Take a ferry to Hokkaido! Transporting a Lamborghini on the Sunflower Furano from Oarai to Tomakomai

Transporting a Lamborghini to Hokkaido

I've been away from the blog for a while, sorry ^^

June 2025 will be a memorable day for me because it will be another very big new experience for me, and that new experience will be "transporting a Lamborghini by ferry to Hokkaido by myself."

What am I doing? (lol)

By the way, my family's Lamborghini Huracan EVO is a car that I absolutely love, but I find it too scary to drive around Tokyo, so my husband always drives it.

But this time.

In fact, this was the first time I had ever driven my Huracan EVO out of my parking lot at home by myself, so I headed straight from my home in Tokyo to Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture.

Wow, I was so nervous.

The Huracan itself was a really nice car and a lot of fun to drive.

...However, I was still nervous because I couldn't get used to it all at once...I hardly ever entered the passing lane even on the highway, and arrived at Oarai in such a serious driving style that I wondered if it was a practice car at a driving school (lol).

This is where we arrived.

Shazam.

This is the ferry terminal. Oarai Port Ferry Terminal.

For now, I feel relieved that I have been able to transport the Huracan safely this far.

But there were still more tense events waiting for us after this, and that was the goal of the day: to take the Huracan EVO on board the Sanfuraha Furano ferry (this is a model ^^↓) which goes from Oarai to Tomakomai in Hokkaido, and cross over to Hokkaido.

Can the Lamborghini Huracan EVO be carried on a ferry?

Once the boarding procedure begins, we wait until it is time to begin.

Of course, the reservations and payments for boarding had already been made in advance, so all that was required was to go through the procedures here...

The moment I presented my vehicle inspection certificate during this process, the clerk asked me, "Oh, is that a Lamborghini?"

I was told, "If the car has a low ground clearance, we will need to inspect it in person," so I tried to appeal to them by saying, "It has a lifter, so the ground clearance can be raised quite a bit!", but they just said, "We'll inspect the car in person (smile)."

I was really nervous and broke out in a cold sweat, my hands were sweating, and I was worried that they might say, "Oh, this car can't be loaded," but as I was waiting in the car, a very kind-looking young man appeared, looked at the car from the front and the side, and when I offered him the lifter, he said, "I'll give you one!" and...

"If it rises this much, it's fine! When you get on, please follow the instructions of the staff and go in slowly so as not to rub against anything."

Ahh, thank goodness!!

My whole body felt relaxed and I felt relieved.

After this, I contacted someone and said, "They said they would check the vehicle height and I thought it might not fit, but it turned out to be fine," and they replied, "I was worried after what happened with Amaneko!"

Hmm? Amaneko-san? What are you talking about?

...No, sorry, I had no idea, and this was the first time I heard about "the Amaneko case" so I did a search.

Then just a few days ago, a female YouTuber named Amanekko was reported to have tried to board a ferry from Kyushu in a Lamborghini (Huracan EVO Spyder), but was denied boarding because her car was too low.

Eeekk.

If I had known this before bringing my car onto the ferry, I would have been too scared and would not have brought the Huracan to Oarai.

I'm really glad I didn't know about it (lol)! And I'm really glad I was able to post it this time!!

So, I was able to board the ferry, and was given a piece of paper with a note saying, "Please come to lane 9 by 18:15."

At this point I was already terrified, thinking "What if I can't get on?", so even though it was still early, I quickly moved my car to avoid finding the wrong waiting area to board the boat.

Oh yes, when I checked in to board the ship, I also signed something that said something like, "I am responsible for anything that happens to the vehicle."

There are two lanes on the right side, and the lane I was guided to, lane 9, was quite close to the back.

For cars with low ground clearance, the boarding entrance (and boarding area (floor)) seems to be different, so they are directed to this last lane.

Now that I had safely parked my car at the boarding waiting area, I didn't feel like moving it, so I decided to spend the time walking around and exploring the area until 18:15, when I had to return to my car.

What do you think there is around there?

Hehehe, yes, right next to this Oarai Port Ferry Terminal isKanefuku Mentai Park Oarai"There is!

From the ferry terminal where we parked our car, we could already see Mentaiko-kun from Mentaiko Park.

This was my third time visiting Mentai Park in Oarai, but it was the first time I went there on foot (lol).

Looking around, I didn't see anyone walking into the facility.

I was looking forward to buying some large mentaiko rice balls to eat on the ferry at Mentai Park, but the park was about to close and all the rice balls were sold out. What a shame.

