Hokkaido Trips (8 days, 6 nights): The name "Hokkaido" means "Way to the North Sea". Hokkaido is the northern most island (4 main island: Hokkaido, Honsyu, Shikoku & Kyushu) of the Japanese archipelago and accounts for about 22% of Japan's total land area. Unlike Tokyo, only 5% of the Japanese population inhabiting this island, it therefore has large areas of pristine wilderness & ample areas for farming (vege & flowers) and agriculture (JA).
Hokkaido was once inhabited by "Ainu" people, now the last indigineous people in Japan. Development of this island only begun in 1869 and over the past 139 years, Hokkaido has achieved significant development with agriculture and fisheries as its foundation. In this island, over 800 natural hot springs can be found, earning Hokkaido the name "The Land of the Hot Springs". And for those looking for a little bit of shopping frenzy, places like Sapporo (new capital city of Hokkaido) and Otaru (old capital city of Hokkaido) are a great places to visit. Other Places visited: a. Nijo Ichiba, Sapporo Bear Factory and Salmon Museum
b. Ainu Folk Village, Lake Toya Hot Spring (best "on-sen" - soaking naked into the hot springs)
c. Bear Ranch, Mt Showa Shinzan, Noboribetsu NixeMarine Park and Jidai Mura Village.
d. Otaru Canal, Kitachi Glass, Otaru Music Box Museum; and Sounkyo Daisetsuzan National Park.
- unique food: -41 degree cookies, tempura, fresh milk, soft-cream (cone ice-cream)and best
creamy soup.
e. Furano Tomita farm - lavenda, (good sweet corn and fried potato), "la-mien"
- note; most bus stop are name after the family leaving near Furano.
f. Tanukikoji Underground shopping, Odori Park, Clock Tower and Ramen Street near Sapporo.
Tokyo Extension Trips (6 days, 5 nights): Being a person who love nature, country-side and wilderness, I've little "good" impression on Tokyo (Japan metropolitan). Being one of the most busiest metropolitan in the world, shopping, fashion, maid-services, bullet train, workaholic crowd, and night-life are synonym to its massive development and culture. But its good to experience Tokyo city life once in your life time. Another culture to observe: "man work; ladies manage house-whole finances".
Anyway, a 2 hours ride from Tokyo to Hakone (near Mt Fuji) was worth a while. We manage to take Lake Ashi cruise, visiting Owakudani Valley and Oshino Hakkai to catch the glimpse of Mt Fuji (3,776m). But the cloudy weather doesn't allow us to see it clearly. Eating some "ake-manju" - lucky cakes (similar to red bean fried glutinous rice) and "black egg" - longevity egg (1 egg = 10 years) from Owakudani Hot Spring is just nice to end the tour around Mt Fuji. Other places visited: a. Yokohama China Town (Yamashita Park), Shin Yokohama
Station Bullet Train ride to Tokyo Shinagawa Stations (11 mins = bus 1 hr journey); Tokyo Odaiba,
Rainbow Bridge.
b.Shinjuku, Ueno & Shinbuya street walk, Asakusa Kannon Temple, Ginza, Shinjuku Tokyo
Metropolitan Government Building, Kabuki-Cho street shopping.
c. Tokyo Disneyland Tours - very crowded, almost 1 to 2 hrs wait for each game. "Fast-pass" doesn't
really works during "halloween" season.
- good 'shabu-shabu" (Japanese steamboat) dinner is just nice to end Tokyo tour.
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Ari-gato, gozai mas ta!
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