Hokkaido – Abashiri to Akan – (Day 8)

Breakfast as not too bad …. but not as sumptuous as dinner. Think Japanese like to start their day simple.

Anyway after a hot spring bath and breakfast, we took a quick walk around the area taking photos of the hotel and the lake.  Time is of the essence today as we plan to cover a very big loop, to travel along the coast all the way up to Shiretoko (near the North eastern tip) and then back down to Akan. Distance to be covered is going to be in terms of hundreds of km… so it is best to set off early. And did I mention? Today will we be on a nature trail. But first, lest do the wonderful hotel Abashirikoso some justice .. here is a photo of the hotel in brought day light .. as you can see .. it sits by the Abshiri lake (here is a pic of the lake totally covered with snow) … a perfect resort for people who want to rest and relax by the lake with no worries .. (at least for that few days).

After refueling the car back to full tank, we head back north and drove along the coast way.  We basically took to the highway 244 and 334. After what seems like eternity, we arrived at our first destination.  Oshinkoshin Falls.(another site)

If you think the waterfalls I had seen for the past few days are magnificent, wait till you see this one …. You would be speechless.This is rated one of Japan’s top 100 water falls.  This water fall is just by the coast and the water cascades down a rocky surface approximately 4 to 5 stories high. The water branches into 2 distinct falls half way down and is also called “forked beautiful fall”.  The interesting thing about this beautiful is that there is no plunge pool and you can get really close to the waters if you do not mind getting a little wet. After traveling down the rocky surface, the water cascades elegantly into the big ocean. My pics actually do not do the falls justice. Some one posted a You Tube video of this fall and you can access it here.

After leaving the beautiful fall behind, we made our way to Shiretoko, (another wiki site) which is at the north eastern part of Hokkaido.  It is a land of natural beauty unspoiled by commercialisation and carefully preserved natural habitat for many animals, like the brown bear, the red tail fox, the sika deer and many others. The area has been identified as one of the world heritage site by UNESCO.  As you can see from my pictures, the efforts that are taken to preserve this ecosystem.  The roads leading in to the national park will only be opened from 9am to 430pm, so that the animals within the national park will not be disturbed. In order for us not to be trapped within the nature reserve, we have to move fast.

Our first stop in Shiretoko is naturally its 5 lakes. This website will show you the flora and fauna that can be found within the 5 lakes. For people visiting this place, you can either drive here yourself or take a public bus.  For drivers, you have to pay for your parking and enterance fee.

We viewed the area from afar on top of a viewing gallary built like a broad walk that stretches into the marshes. There we could only see the first lake and the surround area. Not feeling satisfied, we decided to take a nature hike to view the various lakes up close. The hike is about 3 to 4 km long by foot and would generally take 2 hours to complete. The walk was totally worth it. The scenery at each lake is very different but equally mesmerizing. It is here that I get the feeling spring had arrived.  We bumbed into one or two wild deers during our track… but luckily no brown bears.. piew. Oh yea .. if you plan to come to this place in spring, you might want to wait till late May as some parts of the nature reserved is closed as the ice on the walking trail had not melted.

As the journey is long, we decide to forgo taking solid food for lunch, surviving on packed biscuits and water.  Anyway .. the winding mountain road takes my appetite away and even induces me to vomit a few time.  Luckily along the way, the various wildlife that we saw, took away my compulsion to puke my guts out. We saw numerous deers along the way and were lucky enough to spot 2 foxes. The other fox had a prey in its mouth and was moving swiftly into cover when we spotted it. It was too late to take out my camera to take the shot.

After visiting the 5 lakes, we back tracked a bit into the mountain pass, called the Shiretoko Pass.  This pass is at 750m above sea level and connects the eastern shore and the western bay of the Shiretoko peninsula. What can I say, it is another breath taking view up here.  But because the pass is at a higher altitude, snow area this area had not fully melted either. In fact, most of the snow had not melted and it was mentioned in one of the guide books that snow in this area can even be seen as late as July. So like 2 city kids who had never seen snow, we made several stops along the way to have a battle of snow ball. 🙂 It was freezing … but fun.

Finally we reached the mountain pass and we were no disappointed by the view…. if the strong and cold winds do not kill us first. 🙂

The original plan was to go through the pass and arrive at the other side of the coastal road.  However we were rather concerned about the time taken for such a long journey and so we back tracked back to highway 334 to cut across the route to Sunayu.  Along the way, we stopped at Furepe falls.

