The Bear Ranch was finally be squeezed into today’s itinerary. We went back to Showa Shinzan area as this is the main entrance to the Bear Ranch, see picture below.

The green cabin on the top right of the picture below was where we bought the biscuits for ¥100 per bag, a small bag though.

The bears were standing up, waving to us and waiting for us to throw the biscuits to them.

I guess many of us are wondering why these groups of bears are kept separately from the rest? It was really sad to see them being locked in dark and smelly cages as shown in the 2 photos below.

What are these racoon doing in the Bear Ranch?

After visited Bear Ranch, we proceeded to Chitose Factory Outlet Mall Rera which was about 2 hours drive from here.

Coach outlet here was having extra 30% discount on their bags but I could not find anything that I like that is worth the price, to me, they are still expensive even after the discount.

We took our lunch at Susukino Ramen Alley( ラーメン横丁).

Since the ramen store in Japan are usually very small, we had to separate into 2 groups to take the ramen at 2 different shops. Below was the one we went.

The chefs

Miso Ramen

At 2.35pm, seem not many ramen stores were open. Most of them start business at evening. No chance of taking any nice photo at this time.

Next was Asahi Beer Factory.

The 3 main raw materials of beer are malt, hops and water.

The can filler capable of filling 1500 cans per minute.

Finally we enjoyed free snacks and drinks at this canteen.

Hokkaido Jingu(北海道神宮) was the last one in today’s itinerary and this marked the end of our Hokkaido trip as well.

Before we entered the shrine, we had to cleanse ourselves.

First, take a scoop of water to wash your left hand, followed by right hand. Then rinse your mouth and spit it out(do not spit back into the water supply). Lastly tilt the ladle backwards to rinse the ladle handle with the remaining water.

The main entrance to the shrine

This is where one can draw his fortune from a box containing random fortunes written on strips of paper, it is called Omikuji(御神籤), which costs ¥100 per strip.

After reading the fortune, if a bad fortune (凶(KYOU) or 大凶 (DAIKYOU) is drawn, it can be tied onto the string attached to a wooden stand as shown below. Don’t take the bad Omikuji home so that the bad luck will be left at the shrine rather than attach itself to the bearer. If it is a good fortune, keep it for luck.

Another box but this one costs ¥200 per draw.

Below shows Ema(絵馬), a small wooden tablet or plaque on which one can write a wish or prayer to the deity. Then the finished Ema is tied with string to a wooden frame as shown below. We could see a few Ema written in English by overseas visitors.

Omamori(お守り) which means protection, is Japanese Protective Amulets(Lucky Charms).

We left for our hotel for the last night stay in Sapporo, dinner was on our own. So, a summary of the hiccups so far:

• Tanuki Koji Shopping Arcade was “killed off” from today’s itinerary
• Savor ramen at Asahikawa Ramen Village on Day 4 remains in dream
• Bear Ranch was pushed from Day 5 to Day 6(inexperience local tour guide?)

Other disappointments include not much information about Hokkaido, especially about Hell Valley, most of the time, on the bus, we were left listening to the stories about Osaka or Tokyo but very little about Hokkaido. The room for the first night stay at Apa Resort & Hotel was way too small for a triple occupancy. Most of the time, especially for the three nights onsen hotel stay, we got back to the hotel way too early.

Well, maybe if I weren’t on the Japan Central Tour before, I would not have complaint about this point as for Japan Central tour, we really had a very fulfilling day and usually got back to hotel after 8pm, if my memory hasn’t failed me.

The only compliment is about our tour manager from Singapore, Lai Heng. Throughout the journey he was pretty helpful and answered our queries promptly. It is quite funny when I recalled that on our Japan Central trip, we communicated more to the local tour guide than to the tour manager but this time, it was the opposite.

Ok, back to the trip. We had the rest of the time by ourselves after we had unpacked our luggages in the hotel room, without wasting a minute more, we were set to explore Sapporo till the very last minutes. It was already 6pm at that time.

We took the subway from Susukino station to Sapporo Station which is 2 stations away. Headed up to Pokemon center at 9th Floor of ESTA Mall. This center is the sixth of its kind in Japan, which opened on March 6 2009. I am not a Pokemon fan of course but my little one is.

