Hokkaido – Noboribetsu to Onuma lake area – (Day 2)

Day 2 started off with a soak in the hot spring bath and a hearty Japanese style buffet breakfast.  And we are on our way…  WE followed the itinerary given to us and very soon, after travelling some mountain roads, we reached our next destination… Lake Kuttara. WE stop our car by a Cherry blossom tree and took a short break while enjoying the tranquil morning scenery around the lake. .

Before I ramble on and on… I simply must show you guys the faithful GPS that guided me the whole trip and our friendly mascot the Prime Travels bear!

With the help of the GPS, we quickly made our way to our next destination Cape Chikyu (地球) It is only about 40 mins drvice from Lake Kuttara.  The Day was perfect, not too sunny or too cloudy and we are able to take in the speldor of the cape.  Standing there overlooking at the ocean does give me a sense of I am at the top of the world kindda feeling.  And the wind…. oh so cold !

We had a freezing good time at the “top of the world”.  We replenish our supply of water and snacks and we made our way to the recommended place for lunch .. They call it Harvester Yakumo.   Pardon the Japanese webby.  I could not find an English one. The place is a good 40 km away and took us nearly 1 hour of fast driving before we reach our destination. (The recommended timing is 1.5 hours but that is based on speed limit of 40 to 50km/h … well … most of the time we were driving around 60 to 80km/h depending on whether there were any police man around or not :P) Personally I had some trouble finding the place as the GPS sort of go haywire nearer the destination. The car indicator on the GPS “flew” out of the map and I had to go by instinct and road signs … but thank god I made it .. The place is scenic but what is more important is that the place is actually a big restruant serving pizzas and chicken and parking is free!!  It was said that KFC’s Colonel Harland Sanders actually visited this place and taught them the secret recipe for their chicken … Well .. The chicken taste good and they had a few different flavors … better then KFC’s original and crispy chicken thighs!  Never got to try their pizzas though.  I simply do not have the stomach after hours of driving.

The next place is about 130 km away called the Oniushi park. It is a park full of Sakura (cherry blossom). Parking was free. But for guys driving there from Yakumo, do take note that there is a speed camera along the way. DO look out for it.  From what I heard, the speeding fines in Japan are no joke.

Although the Sakuras had bloomed 2 weeks earlier than expected this year, we were in luck as some of the trees are still in full bloom!

We spent quiet a bit of time in this beautiful garden and by the time we are ready to leave, it is too late to visit the next destination which is the Goryokaku Tower / Park so we decided to give it a miss or risk getting to the hotel after dark.  We are quiet paranoid about driving at night in Japan for some reason.  The famous thing about Goryokaku park is its star shape design and its cherry blossoms. Since we had already enjoyed the cherry trees at Oniushi Park .. we felt that it should not be too bad giving the park a miss. And so we made our way to the Hotel (Onuma Prince Hotel) 1 hours earlier than indicated.

Time to enjoy a good hot soak and a wonderful dinner (the dinner took me by surprise. It was French fine dining)  … what else is new rite? hee hee !

For more of my photos for this leg of the journey, you can follow this link here .