Since there was nothing we could do, we walked again to a nearby convenience store and bought dinner, snacks, breakfast, and some more drinks to eat on the ferry.

Of course, you can eat at the restaurant on the ferry, but I decided to eat in my room on the way there, so I brought my own food. I'll explain why later.

After buying some food at a convenience store, I went back to the ferry terminal. First, I went back to the car to put my luggage in, and there was a Porsche behind me.

I wonder if I can drive a Porsche around Hokkaido. Sounds fun!

Oarai Ferry Terminal Waiting Room

After putting our luggage in the car, there was still some time before boarding, so we just waited inside the ferry terminal.

As you move through the terminal from the boarding waiting area (or go up above where you went through the boarding procedures)…

There was a waiting area like this.

Everyone is spending their time before boarding however they like.

There was another room in the back, so I waited there.

There are various manga and other things in this place, so you can read them to kill time.

From my seat by the window, I can see the Sunflower Furano, the boat I'll be boarding next, and the cars waiting to board before it, so this spot is pretty nice.

Looking down from above, there were three Costco trucks among the large trucks.

Now, my designated time of 18:15 is approaching, so we head to the car.

There were a lot of people on motorbikes nearby. Amazing! There are so many people traveling around Hokkaido by motorbike.

Some people were probably moving for work or other business, but most of them seemed to be going on tours. Everyone seemed to be having a great time while waiting.

As far as I could notice, in addition to the white Porsche, there was also one air-cooled car and one Macan.

Including the 911 driver mentioned earlier, none of the vehicles had Hokkaido license plate numbers, so I enjoyed imagining that they were not "returning home" but were on a trip (touring).

It's so cool to take an air-cooled bike to Hokkaido to ride.

There is a large paper with the words "To Tomakomai departing at 19:45" written on it inside the train.

After that, an attendant will scan the barcode on the card, which also serves as your room key on the ferry.

And then just wait.

We couldn't leave the engine running while we waited, so I was worried that it would be hot and difficult, but maybe because we were at a port or the weather was still nice, we were able to wait in the car without feeling hot at all as we kept all the windows open and a cool breeze blew through.

I was told to return to the car at 18:15, and the ferry was leaving at 19:45.

On the right hand side, cars parked in lane 1 of the boarding waiting area are being guided one after another onto the boat.

But I'm not being called...

I waited for over an hour.

In the end, the air-cooled Porsches, 992 Porsches, and our Huracan EVO were guided to the left side and boarded from there, rather than the right side where everyone else boarded.

We boarded the ship at around 19:20, just before the 19:45 departure.

Well, I had heard that cars with low ground clearance have to park in a different place (floor) and will be the last ones to be able to board, so this was expected.

The restaurant on the ferry is a buffet, with opening at 18:45 and last orders at 20:15.

That's right, in my case, the restaurant started opening while I was still waiting to board, and even after I got on board the last order was at 8:15pm.

Therefore, I didn't think I would have to rush to the buffet by myself after boarding the ship, so I took my time buying food on the way there and ate in my room.

When boarding, raise the lifter and slowly enter diagonally to board without scraping the vehicle body.

I followed the directions to park my car and they quickly put the wheel chocks on me. I was impressed by their efficiency. When did they put them on?

By the way, Lamborghini says that it's not a good idea to leave the lifter up while the car is parked, but if I lowered the lifter it would hit the wheel chock, so I kept it up during the entire ferry ride.

At this time, make sure you remember which floor you parked your car on, otherwise you will have trouble when you disembark.

After parking the car, take the elevator to your room.

We arrived at the floor where the guest rooms were located.

Wow. Isn't it quite luxurious? It's a magnificent seven-story ferry.

There are many different types of rooms available, so it's a good idea to consider in advance which type of room you want.

The ferry ride from Oarai to Tomakomai takes about 17 hours. It's quite a long journey.

Superior Room Japanese Style Double Room

Since I was traveling alone this time, I didn't need a particularly nice room, so I chose the "superior room."

※On the return flight, we booked a suite room, which was the only one on the Sunflower and was highly sought after at the time of booking, so I'll tell you about that later.

Even if it wasn't a suite room, there was a lot of scrambling to reserve the better rooms, and the private rooms filled up quickly, so although I had really wanted a Western-style room, the only one I could get this time was a Japanese-style room...

Still, I'm a little excited because I'll be using the Japanese-style room, which is normally a double room, by myself.

This is where the rooms on the 6th floor are lined up, including the superior room where I will be staying.

