For The Love of Travel

I left early from Asahikawa, heading for the Kurodake Cable Car in the Daisetsuzan National Park. When I arrived, a flotilla of cars had already parked, leaving some vacant spots a fair distance from the entrance. I really felt like an old person when I decided not to walk 200m from the car over icy snow to get to the cable station. I would have, if I had crampons with me. But I didn’t, doh!

These very strange winter wonderland bamboo-based constructions appeared on the side of the road, I think it might be a local Council project – on the side of parkland.

The Sounkyo Gorge was close, a 24km stretch of columnar jointing cliffs, which have been carved deep by the Ishkari River, nature’s many waterfalls. Among them, the Ryusei-Ginga Falls, with two waterfalls flowing side by side, so spectacular, that it’s been selected as one of the top 100 waterfalls in Japan. On arrival, I only saw the more powerful ‘male’ Ryusei; Ginga, was nowhere to be seen. Quite an overcast and freezing day….Ryusei was flowing, but surrounded by icy frosticles, so you can hardly distinguish any ‘flow’ in a photo (because of the freeze frame…did you see what I did there? Haha!)

Driving further along route 273, I came past Taisetsu Lake and saw the Ishikari River winding its course from….Mt Ishikari, of course. Couldn’t wait to take a drone shot. I wish there were more colours in the stunning (bleak) landscape, particularly the water.

I drove to the Mikuni Pass (the highest point in Hokkaido), the road winding fabulously amid a sea of trees and a winter wonderland of snow. There was a summit I was heading for, from which to observe the beauty of the surrounding area….nah! Closed! Too icy! Argggh!

Passed by a few farms in the Kitami area that made an effort for their homes and outer buildings to stand out in the landscape, both in design and colour.

View from the Route Inn Grantia Shiretoko Shari Ekimae hotel 7th floor window for you…at 7pm.

Shari is the jumping off point to explore the Shiretoko National Park – there are 16 named mountains in the park, the tallest and most prominent of which is Mt Rausu, 1666m. The park derives its name from a local Ainu word, which means something like “the place where the earth protrudes” – the peninsula juts out into the Sea of Okhotsk; you can see drift ice; and on the west coast- craggy coastlines and waterfalls. There are also hot springs, forest, lakes and marshes. It’s heavily volcanic, with lots of conifer, birch, fir and spruce trees.

 My first stop off was “Road to the Sky/Heavens Observatory”, at the end of a straight 18km road where in autumn, the sun sets directly in the middle of the road- the traveller feels they are driving straight into the sunset. Not this morning however 🙂 At the ‘observatory’, which was a 5m high wooden lookout, saw this lovely scene across to the sea, the colours and layering perked me up….can you see the drift ice?

The second most scenic thing was this pooh bear looking sign, made me laugh…

I drove through little villages, with great background vistas to behold, that looked poor, dishevelled and deserted…absolutely no-one seemingly farming or doing stuff outside their homes.

The waterfall of Oshinkoshin is worth while visiting – and listed in Japan’s 100 top waterfalls. It looks even more stunning when redolent with greenery on its fringes!

Just caught a glimpse of this lovely heart-shaped bit of drift ice in the Sea of Okhotsk as I was driving back on route 334 from Utoro to Shari.

My last location for the day was the Akan-Mashu National Park close to Teshikaga, an area with MORE volcanoes, forests, lakes, and a native Ainu settlement. I wanted to see waterscapes like this and Mt Mashu’s volcano…but the road to access Mt Mashu was closed due to ice….doh!

Just to share one of the things I love about this country….getting petrol for my car – the petrol attendant motions me in…with an elaborate gesticular display, to position my vehicle just so (manoeuvres worthy of any aircraft marshaller I’ve ever seen doing their work!); takes my credit card…returns it….fills car up….brings me a receipt to sign off on…..pretty much in 3 mins. Great system, love it.

