Beginning of our long-awaited grad trip to Hokkaido! Honestly, I've never been extremely fond of Japan, and the only reason I might make a visit is because of the seafood, which later got contaminated by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster lol. But anyway, lc really likes Japan because of all the comics he reads.
We booked a 7-day tour with Hong Thai. We took some time to choose the tour package, by asking around for recommendations. We preferred one that our friends have tried before, so we ended up with either Chan Brothers or Hong Thai. Chan Brothers costs >$3k while Hong Thai was at least $600 cheaper. The main difference in their tour packages is the food - Chan Brothers really offers fantastic seafood, sashimi, etc., and there are a lot of buffets. Problem is most of us don't have such big bellies, and my friends who joined this tour were quite overwhelmed by the amount of food lol. Thus, it wasn't too hard a choice for us, especially since lc's mum has a mini stomach and his sis hates all seafood. The package was about S$2500 altogether per person (slightly less for kids). I had to get a visa for $49.
I went over to lc's house on Friday so that we could share a cab to Changi. We were halfway there when he rmbed that he didn't bring his camera lol. So we turned back to get it, which explains why the cab fare was 70+ dollars. We arrived at 6.30am, met our team leader, and the first thing she said was "are you sure your luggage is big enough? did you bring enough clothes?" We brought the carry-on 20" type of luggage, but everyone else brought the 30" ones lol.
The flight to Tokyo felt reaaalllyyy long. Japan Airlines. The meal was great, just like SIA. They gave out beer and wine as well, so I tried a Chardonnay which tasted awful for some reason. I think I tried to sleep but woke up many times... We reached Tokyo Narita Airport at almost 4pm. As dinner was not provided on the flight to Hokkaido, we had a bowl of kakiage udon that cost about S$6 (S$1 = 90 yen), surprisingly affordable. I loved the soup!
When we left Tokyo, the sun was already setting. We touched down at 8+pm in Hokkaido Chitose Airport, where our guide was waiting for us. He's from Hong Kong, and had been in Japan for over 30 years. Pretty experienced, but his Mandarin was pretty bad, albeit understandable most of the time.
We stayed at Wing Hotel in Tomakomai (占小牧), about a 40-min drive from the airport. The hotel was not bad! They had super nice milk sweets at the counters and they even provided shower sponge, facial foam and moisturiser for free. I love it that Japanese hotels provide 300ml bottles of shower gel, shampoo and conditioner, sometimes even facial cleanser. Plus they're all very good brands, such as Shiseido.
Lc and I wanted to get some supper, so we checked out a nearby convenience store. It had quite a great variety of food, such as yakitori, bento, rice balls, instant noodle, etc. We bought some yakitori and rice ball which the staff kindly heated up for us. They tasted ok, considering they weren't freshly made.
It was a tiring day and we rested early to prepare for the dreaded 6.30am morning call the next day T.T
7th June 2015
After breakfast, we first visited the Lake Shikotsu-ko (支笏湖), situated within the Shikotsu-Toya National Park. The lake is the deepest natural volcano lake in Japan, surrounded by numerous mountains, some of which are active volcanoes. The view was really picturesque, and fortunately the weather was pretty good. It was about 20°C during the few days we were there, so just jeans+shirt+jacket was enough for me. Some wore 3-4 layers though, especially kids and older people.
Our bus stopped at the empty car park. We passed by a small garden of sorts before arriving at the lake.
There were a lot of duck boats tied to the sides of the lake. They could be rented for a ride, but I doubt that it would be enjoyable since you have to constantly pedal it.
We boarded our chartered cruise ship, which looked really small but surprisingly could fit 30+ of us easily. It also had an "underground" level fitted with glass panels to allow us to look at the fishes in the water. Pretty cool. The water was super clear, and I think visibility is up to 20+m.
The cruise lasted about 40 min, which was pretty much enough for us to move up and down the decks for photos and relax a little. It got a little cold on deck due to the wind, and there were 2 uncles wearing just 1 polo. The guide tried to ask them to put on more clothes, but they refused hahaha. One of them claimed that he had never fallen sick in 60 years :O
On the way back to the bus, we passed by some shops selling snacks and grilled squid which we almost bought because I saw a few Japanese guys buying them and they looked so delicious :P It was quite affordable, about 500 yen for a medium sized squid. Decided not to buy in the end since we might be eating it later during lunch (which we didn't! -.-)
I liked the vending machines! A lot of choices for drinks and I tried a few different types of green tea in the next few days of the trip.
