Asahidake

On Saturday, after the last day at the school, I took a train to the city of Asahikawa, and then an infrequent bus to the remote Asahidake Onsen, in Daisetsuzan Park in central Hokkaido. The park is very large with opportunities for multi-day hikes around several mountains. Asahidake Onsen consists of half a dozen hotels, each with its own hotspring bath, on the road leading to the tram at the base of Mt. Asahidake.

I stayed a few nights in a hotel here. On my first full day I took the tram, which is a 10 minute ride part way up the mountain to an altitude of 1600 m. This is just above the tree line giving great views of the mountain.

I was particularly fascinated by the vents of sulphuric steam coming out of the side of the mountain.

At the top of the tram there is a walking path that takes about 30 minutes, and has great views of the area and the valley below.

In addition, part way around the circuit there is a path that leads to the top of Mt Asahidake, the highest mountain in the park at about 2300m. Many people were taking the path, the weather was good, and its only a couple of hours to the top, so I decidedI to go.

Just over half way, I entered the clouds, and the wind became very strong blowing raindrops. The terrain became steep and scrambly as well. Overall not that bad though, and I was at the top pretty soon.

I was lucky to get up the tram when I did, since it was closed for the next couple of days due to high winds.

Otaru

Sunday's there are no classes and no school activities, and so it is the day of the week that I do some travel on my own. Today I did a day trip to Otaru.

Otaru is a touristy city about 40 minutes by train from Sapporo, on the coast of the Japan Sea. Behind it are mountains on which you see the cut areas for skiing in winter.

 In the late 1800's it was an important port, and many of the buildings and a pictoresque canal from that time have been preserved.

There is a main shopping street with souvenirs, and crafts such as glasswork. There are artists drawing and selling their work along the canal, etc. An interesting thing that seems important here is the selling of music boxes. Maybe music boxes arrived when the city was a port in the 1800's, but there are huge stores selling music boxes of all shapes and sizes: Everything from the classic style to music boxes in the shape of sushi.

There is also an interesting museum with large music boxes from around one hundred years ago, and the metal plates that they played to create music:

After looking around the center part of town, I took a short tour by boat along the canal.

It was very hot and sunny in the morning, but by late afternoon heavy dark rain clouds were moving in, and I caught a train back to Sapporo.

Noboribetsu Onsen

Noboribetsu Onsen is a hot spring town than can be explored as a day trip from Sapporo. It's about an hour and a half by train to Noboribetsu town on the coast, and then a hour bus ride up the mountain to the hot spring town. As soon as you arrive, you smell sulfur in the air, and there are vents everywhere emitting steam from underground. There is one main shopping street, and several large hotels that each have their own hot spring baths. Just behond the main street, there is a park with trails around a desolate area called Jigokudani, which is consists of sulfurous mounds of earth with natural vents emitting steam.

Beyond that, about a half hour walk through forested trails takes you to a lake called Oyunuma, which consists entirely of hot spring water. There is a stream flowing out of the lake, and a little ways downstream there is a platform where you can enjoy a natural hot spring foot bath:

After walking around I went back to the hot spring town, and went into the large public bath. It is huge, with over half  dozen different baths of different temperatures and mineral content.  After a couple of hours there, I caught the bus back to the town and then fell asleep on the train back to Sapporo.

Sunflower fields, zoo, soup curry and more

Yesterday was a trip with school to the area around Asahikawa, about a couple of hours drive north of Sapporo. We all piled into one of those big tour busses, which was great for socializing on the way there and taking a nap on the way back.

The countryside in this part of Hokkaido consists mainly of a lush, flat, agricultural area, although you can see mountains in the distance. Our first stop was the sunflower fields which was quite beautful. We had a couple of hours to wander around. It was still hot with intense sun.

The next stop was the Asahiyama zoo in Asahikawa. This zoo is apparently quite famous in Japan, but I thought was fairly old-style with small enclosures. I did see a couple of animals I'd never seen before, like the Red Panda:

After arriving back in Sapporo, some students said they were going for Soup Curry, which is a Sapporo specialty, so I tagged along. We ate in a very nice, very popular restaurant in the basement in one of the buildings near the school. The restaurant made nothing but soup curry, and from the menu you choose the type of broth, the type of curry, toppings, degree of spiciness, and rice. It was very good.

 Afterward, the others said they planned to go out, and invited me along. Everyone went home to change, and we met outside a club/lounge called Gossip in Susukino. For 1600 Yen you got entrance and tokens for 5 drinks. I didn't think I'd use them all, but I did, and more. Very friendly atmosphere, with a few other foreigners. There was about 8 of us and we stuck together as a group for the most part. There was no dance floor but people just danced whereever they were standing. After a while we conversed with some of the Japanese people - with a lot of use of Google translate on both sides of the conversation. Overall it was a lot of fun and the time went by fast. I walked home at 4:00 am and it was already getting light out. Yes you could say I'm getting too old for this, but what the hell!