Runaway to Hokkaido: Day 3

Well now, this is quite the interesting day. Started the day at 06.15 - thanks to the constant ringing of the morning call. Turns out the only way to silence it is to pick it up. Had the same ol' morning routine that had been going on since...forever, followed by loading the luggages onto our bus.

Anyway, our tour then resumed with us heading to the fruit plantation for some plum picking. However, instead of being interested in the plums, the 'runaways' were WAY more interested in the peaches, though the peach season was still weeks away. Besides, despite the plantation attendant's warning for us to stay away from the peaches, the runaways just had to have their to-die-for pictures with the peaches. Kinda rhymes, doesn't it? Pictures and peaches. So, that's how I found the group scattered around the plantation -- even though we were clearly instructed to follow our guide. Took a nice 5 minutes before the group clumped back together again to hear the guide's briefing. "Pick only from trees with a pink ribbon." That's what the guide said. But of course, trees with pink ribbons only bear plums, not peaches. Nevertheless, the runaways had a wonderful time feasting on the crimson colored ping-pong-ball-sized plums.


Some unripe apples
More unripe apples
The crimson ping-pong-ball-sized plums
What?! A plum growing from the tip of a branch?
The oh-so-famous peaches that everyone wants to have a picture with

Next, it was off to the bear ranch. In my opinion, best spot of the day. Gosh, you should've seen the bears! They were brilliant! Whenever a visitor stands by the enclosure, the bears would beg and wave for them to send food their way. It's like a scene out of a kindergarten, when a teacher pops a question and the kid's are eager to answer. Went on feeding the bears till we had to leave for lunch at a seafood market. Frankly, I never thought that crabs would come in all colors, shapes and sizes. I've always thought a crab's a crab. Shell, six legs, a pair of pincers and bulging eyes. Crabs aside, there were even more sea creatures that I've never seen. As before, the runaways were eager to get their pictures with the sea creatures but they were less fortunate here since they'd have to buy it before they're allowed to hit the shutter. Well, that didn't even stop them one bit since they each bought a crab and took photos with it. Problem solved. It was a blessing they had them at lunch or our bus would be filled with the lingering odor of rotting seafood.

This spells doom for the Hokkaido-lings
Racoons, aka. bear fodder. Nah, just kiddin'.
Bear cubs
Foood...fooooood...
'Sup? Wanna come chill with me?
Pweeease, can I have a cwacker?
Hey, over here! Throw me a cracker!
Pfft, he didn't even notice me!
Here comes Puma's rival: the bear!
>Mount Showa, a dormant volcano, lies in front of the ranch
What are those? Sea apples?
Reminds me of the spiders from 'Eight-Legged Freaks'
Anyone want more than a bite? Go ahead.
Run! It's Bear-zilla!
'Are there giant salmons here?'
'Never mind. I'll take that crab instead.'

After lunch, it was time for some sight-seeing at the Tomita Farm. Actually, I'd so call it a garden after seeing the iridescent field of flowers and finding no crops or livestock. Spent some time admiring the flowers and for the first time in life, had lavender flavored ice-cream. It sorta tastes like vanilla except that it's purple in color.




Finally, time to check-in again. Arrived at the hotel for the night and headed to our suite before meeting at the reception desk for dinner. Since dinner's not in the hotel, we had to walk quite a bit. On our way, I saw the weirdest car I've ever seen. It's like a Batmobile wannabe in orange. It's really weird and not to mention, funny-looking.


Views from the suite
See? Looks weird yeah?
A shot of the city

And there goes day number 3. 3 days down, 4 more to go...

Last Updated @ 6:54 AM

Signed: Whoever was here...

Runaway to Hokkaido: Day 1 & 2

As you may know, life tends to get so repetitive that taking a trip every now and then to break the cycle wouldn't hurt much. That actually explains why I gave myself the green light to sign up for a 7 days tour in Hokkaido. On second thought, make that 5 days since I spent the first and final day on an airplane.

Since I have five days of experience to blog about, I'll break it up into five articles lest you wanna read a novelized version of my trip. So, here's a rundown of the first and second day.

The first day was pretty much gone in a flash since we took the 23:35 flight. Then, it was a boring 7 hours in the air to Tokyo, an hour ride to the domestic airport, an hour in the airport and finally, a 1.5 hour flight to Hokkaido. Now, what does that sum up to? A day and a half gone by. What a waste.

The moment we arrived in Hokkaido, I finally got to meet the other 33 'runaways' who were on the same tour and gosh, it was a mix of young, old, cheery, grumpy, humble and snobbish. Well, after all, people do come in all sorts of wacky flavors.

Now, the tour's finally begun. Our first stop was at the Ainu Museum, a museum that displays the life and cultures of the Ainu people. One chilling fact about these Ainu people is that in the past, they have to capture a bear cub and raise it for a few months before killing it. Personally, I'd term that animal abuse but for them, it's a ritual to relieve the bear of its suffering in the world. Sounds weird, right? I'll bet the bear was having a better time before they were put on death row by them. We were also invited to a performance by the modern Ainu people, who are regular Japanese now, on their cultures in the past.


A statue of the village chief.








What's a mascot doing here?

Mascot: I'm not an Ainu. Stop looking at me.

Chewing off on their dog house.

Hope the Ainus didn't move on to dogs for their rituals...

Next, our last stop of the day, we arrived at the Hell Valley, a now dormant volcano. Contrary to it's creepy name, it's actually not all that hellish except for it's pungent sulphurous stench. A nature reserve park laid to the side of the volcano but unless you wanna risk getting attacked by weird looking bees, don't venture into it cause I know I don't.





Toilet for ghosts aka. us.

Finally, we retreated to the hotel for the day and were treated to a display of fireworks. In my opinion, the hotel was the best spot we had visited for the day since I was dead beat after having less than a few hours sleep and the other two locations we visited weren't that entertaining.







Well, anyway, I'll do my best to update day 3 ASAP. No promises though.

Signing off~

Last Updated @ 7:36 AM

Signed: Whoever was here...