Summer in Hokkaido
This is so late. But anyway, I went to Hokkaido in July, and I was going to make a post about it. Also my rec post for flange :3
Top 10 things/events/places about my trip in no particular order
1. Ishida Chocolate factory
This is the factory of the Shiroi Koibito cookies that's a famed Hokkaido local product, and also almost a theme park into itself. It was really, really elaborate, very European-inspired setting and decor and pretty much kid's fantasy wonderland atmosphere. Alice meets The Secret Garden meets Enid Blyton. A definite must visit for Hokkaido, it was really lovely and a nice place to spend an afternoon relaxing. They have awesome cakes at their cafe, and museums of random old stuff, including a really stuffed museum of toys in Japan through the decades. Their Shiroi Koibito cookies are a must buy, even if it's quite expensive, but not at the factory itself- the cookies there are not duty-free, unlike those sold elsewhere. Irony.
2. Otaru
Otaru is famous for its picturesque canal and old European style buildings, although how pretty it is depends on the season as well. I think spring and summer are generally better for pictures and viewing than winter. Apart from that, there's this very, very awesome building that houses three levels of an amazing collection of musical boxes, everything you can imagine and more. It's very European-influenced like much of Otaru, and again walking into it is like a dreamland, with soft warm lighting and musical boxes spinning all sorts of tunes and catching the light and everything was just sparkling or glowing. They have a special selection of J-pop tunes musical boxes, and they have Arashi as well XD. I bought the one that played Beautiful Days.
Otaru has these little streets and alleys with all sorts of little craft shops and cafes and I could spend one whole day popping up and down alleys and in and out of shops. Otaru is famous for their handmade glassware, and one must pop into some of the many shops that showcase and sell a huge range of glassware and display pieces, all looking so delicately pretty and breakable. Their mutiple-flavoured ice-cream is a must try (I had one with soda, strawberry, melon, milk and lavender- as much fun eating as admiring!) as well as their many desserts and sweets stores.
3. Lake Toya Onsens
Lake Toya is famous for onsens, and there's a long onsen street stuffed with so many onsen hotels and resorts, with one major selling point: onsen. If you go there you have to stay at one of those and soak in the onsens, and many tourists and Japanese go there just for the onsens. They have some very nice hotels there, and one I stayed at had nine different onsen pools housed together. Also, hotel rooms in Hokkaido generally are bigger than those in Tokyo. Flange, if you're going, I suggest staying at a hotel or resort that is situated just along the edge of Lake Toya, instead of one that's more inland. During the non-winter months, they have a fireworks display every night over the lake that's very spectacular and just beautiful. My hotel was right by the lake, and at night all the guests trooped out to watch the fireworks, though one could also stay in the rooms and watch it there. It was the first time I got to admire huge, elaborate fireworks right in front of my eyes, and that's a sight I will never forget. Great view of the lake too.
I would've loved to take pictures of the onsens, but that's the one thing that's impossible :P
4. Other Lake Toya attractions
The bear ranch is a 'can visit', though not a must, unless one is a bear-lover. The cable car ride up to Mount. Usu is nice, but not terribly unique- I'll say lots of other cities have similar attractions. There was a cruise to Nakkajima, nice island, but for more nature-lovers of trees and deers. Lake Toya is quintessential countryside, rural Hokkaido, with the lake as the main attraction and a number of small attractions around it. It's really about nature, picturesque views, mountains and fields, you go there to relax and unwind and not do much but admire the scenery and soak in the onsens.
5. Making ice-cream at Lake Hill Farm
This is a quaint, out of the way, somewhere out in the hills little shop/cafe that sells really yummy soft cream. We got to experience making milk-flavoured ice-cream by hand, which was fun, but didn't work out very well. Making ice-cream by hand is hard. Better to just buy some from the shop. The milk there is so wonderfully creamy and rich and full-flavoured. The store is situated on some hill (I think?), so there's a great, amazing view of the surrounding areas from it. The shop itself is like a little modern farm, on a field with wide pastures and cows and rabbits.