After the cruise, we headed towards the Shiraoi Ainu Village, an open air museum that mimics the homes of the Ainu indigenous people in the past. The Ainu race has integrated very well into the modern society and they now speak the same language as the rest of the nation. But it's quite a pity that their culture and language are not preserved. They did try to let us experience a bit of what they used to be like through music and dance performances though.
At the entrance, you would see that giant statue of the chief of the village. The Ainu people worshipped bears, and you would find both statues and alive ones in this village. Ironically, the bears were kept in small cages that did not even give them enough room to move around... They were just walking in circles in the cages.
Before the show began, we walked around to grab some photos. The Lake Poroto, along which the Porotokotan was situated, was also very beautiful.
The guy in the photo is dressed in traditional costume and he was one of the performers. The show was quite interesting and I especially liked their instrument, called tonkori. It's played somewhat like a 琵琶, but its shape was quite long and thin.
A lady also performed this very funny instrument, called Mukkuri. It has a string attached to a piece of wood/bamboo, and I seriously couldn't understand how the sound was made hahaha.
The roof hanged loads of dried salmon (they were real edible ones), which was available for purchase after the show, but we didn't try it. I remember that it was quite expensive, a few small pieces for around 1000 yen.
After the performance, it was finally lunch time :D We had hairy crab steamboat (provided by tour) beside a seafood market.
I think the market was totally ripping tourists off? The seafood was soooooo expensive. We had: 1000 yen for 4 slices of salmon sashimi, 2000 yen for 1 fresh sea urchin (which was seriously damn nice!!), 500 yen for 1 grilled hotate. -.- Some people from our tour shared a spider crab that cost 20000 yen.
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| The nice uncle gave us a free one to sample :D |
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| Our sea urchin. It really melts in your mouth! |
The museum had a theatre in which you could learn about the harvesting of Konbu via a video. There were also displays that showed the entire life cycle of Konbu. It typically grows to 30-80m and needs to be harvested within 2 years before it withers. Something interesting about it is that not only is it a food source, but it can also be made into cloth and the thin layer of material (no idea what is that called lol) on speakers. Not to be missed is the food tasting at the end of the museum tour where you can try (and buy) different types of food that the Konbu has been made into, including soup, biscuits, and sweets.
We drove further down to Hakodate (函馆) afterwards and spent a few minutes at the Meiji-Kan (明治生命馆), which used to be a post office in 1911. It has been transformed into a shopping centre and you would find really cute toys and music boxes inside.
Our dinner was at a nearby restaurant. The meal was not bad, and some of the guys enjoyed their Asahi beers.
After dinner, we moved on to the cable car ride up Mount Hakodate, known for its scenic night views ranked in the top 3s in the world. The cable car was a huge one that was very stable and could accommodate maybe 70 people? At the peak, there were hundreds of people squeezing around, trying very hard to get a decent photo of that spectacular view. It took me a while to find a nice spot.
After the long day, we finally settled down at the Hakodate Royal Hotel for a hot bath.
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8th June 2015
We had buffet breakfast and checked out at 8am again. Our first stop was seafood market, different from the previous one because it's frequented by locals, so the prices were about half of the previous one. Also, you could try bargaining for even better prices. The market was huge, with 200+ stalls! You could find really really fresh seafood, vegetables and fruits there.
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| Super huge apples! |
We got to savour 2 of them, cleaned and sliced alive :/ It was quite cruel, because the squid was still squirming when it was on the plate, but it really tasted SUPER good and crispy.
The Hakodate seafood market is located near the Hakodate Bay. It was quite beautiful there and extremely clean.
Next, we went to the Fort Goryokaku (五稜郭) that has a super cool helicopter view because it's star shaped, which you could see if you go up to the Goryokaku Tower. Walking towards the Former Magistrate Office in the centre of the fort, we were greeted by pretty flowers such as these:
At the front of the Former Magistrate Office, we could put on traditional Japanese costume for picture taking (1000 yen for girls and 500 for guys). Lc, his sis and I decided to try :P The kimono is only one outer layer, which the Jap guy would help to put on. I don't think it's possible for us to wear that properly ourselves.
We took our time to take photos and only left after an hour. Traveling back north, we had lunch at the foot of Mount Usu (有珠山), which we were visiting later.
I loooovvveeeedddd the rice, which was steamed with scallop. I could taste those tiny bits of scallop in every mouth, and within 5 minutes I finished the entire bowl of rice... (Normally I don't even touch the rice.) I also find it amazing that every single Japanese restaurant makes damn good half boiled eggs that have an intact egg (yet extremely tender) falling off the shell with ease and everything inside is still tender and slightly runny. Howhowhow do they achieve this?!