I didn’t get up to much in Sapporo – I drove up to Mt Moiwa observation deck but it was closed; the TV tower looked awesome but I didn’t feel like getting views of city buildings; so I ventured out to see a statue of Dr Clark, famous for the phrase “boys be ambitious”, standing atop Hitsujigaoka Observation Hill. It has panoramic views of Sapporo but you need serious binoculars otherwise everything appears as a speck on the horizon! Observation Hill was originally a national research centre, where sheep were kept. Who was Dr (William Smith) Clark you ask…he was a professor of chemistry, botany and zoology; a colonel during the American Civil War and a leader in agricultural education – President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College 1867-1879. In 1876, during the Meiji Restoration era, he was hired by the Japanese government to establish the Sapporo Agricultural College (now the Uni of Hokkaido) and greatly earned the respect of his students and faculty members.

The weather’s improved with lots of sunshine, so a glorious day to travel through a new set of mountain ranges and passes…Lake Katsurazawa was frozen over, so no pics to be had there.

I travelled through the town of Mikasa, (from whence I remember volleyballs I used in competition in the dim dark past, came from)….I pulled over at the local timber mill, loving the way poles of timber are stacked.

I stood on the bridge looking over the Ikushunbetsu river to the side of the mill, and all of a sudden, there was a flapping of wings and I was lucky to see a Great Blue Heron take flight, a glimpse of unexpected majesty. (Because I’m not a twitcher, had to google to make sure it wasn’t a crane). I understand that unlike its cousin, the crane, which symbolises peace, luck and longevity, the meaning of the heron’s appearance is more mysterious…tied to spirits, gods, death and a link to another world. 

I barely managed to get the camera up in time, but pleased with the shot.

The Shirogane Blue Pond, wasn’t. It was pretty much frozen over, just with a few glimmers of melt starting…so this was the best I could do… 🙂

Just a few kilometres down the road, the Shirahige waterfall….after the waterfalls I’ve seen and captured, a bit of a meh! But still……

On the road to Kamifurano, discovered the Nisshin Dam and put my drone up….loved this view…

From Kamifurano to Asahikawa, I loved the farm fields in different stages of snow melt, the colour and patterns left on the landscape….and I was surprised by a fox wanting to cross the road (as happens) ….

Loved this pano too with Mt Furano and Mt Biei in the distance ….its so hard to capture the beauty of the environment you are driving through!

A lovely ‘high tea’ brekkie before I started my day. Delicious bitefuls of savoury items (croque monsieur; baked potatoes; slice of pork; green salad; sweet corn soup) and a few sweets (yoghurt with berries; 2 small fruit pieces; scone/jam/cream) at the end. Yum!

It began to snow just as I turned on the ignition…but thankfully stopped within about 10 minutes of setting off. My first stop today at Mishima-San’s Shibazakura garden in Kutchan which I knew wouldn’t be in bloom, but I wanted to witness the location, ‘cos its so lovely in May in pics. Check out that pink and yellow contrast, wow! As I was driving past, I noticed a darling little green cottage …..

And Mt Yotei @ 1898 metres, was loomingly magnificently, despite the overcast weather. Its also called ‘Ezo Fuji’ because it resembles Mt Fuji, another stratovolcano I’ll be meeting later in the trip!

As I was leaving Kutchan, I couldn’t help but notice this very unsavoury establishment……what the ???!!

And Mt Niseko was on the opposite side of the highway, gloomy, brooding and looking like a painting. I loved the colour layering of the image….

I chose to make this one a B&W image..reminded me of a few Japanese prints I had seen….

More than 50% of Japan’s total milk production and 90% of the cheeses originate from Hokkaido. Called into the Niseko Cheese factory and purchased some ‘super’ blue cheese. Takashi, behind the counter, told me they made the cheese from Holstein herds. Very yum!

Its quite the experience driving from Kutchan to Sapporo via the Nakayama Pass – superb mountain vistas for most of the way. And an incredible mountain tunnel system you travel through as well. Well worth the effort.