Hokkaido – Sapporo to Asahikawa- (Day 6)

Today is the day we deviated totally from the original itinerary. According to what was originally planned, the main group would tour places of interest around Sapporo and then rest 1 more night at Sapporo before heading back to Chitose to return the car and take a connecting flight back to Singapore.

Me and my wife felt that the tour is too short to end this way and thus decided to extend a few more day to tour the eastern part of Hokkaido. Thus after bidding farewell to a few group mates whom we got to know during the first 5 days, we set out and are on our own.

As we reached Sapporo too late last night, we set out to explore the city a bit.  We passed by Odori park a few times.  (There is quiet a bit of literature on this park online. Another site is this)The aerial view of park only looks really impressive however we are not able to find a viewing gallery that gave us that view and thus no pics was taken.  The closest thing we took is the Sapporo TV tower which is the tower with the clock in my previous entry.

We walked around the vicinity of Sapporo and as soon as the Old Hokkaido Government building was opened, we went in to take a look.  The compound has a huge garden with lots of beautiful trees and flowers and the bright red building is smack right in the center.  This building was constructed in 1888 but looks as if it is newly constructed. The conservation work done is pretty impressive, unless the building is a replica. Part of the building is opened to the public as a history documents library.  We saw tombs of ancient maps and journals (pictures / drawings) that detailed the development of Sapporo.

After touring the museum, it was almost time to go.  We made time for one last stop at the Sapporo Clock Tower. The tower used to be a drill hall of the former Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University).  The clock tower has since been transformed into yet another museum. However everything is in Japanese and  thus we did not spend much time there except to take a few photo.

This tower is rather elusive. Sandwiched between modern sky scrappers, it was almost impossible to spot. We were on the verge of giving up when out of no where, the building jumps out from between 2 buildings and smack us right in our face.

After the clock tower, it is time to head back to the country side again!! We retrieved our car from the hotel, bid our final farewells to our wonderful tour guides (not before we got them to teach us how to use the GPS to locate the nearest fuel station, food outlets, alternative routes, etc) and we are off.

Our first stop after Sapporo is about 60 to 70 km away, at another water fall called the Sandantaki. Do not mistaken this with Sangaitaki which I mentioned during my day 1. This falls is bigger, looks more majestic and is more secluded in the country side. (Other than some railings, there are hardly any shops set up here.  Definately not a commercialised tourist spot. We can only view the falls from a safe distance as the rocks here have more or less been eroded away.

We next drove through some winding roads and a stretch of very long mountain tunnel (close to 2 to 3 km long) before reaching the outskirts of Furano (another site) which is situated somewhere in the middle of Hokkaido. And the reason for coming here is hee hee … the wine factory, the cheese factory and the jam factory. These are all the local produces of Furano.

Our first stop is the wine factory. Here you can find all the local wine produce. They have the usual red and white wine and also the more special lavender flavored white wine. We saw the wine bottling process and visited their underground wine cellar where the temperature was kept as a constant 15 degrees. You can constantly smell faint fragrances of red wine. They also set up a counters where you can sample their wine before purchasing. The lavender flavored white wine was very smooth and sweet.  I was so impressed with the wine that bought 3 bottles back … I will worry about clearing the customs later .. 😛  For those who intend to visit this place, do take note of their opening hours as they change according to the seasons.  Opening hours can be found here. Other than wine, they also sell grape juices and jams.  They are nice and tasty… but perishable.  So unless this is your last stop or you intend to consume the products during your trip, it is not practicable to buy.

We next make our way to the cheese factory.  The map codes given to us did not lead us to the factory.  Either it had shifted or the map code was wrong.  Just when we were about to give up on the Cheese factory, we chance upon a road sign.  We decided to follow our instinct and the road sign and viloa! we arrived at the car park of the cheese factory (another site)!! LUCKY man!

This factory is really big. They sell ice cream, pizza and of course cheese, milk and cheese cake. For a fee, you can experience the joy of manufacturing your own cheese.  We are however, contented with sampling the cheese and viewing the manufacturing process. Of course after sampling the cheese (including one with squid ink flavor), we could not help it but purchase their cheese cake and milk and devour them instantly. No cheese cake I had eaten taste as good as those found here I swear … some more … they are so fresh! Their milk taste even better than the Meji milk sold in the super markets!  It is thick, rich but yet you do not feel bloated after drinking it. It is definitely a site to visit for cheese and milk lovers!

By the time we finished tasting the cheese, Cheese cake, milk and ice cream, it was close to 4pm.  We then continued our journey to a stretch of road called the Jet Coaster road. The road is so called for its many ups and downs and the slope between each ups and downs are quite huge. I do not think my photo can capture the intended effect.  But I took this pic which I was at the peak of all the slopes and looking down on both sides.  I off my engine and let the car roll off the peak and can you believe it .. the speed actually hit 100km/h without and engine running!!!

After having the cheap trill of roller coaster, we continued our journey to the city of Asahikawa. ( I keep thinking this should be the place where the Asahi beer was manufactured but I could not find any beer brewery) We drove straigh to our hotel for the night, Asahikawa Grand hotel.The hotel looks grand indeed with European furnishings and decorations.

Asahikawa is much like Sapporo.  Just as crowded with buildings but not as conjested with people or vehicles.  Anyway this is what the city looks like form my hotel window. The buildings just stretch on endless over the horizon. Talk about being densely packed.

Dinner at the hotel is unexpectantly good! We had a food set of Japanese fine dining and the food is oh so tasty ! I tell you .. the food alone will make the hotel stay worth it.. 🙂  We had everything from sashumi to tempura to japanese hot pot to Salmon don. Thinking of it now still makes my mouth waters.

After the hearty dinner, it is time to go for a walk to digest the rich food. Unfortunately the shops here close early.  Could be due to the freezing temperature. As you can see from the photo. It is 10 degrees discounting the strong wind which when blowing on to you will reduce the temperature by another couple of degrees.

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