Candy Floss Dreamz: Hokkaido Tour

July 23, 2006

Hokkaido Tour

Im finally back from my 7 days hokkaido tour! Took like 600 over pictures and it was such a pain selecting the pictures and uploading them, took me one whole day. enjoy the photos!

snacks on the plane and i drank gin

i was bored on the plane so i played solitaire

breakfast on the plane, quite nice i must say

cute or ugly? u decide

burger

the very nice peach bun with fragrant peach cream inside

hello kitty biscuits!

bento set bought from chitose airport

so cute right, the japan airlines domestic plane

in the coach

finally...lunch!

and it was buffet style, hurray!

we were so hungry after the long flights we couldnt wait to tuck in

cute little ice cream

the red light district

the pink board says nurse school. sounds innocent? haha, actually it's a place where guys go and pretend to be doctors. you get what i mean.

supposed to go for city tour but it was raining, so the tour guide gave us about an hour to shop, which wasnt enough!All i bought was a belt, so sad

pj, i saw your shop!

my aunt bought this 4000 yen which is equivalent to $56 melon. Melons here can cost up to $200 and those are the class A ones, the one my aunt bought was only class c.

juicy and sweet indeed

my heavy breakfast

The highlight of the tour was at Furano Tomita Farm, which is the biggest farm to plant Lavender flowers as it spreads across Furano and giving the town a fragrant beauty.

processing the lavender

rainbow field

lavender field

the lavender ice-cream really has a lavender taste to it but it's not so strong that makes you sick, i love it!

evidence of the auntie in my tour group trying to steal the lavender. If there is one thing that i dont like about this trip, it's all the kiasu and inconsiderate aunties in my tour.they are really those typical ugly singaporeans that i cant stand.

the thing i love about japan is that they have lots of sample for their food so that cheapo me can go try every single one of them. But of course i bought those than i liked.Moreover, they dont give you black face despite u trying a lot and not buying.

the corn and pumpkin were super sweet

i wanna bring kitty home!

sunflower field

This was followed by a drive along Bie, famous for its views of wide fields and hills and is used as a backdrop for many Japanese commercials and TV programmers

the tree featured in seven star advertisement

ken and mary tree, some tree that was featured in a nissan car comercial and became a tourist attraction after that

Final stop of the day was at snow museum. Im so in love with the place, super beautiful

dinner

breakfast buffet

Ishiya, the chocolate factory where they produce a white chocolate biscuit that is only sold in Hokkaido and not exported anywhere else. It is widely popular and i heard that the chef learnt how to make chocolate in France.

really nice, trust me

the romantic town Otaru

horse carriage, a rare sight nowadays

The shop that sells nice music boxes

so so so pretty, i wish i could buy all

so pretty! but it costs $1400 so we didnt buy it :(

how they make glassware

Letao chocolate, very rich and nice

charcoal-grilled food for lunch

at the otaru canal

Odori Park

ooh, they have so many nice and unique flavours of donuts here such as cinnamon and peach that we cant really find in Singapore. I dont usually eat donuts but im so addicted to the nice and soft donuts here.

After dinner, we took a shuttle bus down to Sapporo city and walked to the ramen street

we got to observe the whole process of cooking ramen

the best ramen i've ever eaten indeed - chewy and bursting with flavour

The tour guide told us about this shop that is famous for its unagi. From the aroma of the unagi that i smelt as i walked passed it, i know he's not kidding.

The unagi there is quite ex, so i shared one with my aunt. The $28 buck was very well worth spent, the unagi is tender and juicy and fresh and super yummy.

breakfast

lake

so obscene!

wrist pad, anyone?

This is Mt. Showa, an active volcano. Do you know that there are 86 volcanos in Japan, out of which 65 are active? If you are wondering, Mt Fuji is considered as a sleeping volcano, measuring 3776m tall.