6. Noboribetsu Date Jidai Mura
Edo-style ninja-themed park. So you have everyone dressed up in edo-style clothes, they recreated the whole park to look as though it was from the Edo-period, but very cleaned-up, I imagine. I didn't take Japan history so I have no idea how authentic it is, and probably not very is my guess, considering it is an attraction, but it was fun. A taste of pseudo-Edo Japan! They have a number of shows, mostly comical, throughout the day, and various attractions of different aspects of Edo Japan. Essentially this is not about historical accuracy or a museum, but really a theme park without rides, but it was something fun and different on my trip, considering I didn't get to see anything else remotely like, or get to go to modern Edo.
7. Furano Tomita Farm
Strictly for flower-lovers. Which I'm not, really, but it was nice to see the fields of flowers and lavender was in season when I went, something I don't get to see here. Furano is also like lavender-city, so great for lovers of lavender products. Here the lavender ice-cream is a must try. Furano is mainly about farms, I think. Produce and flowers, farms, etc.
8. Sapporo, Susukino
Well, it was the context, really, considering, we'd spent one week soaking in nature and the wild countryside, and I was excited about finally getting to see a real Japanese urban, bustling city. It was the idea of the concept. I didn't get to go to Tokyo, but I still wanted to experience the 'Japanese urban city'. Though I've heard that it's a just a city like many other Japanese cities or even other cities elsewhere. And, well, I did quite a bit of shopping there. And it was there I finally got to satisfy my Arashi cravings. It's malls and entertainment district and red-light district and nightlife. It's finding Uniqlo and shopping at huge 100-yen shops full of amazing curiosities and seeing a huge Kinokuniya, my shrine, but not being able to go in because I didn't have time to. It's seeing oh-so-trendy (but still nowhere near Harajuku or Shinjuku) Japanese teens hanging out on the streets and in trendy malls. And designer brands to be had and buying Japanese cosmetics. In short, trying to get a tiny taste of Tokyo.
9. Food
The food in Hokkaido was amazing. It blew my mind a number of times. I got to try the huge crabs, the hotpots, beef shabu-shabu that was too good for words, yakinuki, real wagyu beef that was crazy expensive but so melt in your mouth good I really wanted to cry. It cost 10000yen for about 200g, which is just one small piece of beef, but the marbling...oh god. So good I could weep. Miso ramen, which was good, but I think I still prefer tonkotsu ramen, the milk!, so rich, I had milk every morning, it was so good. The soft cream, ate too much ice-cream and my excuse is it's summer there. The milk soft cream was deliciously rich, the lavender had a lovely aroma and the melon flavour was very very tasty. The Yubari melon was so good, I don't think I can eat melon here anymore. And so expensive too, of course. The fruits were very fresh, very sweet, very tasty. Strawberry picking and eating at one farm, and they were so red and juicy and sweet. The cakes and desserts were good too. Hokkaido potatoes too, yes. Steamed with a bit of butter, as korokke, as chips, all delicious. In Hokkaido there were lots of limited-edition only-in-Hokkaido food products, like Yubari melon-flavoured Pocky, candy and Kit-kat for example. And the famous and very popular Jaga Pokkuru potato sticks, only in Hokkaido. And Royce and Shiroi Koibito everywhere, Hokkaido brand chocolates.
Why yes, that was the very crab I ate --> 10 minutes later
10. Japan.
Well, it was Japan. And a dream finally come true.
Random photos
They're really big on bears in Hokkaido, they're everywhere.
That's bear and seal curry, yes. I hear it has a really strong I love Teru teru bozu
taste...
Marimo. Balls of algae you can grow at home. They even They really make glass everything. Including happy pigs.
made a mascot out of it, Marimokkori, which is a green
moss figure with a giant erection...It was in a lot of the
souvenir shops, but sadly I don't have a picture of it.
Everything else flies out of my mind when I go shopping.
