Day 2 in Hokkaido - 9 July 06

Woke up at 6:45am but to my disappointment, breakfast was pretty lousy... except for the milk. Variety was quite pathetic... and it was buffet style... I only managed to grab some spaghetti, sausage, 2 potato croquet, some egg, smoked salmon and corn & ham... the smoked salmon was exceptionally salty!!! Eeeeekkkk

Went to the hotel reception to enquire about sending postcards back to Singapore, as well as 1 to Yanshan in Israel. The cost is at 70yen per piece. Quite cheap leh... In the end I sent 4 postcards - 1 to Yuan, 1 to Xueling, 1 to Yanshan, and 1 to myself : )

Our first stop of the day was the 'Chitose Salmon Museum', which was quite near to the hotel which we were staying. There's nothing much to see in the Museum since its not the 'salmon season', they've probably swam to Alaska... hence we only stayed in the museum for 30mins. There were some exhibits on how salmon gave birth, where they could be found, and an 'aquarium' where we can see all the different types of salmon. There were some suffering from albino... but I feel salmons are actually an ugly breed of fish... they looked super grouchy... dunno why??

What you looking at?

After that, we had to take a 2 and a half hours bus ride to Tomita Farm in Furano to look at my Lavender Fields. We stopped by a highway for a 15-min break, in case someone needs the toilet, or like us, want to buy some food! Hehehe... since breakfast was pathetic, we decided to buy a packet of Takoyuki (takopuchi balls) to fill our stomachs... There were a total of 8 balls, and it costs 350yen. Hmm... comparable to Singapore standards.

The journey to Furano was super long ... I dozed off for a while as the coach zoomed past fields and buildings...

The lavenders were really PRETTY!!!!! I smell lavenders in the air. Other than Lavenders, they had lots of other pretty flowers (but I dunno their names since I can't read Japanese!). The workers in the farm all wore purple t-shirts. So nice!!! The houses there were nice too! The whole place was so scenic that I wished I owned the farm!!! So tempted to fly back in August to see the sunflowers!!

Even the souvenir shop was nicely decorated with dried flowers!! I bought 2 bottles of lavender for Xueling & Yanshan. Since Yuan doesn't like Lavender, have to look for something else for her. I also bought a bookmark for Sherry. This would be easier to send out via postage.

Liao-san told us the Lavender ice-cream here is a MUST-TRY as the texture is smoother... We bought 1 on the way back. Man!! The ice-cream was melting way too fast!!!! (due to the sun) but like what Liao-san said, the ice-cream here was really smoother, and I felt its more fragrant too! Slurp!!

After that, we went to a restaurant nearby for buffet lunch. The restaurant's name was "Herb Hill Furano". There's a souvenir shop attached to it. Lunch was quite alright... After that, we went to look-see in the souvenir shop... Liao-san said we'll be going to a place on our last day where we can do our shopping at cheaper prices!! But we must tahan the itch to spend now... Gulp... this is soooooooo ..... ARGH!!!!!!

Then we had to take another long bus ride to Daisetsu Zan. I took the opportunity to take a quick nap.

The view up there was splendid. We had to pay 1,500 yen to take a cable car to the lookout point (the 5th stage of Mount Kurodate, which is 1,300m above ground). What a pity when we could only spend 20 mins on "the top of the world"!!! Cos we need to catch the cable car to go down to the 'ground level'.

We would be staying in a Hot Spring Resort tonight!! YEAH!! Can experience Japanese Onsen!!

We were at Rm 4108 in Chuyo Resort Hotel.

Its been such a long time since I've slept on a tatami!! I missed the feeling man!!

We booked a private room for our onsen at 10pm... have to pay 2,500 yen for 50mins. But I guess this was just a warm-up for us because tonight is the only night where we could enjoy privacy in a private room. From tomorrow onwards, the hot spring resort that we would be staying has only Public Baths!! oops.. have to bare all and use a miserable towel to cover your 'prized assets'. Where shall you cover?? Liao-san jokingly said that we should cover our faces if we were really embarrassed. In this case, people wouldn't know who you are! yah right! This would only make you more prominent and people would focus their attention on you more!

