Fell in love with Hokkaido when I first visited it with Janice & Florence in Feb 2008. It was snowing heavily and it was my first experience with winter wonderland. I was quite apprehensive before the trip - was worried about the extreme weather and whether we would be able to withstand it.
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| Super snowy holiday !! |
At Narita, we had to check-in our luggages again to connect the next ANA flight to Sapporo, Hokkaido. We had a quick meal at the domestic airport before our flight as we were quite hungry. No meal was served on board this short haul flight. By the time we arrive in Sapparo, the sky was all dark although it was only 5pm.
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| Jigokudani Hell Valley |
Early morning after breakfast, we took a leisurely drive to Noboribetsu (登別) where we find the famous Jigokudani, also known as the Hell Valley. We walked through the sulphurous valley to see boiling ponds and steaming streams. The snow on the ground were thick and we had to walk slowly and carefully to avoid falling down on our butts.
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| Jigokudani Hell Valley - photo taken using a Canon Ixus 400 camera |
Next, we made our way to Shiraoi Ainu Village to catch an insight of the lives of the aborigines of Hokkaido through their houses, embroideries and weavings.
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| Fishes are left to dry in the sun/snow. |
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| A river runs through the Village. |
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| Performance by the Ainu people - Dance to thank the gods for their harvest. |
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| Fresh scallops which can be added to your steamboat lunch for a price. |
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| The ingredients for our steamboat lunch. Lots of vegetables and two Hokkaido crabs. |
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| Our delicious dinner at the hotel in Lake Toya. Our dinner consisting of crab, pot of hot soup with scallops, sashimi, fried tempura & vege. Dessert is a crunchy apple |
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| Lake Toya |
To its west, we can enjoy the view of Mt. Yotei, nicknamed Mt. Fuji of Hokkaido. Around this lake is Lake Toya hot spring resort, popular among the people for the beautiful landscape, good hot spring, excellent food, for they can produce good rice, vegetables, beans, fruits, and dairy products here besides the tasty seafood from the Toyoura bay on the Pacific Ocean.
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| Mt Showa (above) is an interesting landform that was raised from a farmland after two years of volcanic activities. |
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| Florence, at Toya Snow World, posing with the snow mobiles on the white mountainside. We are in fact, at the mid-way point of our 1 hour snow mobile ride. It was freezing cold and snowing heavily, riding against the icy wind and falling snow. |
During our trip, we visited Asahikawa - the coldest city in Japan, holding Japan's temperature record of -41°C. It's not that bad most of the time though, and the good side to cold and snow is that there's some great skiing nearby.
We arrived at the famous Hokkaido Ramen Village where the entire place is dominated by ramen stalls. We got to taste the famous Hokkaido Ramen.
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Janice & Flo tucking into their delicious Stewed Pork Ramen.
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We had a stop at the Kita Kitsbe Fox Village to see the famous Hokkaido fox, which was well-known for its fur.
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| (Above) The famous Hokkaido fox |
We journeyed to Sounkyo Gorge, situated at the foot of Mt Daisetsu-zan National Park. This gorge consists of many cliffs, 100 metres tall. Sounkyo Gorge has many waterfalls Ryusei-no-taki Falls (Shooting Star Falls) and Ginga-no-taki Falls (Milky Way Falls).
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| Sounkyo Gorge - falling now and it's freezing here !!! It's not even 5pm!! |
Below are photos taken at 4.30am from my hotel room window in Asahikawa. The girls were fast asleep. The whole place was covered with snow. It's so beautiful and peaceful outside !
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| The cars at the hotel's carpark were covered with snow! |
