Hokkaido Day 1- Chitose (千岁)

This will be the detailed account of my trip to Hokkaido from 12 to 18 Aug 2007. For most of the back-from-Hokkaido stories, the place seemed to only contain sight seeing and hot springs. However, our trip was different, and this made us very happy and satisfied.

"Hokkaido"(北海道), translated from the "Ainu" language, means a vast piece of swampy land that had dried up. Over 70% of this 2nd largest island in Japan is still covered by forest.

We boarded NH112 and departed at 8.30am. We were all quite excited on flight but were disappointed on the limited movies available. Meal was served at 10.30am and we(including the rest of the tour members) thought that was the breakfast. To our dismay, that was actually brunch, and no other meal was served during the 7 hours flight.
However, to our surprise, the crew served many trips of drinks including wine, green tea and juices. We kept 4 bottles of mini wine in our bag and that was our first happy “acquisition”.

We reached Narita Airport at 5pm Japan time and proceed to connecting flight to Chitose. Due to the large tour group size of 50 passengers, the settling of boarding passes and re-check in of luggage was quite a chaos. Luckily the tour guide and leader did a good job and the group stayed together most of the time. There were still no food, and by the time we reached Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, everyone was starving. We straight away proceed to Nikko Chitose Hotel and had Chinese food for dinner. Dinner was not tasty.

We then went up to our room, and to my horror, the room was extremely small! There was only enough room for 3 beds, and no space at all to open up our luggage. Luckily we were only staying for one night. It was about 10pm, and we then went out to explore.

The evening breeze was cooling and we had a walk for about 10 minutes to an area which the tour guide advised there will be local food. The area was very quiet but we can see that there were quite a few small eateries with enclosed entrance. None of us knew Japanese, but we went in to the shops and hand signs to the locals. We tried 3 shops but all were closing, until the fourth one who welcomes us in. This uncle was actually closing but he was kind enough to allow us in for supper. A series of chicken and duck talk followed and sis managed to get him to decide for us different types of Kushiyaki (串焼). We also drank cold sake which I don’t really like. First we had mince chicken, followed by pork belly. Then we had pig’s tongue which I passed, and ended with soft bone meat. It was a nice meal and the place was very traditional and cozy. It was overall a very nice experience for our first night in Hokkaido.

Hokkaido Day 2- Sapporo (札幌)

After breakfast, our first stop is to visit the famous Ishiya Chocolate Factory(白之戀人巧克力廠) in Sapporo. Their award winning chocolate biscuit called 白色戀人 is very famous but I did not buy because I find it very normal. Outside the factory there was a park for us to take pictures, and inside the building we get to see the owner’s collection of tea glasses and antique toys which are worth millions of dollars.






After that we went for lunch, and then started our first of the many series of shopping spree! The reason why this tour was different from the rest is because it was full of shopping. It was quite unbelievable because we always thought that Hokkaido was more about sight seeing, and shopping never cross our minds. We were also lucky that our tour guide brought us to mid range shopping malls and was very encouraging to us for “enhancing the financial economy of Hokkaido”

We went to Tanukikojo Shopping Arcade(狸小路) and it was a whole stretch of shops on both sides, known to be the largest shopping mall in Hokkaido. We were given less than an hour to shop, and by the time it ended, we have to run our way back to the meeting point.

Following we visited the Nijo Fresh Seafood Market and bought some dried scallops.

Next stop was the famous Susukino Ramen Alley(薄野区), and there were more than 10 ramen restaurants. In Susukino, it was the night entertainment centre for discos, nightclubs and bars. We did not stop to eat because we just had lunch and the weather was too hot to eat in the non air conditioned restaurants.

We then went to JR Tower for another shopping treat. I bought a Blue Label bag from Daimaru, and Mom bought a really cool and good quality Transformer(Ultimus Prime) from Bic Camera for J. Again, we had to run back to the coach bus. Time for shopping was always not enough!

After that, we went to yet another shopping district at Odori Park(大通公園). This time we visited the 100 Yen shop, Daiso. Some of the things were similar to the Daiso in Singapore, but JPY 100 was about SGD 1.30, so the price is still cheaper than SGD 2 in Singapore.

