Hokkaido Trip Day 1
Oh, deer
I woke up dark and early to catch a plane to Hokkaido, the northernmost island out of the five main islands of Japan. My travel buddy wanted to go visit Akan Lake to go see the Ainu Village (the Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido). I was game, since I've never been to that part of Hokkaido. I booked the tour and rented the car, she did the research and laid out our itinerary. I drive, she navigates, although we do have a GPS to rely on these days, unlike the time we went to Guam where GPS wasn't a thing yet and she was consulting a paper map and was like, "oh, we had to turn back there." I can't count how many U-turns I made that day 😂
Our first stop was the a "michi-no-eki" (roadside station, basically a souvenir shop). Along the way, we passed a ranch and she insisted that we turn back so she could go see the horsies 🙄 No problem, I rented a small car and the roads are wider in Hokkaido. I just had to wait for the opportune moment to make the U-turn. The breed we saw were "Banba" (ばん馬), a breed native to Hokkaido. One of them were pretty curious and walked up to me, intent on nibbling on my fleece jacket. The horse didn't like to be petted, but was OK with nuzzling while trying to nibble. My travel buddy wanted to get closer to the horse, but she was a bit scared because she's never really been around horses before. But, like me, she took tons of pics 😂 She was happy to get to see a few horses up close and take pics, so we bid the horsies farewell and got back on the road.
We stopped by the roadside station and saw that there was a crane center across the street. We were a bit early for the cranes to have migrated to the area. In winter, the field outside the center is filled with cranes. But there were a handful that the center takes care of with one of them being born there. At least we got to hear the famous crane call by the mating pair, calling to their offspring in the next enclosure. They were loud! We did see a handful of cranes out grazing in a field down the road, as well as a bunch of swans.
The next stop was Lake Onneto. This is were we could get a great view of Mt. Meakan. For a bit of a background, Mt. Akan is consist of 2 mountains--Oakan (‘Male’ Akan) and Meakan (‘Female’ Akan). Meakan is an active volcano, by the way. The temps were considerably lower in Hokkaido, especially in the shade, so we didn't stay outside for very long. Apparently, it snowed a couple of days before we visited, but the road was mostly clear of snow, just a bit left in the shady areas so it didn't affect my driving (the rental already had snow tires, so no worries there). The pine trees with snow on them were really pretty. We enjoyed the view from the warm car.
Now, my travel buddy loves her onsens (hot spring bath) and she tries to find one on the way whenever we travel. She told me that she found one when we were on the plane. I asked if she remembered to pack a towel. Her eyes doubled in size and told me that she forgot to pack it. Oops! 😅 I told her that she's gonna love me and presented her with a gauze face towel I picked up for her during one of my travels (I'm SO glad I decided to bring it with me 😂 ) The onsen she found was filled with kitties, to her delight. There were a couple of kitties greeting us as we walked in. We were the only customers visiting at the time we got there, so we had the bath all to ourselves. The rotenburo (outdoor bath) was fan-tastic! Although the air was chilly and there was a bit of snow left on the ground, the water was just the right temp and it felt so good! Now, the indoor bath was a different story. The water was hot! Even I couldn't stay in for more than a minute. Because of the mineral composition of the water, metal can't be used, so there are no faucets to add cold water and they didn't use nails to build the bathhouse.
The sun was starting to go down behind the mountains by the time we decided to leave. We saw some deer coming out to graze. The deer in Hokkaido are much smaller than the deer I see in Michigan. After taking a few pics of the deer, I pull out of the parking lot, go around the bend, and lo and behold, there are deer on the road. Yes, boys and girls, you gotta keep a watch out for deer in Hokkaido, especially when the sun starts going down. They scattered when they saw the car approaching. Since there were no cars coming from behind, I stopped so we could take pics. The deer just stared at us. LOL
We finally made it to the hotel a little before dinnertime. The place I found was a Japanese style hotel, with tatami mats on the floor and we sleep on futons. But, we get a great view of the lake and our stay comes with breakfast and dinner. After checking in and tossing our bags in the room, we had a little over an hour to kill before dinner, so we went out to explore the area. The Ainu Village she wanted to visit was only a 5-minute walk from the hotel. The shops were still open so we did some browsing before we had to go back for dinner.
Dinner was great. I had a glass of (palatable) house wine. She ordered local sake. The hotel offered a nice spread--takikomi gohan (rice cooked with veggies in its own pot), buttered scallop cooked its in own shell, Ishikari nabe (salmon hot pot in miso soup), chawanmushi (savory steamed egg custard), sashimi, Japanese pickles and cold cuts, and a blueberry cake (I don't like blueberries, so I didn't eat it). The hot pot and scallop were sitting on top of individual burners, so I was able to cook the sashimi. My travel buddy was chuckling and shaking her head at my antics, but she knows that I don't eat raw fish. All in all, dinner was good.
Hotels in this area have a communal onsen bath. The rooms have a bathtub, but they tend to be cramped so good for quick showers. We decided to have a nice soak before we retired for the night. There were 3 different baths inside and one outside (not really outside since the communal bath itself was in the basement so the outdoor bath had a grated ceiling). We enjoyed a nice soak. I went back to the room first since my travel buddy had to dry her hair (I don't use a dryer).
The futons were laid out and were surprisingly comfortable. I slept pretty well.
. . . to be continued
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