Furepe falls (another site) lie deep within the forest. Between the carpark and the fall itself, we had to cover 3km of forest track. We were on the look out for bears… but fortunatlely did not spot any.  Perhaps we went too early in Spring, the ice from the mountains had not melted and there was no water fall but a sheer cliff. You can view the splendor of the fall from this You Tube video.

Sadly, we made our way back to our car and continue with the journey.  The rest of the journey was uneventful. We eventually reached Sunayu at around 4pm in the afternoon.  The sky suddenly turned dark and before you know it … it was raining cats and dogs … and of course .. the temperature dropped another few notches south.  Undaunted, we still make our way out of the car, carrying our umbrella to experience the hot bath of Sunayu.

Sunayu is actually a hot spring onsen (hot bath) by the bay of Lake Kussharo.  The sand along the bay is jet black and after you dig a hole into the ground, hot water automatically rises to the surface. The amazing thing is that although the bay contains hot underground water, the lake is actually ice cold.  We warm our feet by digging into the sand.  It is a pity that it was raining that day, if not I would have dug a big hole to soak my whole body in ..

Hee hee … as you can see … we are not the only crazy ones, visiting the hot spring in this kinda weather…The rain shows no sign of stopping and with the dark clouds .. the sky is becoming dark fasted than usual. We quickly departed from this place to our final destination Hotel Hanayuuka at Lake Akan. As you can see .. the journey is not easy at all.  The road is winding and mountainous and because of the humidity and cold tempreture, mist started forming. Yep it is a pretty distressing picture…. darkening sky, poor visibility and terrible road… The mist actually came in very fast.  Within a few minutes, visibility detoriated to only just a few meters ahead. We dare not even to stop for a second to take a picture of the beautiful sunset. I could only take pot shots in the car with my wife driving.

By the time we reached the hotel … it was quiet quiet dark … we proceeded straight for dinner as we were absoultly hungry!  Like Abashirikoso, Hotel Hannayuka sits on the bank of Lake Akan. As it was already dark, we could not see the lake properly.  We could only explore the lake tomorrow morning.

Dinner is not as sumptous as the previous two nights, however it does have variety.  It is a hot pot / steam boat (called nabe) meal with a buffet spread.  Not too shabby .. but cannot compared to the previous two nights … oh well.

After dinner it is time to walk around town before taking a hot bath and calling it a night.  Remember what I said about all towns around hot spring resorts look the same? This place just reminds me of Noburibetsu.

I took quiet a few photos today… you can find them separately at site 1 and site 2.

Hokkaido – Asahikawa to Abashiri- (Day 7)

We woke up slightly earlier today as the journey is going to be slightly longer today. After a so so breakfast (the breakfast pales so much in comparison to the dinner last night, I was kinda disappointed) we retrieve our car from the hotel car park and we are off again.  OH yea .. did I mention? Asahikawa hotel also made use of the elevator car parking system and this time round I got the hotel attendant to help park my car in.  The amazing thing is when we park the car, the car went into the elevator head in…. I kept the car keys for the night.  However when we retrieve the car the next morning, the car was facing outwards. I am still wondering how the hotel staff had shifted the car without the car keys …. Anyway . parking per night was 500 yen.

Basically today’s journey is going to be a flower hunt. 🙂 Our route will take us to 2 famous parks in North Eastern Hokkaido where flowers are supposed to be in bloom.  After leaving Asahikawa, we headed north again towards Takinoue Park.  As we headed north and into the country side, the temperature drops noticeably and we started to see leftover snow on the banks of the road.

Finally we reached Takinoue Park around 11 plus (close to 3 hours of long drive).  Although the flowers are not fully bloomed yet, the sight is already very spectacular, save for a few bald patches here and there.  Here, the whole area included the hills are covered with a flower called the pink moss / Moss Phlox.  It is a very hardy pink little flower that tends to grow spread very fast, like a weed.  But the flowers are very pretty and to see a whole hill filled with the same flowers, it is as if you are immersing yourself into a sea of pink petals.  Look at the picture and you will know that I am not exaggerating. It was said that the flower was introduced into this park after a sever blizzard killed all the Cherry blossom trees in the region.  What started as a single plant soon spread and covered the whole area turning the hills into a sea of pink with the turn of every spring. (As the flowers have a white color variant, sometimes, the park attendants would arrange the white and pink flowers to form pictures.  The one I saw in a brochure was a white Cow in a sea of pink.  could not find the picture though.)

