Cold beyond words: mmnchua

mmnchua

Cold beyond words

Mar 17, 2008 04:49

We activated our 3-day Hokkaido JR train passes on 3 Feb 08, traveling from Hakodate to Asahikawa. If not for those passes (which cost JPY35,000, about S$435.00), our long-distance traveling for that few days (Hakodate - Asahikawa - Shin Sapporo) would have cost us a leg and an arm!!! Yes, its a hefy JPY67,625 (=S$845.00) just for traveling along the 3 sectors.

We made a stop at Noboribetsu (登别) to stretch our muscles and also to take our lunch after 2+ hours of glueing our butts to the train seats. We visited the Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe which was just a stone throw away from the Noboribetsu JR train station. The Nixe castle, the main building of the attraction, is modeled after a real ancient castle in Denmark and houses an aquarium. The afternoon was whiled away watching dolphin show, sealion performance, penguin parade, touring the aquarium and of course, more fun on the snow field (for the little one).

After the good break, we continued our journey to Asahikawa where we spent the night.

Click here for our last year Asahikawa trip report and photos.

Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe

Inside the aquarium

Clione, also known as the sea angel

Fugu sashimi anyone?

Lots and lots of Jellyfish

The Penguin March

Help, I am struck!

Come next day, instead of waiting for Taisetsu Hotel to ferry us from Asahikawa JR station to Sounkyo at about 2pm, we took the local public transport to this quaint town early in the morning. Yes, I had been excitedly anticipating for this day to come as it marked the first snow festival we would be visiting in Hokkaido and also my first overseas birthday celebration.

To make this occasion extra special, I booked ourselves into Taisetsu Hotel, one of the best hotels in this little spa town. This hotel is located right on top of the slope which commands a panoramic view of Sounkyo and its surroundings. The room we stayed was a Japanese-style room and we were served traditional Japanese style dinner (彩峡会席膳 or Saikyou kaisekizenn) in the room for the Plan A accommodation which we have chosen. The hotel also offers Plan B accommodation but dinner was European style (四季菜八景 or Sikisai Hakkei) and is served in their restaurant. Needless to say, food was oishii!

After much hesitation, I finally garnered enough courage to venture into one of the 3 onsens that this hotel has to offer. While there, I was trying my utmost best initially to act as nonchalantly as possible reconciling being naked in front of strangers; but hey nobody give two hoots about anybody so I began to relax and enjoyed the calming effect of the onsen water. The onsen I went to offered a nice overview of the Sounkyo Hyobaku Festival and the hot water was a welcoming contrast to the snow and ice at the festival outside! Soaking in the hot bath while admiring the wintry scenery was simply a wonderful experience that I just had to have another round the next day before we said goodbye to Sounkyo.

We headed for the Sounkyo Hyoubaku Matsuri (Ice Waterfall Festival), one of Hokkaido's main events in winter, shortly after our sumptuous dinner. Known as the dissension place of the gods, sitting at the foot of the Daisetsuzan Mountain Range and lying on the pristine flatlands of the Ishikari River is the home of this Ice Waterfall Festival. I understood that wooden frames were first built around November and then water from the river was sprayed over the frame repeatedly using hoses to form the ice pillars, ice tunnels and ice domes that we saw…..an amazing feat I must say. The festival site was small comparatively (and we still couldn’t finish touring the place) but I think it a good size given the extreme temperature one would have endure to stay outdoors to admire the sculptures. It was -17 deg C the night we were there and we only lasted about 2 hours with a few intermittent stops to the indoor food booths to warm ourselves up. It was indeed an unforgettable experience for us.

Little quaint town of Sounkyo

Snow cravings outside a ramen stall

Hello from us to you all the way from Hotel Taisetsu, Sounkyo

Two wooden dolls greeting guests at the entrance of the hotel

Yes I did it twice!

超级变变变

Close up of the Sounkyo Hyoubaku Matsuri Venue

The 33rd Sounkyo Hyoubaku Matsuri (Ice Waterfall Festival)

Still FREEZING COLD in the morning, its only -0.5 deg C warmer than the night before! ! !

Colourful cave

The multicolored snow sculpture and cascade

Ice bed not that COLD to sleep on, you know!

Help! A dino has me in its mouth!

Ice cold icicles

Snow tubing anyone?

Having breakfast with Mt Taisetsu as the background

Nic and her snowman

A relatively warmer weather (-5 deg C) greeted us the next day when the hotel shuttle bus ferried us back to Asahikawa. As it was late noon, we decided to hunt down 青叶 ramen stall for our lunch since we couldn’t locate the stall the last time we were here; we were gladed to be rewarded with delicious ramen at the end of our search. The stall owners (two generations of them, ok the younger ones) were hard at work catering to the lunch crowd in their cosy little store while we were lunching there. Since we were not pressed for time, we took a leisurely lunch and made small talks with the owners, and it was through the chitchat that we knew that they had plans to open an outlet in Singapore late 2008. I do hope that they could realize their dreams so that I have more options for ramen when I next craved for it.

For our trip to Shin Sapporo, I purposely scheduled our departure onboard the Limited Express Asahiyama Zoo Train. This is an animal themed train that Japan Railway rolls out on selected days during winter that ply between Asahikawa and Sapporo; and since it was available on that fateful day of our departure, I said why not take us for a ride! My effort was not wasted as it turned out Nicole enjoyed the ride very much; with a different animal theme for each cabin and a comfy kids activity corner in the last train car too, which kid would not be bought in by the idea?