Travelling to Hokkaido, Yes? No?

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AkiraSabine has too many things on her mind at the moment, she has no time to update. Apart from her work up here in BKK, she's busy planning her AL vacation, doing research on accommodation, transportations, costs, getting around, things to do and others like visa for her vacation. Thus, she has been neglecting her blog for a while. She has been surfing and reading too many sites and deciding her plans, she has no time to think of new posts. Please bear with her for a short while.

Currently she's thinking of going to Hokkaido, partly homestay and another part couch surfing at some good samaritan's place. She's thinking if she could take the challenge to make things within 5k at most for the 2 weeks stay. Where would she go? She's planning to explore Sapporo for the city, Otaru forthe canal neighbourhood, Hokodate for the port city and Furano for the Lavender field. She would also go to the Asahiyama Zoo there to catch a sight of penguins, brown bears, brown polar bears and foxes. Maybe in the list would be Niseko during summer(though this place is known only for it's winter ski).Food to try would be the Sapporo signature noodle, Sapporo Asahi Beer, red crabs, lavender ice-cream and Shiroi Koibito(the Jap Choc).

On the cultural side, she'd be staying with a Japanese family living how a Japanese live and eating together starting with "Itadakimasu" and ends with "Gochisousamadeshita". She wishes to practise her Japanese skill in a total Jap environment. During the homestay, she would sleep in futon(sheets) and bathe in ofuro(Jap style bath tub). Then, she'll take the typical get aorund mode of transportation, Jap jitensha (bicycle)to town and take the JR rail to access other cities in the island. She's gonna experience the efficiency of the rail in Japan which provides access to national parks and scenic nature of Hokkaido.

So far the flight has been a turn off. Akira hasn't been familiar with flights to Japan. Is it always exceeding RM2000 for the cheapest ticket to the Chitose Airport in Sapporo from KLIA? The cheapest she refers to here is by the Cathay Pacific Airlines. Some sites even offers up to RM9k which she thinks is totally ridiculous. She's wondering if there's any below RM2k for a return ticket inclusive of the airport taxes? Wouldthe price drop should she book at the very last minute? She need's some advice from fellow readers. She's beginning to wonder if she should put visiting Japan aside for the moment till Air Asia begins flying there. As far as she knows, the budget airline is planning to make it happen this year in 2009 but how true it is, she wonders.