Hokkaido and Tohoku exploring route.......
 

In Sept. we arrive at Sapporo for about 6 days - 2 days in town and then a rental car for 4 days to explore.
Then we'll ferry Tomokomai to Sendai perhaps, to see the sights of northern Honshu by car for a week.
Can anyone suggest sights to see around those two places as there's not so much available particularly for Tohoku. Not into theme parks and strenuous hiking - villages,scenery,food,temples etc. are more us.
Thank you.

In N Tohoku the drive from Sendai up into Tazawako and Kakunodate is very scenic and interesting. Lots of places to shop around Tazawako and you have the samurai houses in Kakunodate along with a very interesting village and of course the beautiful lake.

There is Hiraizumi nearby which would be worth a few hours:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5000.html

Or you can explore the farm areas and scenic mountains around Towadako. I drove and toured this area last year and did a trip report about it if you care to read.

From Sapporo you can easily tour around in Daisetsuzan National Park and the environs. I also drove through this area in the same report:
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...japan-2009.cfm

Aloha!

Aloha and thank you - good advice.
If you wanted to rent a car to see the more out of the way sights of Tohoku, where would be a good base to begin (..and end)??

I entered a reply earlier.....I guess it never took :(

Anyways what I suggested was Sendai as a starting base or even Morioka. From Sendai you can also go to Matsushima and see the pines there.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5100.html
Toocoo is a good place to look for a car rental
http://www2.tocoo.jp/?file=rentcar_inbound/main

Aloha!

thanks again..
We are finding that now Toyota Rental cars are competitive with Tocoo...and have English GPS too.
It's a matter of stringing together several must-see places like Dewa Sanzen, Matsushima etc. into a usable efficient route.
It's a fascinating area - really looking forward to our visit.

Tom