20161008 - 20161009_Hokkaido

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 the area in the before and after pictures - imagine a long highway, that suddenly became a giant's staircase (an 80m elevation increase!); or the appearance of a fault right through a steel reinforced 5-story apartment building; or a large metal bridge for automobiles, complete with street lamps, that was literally washed down several hundred metres in the mudflow. The bridge is still in its new location, as is the apartment building it clipped on the way down.  The bridge has one mostly intact street lamp, and another that has been completely crumpled in on itself.  One of the thoughts that struck me as we walked through is that the volcano erupts every 20-50 years... so in one's lifetime, your home could be destroyed 3-4 times!  It's already happened 3 times in the last 70 years (1944-45, 1977-82, 2000-01)!!  It takes real love, dedication and guts to live here!

If you look closely, the apartment building (at the front of the picture)  is the one that got clipped by 

the bridge - which slid several hundred metres during a mud slide.  Nakijima - the 4 islands in the 

background, was formed 60,000 years after the initial crater (Lake Toya) came about.

We were going to drive through Niskeo and Kutchan to try to catch some fall colours.  But with the rain and dark clouds, we decided to go straight to Jozankei.  The hotel was very average, although the price did not quite reflect that ... it turns out the hotel has a big pool with water park like facilities and families go there in droves!  As it was a long weekend here, we had to wait in line for 20+ minutes just to get into the buffet restaurant ... fortunately we were only staying here for one night! 

Oct 9: Jozankei - Otaru - Sapporo

Futami suspension bridge

The weather gods faked us out this morning!  Blue skies and sunshine when we went to breakfast.  Then as we checked out, it started to pour in full sunshine, and then it became overcast within minutes.  Yeesh. We drove down to check out the fall colours at the Futami suspension bridge and Hoheikyo dam.  However with the pouring rain, we decided to give the full walking tour a pass.  

fresh seafood grilled to order - shrimp, scallop
and surf clam (北极贝)

We drive through the rain to the Otaru canal.  We then spent the afternoon exploring the area.  Or should I say eating our way through the area. We had: fresh seafood grilled to order, really sweet corn,  baked Hokkaido potato, red ginger fish cake,  chocolates, red pepper rice cake,  soft rice cake, roasted Japanese sweet potato, cakes and biscuits, a custard cream puff and 3-layer soft serve ice cream (we decided against the 8-layer one ;P). In between eating,  we checked out several stores / museums containing music boxes. It was interesting to see the evolution, rise and fall of automatons and more specifically music 'boxes' (which includes an automated organ).  All in all, it was a relaxing afternoon.  

We then headed into Sapporo - the final stop of our trip. Gotta say... I really didn't miss the traffic and the number of traffic lights in a city. We went for some yummy Korean BBQ food at a Yakiniku restaurant (焼肉レストラン プライム). The meat was yummy (i.e. It had a lot of fat so it was tender and juicy) and the meal was extra satisfying after eating buffet foods for the last 6 days! 

yakiniku (or grilled meat) - yummy Wagyu (和牛)