The pink moss are only about 80% to 90% in bloom at the time of our visit.  The flowers will generally be in full bloom some time towards the middle or late May. Well if 80% bloom is already so spectacular, I wonder how 100% full bloom would look like .. hee hee .

Bidding farewell to the cute pink little flowers, we made our way northwards again towards Monbetsu.(official website of town) This is the place where people generally come to during winter to travel across the sea/drift ice.  It was said that during winter, the sea coast around the area would be frozen with sea ice. Although it is not winter nor are there drift / sea ice, but there is a sea ice Museum called Okhotsk Sea Ice Museum (photo of the musume)where various studies on the formation of sea ice are done and explained to the public in layman’s term. It is also act as an observatory where visitors can view Sea ice forming along the coast during winter in the comfort of a confined and warm place.  There is actually a lot of information behind the formation of sea ice, different from the formation of ice cubes in your fridge. One thing is sea water has a higher content of salt and that complicates the ice formation process and changes the structure of the ice formed. More information on sea Ice can be found here. Visitors who plan to visit the museum, do take note of the change in operating hours for the different seasons.

What interest me in this place is that there is a low temperature simulation room where the temperature is kept at a constant minus 20 degrees Celsius.  We had to put on extra clothing and gloves when we visit the simulation room.  It was not a bad as I thought, primarily because there is not wind.  It was like walking into a very large freezer… (wrong … think even the temperature in the average temperature in the freezing compartment of your freezer is not that low)

There the attendant brought us to a corner and showed us ice crystals forming at the side of a thick window.  Then she blew bubbles and we literally watched the bubble crystallized / freeze in mid air and dropping onto the floor.

We also saw ice tombs of fishes and plants.  Basically the museum tried to show us how things look like in very low temperature.  They encased various marine creatures in blocks of ice and leave it on display … impressive… but I keep having the thoughts that I am walking in an ice tomb … oh well… see my pictures and you will understand. (could not take many photos as my fingers are frozen solid and it is very difficult to hold a camera steady with all the thick woolen gloves.)

Leaving the ice tomb (opps..) I mean museum, we make our way to somewhere more cheery. We travelled along the sea coast of Monbetsu before turning into Kamiyubetsu to visit the kamiyubetsu Tulip Park. (another official site and pictures).  If you think the tulips you saw during our early part of the trip is nice, then this park is 10 times better. Entrance / parking fee is 500 yen per person.

The tulips are grown in mass abundance here and the different colors are neatly arranged into rows forming a big rainbow when seen from afar. This lifted my spirits considerably.  unfortunately the sky is overcast and my pictures did not turn out a good as I would have liked. The tulips are for sale and so if you are interested, you can specify which plant you want and bring it home in a pot.  The park hold a Tulip fair every year from 1 May to early June so if you plan to visit this place, try to coincide with the fair. You will not be disappointed with the flowers. Enjoy the photos.

By the time we left the tulip park it was already 5 plus.  It is too late to visit Lake Saroma or Cape Notoro and we do not relish the thought of driving in the dark in the country side. So we decide to make straight for our hotel which is also another 80km away from the Tulip park.  However along the way we did stop by one part of Lake Saroma as we spotted this pair of crane frolicking by the bank.  This lake is special as there is only a very thin (150 to 500m) sand bar bank separating the lake from the sea of Okhotsk…. The pic may look like it is taken at the shore of the sea .. but trust me . it is actually a lake..

We arrived at Hotel Abashrikoso in time for their dinner.  This is a very big and nice ryokan style hotel by the side of the lake. From the hotel room, you will oversea the lake and its natural surrounding. The staff speaks little English and there are even free computer terminals at the reception area for guest to use.  All in all a 5 star hotel.

And the dinner is good !!! as good as the one in Asahikawa… if not even better… (in fact, dinner seems to be getting better and better ..) just take a look at the spread !

The way they prepare their food is superb … not even Waraku or SunMoon restaurant comes close to the taste …. yum.

The rest of my pics can be found here.