"Hibijibi" <km34@columbia.edu> wrote in message news:<c3mud6$29o6p2$1@ID-149122.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> "Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson" wrote...
> > Second, what are driving times like? She found a web page that seemed
> > to use 50 kph as the basic speed for all the time calculations. Are
> > the roads really that bad/windy/full of traffic lights, or was this
> > based on everything being under a metre of snow? We're planning on
> > going to Hakodate, Niseko, Otaru, and, umm, some mountain place that I
> > can't remember but the middle kanji is RYOU/yoi.
> 
> You're going to Furano (富良野) I believe.  

That's the filly!

> We drove there from Sapporo in
> about 2 hours in some sort of gerbil-propelled Suzuki rental "car".  Even so
> I was able to maintain a speed of 120kph for most of the drive.

Good - we're doing some fly-drive tour, and since there's four of us,
we get a free upgrade to HC grade - one rank over a Corrola - so
hopefully there's souped-up gerbils under the hood. We bought another
book at the weekend - FURURU Hokkaido - and I'll check what that says
about driving times. The page I mentioned before said Niseko to Furano
was five and a half hours...

> Getting
> there was a lot like driving through Indiana, frankly (a great pleasure
> after driving around Tokyoland).

Two weekends ago it took me 1.5 hours each way from Takarazuka to Kobe
Harbourland - about 40 km, or 45 minutes on the train...

> best

Ta for the info everyone. Like most facts one hears from Japanese
people, I needed to double-check the accuracy.

> hibijibi

Ken