When I entered the room…

My first impression was... well, sorry, my first impression was, "It's cramped!" (laughs).

It's really narrow!!

I later found out that this room is a double room, but it's about 4.5 tatami mats in size. I was the only one staying this time, so it was fine, but I think it would be quite small for two people.

But that's also a fun ferry trip ^^ (I can only recommend it to those who can enjoy it. *Suite rooms are different)

There was also a toilet in the room.

If you look closely, you'll also see a shower next to the toilet.

However, the shower was so small (and if you took a shower, the entire toilet floor would get wet too?!) that I don't think I'd ever take a shower in my room unless it was absolutely necessary.

The Sunflower has a large public bath on board, so if you can go there, it might be a good idea to relax in the bath.

The room had a window, so I could see outside by opening the shoji screen.

We finally depart from Oarai Port.

As for the shaking...when I was standing or walking down the hallway, I could feel the swaying, like "whoa," but it wasn't so strong that it made me feel seasick (the weather was good that day, too).

Also, when I was lying down to sleep, there was this constant feeling of small vibrations, like when there's an earthquake of magnitude 2 and you go "Huh? That's shaking?!", right? It felt like that vibration was continuing on and on.

The amenities in the Superior Room (Japanese-style room) are as follows:

Shampoo and other amenities are provided in mini bottles, but women can borrow several brands of shampoo at the large public bath, so it might be better to use those.

There is also one bath towel in the room, but the problem is that towels are not provided in the large public bath, so you have to bring a towel from your room to go to the large public bath.

So, it would be fine if you just took the white towels and bath towels that came with the amenities, but if you do that, there won't be any towels left in the room, so you might not have enough towels to use when washing your hands, etc.

This time I was staying alone in a double room, so there were two towels so it was fine, but if you are staying in a single room, it may be safer to bring one or two towels with you.

Since it was a Japanese-style room, the only drinks available were sencha and ume-kobucha.

Inside the Sanfurah Furano

Now, let's take a little walk around the ship.

The restaurant can be seen on the left.

Since you have to purchase a meal ticket, everyone lines up.

This is what the inside of the restaurant looks like. There is free seating.

It seems that they serve alcohol and have a take-out menu, so even if you didn't eat there, everyone seemed to buy something and eat it in their room or at a seat in the lobby.

There are also vending machines selling snacks.

There are also plenty of vending machines where you can buy alcohol.

However, sales of these alcoholic drinks are suspended between 11pm and 5am, so if you want to buy alcohol, you will need to purchase it outside of these hours.

Speaking of vending machines, this was interesting.

For some reason, the Sunflower train has a strong obsession with milk vending machines, and there are signs in various places saying "Milk vending machine here."

Why (lol)?!

Anyway, what's great about it is that they direct you to the milk vending machine rather than the alcohol (lol).

Once you arrive, you will find the milk vending machine.

Maybe they're directing me to buy products that are close to their expiration date? I wonder (lol).

There was also a shop on board.

In addition to original Sunflower merchandise, there will also be a wide selection of Hokkaido wine, ramen, and other local sweets and foods that will soon be arriving.

If you forget to buy souvenirs on the return flight, you can purchase them here.

The shop sold cup ramen and other items, and the ship was also equipped with microwaves and hot water heaters, so everyone was able to make and eat their own cup ramen as they pleased.

There is also a kids' room.

It seemed like there weren't many children on board, so I think the kids' room would be quite spacious and usable, except on days when a large group of very young children happen to be on board.

Here, the captain's uniforms were displayed in large, medium and small sizes, and you could take commemorative photos in whichever size you like.

There are also a few magazines that you can read as you like on board.

There were a lot of One Piece manga, but volumes 1 and 100 were all jumbled up together, so reading them in order may have been quite a challenge.

There were also a few massage chairs available, each costing 200 yen for 12 minutes.

Smoking area.

There is also a game corner.

It was a small room, but I think there were people checking out the UFO catchers and such.

There was also a laundry room.

As this ferry was the start of my journey I didn't have anything to wash yet, but this may be convenient for those who use this ferry partway through their journey.

Since the stay on the ferry is long, there is plenty of time to wash and dry clothes.

This is the entrance to the large bath

Considering it was on a ferry, it was a great bath.

In particular, there are far fewer female customers, so the women's large bath tends to be empty.

The water in the bathtub wasn't moving much either.

Maybe men have to wash their bodies in a cramped bath depending on the time of day? I'm not sure... but there are overwhelmingly more male customers, including truck drivers, so the men's bath is probably more crowded.