We had to wear the Yukata to go for our dinner. Dinner was pretty ok. At least the variety's good, and the stuff were fresh!! Yummy... I had never eaten so much sashimi in my life!!

The private onsen was quite cool... but we had only 50 mins to enjoy the steam. We had to wash our bodies at another area first before soaking ourselves in the big wooden tub. Hot water kept over-flowing from the tub. We had to wash ourselves with hot water so that our body could adjust to the temperate of the water in the tub. After that, we had to bathe with cold water so as to bring down our body temperature. I am seriously wondering if I will catch a cold if I do this for 3 cosecutive days!

There was this puzzle game in our room. We managed to solve 3 out of the 11 puzzles. Damn challenging!! But very addictive too! This could be a good game to play at Boardgame cafes... but it would be better to play it at someone's house... or else you'd be stuck to 1 game throughout the day!!

Actually the Yukata looked horrible.... the yellow, the orange, the green.... Eeekkks..... Emily mentioned that we looked like Patients instead... and I quipped to say that we could be mental patients for 1 night : P

I felt that the room in the Resort Hotel was bigger than the Hotel in the city we stayed on the first night. But the bathroom was super miserable in the Resort Hotel. I could knock the ceiling when I was changing in the bathroom!! Everything looked fragile as the cupboard was made of paper???

Yawnzzzzzzzzzz.... There's the World Cup Finals tomorrow morning... but I think I would be too tired to watch the show... Hopefully my Italian Hunks will win! : )

Day 1 in Hokkaido - 8th July 06

Our flight took off at around 12am on 8th July. Breakfast was served as early as 5am+, cos by the time we reached Narita Airport, it was already about 6am+. Yawnzzzzzzzzz...... Japan is one hour ahead of Singapore. Hence, by the time we reached Narita Airport, it was already 7am+ (local time).

The flight to Narita Airport was quite bumpy and noisy, and the air-con didn't seem to be working. The seats were quite cramped and uncomfortable too! Thought advertisement portrayed ANA as a very good airline... hmmm... Had a hard time trying to catch a wink!! Argh....

Breakfast was ok. What can you expect from airline food... It contained salad (eeewwwweee... I hate raw tomatoes!), dessert, crossaint, orange juice, & rice + fish slices + few sticks of green veggies.

Saw a cute security guard at the 'declaration of duty goods' counter on the way out. He stopped to ask me for my passport. I thought he looked a bit like Takeshi Kaneshiro - fair, tall, and cute!

We met our local tour guide, Liao-san, at the Arrival Hall of Narita Airport. We had to take a coach to Haneda Airport for our internal flight to Chitose Airport in Hokkaido. The coach ride took us almost 1 and a half hours to reach the airport.

Liao-san advised us to buy a bento at Haneda Airport and eat it on board the plane, since we had an early breakfast, and they only served drinks on the internal flight (it only took us 1hr15mins to reach Chitose Airport from Haneda Airport). We went to shop around Haneda Airport and bought a bento each. Wow... must kowtow to the Japanese for their very very nice packaging!!!! Even the bentos were packed so nicely!!! But the prices were of course quite steep!

We were so tired on board the internal flight to Chitose Airport (Hokkaido) that we fell asleep instead of eating our 'lunch'. At least this Boeing 747-300 plane was so much more spacious and less bumpy than our ride from Singapore to Narita Airport. Some cute young Japanese guys boarded the same flight as us.

It was almost 1pm by the time we reached Chitose Airport. We only started eating our bento while travelling on a coach to our first destination - Sapporo Beer Museum. There were nice 'stamps' at the places of interest we visited. We stamped them in our passport ;P

The museum was huge! They have 4 levels. A japanese guide brought us around the museum. Liao-san had to do the translation cos the guide spoke Japanese to us. We tasted the 'hops' used to brew beer. Hmmm.... tasted quite alright lah...

After that, we went through some galleries where they showcased the first advertising done for Sapporo Beer. As well as all the packagings!!! Damn cool!!!!

We were given a small cup of beer for tasting purposes. The brewery came up with this "Sapporo Beer with Fruit Juice". Yum... but I could feel the effect of the beer within seconds. My whole face flushed!

