Hokkaido

Well... this entry is probably long overdue but I've been pretty busy with other things recently. When I got back to Japan (yes--a month ago, but who's counting?) I went on a trip to Hokkaido which was really excellent.

It was a five day trip which started in Hakodate and finished in Sapporo. The first day we flew from Tokyo to Hakodate where we rented a car and stayed in a beautiful onsen resort spa on the beach. The only real problem that evening was that a Typhoon was rolling through so it was quite stormy outside - although that made the ocean pretty nice.

The first thing we did (of course) was drive around Hakodate looking for a little place called Penguin's Valley... it was a dot in the middle of this mountain/beach area on the map and it was extremely difficult to find (and not very satisfying after all, there were no penguin's and the restaurant was closed). So we headed back to the hotel to eat and then went out to take the rope-way up to the top of Hakodateyama.

Unfortunately, due to the typhoon, the rope-way was closed, so we ended up having a taxi driver take us up the tiny, little mountain road to the summit. When we got there, tho, it was most excellent! The view would change from clear to zero visibility in seconds and the wind was unbelievable as rainclouds zoomed past us. It was actually quite cold and wet but great fun nonetheless.

The next day we had to drive from Hakodate (which is on the south part of Hokkaido) to Asahikawa, basically up in the north-middle of the island. It was a horrible, seven-hour drive over tiny little mountain roads (even though we took the highway!!) with extreme wind. I was convinced that the car was going to be picked up and flung from the side of the mountain at any second. It didn't help that I was driving on the wrong side of the road either :)

We finally reached Asahikawa and stayed at another nice little onsen resort - although this one wasn't quite as nice (rooms) as the one in Hakodate, the buffet dinner and breakfast were much better. The next morning we set out again to see some giant waterfall in a nearby park and ended up climbing a 420 meter mountain. It's really deceiving as it starts out with nice stairs and everything going up (looks like you're going up to a temple or something) but then suddenly the stairs are gone and you're hiking up a muddy, tiny little path winding up the side of the mountain. After getting to the top, though, the view was definitely worth it!

When we were finished at the park we drove to Asahiyama and visited the zoo there which was really quite cool. I forgot my camera in the car so I was really bummed. The zoo is pretty famous and is designed with all kinds of up-close-and-personal thing, including a plastic bubble that lets you go into the polar bear's cage (we didn't actually do that because the line was stupid long and the bears were sleeping anyway). The Penguin Pit was the coolest, tho! Those birds had absolutely no fear of anyone and would walk right up to you and strut around (well, strut as best you can when the best you can manage on land is a slow, lopsided wobble I suppose).

Once we had finished with the zoo, we drove into Sapporo and the last two days there. Sapporo was a lot of fun, but it's mostly just a city. Some points of interest that we checked out were the Sapporo Beer Factory and the Milk Factory (although the Milk factory was closed when we got there, but don't worry, they gave us free milk and ice cream).

The last thing we did was a day trip to Otaru, which was known as the Genkan of Hokkaido and still has a very active import/export economy and fish market. We ended up having the "famous" kaitenzushi there which was quite delicious, actually. We also hiked around the historical area of the village and looked at all the old warehouses and building. The most exciting of which (I thought) was the Bank of Japan building and museum - which has free entry, by the way, making it even more exciting.

Although I didn't take many photos, here are some from the trip:

Hokkaido