Cheapest route from Aomori to Hakodate?

[jake9115]

I checked out something called the Blue Dolphin ferry from this website http://www.tsugarukaikyo.co.jp/global/english/, but it seems damn expensive! A round trip ticket for a car and two passengers in the cheapest accommodations (shared area) runs $400 bucks. This relates to the roadtrip I mentioned over here http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=30112 which means I am trying to roadtrip across Japan on the cheap. It looks like a train ticket from Aomori to Sopporo is only $50, but then I'd have to rent a car in Hokkaido, which is about 1.5x more expensive than from Honshu.

Any suggestions??

[wagyl]

Car ferries cost. One alternative is the same company from Oma on the Shimokita Peninsula north of Aomori (information in Japanese http://www.tsugarukaikyo.co.jp/fare/fare_route3/ ) Fares depend on season but you are looking at about 12500 one way for a 660 cc microcar and 2500 for the passenger. It is a much longer drive to get there but Shimokita is an interesting place, with Osorezan temple with hot spring inside, and some excellent, well maintained parks to park your car in and sleep overnight and use the toilets (best toilet paper I have ever experienced, and this in a public toilet: all part of the largesse that comes from having the taxes from hosting a Plutonium processing plant. Oh they moan when they are evacuated but they live high on the hog until that day comes.) Caution, only two ferries a day.

The other alternative is Shin Nihonkai Ferry from Akita to Tomakomai Higashi. Once again, Japanese information http://www.snf.jp/fare/turuga_niigata.html Once again seasonal pricing, but same conditions one way roughly 13000 + 5000, but you get to have a bath or even a jacuzzi on a boat... Caution, only six ferries a week.

Also, it may pay to check whether any car you rent is allowed to be taken to Hokkaido. I could imagine that they have a restriction on that, which forces your hand anyway. There is also likely to be a substantial fee for using a car one way: for not taking it back to the exact shop you rented it from.

I have once for a work assignment taken a rental from Honshu to Hokkaido, but I don't know whether the contractor made special arrangements for that. It is anecdotal evidence but in speeder's paradise countryside Hokkaido I was singled out and given a ticket for going 18 Km over the limit in an out-of-Prefecture rental. The local numberplates overtaking me (because I was in their view "going slower that the flow of traffic" I suppose: the local minimum seemed to be 20 Km over the limit) did not get booked.

[jake9115]

Thanks for all the info, never realized that car rentals may be a problem when leaving honshu, good to know. I'll post back here with whatever I end up doing in case anyone else is interested how it goes.