All of us were tired from all the walking and shopping. By the time we headed to dinner place, I was completely drained with no appetite. This was only the first day! Dinner was table barbecue Genghis Khan style and sis ordered the famous Kobe beef which cost JPY 5,000. The tray which sis was holding were all the Kobe beef ordered by our tour group, and there was a certificate to show that the meat was genuine. Maybe I was too tired, I find the beef was over rated.

Next we went to APA Hotel, and this was the worst room we had. The room was big enough, but the room temperature was 27.6 degrees! The hotel offered another room but it was equally warm. After putting down our luggage, I was again energized to shop.

We went to a medium size supermarket next to the hotel, and it was UNBELIEVABLE. The stuff selling there was so much cheaper comparing to the prices in Singapore. No doubt since they were local Japanese products, but it still came as a nice surprise to us. I bought food products like seaweed, instant noodles, yakitori sauces(for BBQ), chilli powder, curry sauce, tidbits, green tea etc, most of the things were only JPY 100 to 300. People might think that we were crazy to travel so far and lugged back food stuff but it was really worth the effort. The prices were less than half the price compared to those selling in Singapore, and for us who cooked, it worth it all.

Hokkaido Day 3- Sounkyu (层云峡)

First stop in the morning was Sunflower Town in Hokuryu(北泷町). There were bicycles for us to ride through the fields of sunflower(had a slight scary experience riding down a long slope!!) and mom had fun taking pictures. She always loves flowers especially taking picture with them. We even found some sunflowers bigger than her face. There was a sheltered area for selling sunflower souvenirs and I bought a black T-shirt for J.

We had set lunch and it was not too bad but I still don’t like the food.

After lunch we visited Mt Daisetzu-zan National Park(大雪山国立公园) and first reached Sounkyo Gorge located at the foot of the national park. We then got to see 2 famous waterfalls, Ryusei-no-taki Falls (Shooting Star Falls) 流星瀑布 and Ginga-no-taki Falls (Silver River Falls) 银河瀑布. The weather was getting cooler when we were taking the cable car ride, which followed by chairlift to go further up the mountain. The air was very fresh and the view was great.

After the mountain viewing, we moved forward to Hotel Soun which is just minutes away and unfortunately, there was no air conditioned in the room! As this hotel is located in the mountainous area, the weather was supposed to be cooling even in summer. However for this summer , the weather was extremely warm and we were really down on our luck to stay 3 nights consecutively in warm rooms.
Anyway, we had crab for dinner and this was the first nice meal I like.

Hokkaido Day 4- Ashikawa (旭川)

This was taken outside the hot spring hotel we stayed the night before. There is a nice river and the morning air was rejuvenating!

This morning we went to Patchwork Road(拼布之路) in Asahikawa, the second largest city in Hokkaido. The fields are filled with different colors of plantation and it resembles the traditional patchwork blanket, thus the name.

We then went to Sinei Hill(新榮之丘) and there was a 360 degree viewing stand to look at the potatoes, corn and wheat plantations. Just next to the viewing stand, the tour guide recommended a special corn called Sunny Fruit. It has to be eaten raw(once cooked will be like normal corn) and it was very sweet and crunchy. I don’t fancy corns, but this was the best corn I have eaten. The tomato was huge but not as sweet as I thought it could be.

We then went to the Furano(富良野) for the famous Lavender farm called Farm Tomita(富田農場). The place smell of Lavender all the time, even in the toilet. It also sells all kinds of Lavender products and food stuff. I don't use cosmetic or beauty products, so no money spend. It was a pity that most of the Lavender plants had already withered or harvested. The best time to visit should be in July.

Next stop was a world famous Otokoyama Sake Brewery Museum(男山酒厂). This sake fetched many Gold awards in International competition and we can see the equipment used for sake brewery in the olden days. At the entrance, the public can fill up bottles of chilled mineral water used to make the sake.

Last stop and the most exciting one of the day, was shopping again! This tour guide was great and he knew exactly what excite the ladies. He brought us to Jusco(similar to the one in JB but bigger), a huge shopping mall with retails shops and a departmental store within. We were given only 2 hours. After all the shopping, we went for dinner at a Ramen street.

Tonight hotel was Hotel Crescent and finally was had a nice cooling room. We repacked all our purchases and luggage and that took us quite a while.