Sunsets and Onsens

Asia ~ Japan ~ Hokkaido ~ Sapporo, Furano, Wakkanai, Cape Soya, Noboribetsu Onsen & Muroran

Arrival in Hokkaido was like a breath of fresh air – whilst the weather in Honshu had been bearable, it was most definitely hot. Being that bit further north, Hokkaido’s climate is lovely, with hardly any humidity. My first couple of days were spent in Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, where I spent most of my time shopping (after the small towns in Honshu, shops were a big deal!). Visiting the Sapporo Beer Factory was also a must!

From Sapporo I headed to Furano on the “Lavender Express”. Furano, a town in the centre of Hokkaido, is known for it’s beautiful fields of lavender, certainly a sight to see. After arriving in Furano, I wandered about the station trying to figure out if there were buses to the local attractions. Found out there was a bus leaving RIGHT NOW, so I raced off and got a ticket and jumped on… Turned out it was a sight seeing bus for “Kita no kuni kara” (“From Northern Country”), a long running Japanese television drama. Very similar to going to Australia to do the Neighbours tour… Amongst other things, we saw the house that the main character built from recycled products – an old bus, refrigerator doors and so forth. We also visited the ice cream factory (asparagus ice cream any-one?) and the jam factory (huge variety of jams to taste, including pumpkin!). In Nakafurano, I was lucky enough to meet a guy who’s traveling around Hokkaido with his elderly father – they took me around for the day (they have a car to get around), so transport was taken care of! They even took me out for “gengis khan” barbecue for lunch, yum.

Me, at Farm Tomita in Nakafurano

Me, at Farm Tomita in Nakafurano

From Furano area, I headed north, to Wakkanai, a small town at the tip of Japan. Arrival in Wakkanai was fun – the town was in the middle of a summer festival, so there was street performances and food. I wandered off to find my hostel (“only fifteen minutes walk from the station”). Turned out it was fifteen minutes straight uphill – I got there, but only just! Whilst I was struggling up the hill with my backpack, a crew of teenage boys came jogging past me in their club uniforms. Bleh, they might have been jogging, but I had a heavy backpack! The hostel was lovely – I got there and crashed, and was woken up later that night by the owner – there were fireworks in town that could be seen from the hostel. So we sat on the roof, watching the fireworks go off by the waterside. As breakfast was served at 7am, I was up and only slightly awake by 7.05am the next morning. Wandered into the breakfast room, still very much out of it, to be greeted by yesterdays baseball club, who all immediately bowed and shouted “ohayou gozaimasu” (good morning) to me – I was so flummoxed – I mean, it was 7am, I hadn’t even wiped the sleep from my eyes and there’s all these kids shouting at me, eek! Whilst in Wakkanai, my main (only) aim was to see the sun set over the most northern part of Japan, Cape Soya…

Sunset over Cape Soya

Sunset over Cape Soya

Another day, another location – my last stop in my little trip around Hokkaido was Noboribetsu Onsen, south of Sapporo. Noboribetsu Onsen is famous in Japan as one of the best onsens in the country, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Two nights in the area allowed me to visit the baths 5 times – and they were amazing. From the “hot waterfall” (streams of hot water falling from 2 floors up onto your back) to the “walking onsen” (two ankle deep round pools, one containing hot water, the other containing ice cold water – the idea is you walk in the hot one for a lap, then swap to the cold one for a lap, the feeling is incredible), there’s plenty to keep oneself amused. Due to it’s eery sulfur spots (which provide alot of the water for the onsens), the area is also known as “hell valley”.

Noboribetsu Onsen of a night - everyone wears their summer kimono - yukata - around town

Noboribetsu Onsen of a night - everyone wears their summer kimono - yukata - around town

On the way back to Sapporo, I stopped at a little town called Muroran, which has recently re-invented itself as a whale/dolphin watching location. From there I took a sightseeing boat out into Volcano Bay. Although no whales were seen, we saw a heap of dolphins, so it was a fun day. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I had lathered myself in sunscreen twice before going out, I got extremely burnt on my arms. I can’t imagine how bad it would have been if I hadn’t have been wearing sunscreen… I was planning on heading into Otaru (a town known for its sushi), however my sunburn quickly put an end to those plans, so I headed back to Sapporo instead, intending to have a quiet night. Of course, Sapporo is in the middle of it’s summer beer festival, so that plan didn’t work – why do I always end up at a beer tent?!

Dolphins in front of the boat - sorry for the dodgy photo, hard to get one of dolphins, they move so fast!

Dolphins in front of the boat - sorry for the dodgy photo, hard to get one of dolphins, they move so fast!

Tomorrow I head down to Kyushu – whilst I’m excited to be seeing everyone again, I’m not looking forward to the temperature difference – right now (in Sapporo), it is 24 degrees, with 56% humidity. Fukuoka is 32 degrees, with 84% humidity – what am I getting myself into?!