Map below extracted from the official pokemon website.

Outside Sapporo JR station, look at the neon blue and orange lightingt up ESTA. It is located at the 9th floor of ESTA.

So cute.

Bring a gadget called PokéWalker and deposit a pokemon in this machine below? Well, I am not an expert, correct me if I am wrong, pokemon fan out there, will you?

PokéWalker

Around JR Sapporo station there are many shopping malls and departmental stores: Daimaru, Stellar Plac, Paseo, Loft, Seibu, Tokyu and Apia Underground Shopping Mall. Too bad all these stores close very early at 8pm. The basement supermarket closes at 8.30pm. By the time we got out from Pokemon center, it was already past 8pm. No chance to do any shopping. Sigh!

Took this photo when back to the Sapporo Korakuen Hotel(札幌後楽園ホテル).

This marks the end of the entire Hokkaido trip and we are the only group to extend our stay at Tokyo, the rest were going back to Singapore the next day. Sayonara Hokkaido!

Will write on my Tokyo trip in a few days time, it is more about shopping and things that I have bought there. Stay tune..

Farewell to Jozankei, we visited Lake Toya this morning. Today’s itinerary were supposed to be packed with activities and we should be visiting Bear Ranch later but again, dissappointments stepped in due to the lack of experiences of the local tour guide. Sigh. Read on..

Click onto the map below for more details.

Boat ride, anyone?

Next we proceeded to Mt Showa Shinzan(昭和新山), one of Japan youngest volcanos where its’ sulfurous fumes still vending out. Below is the map(from japan-guide.com) which give you clearer picture of where Mt Showa located.

From here we can also see the Usuzan Ropeway which brings visitors close to the volcano’s summit. Too bad it was not included in the itinerary and we had to give it a miss.

We were brought to this shop below to buy the famous Hokkaido horse oil and this was where the disappointment towards the local tour guide kicked in again. I asked her when we were inside the shop, wasn’t this the entrance to the Bear Ranch that we were supposed to visit? Her answer was a definite “No”, we were going to another one at Ainu village later of the day. At that time I had million puzzles crossing my mind. Huh? This wasn’t the one? I remember reading several blog posts written by those who have visited the place before and this should be the “right” one.
Oh, well, she is the tour guide, she should be the expert, right? I walked away in disbelief.

Bought these horse oil creams, the orange bottle(¥3000) is less oily and meant for face and hand. It is claimed to give moisture and oils to restore smooth and soft skin. I have not really use it regularly at the time being. The white bottle(¥2000) has more general uses like help in scalding, muscular pain, athlete’s foot, chaps and dry skin and even on wrinkles. But I use it particularly for rashes, which appears on my arms occasionally(due to sensitivity to certain sun block cream); I personally find that it is very much safer to apply this natural cream than using any doctor prescribed steroid cream. Thumbs up!

Then we took about 5 minutes bus ride to a farm for Strawberry picking.

Grape vines

Fruits harvesting season are stated here, click onto the picture to zoom in.

This is where the strawberries grow, below were not riped at the time of visit.

Yummy red and sweet!

Found an odd shaped strawberry.

There are many trees inside the farm and not sure if I got all the fruit trees correctly. Correct me if I am wrong. Below is a Pear tree?

Cherry

Apple Tree

Apple

Lunch time at this restaurant, again it is a seafood market cum restaurant where customers can order the optional seafood from the ground floor. There is a big “bear” on the roof of this building.

All kind of fresh seafood

Abalone: Click for a closer look

Even fresh colorful fruits are sold here. The melons are one of the “celebrity” fruits in Hokkaido. A small piece as shown below cost ¥300 but it is very sweet!

Dried food like scallops are also famous. Bought 2 packages in g each.

Souvenir like Hello Kitty and the fortune cats

Our lunch today was quite simple, just a bowl of crab meat rice served with miso soup.

