Hokkaido Trip Report 4

First up on today's itinerary was a trip to Otaru, a sort of port town. As you can see from the picture, the temperature then was 5.9 degrees, one of the warmer days.




We visited one of the orgel/music box museums in the city, along a street filled with several other shops selling glassware, different types of snacks and food.




Some of the tunes were pretty up to date with a wide selection. Songs ranged from well-known artists such as Mr.Children and Hamasaki Ayumi to those from the Ghibli films as well as some disney films. Due to time constraints, I didn't really get to visit much of the other shops as I had lingered in the orgel place for quite a long while.

Before returning to the coach, I bought a lavender-flavored soft cream which tasted pretty good. It had just the right amount of sweetness that I liked, flavorful but not too sweet. There were other flavors available of course, such as one with a combination of milk, lavender and yubari melon flavors.

Next up was lunch which consisted of a hotpot (Remember me mentioning in the first post when I said that meal provided a preview of things to come ?), fish flakes which you're supposed to pour onto the rice, as well as a grilled hokke fish (at least I think it's called hokke). It was delicious and tasted slightly sweet. In case you can't see clearly from the picture, the dessert was a yubari melon- flavored jelly.



After lunch was a visit to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory. We only got to wander around outside as they weren't prepared to take in visitors at the moment after re-opening for business only recently. If you are unaware of the scandal which previously surrounded it, good for you :D





As you can see, it hardly looks like a factory from its exterior. From its European theme complete with luxurious patios, it could certainly have passed off as a hotel or some themed resort, at least from the outside. There is even a mechanical performance every hour, which begins at the clocktower and partially involves the patio and part of the main building. Shiroi Koibito was already sold out for the day over there even though we arrived around 1.15pm.



Next on the itinerary was a stop at the Tanukikoji Shopping Street, which had many stores above ground as well as underground. There was even a Daiso nearby which had around 7 levels if I remember correctly.





We then proceeded to Odori Park and though it was raining, there was still a festive mood in the air with all the christmas lights and decorations. Many of the stores sold food and sweet sake.




Just opposite the section of the park I visited was the Sapporo TV Tower, but I didn't get to go up to the observation deck.



That was because our next stop was the JR TOWER Observatory T38, which stands for Tower Three Eight and the observatory deck is on the 38th floor. The Tower was linked to a shopping mall called Stellar Place, which was crowded with festive shoppers.






The view was pretty spectacular, at least to me. There were also 2 live musicians on the observatory deck playing classical pieces to add to the mood. If you go there during the day, you might even be able to see all the way to Otaru if the weather is clear.

A barbecue/grill dinner was next on the list which consists of those stuff you see in the picture as well as beef, pork or chicken. We decided to order special kobe beef to sample, which turned out to be pretty expensive. It cost more than 10k Yen for that plate in the picture on the top right. Granted it was probably the best beef I had ever tasted, but the price was really high.




After dinner, we proceeded to the hotel.



There was an onsen in this hotel as well, which included a small outdoor pool. Once again, it was nice being in the outdoor pool as it was snowing at the time that I visited. If I recall correctly, the temperature of the hot spring this time was not as high as the others, so it merely felt warm instead of hot.

Hokkaido Trip Report 3

Our first stop of the day was the Ainu Museum.



For those curious, here's some information taken from the brochure of the Ainu Museum :

What does Ainu mean ?

"This large island of Hokkaido was once a land of freedom for our ancestors." (From the preface of "Ainu Mythology" by Yukie Chiri)
"Ainu" is originally an Ainu word meaning "human." The Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido with their own culture and language, had lived in Hokkaido, the northern part of Japan's Tohoku region, southern Sakhalin and Chishima Island before those areas were developed by Japanese and Russian settlers. Several tens of thousands of Ainu still live in Hokkaido and other areas.

The Ainu Museum (Porotokotan)

The Ainu settlement, which was originally in Shiraoi's urban district, was moved and restored at the shores of Lake Poroto in 1965 to form this outdoor museum to preserve and exhibit the Ainu's cultural assets. The facilities included five cises (a thatched house), a museum, a botanical garden and an animal barn. This museum is popularly known as Porotokotan, which means a large lakeside village.





In one of the huts, we were treated to several performances, but I only managed to record one of the Ainu traditional dances, which you may view in the video below. Interestingly, I found out that there was an Ainu word 'Wakka' which meant 'Water'. Perhaps that was the basis for naming Wakka in Final Fantasy X.




Caught sight of this ad featuring Toda Erika (Misa in Death Note) on the way out, couldn't resist taking a shot.



Next up, we headed for lunch. It started snowing pretty heavily on the way. On the first floor of our lunch venue, there was a sort of seafood market, where you can purchase stuff and request it be turned into Sashimi then and there, or served to your table for those that needed longer preparation. The stuff were pretty expensive though, with my large Hotate costing 1500 Yen each and 100g of Toro costing 4500Yen. The crab cost about 13000 Yen, thus I decided against purchasing it.