You can also go out onto the outside deck.

As soon as you go outside, you will see a dog run for pets.

Dogs can ride too. And it even has a dog run.

Shortly after we departed, we went outside and it was already pitch black.

In the distance you can vaguely see the town of Oarai, from which we had just departed.

I thought that if I went further away from land at midnight, the sky would be covered with stars, so I decided to come back and see it again at midnight.

But.

Even at this time, there was no one on the deck, so I looked out at the sea.

The thought of someone suddenly picking me up from behind and tossing me into the ocean, where I would quietly disappear into the sea without anyone noticing... scared me so much that I immediately left the place.

After that, I never wanted to go out on deck alone in the middle of the night again (laughs).

The ocean at night is really scary.

As I watch, I begin to feel uneasy and suspicious, and I feel like I'm being sucked into the darkness.

I pull myself together and head into the bright ship.

Oh yes, there were etiquette bags like this placed here and there in the corridors and other places on the ship.

I think that on days with good weather, the ferry ride won't be too rocky and most people will be fine, but in bad weather, if the boat rocks, a long ferry trip could be difficult.

I also brought motion sickness medication with me just in case (I took some at first, but after some time the medicine wore off I seemed fine so I only ended up taking it once).

There are also ship stamps etc.

Now that I've had a good time walking around the ship and finished my bath, I'd like to go back to my room and relax.

The first thing I did when I got back to my room was to make the futon.

In the Japanese-style room, it seemed like we had to prepare our own futon, so we set it up using the mattress and sheets that were provided.

At first we just laid out one mattress for one person but it was too small, so we laid one for two and the whole room was like a pile of futons, with everyone sleeping in a pile (lol).

By the way, this mattress was made by France Bed and has the Sanfuraha logo on it.

I was traveling alone on the ferry to get there, and I had originally brought some cheap wine with me because I thought I would be too tired to drink much anyway. However, when I arrived in Oarai, I started to get worried that one bottle wouldn't be enough with 17 hours to spare, so I bought another bottle at a convenience store (laughs).

A suspicious woman appears, bringing in two bottles of wine and starting a drinking party alone on her futon.

Wow, this is just the best.

...I thought, but damn it.

Since this room was a Japanese-style room, there wasn't even a cup (there was a toothbrush cup, but that was a bit too much...), and the only thing that could be used to drink the wine was a teacup.

I was on the ferry for a few hours, drinking wine in a teacup, anything goes. I'm glad I chose the cheap wine after all (lol).

Signal condition from inside the ferry

By the way, when I say lazing around in my room, what do I do? Well, there are things you could do, like bring in a book or a downloaded (recorded) video, but the first things that come to mind are "connecting to the Internet and doing something" and "watching TV."

Please note that the internet and television (or telephone) signals may not reach some locations.

When you are close to land, you can catch a signal quite well, but even so, you may not be able to catch a signal at all on the way back compared to the way there, and the signal conditions may also vary depending on whether your cabin is on the land side or the sea side.

Especially as we got closer to Hokkaido and found ourselves surrounded by ocean, we couldn't get anything in there at all.

The next day, when I turned on the TV, the 3-minute cooking had just begun, but it stopped halfway through with the message "reception is weak"...all in all, the 3-minute cooking actually turned into about 1.5 minutes of cooking.

Of course, I had no idea how to make it (laughs).

Furthermore, if the signal was poor for a long period of time, it would switch to a station search.

Still, surprisingly, the TV was working better than the Internet.

In addition to that, there was internet available on board, and when connected to this service you could watch over 1,000 programs (movies, etc.), but for some reason this didn't work at all on the ship we were on.

I was able to use it on the way back, so I'll talk more about this SSQ when I talk about the return flight.

Suddenly it started to get bright outside the window, so I opened it and saw quite a bit of fog.

Even though it's still so bright, it's only just after 4am.

After that, the fog cleared and the scenery became more pleasant.

Land began to come into view.

I go out for a morning walk.

I went out onto the deck when it was brighter, but the wind was strong so I quickly retreated (lol).

Finally, the 17 hours passed in the blink of an eye, and before we knew it, the ship had already arrived in Tomakomai.

It's amazing!

While we were relaxing on the boat and drinking, we arrived in Tomakomai, Hokkaido.

And this time with a Lamborghini.

This time, I was truly surprised that I was able to drive the Huracan EVO, which I had never driven by myself before, from my home in Tokyo to Oarai Port, and then load it onto a ferry and take it all the way to Hokkaido.