And the Japanese can make anything cute. Going to the toilet is a fun-filled (and complicated) experience
in Japan!
Top 10 things/events/places about my trip in no particular order
1. Ishida Chocolate factory
This is the factory of the Shiroi Koibito cookies that's a famed Hokkaido local product, and also almost a theme park into itself. It was really, really elaborate, very European-inspired setting and decor and pretty much kid's fantasy wonderland atmosphere. Alice meets The Secret Garden meets Enid Blyton. A definite must visit for Hokkaido, it was really lovely and a nice place to spend an afternoon relaxing. They have awesome cakes at their cafe, and museums of random old stuff, including a really stuffed museum of toys in Japan through the decades. Their Shiroi Koibito cookies are a must buy, even if it's quite expensive, but not at the factory itself- the cookies there are not duty-free, unlike those sold elsewhere. Irony.
2. Otaru
Otaru is famous for its picturesque canal and old European style buildings, although how pretty it is depends on the season as well. I think spring and summer are generally better for pictures and viewing than winter. Apart from that, there's this very, very awesome building that houses three levels of an amazing collection of musical boxes, everything you can imagine and more. It's very European-influenced like much of Otaru, and again walking into it is like a dreamland, with soft warm lighting and musical boxes spinning all sorts of tunes and catching the light and everything was just sparkling or glowing. They have a special selection of J-pop tunes musical boxes, and they have Arashi as well XD. I bought the one that played Beautiful Days.
Otaru has these little streets and alleys with all sorts of little craft shops and cafes and I could spend one whole day popping up and down alleys and in and out of shops. Otaru is famous for their handmade glassware, and one must pop into some of the many shops that showcase and sell a huge range of glassware and display pieces, all looking so delicately pretty and breakable. Their mutiple-flavoured ice-cream is a must try (I had one with soda, strawberry, melon, milk and lavender- as much fun eating as admiring!) as well as their many desserts and sweets stores.
3. Lake Toya Onsens
Lake Toya is famous for onsens, and there's a long onsen street stuffed with so many onsen hotels and resorts, with one major selling point: onsen. If you go there you have to stay at one of those and soak in the onsens, and many tourists and Japanese go there just for the onsens. They have some very nice hotels there, and one I stayed at had nine different onsen pools housed together. Also, hotel rooms in Hokkaido generally are bigger than those in Tokyo. Flange, if you're going, I suggest staying at a hotel or resort that is situated just along the edge of Lake Toya, instead of one that's more inland. During the non-winter months, they have a fireworks display every night over the lake that's very spectacular and just beautiful. My hotel was right by the lake, and at night all the guests trooped out to watch the fireworks, though one could also stay in the rooms and watch it there. It was the first time I got to admire huge, elaborate fireworks right in front of my eyes, and that's a sight I will never forget. Great view of the lake too.
I would've loved to take pictures of the onsens, but that's the one thing that's impossible :P
4. Other Lake Toya attractions
The bear ranch is a 'can visit', though not a must, unless one is a bear-lover. The cable car ride up to Mount. Usu is nice, but not terribly unique- I'll say lots of other cities have similar attractions. There was a cruise to Nakkajima, nice island, but for more nature-lovers of trees and deers. Lake Toya is quintessential countryside, rural Hokkaido, with the lake as the main attraction and a number of small attractions around it. It's really about nature, picturesque views, mountains and fields, you go there to relax and unwind and not do much but admire the scenery and soak in the onsens.
5. Making ice-cream at Lake Hill Farm
This is a quaint, out of the way, somewhere out in the hills little shop/cafe that sells really yummy soft cream. We got to experience making milk-flavoured ice-cream by hand, which was fun, but didn't work out very well. Making ice-cream by hand is hard. Better to just buy some from the shop. The milk there is so wonderfully creamy and rich and full-flavoured. The store is situated on some hill (I think?), so there's a great, amazing view of the surrounding areas from it. The shop itself is like a little modern farm, on a field with wide pastures and cows and rabbits.
