[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 14 January 2017]
Day 3 – 9 December 2016, Friday
The daily morning call for the tour group was at 7am but as usual, we woke up earlier on our own and went for breakfast at 7am. We like to take our time to have our meal before going back to the hotel room to use the toilet in comfort before setting off for the day.
The buffet spread was quite good, with a mix of Japanese style and continental breakfast. As much as I love Japanese food, I still prefer to have a Western style breakfast for my first meal of the day. Just give me bread and coffee and I’ll be satisfied. But when you’re in Hokkaido, you must also definitely drink their fresh milk. It’s so creamy and yummy. Mum doesn’t usually like the taste of fresh milk but she was able to accept the one in Hokkaido. Somehow it just tastes different and it is so good!
It was another chilly day and the forecast was a maximum temperature of -1 degree Celsius. At 8:40am, we departed our hotel and arrived at Tokachi River just 3 minutes later. We were supposed to come here yesterday to see the white swans on the river but as it was winter, the sun set very early and it was already dark by the time we reached Tokachi, so Reiko decided to push it to today instead.
Our bus stopped on the river bank near the suspension bridge. Unfortunately for us, the swans were also on holiday and we only saw three white swans, one grey swan and a cygnet. Bet you didn’t know that a young swan is called a cygnet, right?! Haha, I had to Google that one too. As there were just a few pathetic swans, we only spent 15 minutes there and left. In any case, it is not as if we haven’t seen swans before. They’re not endangered and we can see them here at our Botanic Gardens too. Besides, it was too cold to be hanging out.
The next stop on our itinerary was Ikeda Wine Castle. It was just a short drive away and we arrived at 9:18am. When it comes to alcohol, most people won’t associate Japan with red or white wine. The first thing that comes to mind is sake, which is Japanese rice wine. However, the optimal weather conditions here make Tokachi a very fertile area for the cultivation of grapes, which are then used to produce the top-quality wine.
Reiko brought us on a very quick tour of the wine factory. We first went to the underground ripening room, where we saw barrels upon barrels of wine undergoing the ageing process. The smell of wine was raft in the air. After that, we went up to the ground level where we had a view of the outdoor exhibition garden with a sampling of the vineyards. To our surprise, it started snowing lightly and we were so delighted to experience our first snowfall during this trip. But it was very cold so we quickly retreated indoors to the gift shop.
The shop was very big and it stocked all varieties of Tokachi wine – red, white, dessert wine, they had it all. The prices ranged from ¥637 to ¥3,477 a bottle (approx. S$8.30 to S$45), so they were quite affordable actually. We also sampled the free white wine, which was pretty good. If you are a wine connoisseur, you can pay a small fee to sample the more premium wines – ¥300 for a cup or ¥700 for 3 cups. I was happy enough with the free white wine.
However, I did buy a cup of the Brandy ice cream (¥380/S$5), which was soft serve ice cream infused with Brandy liquor. Maybe it was because I just had the white wine before that, so I couldn’t really taste the Brandy. Another thing to shout out about – besides the fresh milk, you must also try the soft serve ice cream in Hokkaido! It’s really good!
When we left Ikeda Wine Castle at 10:06am, it started to snow heavily. It would continue to snow for the rest of the day, ceasing only in the late evening. To think we were worried that December might be too early for snow! As we drove past the countryside, everything was covered in white and it was very beautiful. We were as far removed from Singapore as we could be – the scenery, temperature and snow – and I loved it. We were also thankful that we were not driving ourselves because the heavy snowfall made visibility poor and all lane markings disappeared under the blanket of snow. It takes a skilful driver to navigate and drive in these conditions.
We arrived at our lunch stop at Kushiro at 11:52am. Kushiro is the most populous city in Eastern Hokkaido. Today’s lunch was at a restaurant called Hokusaitei, which served shabu-shabu, a Japanese hotpot dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables boiled in water. Certain cuts of the meat were free flow while the higher quality ones were chargeable, but we were happy with the normal (free) cuts. The vegetables were laid out in a buffet spread and there was a great variety – pumpkin, bean sprouts, cabbage, mushroom, tomato, tofu and more. There was also soft serve ice cream and mochi doused in red bean paste, which was delicious.
When we emerged from the restaurant, we found that the snow was falling even heavier than before. We took the opportunity to play with the snow and take photos. At this point in time, we were still very excited to see snow. We departed at 1:15pm and arrived at our next destination, Washo seafood market, 20 minutes later.
It is basically an indoor market selling seafood, fruits and vegetables. There were also a few eateries and shops selling other dry products and groceries. It is catered mainly to locals and not a place where tourists would normally shop at but it provided a glimpse of the local way of life. The highlight was seeing the huge range of fresh seafood available, with lots of enormous Hokkaido crabs, thick octopus tentacles, gigantic prawns, fish of every type and other exotic seafood. I could imagine just how fresh the produce must be. They were probably brought here just hours after being caught at sea.
I saw some of our tour group members buying sashimi to eat so I also tried some. The sashimi were all sliced and laid out and you could just pick the ones you wanted. The cheapest was sweet shrimp at ¥50 and the most expensive was tuna toro at ¥500. Most of them were priced at ¥100 or ¥200 per piece so it was still affordable. I was actually still very full from lunch but I just wanted to try it because the sashimi was so fresh and it would be a waste not to try some.
