winter?
Yes, and winter is arguably the best time. We took a day tour from Sapporo to Asahiyama Zoo, where the animals are out in the snow: deer resting in drifts, monkeys with snow on their backs, and the penguin walks the zoo is famous for. The enclosures wear the snow instead of fighting it, and the photos come out better than anything we shoot in Brisbane.
The day tour also solved the transport problem, which brings me to the part everyone warned us about.
Should you drive in Hokkaido snow? We didn't dare
Friends who've driven in Canada say winter driving there is manageable. From Australia, the maths looked different: our first time ever seeing snow, plus our first time on ice, plus snow tyres, plus roads that close when it snows hard. One morning the fog came down so low that visibility was worse than a Brisbane thunderstorm at its worst, the whiteout kind where the road and the sky are the same colour. We were glad to be passengers that day.
If it's your first snow trip, day tours and trains cover Sapporo, Asahikawa and the zoo comfortably. Leave the driving until you've seen a Hokkaido winter from inside a warm bus first.
What does Sapporo look like in winter?
The city centre is an easy walk: snow along the tram tracks, taxis with chains on bitumen, and the famous Sapporo Clock Tower standing in the middle of it. The tower dates from 1878 and looks a little western and a little not, which makes sense once you know it's from the Meiji era, when Japan was pulling western styles apart and rebuilding them its own way. Hakodate has the same batch of old western-style buildings further south; that one is still on our list.
What would we do differently?
Pack proper snow boots and wear layers you can shed indoors; the heating inside buildings is fierce. Go in December or January for the deepest snow, and book the zoo day tour before you arrive, because winter slots fill. And give one whole day to doing nothing: playing in snow with kids is a better memory than any landmark, as we learned on that first trip.
The podcast version
I recorded the whole story as a Cantonese voice-note podcast with English subtitles, and the video above is that podcast One cost warning from the recording: Hokkaido got expensive after COVID, and it has kept climbing. Go before the deals disappear.
This continues the story from my first post about seeing snow on our Japan trips, and sits with my other Japan travel notes, like what we ate in Tokyo for 12 days. If you want the contrast side by side, I wrote earlier about nature in Australia versus Japan.
Sources and date checked: trip details, temperatures and prices are from our own December 2024 trip (photos first shared 2025). The Sapporo Clock Tower's 1878 date is from the Sapporo City tourism materials, checked November 2026. Article and podcast are AI-assisted: the podcast is my own Cantonese voice note, transcribed and captioned with AI.