Next we visited Shiraoi(白老町) Ainu Village, also called Porotokotan, which means a large lakeside village. “Ainu” means “human” and Ainu people are the aboriginal group of Northern Japan. Read more about the Ainu history here. Btw, Shiraoi is a neigbouring town of Noberibetsu(which we were visiting later).

The statue of Chief

We were rushed to a thatched house(cise) as there were performances scheduled to start by the time we arrived.

The guide below is Nomoto-san who briefed us through the culture and history of the Ainu people. At that time there were 3 groups of tourists(including us), one from Korea and the other from Taiwan(or China). The Korean and Taiwanese tour guides were inside the house at that time and did the translation while Nomoto-san spoke in Japanese; our local tour guide was no where in sight. We have to rely on the translation of the Taiwanese group’s tour guide. Sigh!

A local guide who dress in the traditional Ainu clothes

This small house is built outside of the thatched house which used as a storage for food items such as dried fish, seaweed and millet.

The Hokkaido dogs that Ainu used them for hunting bears and deers.

Finally, here comes the major hiccup, the so called “Bear Ranch”(by our local tour guide), where we can see a few poor bears locked in the cages walking restlessly in a circle. Sigh!

This time, I tried to talk to our tour manager(Lai Heng) from Singapore. He told us he was in doubt too and did asked the local tour guide about this earlier, anyway he agreed to discuss with her again once we were up in the bus later.

We had no time to pop into the Ainu museum to take a look as it was already 4.15pm and we needed to proceed to one of my favorite view point in Hokkaido: Jigokudani(地狱谷), also known as "Hell Valley". The name sounds scary though. It is a valley just above the town of Noboribetsu Onsen(登別温泉) and is the main source of Noboribetsu’s hot spring waters.

Interesting view of the engraved stones.

I saw some Japanese praying here and I did the same as well.

Click onto the picture below to zoom in.

This is interesting, but I only read the content when I was back home, while writing my blog. Sigh! Missed out all the 7 questions. Click to see more in detail.

It was so tempting to go down to touch the steaming streams and the stones.

Look at the yellowish sulfurous hot stream.

Getting closer to the center.

Look at this geyser venting out the hot boiling water continuously, what a spectacular view!

Another interesting view: see how these stones are stacked on top of each other, by nature or man-make? Click onto the picture to have a closer look.

At this instant of writting these lines, I only realize that from the hell valley, we can follow the walking trails further and for about 30 minutes later, we can get to Oyunuma, a sulfurous pond with spectacular view again. Then followed by my favorite spot, Oyunumagawa Natural Footbath(Oyunuma river which flows out from Oyunuma pond), where visitors can enjoy a natural hot spring footbath(ashiyu).

The picture below is Oyunumagawa Natural Foot Bath, extracted from japan-guide.com.

I really wish I can go back to this place to explore again. The disadvantage of being on a tour package is always “time”. Everything is packed into a compact schedule which must be followed in order to cover all the usual tourist viewing spots.

On the way back, took the pictures of the toilet.

The picture below explains the hot water supply system by the underground hot spring. Click to zoom in.

Well, today itinerary was quite good, except we missed out the Bear Ranch, which we would be “returning” the next day. Well, I am right that it is located at the shop where we bought the horse oil, the viewing spot for Showa Shinzan. We had to get up 1 hour earlier(6am instead of 7am) in order to squeeze the Bear Ranch into the following day itinerary.

We had our night stay at Yumoto Meisuitei(汤元名水亭). This hotel has so far the most spacious room that we ever have during this tour, it has a mixed Japanese-Western style guest rooms but of course we have chosen to sleep on the futon instead, it is so comfortable.

Buffet dinner again. There are a lot of crab dishes such as freshly-boiled Horsehair Crab and Snow Crab, but I especially love their tempura(even though I am not a fan of tempura), it was so delicious that I had eaten quite a bunch of them!

This hotel has the most beautiful outdoor bath among the 4 onsen hotels that we have stayed so far. The picture below is extracted from meisuitei.com.

Continue to day 6 Hokkaido trip »

This morning we visited the famous waterfalls, Ginga-no-taki Falls(銀河の滝 Milky Way falls) and Ryusei-no-taki Falls(流星の滝 Shooting Star Falls)which fall directly over the cliff. These two falls are the famous 2 of Sounkyo Gorge.

