Monday, August 25, 2003
The rest of our time off the weather never really recovered, so didn't go away for more than a night at a time, and did lots of day trips and stuff round the house. Back into the swing of work now though (as much as possible). I think the summer is coming to a close here now, some leaves are changing already and there's just some kind of hint of autumn in the air.
Please check out the Pictures and More Media links again as I've been doing some work on those sites, and will continue to over the next few days!
Please check out the Pictures and More Media links again as I've been doing some work on those sites, and will continue to over the next few days!
Saturday, August 09, 2003
We spent most of last week away from home. We drove all the way up to the most northern point of Japan (Cape Soya), stopping for one night at a campsite right on the coast on the way up. Camping is a little strange here (can't really put my finger on why, it just is), but very cheap. There are never any showers at these campsites though, but there are always onsens nearby...
The second night we stayed at a site just outside Wakkanai, the most northern city of Japan. This site was high on a hillside with really good views over the city and sea. And it was free! There seem to be lots of free sites around Hokkaido. We ended up going to a swimming pool in the city and using the showers there to get clean. The pool was setup in a ring circuit where the water went around, so you didn't have to swim, it kept pushing you around. Very shallow too. But it was a nice complex with water slides, a waterfall pool and a hot tub up on a raised platform. We weren't able to go in the normal 25m pool as we had no swimming caps. Also, the receptionist asked us if we had swimming costumes - maybe she thought that we'd confuse the etiquette of a pool with an onsen and go in nude...
The third night (at the same site) was not so good. There was a very bad rainstorm and as we were on the top of a mountain it got pretty rough. There was also the possibility of bears - there had been a bear attack a year ago, it was almost the one year anniversary that day. So, we were extra careful about keeping food around. Most people seemed to be eating and getting rid of the evidence quickly. The trash canisters were located in big steel cages with chains on them.
The rain got worse and worse through the night until eventually rivers were flowing by the tent and the ground was saturated, so at 2am we had to run to the car - we got extremely soaked in the process! It's difficult to sleep in a car though because the sun rises at just after 3.30am, so we hung up old towels and stuff around the windows to try and keep the light
out. In the morning we drove all the way home from there (8 hours) with lots of stop offs on the way, including lunch at a strange family restaurant in a department store on the edge of Shibetsu city, that looked on to a seemingly communist concrete apartment block. But the food was very good as it almost always is here!
We also drove through Daisetsuzan national park on the way back too, it has really nice scenery - gorges and waterfalls - and the road is amazing, lots of steep drops, hairpins etc.
Today we're planning to go to an outdoor onsen if the weather's not too bad. There's been a big typhoon hitting Japan, a very bad one it seems. The tail end seems to have passed us by now though.
The second night we stayed at a site just outside Wakkanai, the most northern city of Japan. This site was high on a hillside with really good views over the city and sea. And it was free! There seem to be lots of free sites around Hokkaido. We ended up going to a swimming pool in the city and using the showers there to get clean. The pool was setup in a ring circuit where the water went around, so you didn't have to swim, it kept pushing you around. Very shallow too. But it was a nice complex with water slides, a waterfall pool and a hot tub up on a raised platform. We weren't able to go in the normal 25m pool as we had no swimming caps. Also, the receptionist asked us if we had swimming costumes - maybe she thought that we'd confuse the etiquette of a pool with an onsen and go in nude...
The third night (at the same site) was not so good. There was a very bad rainstorm and as we were on the top of a mountain it got pretty rough. There was also the possibility of bears - there had been a bear attack a year ago, it was almost the one year anniversary that day. So, we were extra careful about keeping food around. Most people seemed to be eating and getting rid of the evidence quickly. The trash canisters were located in big steel cages with chains on them.
The rain got worse and worse through the night until eventually rivers were flowing by the tent and the ground was saturated, so at 2am we had to run to the car - we got extremely soaked in the process! It's difficult to sleep in a car though because the sun rises at just after 3.30am, so we hung up old towels and stuff around the windows to try and keep the light
out. In the morning we drove all the way home from there (8 hours) with lots of stop offs on the way, including lunch at a strange family restaurant in a department store on the edge of Shibetsu city, that looked on to a seemingly communist concrete apartment block. But the food was very good as it almost always is here!
