Karen & David's travel

Oct 8: Noboribetsu - Lake Toya - Jozankei  Oyunuma Pond Alas, our luck with good weather had run out!  It had pretty much rained all day with some variation in intensity and quantity. However,  it didn't stop our sightseeing!  First we drove to Lake Kuttara with a small detour to Oyunuma Pond. This pond was gorgeous with steam rising and swirling from the entire surface of the water.  There were also little "bokkes" at the edges.   Next up was Lake Toya and the Mt. Usu Geo Park. We educated ourselves at the tourist information centre and volcano museum about the active volcano, how eruptions are detected and how the Japanese prepares for these eruptions (they were able to achieve complete evacuation before the last eruption).  Then we walked the Kompira-yama route to see the changes wrought by the eruption in 2000. I thought this attraction was very well made and presented. You could see the immense geological changes to t...

Nothing much to write about October 6. We spent the day driving from the Utoro / Shiretoko National Park to Noboribetsu Onsen. We stopped for a break to explore the Reru Outlet Mall and Salmon Park near New Chitose Airport.  Neither were impressive enough to warrant a recommendation. summit of Mt Tarumae ... and look who'd made it to the top! Next day we drove to the 7th station of nearby Mt. Tarumae (for reference, 0 is the base and 10 is the summit).  We then began our climb up to the summit... Someone was a slow poke like always ;) , but she made it to the top!   The summit was not as stunning as Mt. Meakan,  but it still had a gorgeous vista of the ocean and 2 blue lakes,  plus the rolling green hills.  The crater also contained some sulphur gas vents, but no water that was visible. scary looking and off-limits crater across the shrine It was crazy windy (and cold!), so we  decided against doing the loop around the crater....

Oct 04 This was another driving day ... Utoro - Teshikaga - Kushiro - Akanko, but we had a few view points planned in between to break it up. After yesterday's rain, this morning was cloudy with strong gusting wind. The car shook when we went through some open areas. Fortunately we were driving away from the rain clouds and the sun came out shortly. The first couple view points were just so so.  But there was this one place with a big patch of grass ... with the strong wind blowing on the grass, they looked like waves. F R E E  foot bath We stopped at the Kawayu Eco Museum Center and watched a short video showing how the volcanoes were formed in the area. It was quite interesting, but it would have been better if the video has English subtitles. We also went to a natural foot bath by the road and enjoyed a quick dip ... the water is quite HOT! Sulphur Mountain Next we went to see the Sulphur Mountain up the road ... you can see a lot of  steam coming o...

Oct 02 We spent most of today driving to Utoro from Sounkyo.   Most of the drive was on local roads, and it took us more than an hour to pass through the town of Kitami … painful. View Point #1 We stopped at a few "view points" along the way. First was this patch of grass on the side of the road - not impressed.  The poster board shows different views of the field for each of the four seasons … I guess we did not come at the right time? The next stop was the red marsh plant at Lake Notoro. The plants were not that red and the colours were kind of uneven.  The pictures in the brochure look a lot better. Next was a park by the sea - supposedly a 20 km stretch of wild flowers.  But all we saw were only miles of shrubs ... but we got a nice view of the sea and a chance to stretch our legs. View Point #3 Then there was the salmon run at Onnebetsu. There were not too many salmons in the river - too late in the season?  Last was the Oshin...

Sep 28 - today was mostly a travel day.  We left for the airport before 7 AM, met up with Lesley at the airport and caught the 9:30 flight to Sapporo.  By the time we hit the road in Hokkaido around 5 PM, it was getting dark.  Surprisingly David adjusted quite well to driving on the other side of the road ... the Australian experience must have helped.  It took us a couple hours driving through many tunnels to get to our hotel in Furano. We concluded our day with a quick, but satisfying bowl of ramen. Farm Tomita Sep 29 - Furano - Biei - Asahidake.  Breakfast at McDonalds ... we saw some interesting toys there and David really wanted to get one for Mikayla, but they only come with the kid's meal!  It was a perfect day to see the flowers - nice cool sunny fall day!  Even though the lavenders were gone, it was still a treat to visit Farm Tomita.    Dare to be different! Next stop was Shikisai-no-Oka in Bie...