Ginga-no-taki Falls

Ryusei-no-taki Falls

It started to drizzle when we were busy talking photo and the rain getting heavy and heavier that forced us to rush back to our bus. I have yet to walk down further on the path to enjoy the surrounding scenery. What a waste! Next we proceeded to Otokoyama(男山) Sake Brewery Museum, located at Asahikawa city.

Sake Tasting and brewry shop

Photos below were taken inside the Sake museum

This big banner print hanging on the ceilling by Utamaro Kitagawa(if I am not wrong)

Sake-brewing tools in old times and from the Edo period

The picture below shows the Water of Longevity, the well-known water that springs to ground beneath Otokoyama. This underground waters originating from the snows of the Daisetsu mountain range combined with a harsh cold climate. Of course I could not miss sampling the water, it is cool and fresh.

The outdoor display area(cask sheds) which showcases brewing tools of the past.

The Japanese styled-garden outside Otokoyama brewery building

Could not resist taking photo in between these beautiful peach colored flowers’ trees.

Next was our lunch around 11:55am. This was another disappointed situation and minus point for the local tour guide again. On our itinerary , we were suppose to have our ramen lunch at Asahikawa Ramen Village. So the “clever” tour guide said that she changed this to a buffet lunch instead. The reason: the Ramen Village is meant for tourists. Excuse me, aren’t we the tourists? This puzzled me! This was a huge disappointment to me. She should have asked our opinion first before making such a decision. I was really not happy over this. Eating a bowl of ramen at Asahikawa ramen village remains a dream from now on..

The restaurant arranged by the tour guide.

However took some photos of Asahikawa Ramen Village(旭川ラーメン村) after lunch.

I love this wall! Wondering who is the artist behind this wonderful wall painting?

Listed down some of the ramen stores here:

• Raumen Aoba(青葉)
• Ittetsu-an Matsuda (松田)
• Ishida (石田)
• Ramenya Tenkin (天金)
• Ramen Santouka (山頭火)
• Saijo (さいじょう)
• Ichikura (一蔵)
• Baikoken (梅光軒)

The small UNI QLO as compared to those at Tokyo.

Left Asahikawa for Jozankei around 2pm. It took about 3 hours bus ride to reach the hotel, Shikanoyu.

This pretty deer painting is displayed on the wall at the lobby.

I have always forgotten to snap some photos of the futon because it was being laid during our dinner time. The moment we got back to our room, I was either busy packing for the next day tour or preparing to soak in the hotspring later of the night. By the time I got back to the room, I went straight to zzz…, no more energy left!

Our steamboat dinner at the hotel.

After dinner and took a short rest, we headed straight to the onsen to enjoy hot spring bath at Zuiun Bathhouse, located on the underground level of ShikanoYu’s main wing. We need to walk down the stair to access the bath which is very spacious; I particularly like the one which equipped with a Jacuzzis. From the open-air bath, we can have a view of the mountain stream that runs through Jozankei, although there are barriers which block away the view from the hot spring bath area, I don’t really feel safe soaking in this outdoor bath, lol, worrying about peeping Tom from the opposite side of the hotel. However, this hot spring is my favorite among the four hot springs that were included in this tour.

The following photos were taken at the vicinity of the hotel area, on the day 5 morning. Another big regret for me, read on..

Below shows a map of the Jozankei Hot Spring Source Park where it lists the hot spring for foot and leg bathing(click the map to zoom in), what a waste that I didn’t realize those foot baths are just within reach till the very next morning when we were leaving this place. I have not heard anything about this being mentioned by our tour guide, wonder if she ever know this or if she does, will she bother to inform us? Sad!

Continue to day 5 Hokkaido trip »

After breakfast, we left for Ishiya White Chocolate Factory. In fact the entire area is called Shiroi Koibito Park where visitors can has a tour of Shiroi Koibito Cookies production line as shown in the photos below, the outdoor Rose Garden, Aurora Fountain, Sapporo Mechanical Clock Tower and many more.