Home in time for the end of Melbourne’s winter…

Asia ~ China ~ Hong Kong

Whoops – I might have been a little lazy in writing my last blog for my China trip… I’ve now been home for nearly a month (wow, time flies), and thought I’d better write that last post. But, honestly, I don’t have the time or the energy to write a nice long post like I normally do, so instead it’s a photo blog.

Chunking Mansions

Chunking Mansions

My “deluxe hotel” in Hong Kong – these buildings consist of many, many low budget hostel/hotel/guesthouses, ranging in grime from slightly grimey to total uk. I managed to stay in one of the better ones, Taiwan Hotel, for only HK$200 a night (for a twin room with a window, AC and private bathroom).

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Looking over the waterfront, waiting for the night-time lightshow. As far as cities go, I’ve decided that Hong Kong is actually a pretty nice one to look at, plenty of greenery as soon as you step away from the city, and interesting buildings in the middle of town.

Hong Kong Nightime

Hong Kong Nightime

Watching the ships go by, just before the nighttime light-show

Watching the skies

Watching the skies

Stanley Beach in Hong Kong, just near the famous Stanley Markets

Life Savers in Hong Kong

Life Savers in Hong Kong

Bringing in the boat – the beach “closed” at 6pm – complete with announcements to tell us to get out of the water!

Me at the beach

Me at the beach

Enjoying a summer’s day – later it will become apparent just how sunburnt I really was…

Me, at the top of the peak

Me, at the top of the peak

Nice view – but my mind wasn’t really on the view that particular day. Probably can’t quite see it in the photo, but my legs were the same colour as the red hat Matt was trying to “rescue” (see below). Owwwwww!

Matt, playing monkey

Matt, playing monkey

At the top of the peak, “rescuing” a McD cap…

Matt & Ronald

Matt & Ronald

Just hanging out with our new friend at a local resturant…

Tian Tan Buddha

Tian Tan Buddha

The world’s tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha – a whopping 268 steps to the top!

Matt taking a rest-stop

Matt taking a rest-stop

It’s a long way to the top – heading up to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island

So, now I’m home again, eagerly awaiting the birth of my neice/nephew. Off to Sydney, then Brisbane next month, then home for birthdays and Christmas. Hope all are well – this will be the last post for a while, until the next trip (China in January?)

xoxo

Sweating it out in Edinburgh

Europe ~ United Kingdom ~ Scotland ~ Edinburgh

How typical is this? We’re in one of the countries that is renowned for its cold and rainy weather and we are in the middle of a ‘hot spell’. Everyone is complaining about the heat, people are having trouble sleeping at night. This morning I was eating my brekky in the dining room (one of the coldest rooms in the hostel, brrr), one of the longtermers walked in and remarked ‘wow, isn’t it nice and cold in here’. Tomorrow the temperature might get as high as 22 degrees Celsius, I wonder how everyone will deal with the heat and lack of sleep. Despite all this, I did manage to get horribly sunburnt the other day, ouch!

We went out for a couple of hours on Sunday night, ended up coming home early because it was oh so hot in the club. Funny, in Australia, Sunday night/afternoon is spent lazing around, sad that the weekends over, slightly sick from a weekend of partying etc etc. You might have a drink or two, but that’s about it. Over here its one of the biggest nights of the week, 1 pound drinks, so everyone gets really drunk, quite different from home.

Next week the G8 is coming to Edinburgh, expected to be pretty big. Not only will we have all the world ‘leaders’, we will have all the protesters that come with them. Bob Geldof is calling for over 1 million people to flood the streets and ‘make poverty history’. The whole of Edinburgh is shaking in their kilts… Everyone has made all sorts of plans – they are closing down the main street (the one that runs past the front of the hostel) and are advising most shops to close for the day, if not the whole week. Pubs are replacing pint glasses with plastic cups and removing all chairs in anticipation of riots. The council is advising people to stock up on groceries and not to venture into town unless ‘absolutely necessary’. Despite all this, some of the shops are staying open – one of my friends shop is staying open, however they have put aside extra funds so they can whisk staff out the back, into taxis and away to safety in the event of riots. Should be fantastic, we’re gunna be right down there in the middle of it all…

Apart from gossiping about what’s going to happen next week, we haven’t been up to much. Just more roaming of the city, yesterday we went for a nice long walk up the mountains. Walked past Holyrood, the Queen’s residence when she’s in town (pretty impressive, she has her very own church in the backyard). Climb up the mountain wasn’t too bad, very impressive seeing the view over the city. The difference between the ‘old town’ and the ‘new town’ is astounding.

Hugs and kisses all [and a special hug to my new 2nd cousin, Phoenix]
xoxo bobs

Tash, Elysha and Mike, on their way up the mountain

Tash, Elysha and Mike, on their way up the mountain