Next, we visited the bear ranch, home for about 180bears

here, we can buy biscuits to feed the bears and watch them perform

it's waving at me!

so adorable, how can i bear to not feed it?

lunch.We had scallop and salmon and prawn for almost every meal that im so sick of them now

Fort Goryukaku- Japan's first Western style stronghold. The star shaped fort was built in 1864 for the defense of Hokkaido against invasion

dinner time

sashimi!

the little instrument used to dig out the crab meat, making it so much easier and cleaner to eat crab. And the hairy crab was sooo sweet and nice!

there's this booth in the hotel where you can write down your wishes and hang them up

haha this kid is so cute - look at what he wishes for

After dinner stop was at Mt.Hakodate, where we enjoyed the panoramic night view that is ranked among top three in the world

too bad my lousy camera is unable to capture a picture that justifies the magnificient view

oooh, i love the hot spring!

ee? What is the merlion doing in japan? I bet you didnt know this - Hakodate is the sister city of Singapore and this merlion was presented to the hotel as a gift by STB

after hot spring, i was craving for doughnuts and Mister Donut is just opposite!

sweet smelling peach- delicious!

vending machine dispensing hot food

chicken nuggets from the vending machine, not bad.

tatami - it's time to sleep

breakfast

squeezing the butter onto the bread

After breakfast, we headed off to the fresh seafood market

The hokkaido crab that costs you $140

WARNING: The following pictures may disurb some of you as they show the preparation of live squid for eating

there you go, the freshest squid dish ever. I would have loved to tried it if only we werent so tight up for time

squid ink ice-cream which, disappointedly, tasted like vanilla ice cream

the shop that sells salmon roes in all their dishes, looked so yummy

This way to hell valley

mummy!

moshi moshi

giant octopus

Very expensive tuna sashimi indeed. It costs us $56 for this 8 pathetic pieces of tuna belly meat which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids - very good for your brain and eyes

sea urchin. do you dare to eat it?

i do. yar, i know i eat the most disgusting stuff in the world

It's not cheap too, costs $21 for this little urchin. At first i told mummy not to buy it cos it's so expensive, but she said it's ok since i would not have a chance to eat it unless i come all the way to Hokkaido. So she bought one for me and it was very sweet and worth it.

After lunch was a long bus ride to the Shiraoi Ainu Village(the minority race in Hokkaido).The museum was designed to give a general picture of the Ainu's life,displaying precious heirlooms and household utensils.

their accesories, pretty huh?

me and aunt

with the ainu people

the women of the village had to tatoo their mouths and hands from the age of 12 before they could get married at 20. Look at the black thing round the mouth. yar, that's their ugly tatoo.

Next, we proceeded to visit the steaming Noboribetsu mountain

the sulphurous boiling hot spring. I enjoyed the natural hot spring bath in the hotel, so relaxing!

off for a walk in the streets

our wide spread of dinner. the sashimi was super duper fresh i tell you! And lucky me get to enjoy double the serving of sashimi since mummy doesnt like raw food and it would be such a waste to put them inside the steamboat to cook.

Me looking so jap-ish

group photo with our tour guide

the japs

after dinner, we walked back to mount Noboribetsu to watch their fireworks performance which wasnt very exciting in fact.

the service from this little shop is so good, they actually served us green tea the moment we stepped in, regardless of whether we bought anything.I must say i'm really impressed with the excellent service in Japan. The waitresses and salesgirls etc are always smiling politely, offering the best services they can. Something singapore should learn from.

Our room in Noboribetsu Tumoto

Look at the huge mountain of snacks that we bought. We spent most of our money on food in Hokkaido cos the food there simply was tooo enticing for us to ignore.

Our last breakfast in Hokkaido before we say sayounara.

Went to a factory outlet at Chitose before going to the Chitose airport. It was huge and very high-class. However, it was such a pity that we only have a pathetic one and a half hour to shop and i only bought a adidas bag. Saw this skirt that looks soo sweet, just that it's not quite my style or i would have bought it.