Traveling in the Past, Lake Toya, Hokkaido 2020
Traveling in the Past
Lake Toya, Hokkaido 2020
I was going through my old posts, trying to pick up posts about my travels. It looks like for the most part, I just briefly mentioned my travels in an HNW post and posted photos, but I didn't write a separate post about it. So, I decided to write about the past travels, at least of what I could remember from the trips.
Back then, we were in the early days of the pandemic, but people were reluctant to travel. To boost tourism in the hard-hit areas, the Japanese government issued discount vouchers to encourage domestic travel. These vouchers not only gave us a 30% travel discount, we also got coupons to use at local shops. My travel buddy texted me asking if I'd be interested in going to Lake Toya and stay at the Windsor Hotel, which was the venue of 34th G8 summit in 2008. The travel discount made the stay at the hotel more affordable and my travel buddy wanted to buy scones from their bakery. Yes, she's the type who'll travel for good bread. In fact, a visit to a local bakery is usually on the itinerary whenever we travel, along with hot spring visits.
Our original plan was to go in December, but her friends told her that it wasn't a good idea for those not used to the snow to be driving through the hills in the winter, so we decided to go in early November, before it starts snowing. I mapped out the route we're driving from the Chitose airport, taking the scenic route and going past another lake--Lake Shikotsu. My travel buddy found an onsen near that lake. It was an inn that is part of the secluded hot springs association. My travel buddy loves those. This particular onsen had an outdoor bath with an interesting characteristic. The water level of the outdoor bath changes with the tide. We knew that there was an outdoor bath, but we couldn't find it at first until we saw a lady come through a doorway at the other end of the locker room. We asked if that lead to the outdoor bath and we were told it did. We were getting dressed to leave, but looked at each other, undressed, and headed for the outdoor bath. Fortunately, the water was deep enough for us to enjoy a nice soak. The corridor leading to the outdoor bath would've been brutally cold in the dead of winter. We were glad we went late autumn.
We were back on the road after enjoying a nice and relaxing soak in the onsen. It was in the tail end of the autumn color season, but we still got to see some pretty leaves along the way. There was little traffic to worry about so I could pull over whenever we found somewhere we wanted to take photos of. Fortunately, Google Maps didn't try to lead us astray. This time.
We got to the hotel right around check-in time and they were busy since guests from a bus tour just arrived. We had to wait for a bit before we could be shown to our room. We enjoyed a cup of complimentary coffee in the lobby and roamed around the hotel grounds. Since this hotel was on the top of a hill, we had a great view of Lake Toya. The sun was starting to set, but clouds got in the way of a good sunset shot.
After we dropped off our stuff in our very nice room (spacious room with two double beds), we headed out to town for dinner (even with our vouchers, dinner at the hotel was a bit too pricey). The nearby town was a typical Japanese onsen town with shops, restaurants, and onsen inns. We went to a restaurant that served local beef. We tried a variety of dishes and of course, local beef and pork dishes, and left the restaurant totally stuffed. But, we had room for the ice cream we found at a local convenience store.
My travel buddy thought staying just one night was enough, although I would've been happy to have stayed two. She told me that we should've stayed two nights after we got back. LOL Since I was driving, we didn't go drinking, but we picked up some local wine to enjoy in our room, and of course, some munchies.
I woke up bright and early to catch the sunrise. It was on the hazy side, so I didn't get a clear pic of the sunrise, but I managed to get some pics. The funny thing was that my travel buddy woke up earlier than usual to enjoy a soak in the public bath at the hotel. She showed me a pic she took when I got back to the room. She said she got a pic of me taking a pic of the sunrise. Turns out that she took a pic of a stranger and not me 😂 Of course, her excuse was that she didn't have her contacts in. LOL
We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of omelets and bacon. The server came around pouring champagne into our glasses. The champagne made for great mimosas with freshly squeezed orange juice. Breakfast was so good! We took our dear sweet time enjoying our breakfast and hung out before checking out.
My travel buddy wanted to hit a roadside station to get some fresh apples and whatever catches her attention. I got myself a few different kinds of potatoes, apples, and some cheese. I already got myself some fresh bread. They made for a great breakfast after I got home. If shipping weren't so expensive, I would've sent 10 kilos of potatoes and apples to my house. There were types of potatoes that I couldn't get around where I lived back then. Farmers are growing the same kinds in my neck of the woods now.
Google map needs to tell people when a road is closed. The map told me to turn right up ahead, but there were two roads to turn into. I chose (wrongly) the first one. Well, that road did lead to the road I was supposed to be on, but just before I got to the end, the road was closed. So, I had to turn back and get back on the road I was supposed to be on. Oh well, we weren't in that big of a hurry anyway. We had plenty of time before we had to catch the plane back home.
We picked up a couple of bottles of wine when we got to the airport. I found one that I really fell in love with. It's like ice wine, but the grapes are not naturally frozen on the vines but frozen in a freezer. Still, the wine is super sweet and it's great. I can get wine from the same winemaker at local liquor shops. I always thought Japanese wine was lousy until I had wine from a privately owned winery. I figured out that it's the wine from the big liquor companies that are lousy. Granted, not all wineries produce good wines, but there are quite a few that churn out decent wine that doesn't break the bank.
Our flight back was uneventful and we made it home in one piece. We had a great time. We talked about renting a car and driving around Hokkaido someday after I retire (IF I can retire).
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