I picked 5 types of sashimi for ¥918 – Hokkaido salmon, fresh yellowtail, fret fish, scallop and whale meat. I wasn’t planning to get whale meat but the stallholder recommended it enthusiastically so I relented. I have tried whale meat once in Iceland but that was a steak and it tasted like liver. This raw version tasted just like other kinds of fish sashimi, and I won’t say it had a particular distinctive taste. As expected, all the sashimi were very fresh as they came from the source. The portions were generally big, especially the scallop, so it was very cheap actually. I would have loved to have more but I was simply too full.
At 2:23pm, we left Washo seafood market and headed towards our next destination. It was nice to plug in to my headphones and listen to music and admire the winter scenery from the bus while being insulated from the cold. At 3:16pm, seemingly out of nowhere, Reiko informed us that we had reached Kushiro Tsurumidai, a winter feeding ground and viewing area of the Japanese crane, known as Red-Crowned Crane, or 丹顶鹤.
Maybe it was to make up for the lack of swans at Tokachi River earlier in the morning, but we were very lucky that there were about a hundred cranes here today. Even Reiko said she had never seen so many cranes here before. This was their natural habitat and the cranes were “grazing” here. Reiko told us to be very quiet because years back, there were some tourists who made too much noise and the cranes got scared and flew away, and they did not return again till many years later. So it was important to keep a distance and not to make too much noise or use flash photography.
As we were quite far away, we couldn’t see the cranes very well, but we could hear them all right. They were calling out loudly and they sounded like crows. From the pictures, it can be seen that the cranes had black necks and black tail feathers, while the rest of their body was covered in white feathers. I can’t see if they really had a red crown on their heads. It was a very pretty sight indeed and we were lucky to see so many of them.
At 4:00pm, just as it was getting dark, we departed Kushiro Tsurumidai. The drive to our hotel at Lake Akan took exactly an hour.
Forest of Akan Tsuruga Resort Hanayuuka (Hana Yūka)
Address: 1-6-1 Akanko Onsen Akan Cho Kushiro Hokkaido
Tel: +81-154-67-2500
Website: www.hanayuuka.com/en/
The hotel was much newer and more modern compared to last night’s accommodation, with Western style beds. However, for the third person in the room (me), I didn’t get an extra bed so I slept on a futon again. I have no issue with it because the futon is very comfy.
After dropping our bags, we had an early dinner at 5:30pm because Reiko had arranged for us to visit the Ainu village to catch a performance later at night. The hotel restaurant was very nice and the buffet was very good. There were too many dishes to pick from and we couldn’t try them all. I had several helpings of sashimi, beef steak and tempura, before filling my stomach with delectable desserts, cakes and fruits.
At 8:00pm, we left the hotel and took a small shuttle bus to the Ainu Kotan (village) nearby. Ainu are Hokkaido’s indigenous people and official sources put their population at 25,000. However, it is believed that the actual figure is closer to 200,000 but many of them have been completely assimilated into Japanese society that they have no knowledge of their own ancestry. The Ainu people were only officially recognised by the Japanese government as an indigenous group in 2008. Before that landmark ruling, the government had stated that there were no ethnic minority groups in Japan and the Ainu had been ignored, discriminated against and forced to assimilate with mainstream Japanese culture for hundreds of years.
The Ainu Kotan at Lake Akan is the largest settlement of Ainu people in Hokkaido, with 130 Ainu calling it home. Where we alighted, there were about 30 shops lining both sides of a small slope, most of them craft shops selling traditional wood carvings and embroidered items. With the snow covering the rooftops of the shops, it appeared very Christmas-y, somewhat like a fairytale village.
Reiko led us to the top of the slope, where she handed us our tickets and we entered a theatre to catch a cultural performance by the Ainu. The half-hour show started at 8:30pm and it comprised of 17 segments. It was a combination of song and dance, where performers sang in their native language, danced to mimic the crane’s movement and played folk instruments, among other things. One of the most memorable segments was Futtarechui, or Dance of Ainu girl’s black hair, where the five female Ainu shook their heads vigorously from side to side. The show was a glorious celebration of their way of life and their customs and I really enjoyed it.
After the show ended, we had free and easy time on our own, where we could check out the shops at the Kotan or take the shuttle bus back to our hotel. Reiko said that it was also possible to walk back to the hotel if we wished, and the walk would take around 15 minutes. So we decided to check out the shops and take a slow stroll back to the hotel. Most of the other tour members chose to take the shuttle bus back though.
As it turned out, the shops were not very interesting and there wasn’t much to see. They were mostly selling the same handicraft and wood carving ornaments. They were quite pricey so we didn’t buy anything. As we walked back to the hotel, it seemed much further than just a 15-minute walk. The roads were covered with snow and ice and it was slippery at some sections. And the longer we walked, the colder it got. I regretted not taking the shuttle bus back. But eventually, we got back safely without being frozen.
After the long and cold walk, it was the perfect time to end the day with a soak in the onsen. My expectations were raised again because the hotel was good, so I thought the onsen would correspondingly be up to par. However, it was rather disappointing because it was very small, with only two baths (Medium and Hot) and one sauna, and no outdoor bath. It was not even as good as yesterday’s one. There is a better onsen at our hotel’s sister hotel, with expansive indoor and outdoor baths, but we will need to take a free shuttle bus to get there, which was too much of a hassle. Just hope tomorrow’s hotel and onsen will be better!
