Not sure if we were being frugal, adventurous or just plain crazy. But somehow we decided that instead of flying, the best way to get from Hakodate to Kii Tanabe would be to:

1. Take a ferry from Hakodate to Aomori (3.5 hours)
2. Play tourist in Aomori (5 hours)
3. Take the overnight bus from Aomori to Tokyo (9.5 hours)
4. Take the Hikari shinkansen (second-fastest train) from Tokyo to Osaka  (3 hours)
5. Take the limited express (faster than normal, but not as fast as the shinkansen) train from Osaka to Kii Tanabe (2.5 hours)

Now all that effort saved us over ¥20,000 and we got to see a lot more of the landscape, which made it worth it, right?

Yes, I agree: plain crazy.