Sapporo Mechanical Clock Tower: this is the entrance to the Factory Walk.

There are cat symbols everywhere, on the wall facing the Rose Garden and outside the gate of the main building. I am not sure what does it symbolize but they look cute.

The Shiroi Koibito Cookies production line.

Look at those Sugar Craft, be careful, they are not edible.

The famous Shiroi Koibito cookies(白い恋人) are so delicious! I keep eating one after another one. Yummy! Btw, Shiroi Koibito means “white beloved ones” in Japanese.

Cute Gramophone Theater outside the Gramophone Gallery.

Old-style Children’s Toy Box housed numerous classical toys from 1868 to 1989.

Hmm… Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe?

Odori Park(大通公園) was suppose to be next in the itinerary but we were simply brought to the Aurora Town underground Shopping for our free time. At that time was around 11.25am and we should be back to the bus by 1.45pm, if I remember correctly. Lunch was not included on this day.

There are two underground shopping malls, the first one where we entered is the horizontal line Aurora Town, which stretches 312 m east-west from Odori Subway Station to Sapporo TV Tower; next is Pole Town which stretches 400m north-south from Odori Subway Station to Susukino Subway Station on the Nanboku Subway Line. Both sides of these pedestrian corridors are lined with shops selling clothes, souvenirs and many others, not forgetting plenty of restaurants and cafés.

Pole Town

Since this was the first day that we could do a little shopping on our own,
I headed down straight to a pharmacy store and searched for the local Japanese
skin care brands.

After about 40min of shopping, see below:

DHC products are much cheaper in Japan compare to Singapore.

Same for Fancl health food products, I didn’t realize that Fancl are also sold in drug store like this, I was so happy when I saw them but only bought those below. My initial thought was: since Fancl products are sold in drug store, I will buy more when I reach Tokyo in order to save the trouble carrying so many items throughout the Hokkaido tour. This was the big mistake I have ever make here! For those who are interested in Fancl products, they are not available in any Tokyo drug stores, I could not find one the sell it there. It seems that it is available only in Hokkaido? Sigh!

Well, I know I can get it at the cosmetic section of a departmental store in Japan but the price here in drug store is definitely cheaper. At Kokomin, if you purchase above ¥2000 or ¥5000(I can’t recall the exact amount), the 5% tax is excluded.

Hokkaido Jingu(北海道神宮) was supposed to be the next in itinerary but again, we were brought to one of the shop in Tanuki Koji Shopping Street to buy Shiroi Koibito cookies. According to the tour guide, a main festival was held at Hokkaido Jingu and it would be extremely crowded; therefore we would be visiting it on the last day of our tour.

Looking at the itinerary , Tanuki Koji Shopping Street would be the last place on the last day of our tour but since it was changed, this place was considered being “covered” in the itinerary already. In actual fact, we only visited this one and the only shop below. Sigh! Another minus point for Chan Brother Tour!

Around 3pm, say goodbye to Sapporo and leaving for a night stay in Sounkyo Choyo Resort Hotel. It was about 3 hours bus ride from Sapporo.

Our tatami room.

Futon were laid when we were out for our buffet dinner at the hotel restaurant.

At the end of the day, I am not so impressed of the way of this local tour guide lead the tour. For the next few days of tour, we always ended up at the hotel about 5 to 6pm and no where else to go. I guess I overheard someone in our tour group asked her why we need to check in to the hotels so early and if I am not wrong, she replied that it was required by the various hotels that group must be check in before 5pm? Huh? I remember during our Central Japan Tour in 2007, the tour guide from SA Tours was so thoughtful that whenever there was a day being arranged to stay in a hotel which was away from the city area, she would take the initiative to bring us to a near by supermarket for a short shopping spree.

After dinner we went for our “soaking spree” at the hotel hot spring. The onsen here in Hokkaido is so much different as compared to those in central Japan tour, this one is huge with several hot spring baths. I soaked into the onsen one after another, of course in about 5 minutes interval in each of them. My face was red like lobster the moment I went back to the hotel room.

Continue to day 4 Hokkaido trip »