Winter Gear
Tomakomai (compared to other parts of Hokkaido) has fairly mild winters. But not gonna lie, I come from a very hot place so the winters were brutal for me.
You can expect the first snow around November/December, and it pretty much sticks around until March/April. Even as I type this in April,
the weather is still cold to where you need a big jacket, I even saw snow on the side of the road over the weekend while driving up to Sapporo! Honestly the longest winters of my life!
My biggest advice is to invest in some nice snow boots, and a nice warm snow jacket! Unfortunately, I tried to go the cheap-o route and didn't invest
in nice winter gear till late in the game, I wish I did sooner. Don't be like me! You can pretty much find nice winter boots at the big stores like AEON. I am a woman with big feet and this is anti-texas, so I
suggest Amazon as another alternative if you can't find your size.
Another item I found necessary were shoe spikes! These can be found at any shoe store here, but basically it's an attachment you can put on a normal shoe to keep you from slipping on ice.
The thing with Tomakomai is that although we get less snow, it melts during the day and then refreezes over-night. So these spikes really do help keep you from slipping (though despite all my preperation, I still had some pretty epic slips here).
For winter clothing, I highly recommend Uniqlo heattech and any of their puffer jackets! These definitely get the job done to keep the cold bearable.
Keeping Warm Inside
Keeping on brand with the "Japan is very old school" theme, this also goes for their indoor temperature regulation methods. If you're used to A/C, I am sorry,
The apartment does not have that. So in summer you just have to use a fan. For winter, there is a big kerosene stove which is used to heat the place.
You have two options on how to get kerosene ("灯油”, touyu).
One is to go to a gas station and fill the blue gas containers manually. This was kind of troublesome and the blue containers didn't hold so much (18L each).
I would say the better option is to order kerosene online from Minami Sekiyu. This was by far way more convenient! There are two 90L tanks in the apartment,
so just fill out the order form accordingly! If you order early enough in the day, you could get them to come the same day! The price to fill both tanks varried but typically I would spend close to 2万, and this would last me about two months. This can depend on whether you'll wanna blast the heat on the daily!
The apartment also has a Kotatsu (heated table with blanket), this was a godsend on the really bitterly cold nights!
I am also leaving 2 electric heaters, these do a good job at warming up a small area but not the whole apartment!
Driving in Winter
If you decide to get a car, and are not used to driving in winter... It is a different ball game! I come from California, a place where we forget how to drive even if it rains, so it was scary for me my first winter here!
But if I can get used to it, you can too! Living in the north means you will need to have two sets of tires. One for Winter, and one for Summer. You will have to take the car to a car shop to have the staff exchange them!
It is pretty cheap though and can run you about 3000円 (less than $30)! I would typically get mine exchanged at Bridgestone. But there are many car places that can do the service for you!
You can ask Rob (Father of Tomakomai ALTs) to help you out your first time if you're not sure!
Another important thing is having wiper fluid! The wiper fluid here has a very low freezing point, so I would make sure I had an extra bottle in my car just in case to help me melt the ice.
Also important to keep an ice scraper for your windows! I will leave one for you at the apartment if you decide to go the car route.