Having travelled around Hokkaido for a while I am now back in Asahikawa, though I'm off again to Asahidake in a few hours. To those of you that have sent me E-mail or were expecting E-mail from me I would like to appologise as I still haven't been able to get to it and probably wont get another chance until I'm back in Sapporo in a couple of days.
Right, well I guess you'll be wanting to know where I've been and what I've been doing since the last entry, or maybe not, but due to lack of comments on what you are interested in that's what your getting.
Or not, since I'm really not sure I'm in the mood for writing a long entry at the moment. We will see what comes about as I have quite a while before my bus.
Right, so after my second night in Asahikawa I took a train to Kamikawa from where I took a bus to Sounkyo Onsen where I hired a bike to ride around the Sounkyo Gorge before staying the night. I had intended to take the cablecar up Kamidake and possibly hike to the summit as well while here but in the end did not have the time.
In the morning I went on by train via Kamikawa to Abashiri where I visited a few museums (not a lot to do there) and spent the night.
The next morning I took a local train to Shiretoko-Shari from where a bus headed up the Shiretoko penisular to Utoro. After checking into a nice Minshuku in Utoro I hitched a lift to the five lakes of Shiretoko-go-ko, via the pass overlooking the mountains. After walking around the lakes I returned to Utoro from where I took a boat that headed along the coast of the penisular for a way, though a major part of the attraction for the Japanese tour groups on board appeared to be feeding the Seagulls. After the boat returned to Utoro I had a very nice meal at the Minshuku.
The next morning I took the bus back to Shari and got back on next local train. I got off next at Kawayu-onsen from where I checked into another pleasent Minshuku (this one with an onsen with a view over the lake) from where I hired a bike and rode to Mt Iou and along the edge of the lake for a while. After returning the bike I spent the earky-evening walking through the forested headland near the minshuku before returning for supper.
The next morning I returned to the train station and went on to Toro where I hired another bike from the cafe in the station (where I lefted my bag) and rode out to a couple of view-points over the surrounding lakes and marshes. After a couple of hours riding I returned to the station and went on to the end of the line at Kushiro.
After spending the night in the city I took and early express bound for Sapporo, changing to a local train at Shintoko to go to Furano. After stopping in Furano and picking up some information about the surrounding area I took another local train to Bibaushi where I spent the afternoon walking around some of the surrounding hills before spending the night in the youth-hostel there.
This morning I got back on the local train and rode it the rest of the way here to Asahikawa. So in the last week or so I have been through four different national parks (Taisetsuzan, Shiretoko, Akan and Kushiro) and seen an awful lot of very impressive and beautiful scenery, including mountains, waterfalls, gorges and lakes. From here I am heading by bus to Asahidake-onsen, back in the Taistensuzan National Park where I've got two nights booked at the youth-hostel in Asahidake and am planning to do a bit of walking around that area to finish my scenic tour before returning to Sapporo for my last couple of nights in Hokkaido. There have been a few places that I would have liked to have seen but have had to skip for one reason or another but overall I've seen a lot of Hokkaido in the last few days.
Posted by Haifisch at May 28, 2003 04:40 AMThanks. It took a while to follow this one on our map. As you said on the phone, you've roughly gone round the island in a clockwise direction.
Have you seen any sheep (we read it's the only part of Japan that has them)? And lavender fields near Furano (might be too early in the season for that)?
Evidently the effects of Monday's earthquake were too minor to be worth mentioning!
I think thats the first time you've mentioned the food out there. Does that mean it's generally been unremarkable? I suppose it's probably a bit hit and miss to try and get genuine Japanese stuff thats vegetarian.
Posted by: Grace at May 28, 2003 09:58 AMDid you ever read that 'Wild Sheep Chase' book I had (by Haruki Murakami, a bit of a celebrity in Japan apparently) - I think it revolved around Hokkaido sheep, among other things... I can't really remember what happened, in fact if it was as surreal as a lot of his stuff I quite possibly didn't understand it at the time either.
And by the way, what's a Minshuku?
Posted by: graham at May 28, 2003 01:17 PM