Here are more pictures of lunch. From clockwise below : Hotate sashimi, hotpot, salmon sashimi and toro sashimi. Ingredients in the hotpot consisted of salmon, vegetables and small hotate. Enough to make a decent meal without purchasing extra stuff. The hotate sashimi was pretty good, though there was several overly chewy strands. The salmon and toro sashimi tasted fresh, though I guess 4500 Yen for toro probably isn't really worth it, heh.




Next up on the itinerary was the Edo Wonderland (Jidai Mura), a sort of Feudal-era theme park. We were greeted by a sword-wielding "Samurai" at the entrance, and he posed for shots with people after offering them another sword. As you can see from the pictures below, stepping into the village was like taking a step back into the past, with all the olden architecture and landscape. There were restaurants inside too, with modern food. Unfortunately, it was raining throughout my entire time here, so it did get pretty cold and wet. I kinda' liked the atmosphere there, somewhat reminiscent of Kyoto.




One of the attractions I enjoyed was the Ninja Maze. It was filled with interesting areas, such as slanting rooms whereby it was hard to keep your balance (It might perhaps even be moving slightly, since you might feel like falling even whilst standing still) and revolving doors. One of the areas was also built such that you couldn't proceed unless you found a sliding panel, though it was pretty obvious as it had a white rope attached to the pulley.


(One of those slanting rooms mentioned above. You might want to full view to get a better perspective.)


(Shall we proceed to the next floor ? No, it's actually a fake stairway. You can't ascend at all)


(Hmm, what's behind this door ?)


(Ooops! Should've locked the door next time!)

Here's a shaky cam vid of my brother transversing the maze. Can't catch much of the ambience from it, but at least you'll get a rough idea.




Next up, we visited the Haunted House, but it was pretty disappointing as you viewed exhibits rather than take part in any action.



Surprisingly, the Cat Temple provided more of a scare than the Haunted House. From a giant paw that descended from the ceiling as you walked past to trees that swayed and rustled, it definitely made for a better haunted house.



(The last picture reminds me of the small oden Kitsune from xxxHOLiC)



Next up was a short Ninja performance indoors. Before the show started, we were entertained by a Jester cum Announcer who was singing some sort of song/rhyme and playing about with a wooden contraption which seemed like a row of chopsticks stringed together, but could form tons of shapes. The main show was rather entertaining, with a lot of fighting and action. In the bottom left picture, you have a shot of the stage. There was a ton of hidden doors all around, such as part of the ceiling detaching to form a ladder, an altar concealing a secret passage, a trap door at the end of the wooden walkway and several others. Prior to the start of the show, you were given a small piece of white paper. This is for you to emulate the olden days whereby you use the paper to wrap coins and throw them onto the stage after the performance if you enjoyed it. From what little bit I could make out from the announcer earlier, he didn't mind if you wrapped even 5 yen, chocolates or sweets and threw them.

I was further impressed by the Jester after the show. Apparently, someone had left their beanie behind and he chased after all the different departing groups until the Entrance/Exit of the park, asking around to see whom it belonged too. *Round of Applause*



We departed the Jidai Mura shortly after the performance and headed to our next stop, Jigokudani Valley or Hell Valley. It was dark by this time and still raining, hence I didn't take a lot of pictures. The gas being emitted smelt like sulphur.



We proceeded to our hotel after that, and got ready for dinner which was served in a traditional styled room, somewhat like the Inn at Lake Kawaguchi.



There were a lot of dishes and I was hard pressed to finish everything. Note the hotate and amaebi, which was present in many of the meals. The katsu was delicious too, a very satisfying dinner indeed. Afterwards, I went back to my room and switched on the TV, catching an interesting show whereby several people were tasting Ramen from different shops in order to find the most spicy ramen. I only recognized one of the people as a V6 member. Following that, I went out to walk a little. The rain had turned to snow by now, so it was a nice sight outside.

For some reason, I really like these small streets littered with brightly lit shops. They give me a somewhat comforting feel. There were 3-4 convenience stores along this stretch, which couldn't have been more than a few hundred meters in length. I saw several girls strolling in those light, hotel yukata on this snowy night, so their probably either nuts or have just emerged recently from an onsen bath. From personal experience, the cold does not get to you for a short period of time after you have been soaked in the hot spring.




Speaking of hot springs, the hotel here had one too. After my walk, I had a little soak in the onsen. The water this time was cloudy, possibly due to sulphur and other minerals in it. There was a small open air bath as well, and the feeling of being in an onsen with snow falling around you was indeed enjoyable, though perhaps a good way to catch a cold.