After a satisfying lunch, we took the cable car from the foot of Showa-shinzan (昭和新山) to the top of Mount Usu. The Showa-shinzan is literally a new mountain that was formed in 1943 after a volcanic eruption. Mount Usu, on the other hand, has been there for 20000 years.
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| See the smoke at the left side of the mountain. |
From the peak, we could clearly see the Lake Toya (洞爷湖). There was a walk that took us further up the mountain, involving 100+ steps.
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| A lot of dandelions along the way. Apparently, the seeds don't come off as easily as I had imagined lol. |
We got closer to the mouth of the volcano. There was another walkway that could lead us straight to the mouth, but the entire journey would take 1.5hrs to and fro, so we didn't have the time to do that.
After we descended the mountain, we stopped by Lake Toya for 15 minutes. The lake is actually very near the Lake Shikotsu-ko. There was a mountain that really resembled Mount Fuji situated on the opposite side of the lake.
As we were settling down for the night in the Noboribetsu region, our final destination for the day was the Jigokudani, or "Hell Valley" (地狱谷). As we got closer, the pungent smell of sulfur pervaded our bus. We enjoyed a quick tour around the place after slowly getting used to the smell.
The Noboribetsu Onsen (登别温泉) is a very famous hot spring resort in Hokkaido. We stayed at the Yumoto Noboribetsu Hotel that came with in-house hot spring. The rooms were tatami style! Super big, with 2 bathrooms.
By tradition, the beds would only be set up by their staff after dinner, so we headed for dinner first at the hotel restaurant. It was quite a struggle to eat while seated on the floor, but the sumptuous meal made up for it.
After dinner, the beds were indeed set up for us.
At night, we went to try out the hot springs. Men were on the 2nd floor while women were on the 3rd. If you don't know, you're supposed to go in totally naked. So we stripped outside the hot spring and only brought in a small face towel which you could possibly cover your boobs and down there with, but you might get more stares if you tried to do that.
Fortunately when I went, the spring was very empty, with only one person inside and 3 bathing at the side. Etiquette is very important in Japan, so be sure to follow instructions when going to the hot springs!
Surprisingly, the hot spring was not smelly at all, unlike those in China that I've gone to when I was young. There were a few different pools with different temperatures ranging from 38°C to 42°C and different functions. I tried all of them but 42°C is really hot - I could only put my legs in.
After the session, lc and I felt too hot in the hotel, so we went out for a walk to enjoy the cool night air. There were a few souvenir shops and convenience stores along the way. He bought me a super nice purple four-leaf clover necklace. Before we saw the price, I expected it to be very expensive (like maybe $60) because it was so pretty and shiny, but it was only $12! :D
Conclusion for day 3: we traveled back to the Toya Shikotsuko region from Hakodate. Involved yet another long 2-hour bus ride.
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9th June 2015
Another early morning. I had a hard time waking up everyday, and lc answered all the morning calls hahaha. I really couldn't open my eyes at all and my eyes were always swollen. T.T The buffet breakfasts were really nice everyday. At least we get to start the day with a full belly :P
For today, we were moving further north to Sapporo finally, and then Otaru where we stayed for the night. First thing in the morning was to visit the Asahi Beer Factory located near Sapporo. A guide walked us through the factory and the manufacturing line. We got to taste 3 different types of beer for free at the end of it, including the normal Asahi, premium, and black. I didn't try the black since I don't like it. The premium is really smoother than the normal type.
I didn't take any photo in the factory, except this one in the toilet which I found to be very funny:
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| If you get my point lol |
Anyway, after the beers, we paid a brief visit to the Tanuki Koji Shopping Arcade (狸小路) to buy some native products, which included butter cookies and 白い恋人 chocolate cookies (Shiroi Koibito cookie). This shop at the roadside was recommended by our guide because it offered pretty good prices and was tax free.
We had DIY tempura lunch nearby. Basically they provided the batter and food so you just need to dip the food into the batter and throw into the oil and wait till they turn golden lol. The portion was a little bit small though.
After lunch, we went to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory, or Shiroi Koibito Park. The factory was really nice, and the architecture was western style (much like German ones). Lc and I sat on the mini kiddy train with his sis and 2 other kids to tour around the factory :P At 2pm, there was a show where figurines would appear from a few parts of the building and move along with the music. Pretty fairytale-like.
We toured the factory after the show to see their production line and buy some of their products.
