Hokkaido Trip Day 5(Part 1)

Hokkaido Trip 17th June 2010: Lake Toya(洞爺湖) – Mt. Showa Shinzan(昭和新山) – Shiraoi Ainu Village – Hell Valley(Jigokudani(地狱谷)) – Noboribetsu(定山渓).

Hokkaido Trip 17th June 2010 Day 5

Hokkaido Trip June 2010 Day 5

Farewell to Jozankei, we visited Lake Toya this morning. Today’s itinerary were supposed to be packed with activities and we should be visiting Bear Ranch later but again, dissappointments stepped in due to the lack of experiences of the local tour guide. Sigh. Read on..

Lake Toya

Click onto the map below for more details.

Map of Lake Toya, Showa Shinzan

Lake Toya

Lake Toya

Boat ride, anyone?

Lake Toya

Next we proceeded to Mt Showa Shinzan(昭和新山), one of Japan youngest volcanos where its’ sulfurous fumes still vending out. Below is the map(from japan-guide.com) which give you clearer picture of where Mt Showa located.



Showa Shinzan

Showa Shinzan

Showa Shinzan

Showa Shinzan

From here we can also see the Usuzan Ropeway which brings visitors close to the volcano’s summit. Too bad it was not included in the itinerary and we had to give it a miss.

Uzuzan Ropeway

Uzuzan Ropeway

We were brought to this shop below to buy the famous Hokkaido horse oil and this was where the disappointment towards the local tour guide kicked in again. I asked her when we were inside the shop, wasn’t this the entrance to the Bear Ranch that we were supposed to visit? Her answer was a definite “No”, we were going to another one at Ainu village later of the day. At that time I had million puzzles crossing my mind. Huh? This wasn’t the one? I remember reading several blog posts written by those who have visited the place before and this should be the “right” one.
Oh, well, she is the tour guide, she should be the expert, right? I walked away in disbelief.

Bear Ranch

Bear Ranch

Bought these horse oil creams, the orange bottle(¥3000) is less oily and meant for face and hand. It is claimed to give moisture and oils to restore smooth and soft skin. I have not really use it regularly at the time being.

The white bottle(¥2000) has more general uses like help in scalding, muscular pain, athlete’s foot, chaps and dry skin and even on wrinkles. But I use it particularly for rashes, which appears on my arms occasionally(due to sensitivity to certain sun block cream); I personally find that it is very much safer to apply this natural cream than using any doctor prescribed steroid cream. Thumbs up!

Hokkaido Horse Oils

Then we took about 5 minutes bus ride to a farm for Strawberry picking.

Strawberry picking

Strawberry picking

Grape vines

Strawberry picking

Fruits harvesting season are stated here, click onto the picture to zoom in.

Fruit picking season

This is where the strawberries grow, below were not riped at the time of visit.

Strawberry picking

Strawberry picking

Strawberry picking

Strawberry picking

Yummy red and sweet!

Strawberry picking

Found an odd shaped strawberry.

Strawberry picking

Strawberry picking

There are many trees inside the farm and not sure if I got all the fruit trees correctly. Correct me if I am wrong. Below is a Pear tree?

SPear tree?

Cherry

Cherry

Apple Tree

Apple Tree

Apple

Apple

Lunch time at this restaurant, again it is a seafood market cum restaurant where customers can order the optional seafood from the ground floor. There is a big “bear” on the roof of this building.



Lunch at this restaurant

Lunch at this restaurant

All kind of fresh seafood

seafood

seafood

seafood

Abalone: Click for a closer look

Abalone: Click for closer look

Even fresh colorful fruits are sold here. The melons are one of the “celebrity” fruits in Hokkaido. A small piece as shown below cost ¥300 but it is very sweet!

fruits

Dried food like scallops are also famous. Bought 2 packages in g each.

Dried food

Souvenir like Hello Kitty and the fortune cats

Lunch

Lunch



Our lunch today was quite simple, just a bowl of crab meat rice served with miso soup.

Lunch

Lunch

Continue to part 2 of day 5 Hokkaido trip »

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