I never thought that at my age I would have such an exciting experience (laughs).

However, I believe this was possible thanks to my previous experience of participating in a nationwide stamp rally for BMW.

I once took second and first place in the BMW Stamp Rally over a two-year period, and even during that time I was travelling alone by ferry from Oma to Hokkaido, or from Hakodate to Aomori to get the stamps.

Because of that, even though I was even more excited this time because the car was a Lamborghini, I think I still felt like, "Well, I guess I'll give it a try."

Although the BMW Stamp Rally hasn't been held in recent years, it was truly a fantastic event that gave me many wonderful experiences and created many great memories.

Who would have thought that this would lead to my solo ferry trip to Hokkaido again?

As the ship approaches docking at Tomakomai Port, an announcement is made on board informing passengers to disembark, and just before and after this, music that suddenly starts playing is something that sounds like the theme song of the Sunflower.

On the way there, the Sanfuraha song sung by a woman and the Sanfuraha song sung by the Hamburger Boys were played.

This scene is played over and over again, so even after you get off the boat, it keeps replaying in your head until the next day (laughs).

Even now, if I'm asked to sing it, I can still hum along to "Sanfura~wa~" ^^

While listening to the Sunflower theme song, we were told to disembark at any time via the elevator or stairs at the front of the ship, so we got off early as we were directed to the 3rd floor parking lot, where low-slung cars were directed.

*For those parked on other floors, elevator use times will be designated in order starting from the 7th floor, so please follow those times.

Once you arrive on the 3rd floor, load your luggage into your car and wait inside.

I didn't want to start the engine too early because it would be noisy, so I waited until the car two cars ahead of me had moved.

As soon as the two cars in front of me started moving, I started the engine and continued on.

What surprised me when I got off the ferry was that there were people there with cameras.

There were some supercar kids who looked like they might be found in Daikoku or Gaien, waiting with their cameras for the cars to disembark from the ferry. I was surprised.

After that, I headed to a place called Eniwa, where I was planning to stay overnight.

I find myself driving a Lambo in Hokkaido. It's strange.

Incidentally, I remembered that my eldest son had said that the battle figures sold at Seria were sold out and I couldn't buy them (I didn't know this either, but apparently they're incredibly popular and sold out everywhere), so I thought maybe they could find them in Hokkaido, so we stopped by a big Seria near the hotel where we were checking in (lol).

The sign here says Uniqlo, but there is a Seria in the same mall.

The suspicious behavior of going to Seria in a Huracan in Hokkaido.

Unfortunately, the battle figures were sold out here too. Too bad.

After that, we checked into a hotel in Eniwa City and spent the day relaxing.

At a roadside station near the hotel in Eniwa, I was impressed to see a large number of flowers that appeared to be my favorite, Allium gigantium (purple flowers that look like onion bulbs).

The reason I came to Hokkaido begins the day after this.

Looking at the cute Allium giganteums that seemed to welcome us to Hokkaido, we felt relieved that we had managed to bring the Lamborghini this far, and we looked forward to the exciting things that were to come the next day.

The rest will be continued later.

First, I'd like to talk about my ferry experience from Oarai to Tomakomai ^^!

Continue →Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2025 Record 1 (Day 1-1)

Return ferry experience →Tomakomai → Oarai "Sunflower Sapporo" Suite Room Experience: With a Lamborghini

Related article:
◆Ranked 2nd in the BMW Stamp Rally 2021: Part 1
◆BMW Stamp Rally 2022 Spring, National Complete

Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2025 (Hokkaido) Record
Bonus:Take a ferry to Hokkaido! Transporting a Lamborghini on the Sunflower Furano from Oarai to Tomakomai

①Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2025 Record 1 (Day 1-1)
②Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2025 Record 2 (Day 1-2)
③Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2025 Record 3 (Day 2-1)
④Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2025 Record 4 (Day 2-2)
⑤Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2025 Record 5 (Day 3)

Bonus:Tomakomai → Oarai "Sunflower Sapporo" Suite Room Experience: With a Lamborghini

And more bonus points:How to Disable the Alarm System in a Porsche 911 or Lamborghini

Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2024 (Okinawa) Record
①Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2024 Record 1 (Day 1-1)
②Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2024 Record 2 (Day 1-2)
③Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2024 Record 3 (Day 2-1)
④Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2024 Record 4 (Day 2-2)
⑤Lamborghini GIRO Japan 2024 Record 5 (Day 3)