The production was really fast and mostly mechanised, much like the Asahi factory. The people are there to feed the machine with chocolate and pick out the defects.
As we had already bought their signature cookies earlier at 狸小路, we only tried the cream puffs at the factory and bought a cake called Shiroi Baum.
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| There was a nice cafe upstairs with great desserts and views. |
The tyres looked as if they were brand new! The Japanese drivers take really good care of their vehicles, and are often seen cleaning them after we alight. Of course, the cities were extremely clean as well, so that helped a bit.
We travelled to Otaru (小樽), known for its canal and snack streets. The guide first brought us around and showed us some of the cute stuff and food (again) we could buy there.
Digress a bit, Japanese girls are seriously not pretty leh. I was quite shocked. Didn't see a single pretty school girl there. And only one or two okay ones during the entire trip :O So did all the celebs and porn stars do plastic surgery or what?
We went to explore the canal while lc's mum went back to the bus to sleep.
It's called a 运河 because it was used to transport all the goods around in the past. Along the canal lined brick warehouses, which have been transformed into cafes and souvenir shops. There were some trishaws around, and there was this trishaw guy who was very handsome hahaha. Like tall and handsome and buff :P You can look out for him if you're there.
Otaru looks like a very nice town to live in. We stayed at Grand Park Otaru, which used to be owned by Hilton and later sold to Grand Park. Its location was super awesome and our room had a sea view.
We had a buffet dinner at Grand Park. It wasn't as luxurious as we had expected, but the food was still quite nice.
There was a shopping centre right beside the hotel, where I went to buy collagen powder for my mum, but they ran out of stock cos I was too late! The aunties in my tour had snatched all that were available hahaha.
I strongly recommend you to get this in Japan because it costs only $20-24 depending on where you buy it. In Singapore a packet like this can easily cost over $100.
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10th June 2015
We left Otaru and it was finally time for us to visit my long-awaited lavender fields! But before that, we briefly toured the Furano Cheese Factory. It was a super small building so it didn't take long. The cheese didn't taste nice, but they made the BEST cheesecakes ever!!!
Lc's mum and I first bought 2 to try (they were very small) and they tasted god damn good. I wish I could eat that entire pile lol. But it was quite expensive. Before we left, we bought 2 more :P It's really really soft and melts in your mouth. And trust me, it's 1000000000000 times better than Breadtalk's, although I think it's already pretty good.
We had pork cutlet for lunch, but it wasn't very nice. The meat was too fat and even the lean parts are hard to bite.
Nevermind, because we were finally at Farm Tomita! Furano (富良野) is known for its beautiful lavender farms. By the way, we narrowly missed PM Lee, who visited this farm on 14th June T.T
The farm was so beautiful! I was quite disappointed that lavenders only bloom in late June though. I think I don't have affinity with all the flowers I like? Didn't have a chance to see lavenders in Provence and tulips in Netherlands when I was in Europe...
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| My favourite picture of the farm haha. |
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| Lavenders in the conservatory. |
After enjoying the flowers and the tasty lavender ice cream (must-buy!), we drove to Biei (美瑛), famous for being a popular backdrop for commercials.
We stopped by to see some of the famous trees but I was feeling very tired and cold as it was raining so I didn't alight to see them. Anyway, they're just trees. Lol. Nothing too special. But the fields were super nice I have to say. :P Reminds me of the Microsoft desktop background.
Next stop, we experienced -20°C at the Ice Pavilion. Don't worry, thick winter jackets are provided at the entrance. We did some experiments including a coloured picture that turned white when heated up, but the colours returns after a few minutes in the cold. Another one was the wet towel experiment, which turned hard after the tour as the moisture had been frozen. There was another room with -41°C but lc and his mum didn't let me go lol. They were dying from the cold. We quickly exited the fridge and had a hot tea to warm our bodies up.
We were brought to another hot spring hotel, called Sounkyo Kanko Hotel. It was located in Kamikawa (上川町), in the Sounkyo Gorge. The view from hotel was really nice and torrents of water was gushing down the stream while we had our dinner.
The dinner was ultra mega nice, especially the amaebi (sweet shrimp) and steak. Everyone was stocking up their amaebi lol. The steak was unbelievably tender and tasty. I had 2 plates of it.
I decided not to go to the hot spring that night. Lc went though. He said it was a lot smaller and stuffier than the previous one.
