5 day catch up

So I had hoped to do a post a day, but it's easier just to do a big post.

Ok, so on Wednesday morning, we woke up, packed up our futons at the Airbnb we stayed at, and went to Tokyo station. Breakfast was Tullys before grabbing an Ekiben (train bento) for the shinkansen and ride up to Sapporo. It was a long train ride. The mainland part is ok, because although it's 3 hours, the shinkansen trains are comfortable and go at a quick rate. The Super Hokuto train from Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto to Sapporo was a lot slower. It was close to 4 hours, but as it was gettin dark, all of us fell asleep for some of the journey before arriving around 18:40 in Sapporo.

Whitney and I made quick trip to Yodobashi Camera to see if they had some sim card adapters for her Nanosim, as her phone had died. Whitney, Amber and I piled into a taxi to take all the bags to the next accommodation before meeting Mum back at the station. We walked a little, before deciding on a place that looked ok. I got steak and garlic toast, Mum and Whitney got something or other, but Amber ordered the pasta. Which would have been fine, if the waitress hadn't forgotten to put it on the order! We waited for nearly an hour and a half before Amber finally got her meal which is pretty poor form. After that we were all knackered so we headed back to the apartment and crashed.

The next day I had a simple plan. Get to the station, then hop on a bus to go snowboarding. Which I did. I went to Sapporo Teine ski-jo, which is about 45 mins out from Sapporo. After getting dropped off at the Highland area, I got my hire board, and got changed. To say I was a little nervous would be an understatement. It's been 2 years since I've been snowboarding, and the last time it ended with a knee op. This time, I was in an unfamiliar terrain, didn't have my besty there to snowboard with me and my knee was already a little sore from lugging bags up and down stairs. So I took it easy. No off-piste and nothing too fast. I explored all over the mountain, had lunch then went and got my camera out. I'm still learning the basics of photography, so I thought I should just take pictures and see how I go. I'm sure there will be plenty of over-exposed shots, but I won't know until I get the film developed and processed. I snowboarded until 4pm, before packing up and going downstairs to wait for the bus. I arrived back at 5:30, found my way back to the apartment and crashed for a while. Dinner consisted of Yoshinoya, then we walked to Donki. It was about 10 blocks, but when we got there, I couldn't think of what I wanted (beanie, gloves) so we left and walked back to the room via a covered arcade.

Friday saw the girls wanting to go to the Music Box museum in Otaru, about 40 mins away. Although I love miniatures and things, the tinkling of the music boxes would have driven me insane, so I jumped on a train 25 minutes further out and went to the Nikka Whiskey distillery in Yoichi. I stayed about 2 hours, checking out the various bits and the Whiskey Museum before having a sample. Then I caught the train back to Otaru where I met up with the others. For the afternoon, we hired a kei car (Honda N-One), then drove north. Our destination was Sounkyo Onsen, where there is a ice fall festival with ice sculptures and lighting and things. It was about 200km, but I took it easy. The sun was setting just as we were headed up the mountain, then things got spastic! On getting to Sounkyo, the weather in the mountains had changed and there was a flipping blizzard making it hard to see, let alone drive. We stopped at the 7-11, as I needed a beanie and gloves still, and everyone changed into their snow gear. This took ages (the Honda is pretty small, so hard to change in), then we drove toward where the Ice festival was. I dropped off the girls near the gate, while I went to look for a car park. In the meantime, the wind was blowing sideways and you could barely see. I parked the car, met up with the girls, til there was a unanimous "Oh hell no". Mum had left her wallet in the car, so didn't have the money for the entry (only 300Y), but the conditions were unpleasant enough to make everyone say that it was a very bad idea.

We were all a bit bummed out, as it was one of the things we really wanted to do on Hokkaido, but it would have been madness to continue. We drove the 60km back to Asahikawa where we had booked a hotel for the night. We checked in, got ourselves sorted then went looking for food. After walking about 200m we found a yakiniku places, and as the smell was rather tempting, we went in. Much meat was had, before heading back to the hotel via a combini for pudding.

Saturday, we had a slowish start. We had a buffet breakfast, so ate rather well, before hitting the road for Furano. Furano was the town we had stayed in 9 years ago on our first trip to Japan, so it holds a lot of good memories. We got there around 10:45, but Ningle Terrace (an artists village near the New Furano Prince Hotel) didn't open until 12, so we pottered around the hotel souvenir shop for a while,, grabbing some trinkets. When it finally opened, we had a look at all the little art things. Some of them are really cool, however, with them being made of wood, we can't take them back to Australia. We did stop at the silversmiths cottage where Mum got another snowflake necklace. She got one on our first trip, but lost it last year and was rather miffed. So when the opportunity to get another one arose, She jumped at the chance. Amber and Whitney also bought some candles, before we headed off about 1pm for the cheese factory. This place has got great pizzas, so that was our lunch. A quick trip back to the Prince hotel for a couple more souvenirs before we started heading back to Sapporo, as I had to return the car by 6pm. The route we took was rather scenic. There were mountains, valleys, plains and towns. We got back at a good time, so I dropped the girls off and returned the hire car. Dinner was straight downstairs from the apartment. An old lady making curry soup. It was delectable, and we were the only ones in the shop. We were all knackered again, so we went back upstairs, ate the cake I had bought on the way back from dropping the car off then headed for bed.

Sunday's plan had us heading to Rusutsu. I wanted to go snowboarding, Whitney and Amber wanted to go horse riding, and mum came along just because. The bus left Sapporo at 8am, so we rushed to the bus stop, got some breakfast from Lawson's, then got on the bus. The actual distance to Rusutsu is only about 60km, but took nearly 2 hours once we made it past the city traffic, and up mountain roads. I quickly lost the others when I went to get changed, so got my lift ticket, ran the rabbit warren and got my hire board. I started on the West Mountain as that's where the nearest lift was. The problem with western mountains is that they get the morning sun, so they get a crust on the snow. It's not hard to ride, but not that good either, so after 1 run, I caught the gondola to East Mt and Mt Isola. These were much better, with more shadow leaving the snow softer. I was still a bit apprehensive, as some shocks still made my knee hurt, but before too long, I was skirting around trees and heading off-piste. I said I wouldn't but I must have been a dog in a previous life, as I love playing in the trees. I spent the next 4 hours or so on that side. There was one time where I started running low on energy and had a couple of bails before I went to Steamboat Cafe and fuelled up with Miso Ramen and beer. I only about an hour until my pass ran our (I got a 4hour pass), so I did as many runs as I could. The pass ran out at 2:28, so when I found myself at the bottom near the lifts at 2:25, I pushed my luck and grabbed another. I should have got a better lift, as the single chair lift took me to the top of a green run. It was probably for the best anyway, as by this time, it had started snowing heavily, and it was hard to make out the contours of the run. I made it down the bottom, before catching the gondola back across to the hotel.

It was still a couple of hours before the bus left, and although I had planned to have an onsen, it didn't happen and the time seemed to vanish anyway. The bus trip back wasn't as long, but with all of us tired, we slept quite a bit of the way. Once back in Sapporo, we caught a taxi to the Sapporo Beer Garden, as there was a Jingisukan place (lamb BBQ). It was quite pretty, and we ate a stack of meat (perfect for rebuilding muscle) and came out with our clothes smelling like smokey lamb. As we were planning on catching the 8:30 train the next morning, we packed up a lot of our stuff, and then hit the mattress.