Hokkaido Trip Report 2

Woke up at 5.15am to visit the onsen once more. This time, the men's and women's bath had been swapped so that you get to experience both sides. Had the hotel buffet for breakfast before departing. Below are shots of Lake Toya which I took that morning, as it was too dark to capture the previous night.




We proceeded to some Snowmobile place, where it cost a whopping 10k Yen to ride on one. Donning a helmet, we had to take their bus to an open snowfield where their snowmobiles were located. Unfortunately, we had to travel in a single file and stay behind the instructors as we maneuvered through a standard trail, hence my greatest speed was only about 40km/h for a few seconds before having to slow down to avoid smashing into the person ahead. It was pretty fun though, apart from the strong fuel smell.



(Clockwise : A little snowman near the snowmobiles area, The snowmobile I used together with my gloves thrown on it, A Mt.Fuji lookalike seen from the turning point of the trail, a little shed found at the turning point of the trail)




Next up was lunch at a small place (Top left) which offered a pretty good view of Lake Toya.



A hotpot with vegetables, corn, slices of beef (I think), prawns, ika, hotate and salmon. Might seem ordinary, but this particular hotpot left an impression on me. I think butter was added in, which together with the fragrance of the corn, really served to enhance the taste of everything.　 とてもおいしかった！



Following lunch, we made the trip to the Rusutsu Resort, a somewhat western themed resort.



Included in the tour package was a single round of Snow Tubing and Snow Rafting. The former merely involves plonking yourself down on a rubber tube and sliding down the slope whereas for the latter, you sit yourself in a rubber 'raft' and get dragged around by a snowmobile. Of course, neither seemed as fun as the other skiers and snowboarders zooming around us.



(Clockwise : Picture of the ski slopes, Students having winter ski classes, The designated tubing slope, Me getting up from the tube)

An interesting fact was that some schools there even send their students for winter ski classes . . . such luxury! I decided to rent a snowboard and boots at around 4pm (From 4pm onwards until 9pm, you would be eligible for a half day rental pass, which set me back around 3700 Yen) and the shop assistants were quite helpful, speaking in a little English as I didn't really know how to rent the stuff in Japanese. This being my first time, they also helped me to select an appropriate board, put on the boots as well as showed me how to attach the board.




It was pretty fun, though I spent more time on the floor than on the board. Fell countless times and ached for days after. Stopped around 7.15pm to proceed for dinner and found out that the rental shop was already closed at 7pm, with a sign outside saying that those who had borrowed the equipment for the night should return it by 9am the following morning. Hence, I spent about 300 Yen renting a locker to keep the equipment overnight.



After dinner, I took a short 5 min walk from the hotel to the Seico Mart outside, where I bought a carton of Hokkaido milk and a can of Sapporo beer. Only managed to finish half of the beer, further affirming the fact that I really do prefer sweet drinks compared to alcoholic stuff. Looked out for ichigo daifuku in the mart but couldn't find it. Went back to my room and switched on the TV, hoping for more variety shows. I wasn't disappointed, with one featuring Tsuchiya Anna and 2 other girls. One of the other girls seemed to be portrayed as being a little 'silly', with funny comments appearing on the screen whenever she talked and at a point in the show, looked like she was about to fall asleep. A thing which I neglected to mention in the previous report was that another variety show I watched the previous day had Hard Gay included, so it seems that he's still somewhat active. Moving on, there was also an artificial man-made bath in the hotel, but I didn't visit it as it was some distance away from my room.