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11th June 2015
This was the final day of our trip. We were finally traveling to Sapporo (札幌). In the morning, because our tour group is always very punctual and we had a little bit of extra time, the guide decided to add more destinations to our itinerary. We visited the couple waterfalls near our hotel, called Ginga (银河) and Ryusei (流星), which are female and male respectively. I think the guide mentioned something like the water from the Ginga resembled a lady's hair, while the Ryusei is more forceful and the water seems to burst out from solid rock.
It's possible for you to hike up the mountain to get a better view of the 2 waterfalls side by side if time allows.
We travelled to the Hokkaido Shrine (北海道神宫).
Photos are not allowed inside the shrine. The right way to pray was to bow twice, followed by 2 claps with left hand higher than the right (left hand represents our soul while right hand represents our body), and ends with another bow.
I tried to 抽签 but got a 末吉 which was at the end of the lucky spectrum towards the unlucky side -.- At least it wasn't 凶 or 大凶. Sigh, luck has really not been on my side for a while now. I bought a luck charm there hahaha. Hope it will turn around soon!
Our lunch was a shabu-shabu. Other than free flow meat, we also had 2 king crab legs each, which lc's sis obviously didn't eat, so I ate 3 :P They tasted really fresh and sweet! The meat was not nice though since they were frozen.
We ordered a live abalone (180g) 2 days ago. It costs 7000 yen lol. The guide told us not to expect too much because it's cooked in a few minutes so it's hard and rubbery. Well, that was totally not true! It was really supple and not difficult to bite at all. It also retained the natural sweetness of fresh seafood.
The abalone was cooked live, so when they were still moving on the pan.
Some people also ordered the Kobe beef (神户牛肉) which cost 8000 yen for 200g. We didn't because we didn't want to waste the free buffet lunch. They looked really delicious though.. Haha
We visited the Odori Park stretched across the main roads in the middle of Sapporo.
We went to the underground shopping street at the subway station and I finally managed to get my mum her collagen powder! And I bought 8 + 2 for lc's mum, after which the shop went out of stock hahahaha. Later on other people from our tour group came in wanting to buy, but saw my basket of it and started getting jealous. Luckily I didn't buy at the previous shopping centre because it's cheaper here.
Also highly recommended by the guide was this, as you can see in the picture. It's a glue-like liquid plaster than you can apply to wounds which will protect them from infection. It's transparent (so it's not as ugly as plasters) and it contains sterilising ingredients that will also help your wound recover faster. I got one for about 8 SGD.
We checked in early to Ana Hotel Sapporo. It's one of the taller buildings in the city, thus really recognisable from afar. It's also very centrally and conveniently located near the big shopping centres which we later visited.
After a short rest, lc and I followed the guide to the JR tower and the shopping centres side by side. His mum and sis stayed in hotel to rest. I bought underwear from Uniqlo haha. 2 for 1000 yen, cheaper than Singapore.
We returned to the hotel at 5pm and waited till 6pm to bring them out for dinner at the Ramen Republic on the 10th floor of the JR tower. All the stalls looked similar and had similar pricing, so we just chose one called 空.
The ramen didn't taste as salty as the guide warned, so it was pretty good! But the soup was very oily. And too little meat. But I guess we couldn't complain for that price (780 yen). The noodle was nice.
We then went to the top of the JR building for panoramic views of the city.
We promptly returned to the hotel to prepare for the next day uber early morning call at 4.45am as our plane was at 7.30am.
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12th June 2015
We arrived at Tokyo early in the morning, and since there were a few hours before our flight back to Singapore at 6pm, we went to the Shisui Premium Outlets 20 min away from Nirita Airport by bus.
Lc got another Tommy Hilfiger shirt for about $50+. His mum bought 2 pants. I wanted to get my mum a pair of Nike running shoes, and I found a nice one that cost $90, but wasn't too sure if it was a lot cheaper than Singapore. Also, of course I was afraid that the shoe wouldn't fit her feet, so in the end I decided not to buy it. [I checked out Nike store at Vivocity and discovered that this same pair of shoes costs $179 in Singapore :O Seems like the prices in the outlet were really great.]
We had lunch at the food court. I had a omelette rice with croquette, full of carbs. I think all the food at the food court was soso, nothing especially nice.
We left the outlet at 2pm. Slacked around in the airport while waiting for the plane.
We arrived at Singapore at 12+am on Saturday. Headed straight back to lc's house to sleep and we could finally sleep till whatever time we wanted hoorayyyy hahaha.
The trip was quite interesting but tiring overall, due to all the long bus rides. I guess at least I didn't get seriously car sick. I really love all the snackksssssss :P Somehow, 白い恋人 cookies taste better and better every day.
[OMG I'm finally done. This post took me an entire day T.T]
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