Hokkaido – Chitose to Noboribetsu (Day 1)

This post (and probably the next few) will be dedicated to my holiday trip. The northen tip of the land of the rising sun… Words would fail to describe the scenery (so I guess I would let my photos do most of the talking. We signed up with Prime Travels Pte Ltd for their Hokkaido Fly and Drive package.  The trip was from 7 May to 18 May.  Spring time, where the ice on the road just melted and the flowers started blooming. The air is sweet and crisp.  What is only lacking is the chirping of birds … come to think of it, I do not recall seeing any birds there .. except only for occasional seagulls as I drove along the coast line.  I guess birds are not that active yet …  We were warned that the bears are active though, however, .. fortunately or unfortunately me and my wife did not encounter any grizzly / yogi/ brown bear. The first day was spent on the planes.  The transfer took 2 to 3 hours and by the time we reached Chitose airport, it was already dark and there was nothing else to do except retire and sleep. Thankfully the hotel (New Chitose Hotel) is just next to the airport.  On the first night, we were issued with a cash card for the car (for paying toll charges, a system similar to our ERP) and a local hand set to call our tour guides for help / msg our tour mates as and when we stumble upon any nice eating place or place of scenic beauty.  And well the night was spent fiddling with the hand set… I tell you .. the Jap phone is so much better than the ones in Singapore … the screen is bigger and brighter and so much clearer.  Here is a shot of my wife charging and fiddling with the phone, the hotel room and the view outside the hotel window .. not too shabby eh?

Day 2: rise and shine … after a buffet breakfast provided by the hotel, we were given a short briefing on how to use the GPS on the car, reminded to keep within the speed limit and we are off.  It was rather hectic at first but all turned out well.  WE made our way to the factory outlet first … Well … we are true blue singaporeans what … shopping comes first .. ( actually no lar … the way we plan our trip, we would not come back to Chitose any more … so this is our only chance to visit this outlet)

Shopping….

Next we drove off to our first location on our initary.  Lake Shikotsu This is part of Shikotsu-Toya National Park. Scenic and big park (too bad the parking was not free) And we are in time to catch some flowers in bloom too !

Stop over for lunch at a rest station called the Mushroom Kingdom for a piping hot bowl of soba with Mushroom tempura and we rushed off to our next destination call the sangaidaki (or 3 level waterfall: exact translation).

After enjoying the waterfall and resting for a while, we headed to our next destination, a free public foot hotbath called the Shirakiku no toko falls.  It is outside a hotspring hotel/resort. Do not be fooled by the pics .. the water is really piping hot … can cook my leg ! You can see how red my leg is after the soak !

After cooking our legs .. it is time to head back to our hotel … the drive is some distance away and we need to take frequent rest stops and toilet breaks … and surprise surprise .. we saw unmelted snow (a bit dirty though) along the way … with the temperature around 20 degrees and the searing sun hitting on your face, you would have though the snow melted but no … snow there was … and this is not the only time we saw snow either !  By the time we reach the town of Noboribetsu, it was almost dark .. the temperature plummeted to around 10 plus degrees. Trust me .. when the wind blows .. it was really cold. The town was small and quiet .. a typical town that sprang up around hot spring resorts. Went for a full body soak at hotel Mahoroba ( another website) before dinner and went out to explore the town abit .. (sorry guys.. no pics of the hot baths!!)  The hotel is a hot spring resort and has various pools for you to totally cook your self.  There are pools where sulfur content is higher, acidic pool, therapeutic bubble bath, cold water, etc.  Have fun hopping form one pool to another .. but remember to wash off the pool water from each bath first to avoid contanimating the next bath pool.

All photos had been scaled down to save space… the rest of the photos can be views here.

Welcome back !~

Finally I am back blogging … it has been a cool 2 months … and lots had happen and I am either too lazy to pen / type down my tots or too busy / preoccupied with other things ..

First things first … my trip to Hokkaido … it was a very much needed break !! I tell you .. the view is simply magnificent, breath taking, wonderful … the air is so fresh and crisp with the sweet sent of spring.. For one the trip is very much memorable as me and my wife drove the entire trip, taking in the beautiful scenery of the country site and city landscape on 4 wheels.  I tell you .. the experience of going there on a coach and self drive is totally different … I will blog about it in time to come … very soon I hope …

Then after the trip …. my comp decide to give up on me … well .. .that was expected with it reaching 3 years old and after 2 plus weeks of total inactivity .. what to do … time to spend money … the most horrible thingy is that after I build up my system and installed it with WinXP and Ubuntu…. the colors on my printer goes bonkers.  As you guys might know .. I am a photo enthusiast … the discrepancy between the colors of photos on my camera compared to the screen and to my computer print out totally drove me nuts ..  For those who are grappling with a color managed work-flow / simply term digital dark room, you will under stand my headache and sleepless nights. (printer goes by magenta, yellow and cyan and screen is red green blue and to get them to sing the same tune is horrible for the uninitiated) Color spoofing simply refuse to work and I finally suspect that there is something wrong with my monitor and printer color profile.  I simply had to get the color right .. but that is easier said than done … I wasted lots and lots of ink and photo quality paper print photos under different settings.  Finally I decided to get a screen calibrator … set me back by a few hundred bucks .. but the money is well worth it ! I realise my current screen is too yellow and my print out cannot compensate the magenta and blue, etc.  After the calibration, I began to see details on my screen like the outline of clouds or different shades of blue… something which I had not noticed before. And now .. my photo print outs are more true in their color … so that is one happy ending.

Third, a phone call which I had been waiting for 2 to 3 months finally came .. that had me worried for a while. Anyway that phone call means good news and I am on my way to a new job and hopefully a more balanced life style with more time to do the things I enjoy.

And that is where I am now …. happily taking a break before I commence my new job and well .. having this pockets of free time to do my blog and settle my photos.

See my next post regarding my trip to Hokkaido .. 🙂