As there's this 50yen discount coupon attached to the brochure for the museum, we used it to purchase ice-cream cones :) Slurp.... I ordered 2 scoops - Black Sesame & Lavender - since the price for 1 scoop & 2 scoop were the same - 300 yen. After using the discount coupon, we just had to pay 250yen! : ) Yummy... the ice-cream tasted good... Slurp....

After visiting Sapporo Beer Museum, we moved on to visit this Underground Shopping mall near Odori Park. Located in the downtown area, Sapporo Chikagai is an underground shopping mall filled with about 140 shops, including those specialising in clothing and sundry items, as well as restaurants.

We only managed to shop at Aurora Town, cos the place was like a never-ending tunnel... Dunno when we could see the light at the end of the tunnel as well.... after all, we had to meet at 5:30pm for dinner since we had an early breakfast and lunch. Dinner would be at a restaurant near the NHK Tower. Bought bra at this shop called "Takasho". 2,100 yen for 3 pairs of bras!! One pair even came with a matching panty!! Quite good bargain, especially when the bras were quite comfortable, and the designs and colours were so pretty!!!

Had tempura set meal for dinner. Shiok man!!! The taste was so different from the ones I've eaten in Singapore!!! Slurp Slurp Slurp!

After dinner, we went to Mount Moiwa to see the night view. Brrrrrr... it was quite cold up there... the way up was quite tedious as we had to walk up some uneven steps, and up a slope, and climbed dunno how many flights of spiral staircase before we reached the 'lookout point'. Since it was still early, the night view wasn't that terrific, as most of the buildings were not lighted up. Took a few pictures and quickly went to take refuge at the souvenir shop, where I bought a lot of postcards!!!! Would be sending 1 to myself, 1 to Yanshan, 1 to Yuanyuan & 1 to Xueling. Saved 2 for emergencies... dun think I will send back to my nieces as they'll most probably misplace them : (

Going up to Mount Moiwa was quite challenging for the driver as the road was like a meader, with lots of turns and the roads seemed quite narrow. Reminds me of "Initial D"... ahh.... But the view was quiet scenic. By the time we reached the hotel, it was already 8pm. Had a quick shower before rushing down to the nearest shopping from our hotel.

We stayed at APA Hotel for the night. Our room number was 1165. The view was pretty ok. There's this Pachinko Centre right opposite our hotel. We had to walk around 10mins to reach the BEST denki store, where there was a DAISO and a supermarket inside, not forgetting uncle Ronald & KFC. We bought some foodstuff from DAISO, and bought a few bottles of drinks from the vending machines :P

Then we went to this Fresh Food Market and bought cup noodles!! Liao-san said the instant noodles here tasted better than the ones imported by our home countries.

Went to the Pachinko Centre to see what Pachinko is all about. Why everyone is crazy about this thing??? But after seeing people (mostly old folks) loading balls into the machine and shooting them from all directions, and then the balls fly all over the place and drop into the various holes, occasionally you'll see nice animation appearing saying its "Bonus round" or some kind of rewards or warnings, I really don't understand what's so fun about Pachinko... Some machines even had Bae Yong Jun on the screens!!! Yucks.... You should see those aunties drool at the sight of Bae Yong Jun....

It was already 11+ when we went back to the hotel. Darn!! There's no fork or chopsticks to eat the Cup Noodle!!! anyway, we found a way to eat it :P The noodles was ok : ) but I didn't manage to finish it, cos I don't have the habit of eating supper.... and to eat cup noodles in the middle of the night was too jia lart for me, cos I can't sleep if I am too full!!! In the end I had to dump the noodles into the bin that says "Cannot be burnt".

Sometimes I felt a bit 'retarded' when I had to think hard before throwing rubbish. Its like an exam question - "Place the rubbish in the correct bin." Aiyoh.... headache leh.... is plastic burnable?? Help!! My brain cells are diminishing!!!!

My bento from Haneda Airport : ) Cost 714 Yen!! Oishi desu.


Sapporo Beer Museum. Very nice architecture.

NHK TV Tower. This was one landmark near Sapporo Chikagai.


Tempura Dinner... Slurp!

City view from Mount Moiwa. Too bad we were early... or else the lighted city would be very pretty!!!