20160928 - 20161001_Hokkaido

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 Biei ... more variety of flowers in slightly undulating grounds - which made the landscape more interesting.  And they have one field dedicated to sunflowers!  Clouds were coming in and we decided to skip the drive in the patchwork area.  Guessed what we had for lunch?  Ramen, of course!

rainbow of colours at Shikisai-no-Oka 

Mt Asahidake in the background

We drove through the rain and reached Asahidake in pouring rain ... the manager came out to the parking lot with his umbrellas so we would not get soaked.  We met a Japanese in the lobby who told us we must check out the bath as it is the oldest in the area and that was the reason he chose the hotel.  Even though the rain stopped, we hesitated about going up the ropeway.  The receptionist quickly showed us on the computer the live view from the camera at the upper station ... and it looked quite OK; and so off we went.  

a closer look at the fumaroles

Despite the on and off rain showers, the view was nice and the rain drew out the colours even more.  But it was relatively cold and Karen and Lesley, who were not properly dressed for the cold, decided to just complete the short loop, while David went on the slightly longer full loop.  And then the sun came out, what a pleasant surprise!  The bright orange bushes against a brilliant dark green backdrop, the sun peeking out from behind the clouds, the layer of clouds floating beneath us, the drifting smoke from the fumaroles playing hide and seek with the many hues from the mountainside ... what a view!

path around Asahidaira - somewhere between the Sugatami Station and Sugatami Pond

We had a special dinner tonight ... special dishes included vichyssoise in a halved cantaloupe, abalone baked in sea salt and wagyu shabushabu.  What's a better way to end the day with a dip in the onsen!

Ginsendai - First Flower Garden

Sep 30 - Asahidake - Sounkyo.  We decided to skip the Asahikawa Ramen Village - it's too nice a day to stay indoors, the place does not open until 11 and we were still full from the yummy special breakfast.  We left our luggage at the hotel in Sounkyo and drove straight to Ginsendai to do a real hike.  The 14-km unpaved gravel road, which we were not expecting, slowed us down a bit.  Lesley, who was driving, got a bit of a scare when she ran into two HUGE tour buses on the single-lane twisty gravel road. 

Mt Akadake in the background

It caught her by surprise ... but she managed to backup and pulled aside to let them through. The fall colours at Ginsendai were unreal.  A lot of people would hike up 30-45 minutes to admire the colours of the First Flower Garden on the other side of the hill and went back down.  We took our time and went to the Second Garden.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day for hiking and the brilliant colours were too good to be missed ... yellow and fiery red bushes against a green background under a clear blue sky! 

Layers of colours and shapes

Karen decided to turn back at the Second Garden, while Lesley and David marched on for another hour - they stopped at 0.8 km from the Akadake summit.  The steep, rocky and uneven terrain were quite hard on the knees, the feet and the back; but we all made it back in one piece.  While the buffet dinner was less than ideal, the onsen helped soothe our aching bodies.

your typical yellow Fall corridor

Oct 01 - While we had high hopes for the Sounkyo Ropeway, it turned out to be a dud.  The spectacular multi-hued mountainside on the pamphlet turned into patches of dull green and brown under the harsh sunlight.  Alas we had our first disappointment of the trip ... we were perhaps a few weeks late!  Instead of hiking the Akadake, we went back down the ropeway after a short walk and moved onto our next hike - the Kogen-Numa Meguri hike.  It took us over an hour to get there and similar to Ginsendai, we had to drive on a gravel road.  Talk about a different experience ... the limited parking spots at the trailhead meant we had to wait for a parking spot, then we had to sign in and confirmed we understood the precaution before we were allowed to get on the gated trail! These steps were taken because of the frequent sighting of bears in the area. Despite the wet and slippery conditions on parts of the trail, it was a very nice hike.  Yellow was definitely the dominant colour on the trail, followed by green and the occasional red.  It was a perfect fall hike. 

colours may change, but the fumaroles keep steaming

We saw fumaroles, rushing streams and placid ponds along the way.  Instead of doing the 4-hour loop, we were planning to stop at a pond after 90 minutes or so.  We got there and that's when we got our second surprise.  Lesley was eating an apple and she was told that eating was not allowed in that area ... fear of attracting the bears.  Then we were told (by the volunteers who patrol the trail) to start our return journey as we need to be off the trail by 3 PM!  All these were done to safeguard the hiker from the bears!

everybody's vying for attention in the perfect reflection

On our way back to the hotel, we also stopped at a couple waterfalls ... interesting, but nothing to write home about.  We upgraded our dinner option and enjoyed a nice set meal.  And the ladies ended their day with a nice massage ... David missed out because all the time slots had been taken up ...

a delicious set menu

During our two hikes, we ran into a number of hikers. What we found amazing was a lot of them are elderlies ... mostly in their 70s or may be 80s. There were this couple who overtook us on the Kogen-Numa hike, they must be in their late 70s, each carrying a "wooden pole" (must be a lot heavier than our hiking sticks), taking steady steps slowly but surely both up and down. One other observation was there were a number of kids too; they start hiking at a very young age, and some were being carried by the parents.

So we did three fall colours hikes in the last three days ... and the consensus was the first one, the Asahidake Ropeway one was the BEST!  The colours, the varieties of scenery, the change in weather, the sparse crowd ... all helped to make it our #1 choice.