We also drove through Daisetsuzan national park on the way back too, it has really nice scenery - gorges and waterfalls - and the road is amazing, lots of steep drops, hairpins etc.
Today we're planning to go to an outdoor onsen if the weather's not too bad. There's been a big typhoon hitting Japan, a very bad one it seems. The tail end seems to have passed us by now though.
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Been here a week now and still loving it! We've got most of the place finished now, bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom areas looking nice. Only the spare room/front room/office (?!) needs finishing now. I'll get some pictures up on-line ASAP, especially of the views which are really nice.
Weather hasn't been too good recently, although it should be improving any time now...nevertheless we went on a long day-trip yesterday to Akan National Park, which is surprisingly near to us, took about an hour to get there. It contains three big lakes, lots of small ones, and a few volcanoes too. We went to the main resort town on Akan Lake and wandered about there a bit. Lots of shops selling Ainu (native-Japanese I suppose you could call them) woodcrafts, the usual souvenirs and marimo - these are an almost unique feature of this lake, a kind of ball of algae which forms on the lake bottom by rolling down it and gets bigger over the years. You can buy tiny ones to nurture as pets! Next time...
We walked through the woods on the lake shore and found an area with pools of bubbling volcanic mud, and sulphur smoke coming from the ground. Signs warned not to walk on the lake shore at that point otherwise you'd "sink into the water to get scalded". It was raining most of the time which was good as there was hardly anyone around! It's usually very crowded at this time of year.
After that we drove to another lake, Lake Kussharo and walked on a little peninsula where there are a few very basic, open-air onsen (hot springs for bathing). Here the hot water runs just under the surface of the beaches, and you can dig your own onsen almost anywhere! At the tip of the peninsula, we could see huge clouds of sulphur smoke pouring from the rocks, very smelly but awe-inspiring.
When we got back to Kitami we decided to go out to dinner at a restaurant we'd seen, called Viva El Paso casual food house. It looks like some kind of ranch-house, and what with the name we expected Tex-Mex food...but no, just the normal Japanese "family restaurant" menu! But it was very good, nice atmosphere and quite cheap too, so we were not too disappointed.
Weather hasn't been too good recently, although it should be improving any time now...nevertheless we went on a long day-trip yesterday to Akan National Park, which is surprisingly near to us, took about an hour to get there. It contains three big lakes, lots of small ones, and a few volcanoes too. We went to the main resort town on Akan Lake and wandered about there a bit. Lots of shops selling Ainu (native-Japanese I suppose you could call them) woodcrafts, the usual souvenirs and marimo - these are an almost unique feature of this lake, a kind of ball of algae which forms on the lake bottom by rolling down it and gets bigger over the years. You can buy tiny ones to nurture as pets! Next time...
We walked through the woods on the lake shore and found an area with pools of bubbling volcanic mud, and sulphur smoke coming from the ground. Signs warned not to walk on the lake shore at that point otherwise you'd "sink into the water to get scalded". It was raining most of the time which was good as there was hardly anyone around! It's usually very crowded at this time of year.
After that we drove to another lake, Lake Kussharo and walked on a little peninsula where there are a few very basic, open-air onsen (hot springs for bathing). Here the hot water runs just under the surface of the beaches, and you can dig your own onsen almost anywhere! At the tip of the peninsula, we could see huge clouds of sulphur smoke pouring from the rocks, very smelly but awe-inspiring.
When we got back to Kitami we decided to go out to dinner at a restaurant we'd seen, called Viva El Paso casual food house. It looks like some kind of ranch-house, and what with the name we expected Tex-Mex food...but no, just the normal Japanese "family restaurant" menu! But it was very good, nice atmosphere and quite cheap too, so we were not too disappointed.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]