THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN II: HOKKAIDO, SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT JAPAN

Although we spent only a week there, we managed quite a lot. My bum still reminds me of that and it isn’t half as red and sore as it was when we arrived to Asahidake Onsen just a few days ago.

Mum and I decided that if we skip Sapporo, nothing major happens, and we rented a car straight at the airport. The black Honda was super small, but mum and I are as well and thus it was more than enough and every litre of fuel counts, right? The best of all was that I was given a completely different car seat than I have in New Zealand and I was allowed to sit in the front and watch everything.

That "everything" is green in Hokkaido and I think it is pretty obvious that it rains a lot. For us it was raining only two days: the last one, when we basically only went to return the car and from there to the airport, and the first one, when the rain created quite a nice atmosphere by the apartment building ruins and craters which were left there by the last eruption of Usu volcano in 2000. Moreover mum has got a waterproof jacket and my carrier has a raincoat so some rain can´t frighten us.

By Lake Toya we tried our first Airbnb ever. It was a good choice because first we saved a lot and second we stayed in a super Japanese room with tatami and futons, which you can´t fall off, and we got a traditional breakfast in the morning, which of course I tasted as well. Actually all the accommodation was fine (quite typical for Japan), but if we stayed a bit longer mum would probably go bankrupt :-(.

Niseko is a well-known ski area where we met with Tom from Slovakia, whom mum knows from New Zealand. In winter Tom worked in a ski area and now he is a raft guide. We went for dinner and the next day we climbed together the 1308-metres-high Mount Annapuri, where there was still a lot of snow. Tom was a snack-porter and mum could carry me in a backpack which is much better because I can see better what is going on around. Moreover Tom had a great, nice-to-pull beard. And showed us where to buy delicious yogurt drinks.

The ride from Niseko to Asahidake Onsen in the Daisetsuzan National Park was super long and super boring, which I was letting mum know pretty loudly the last half an hour. Plus I had a really sore bum by then, so sore that mum had to leave me without a nappy at night and the next few days I was sitting only on a towel wherever it was possible – including the car seat. Ouch. I have to say that it was quite entertaining when the next morning mum realized that the only way how to pay for the cable car to Asahidake (2290 m), the highest mountain in Hokkaido, is by cash. That we obviously didn’t have and due to the absence of any ATM in 50+ km radius couldn´t get either. We needed exactly 1800 yen and had only 500, which local guards asking for a 1000-yen bribe could not get for ages. Eventually we got the ride. For free. And it was just great because there was meter-deep snow and nice, warm and sunny up there. We went to have a look at the steaming, hissing and like rotten eggs smelling holes and then climbed a little bit towards the summit.

In the Shiretoko National Park we wanted to see some brown bears, we didn’t even carry any bells, but they didn´t come :-(. On the way to the cliffs we met an older Belgian guy who was refused his international driver´s licence so he was cruising Hokkaido on a bike. Hard work I think, with all those mountains.

On our way south we went to have a look at Lake Mashu which you can find at the end of 13 kilometres of an uphill zigzag road. There we met a fox that was standing in the middle of the road and didn´t want to move. It was not a bear, but better something than nothing. When first seen, Lake Kussharo looks much more boring, on the other hand there are old rusty swans, which one can get a ride on, and if you dig in sand you reach hot water in a bit and you can build your private hot pool.

In Kushiro we took a walk through the biggest marsh in Hokkaido and peeped into a crane centre where there were not many of these birds because it was not their season. But they had the best kids´area in the world where we got stuck for two hours. And then the time came to smash the last bit of the road, return the car and set off for the airport and back to Honshu, which resembles Japan a little bit more than Hokkaido.

Your Annie

Some facts

When: 27. 5. - 2. 6. 2017 Where: Kawagoe - Haneda - Chitose (Japan) - Hokkaido (Japan) How: train, bus, plane, rental car

How long: 30 min. + 30 min. + 1 hr. 45 min. + looong hours How far: 60 + 822 + 1 200 = 2 082 km