The '''Eastern Circuit''' (____ ''D?t?'') covers the eastern half of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Regions
The Eastern Circuit is composed of the following four subprefectures:
Abashiri
Tokachi
Kushiro
Nemuro
Cities
Abashiri - fishing town famous for drift ice and infamous for its prison
Bihoro - gateway to the Akan National Park
Kitami - the onion capital of Japan
Kushiro - the largest city in the Circuit with 200,000 people
Obihiro - the main city in the Tokachi Plain, a large agricultural area
Nemuro - at the easternmost tip of Hokkaido
Other destinations
Akan National Park - known for the crystalline mountain lakes of '''Akan''', '''Kussharo''' and '''Mashu'''
Daisetsuzan National Park - Japan's largest national park named after its "Great Snowy Mountains"
Shiretoko National Park - the most inaccessible and least explored of Japan's national parks
Understand
The most sparsely populated region in all Japan, this vast area is nearly 40,000 sq.km. in size. While the easternmost part is largely flat, rural and filled with endless cow pastures, much of the circuit is ringed with mountains.
Get in
Kushiro and Memanbetsu (near Abashiri) have regional airports.
Get around
Here, if anywhere in Japan, a '''rental car''' will come in handy. Train coverage is severely lacking (many lines have been terminated due to a lack of customers) and buses are infrequent, inconvenient and expensive.
See
Do
Eat
Drink
Get out