6. Noboribetsu Date Jidai Mura
Edo-style ninja-themed park. So you have everyone dressed up in edo-style clothes, they recreated the whole park to look as though it was from the Edo-period, but very cleaned-up, I imagine. I didn't take Japan history so I have no idea how authentic it is, and probably not very is my guess, considering it is an attraction, but it was fun. A taste of pseudo-Edo Japan! They have a number of shows, mostly comical, throughout the day, and various attractions of different aspects of Edo Japan. Essentially this is not about historical accuracy or a museum, but really a theme park without rides, but it was something fun and different on my trip, considering I didn't get to see anything else remotely like, or get to go to modern Edo.
7. Furano Tomita Farm
Strictly for flower-lovers. Which I'm not, really, but it was nice to see the fields of flowers and lavender was in season when I went, something I don't get to see here. Furano is also like lavender-city, so great for lovers of lavender products. Here the lavender ice-cream is a must try. Furano is mainly about farms, I think. Produce and flowers, farms, etc.
8. Sapporo, Susukino
Well, it was the context, really, considering, we'd spent one week soaking in nature and the wild countryside, and I was excited about finally getting to see a real Japanese urban, bustling city. It was the idea of the concept. I didn't get to go to Tokyo, but I still wanted to experience the 'Japanese urban city'. Though I've heard that it's a just a city like many other Japanese cities or even other cities elsewhere. And, well, I did quite a bit of shopping there. And it was there I finally got to satisfy my Arashi cravings. It's malls and entertainment district and red-light district and nightlife. It's finding Uniqlo and shopping at huge 100-yen shops full of amazing curiosities and seeing a huge Kinokuniya, my shrine, but not being able to go in because I didn't have time to. It's seeing oh-so-trendy (but still nowhere near Harajuku or Shinjuku) Japanese teens hanging out on the streets and in trendy malls. And designer brands to be had and buying Japanese cosmetics. In short, trying to get a tiny taste of Tokyo.
9. Food
The food in Hokkaido was amazing. It blew my mind a number of times. I got to try the huge crabs, the hotpots, beef shabu-shabu that was too good for words, yakinuki, real wagyu beef that was crazy expensive but so melt in your mouth good I really wanted to cry. It cost 10000yen for about 200g, which is just one small piece of beef, but the marbling...oh god. So good I could weep. Miso ramen, which was good, but I think I still prefer tonkotsu ramen, the milk!, so rich, I had milk every morning, it was so good. The soft cream, ate too much ice-cream and my excuse is it's summer there. The milk soft cream was deliciously rich, the lavender had a lovely aroma and the melon flavour was very very tasty. The Yubari melon was so good, I don't think I can eat melon here anymore. And so expensive too, of course. The fruits were very fresh, very sweet, very tasty. Strawberry picking and eating at one farm, and they were so red and juicy and sweet. The cakes and desserts were good too. Hokkaido potatoes too, yes. Steamed with a bit of butter, as korokke, as chips, all delicious. In Hokkaido there were lots of limited-edition only-in-Hokkaido food products, like Yubari melon-flavoured Pocky, candy and Kit-kat for example. And the famous and very popular Jaga Pokkuru potato sticks, only in Hokkaido. And Royce and Shiroi Koibito everywhere, Hokkaido brand chocolates.
Why yes, that was the very crab I ate --> 10 minutes later
10. Japan.
Well, it was Japan. And a dream finally come true.
Random photos
They're really big on bears in Hokkaido, they're everywhere.
That's bear and seal curry, yes. I hear it has a really strong I love Teru teru bozu
taste...
Marimo. Balls of algae you can grow at home. They even They really make glass everything. Including happy pigs.
made a mascot out of it, Marimokkori, which is a green
moss figure with a giant erection...It was in a lot of the
souvenir shops, but sadly I don't have a picture of it.
Everything else flies out of my mind when I go shopping.
And the Japanese can make anything cute. Going to the toilet is a fun-filled (and complicated) experience
in Japan!