hOkkaidO~

finally! the entry on hokkaido is here! and it cldn’t have been done at a much better time.. amidst all the stress im getting from the difficult assignments, the seemingly never-ending schwrk, the continuous deadline after deadline and strain from trainings, allowing my mind to be wholly taken up with reminiscences of the wonderful and happy memories will bring a smile to my face.. =)

we left Tokyo for Hokkaido on the 30th of july and again, it cldn’t have been more well-timed. for the past few weeks, Tokyo had been like a oven, slowly warming up the “ingredients” it has with in.. temperatures were close reaching unbearable (at least to me lah, for goodness, I was carrying my paper fan from nikko everywhere I go okay~) when we reached Hokkaido, it was like back to the past when I first arrived in Tokyo in late march! it was sooo cooling, i just miss the feeling of feeling the “air-con” when I was out walking in the open.. haha.. once we arrived at sapporo’s new chitose airport, we went to ORIX to pick up our baby~

our baby car~

in the end, we had to pay extra for it because it wasn’t the original car allocated to us.. if this car was out baby, the original car wld have to be our “foetus” cuz its so small!!! I wonder how they ever think it cld fit 7 full grown adults.. hmm.. “foetus”.. wonder how I ever came up with that.. sounds kinda disgusting huh? haha.. anyway, of cuz, our first driver was none other than our super driver~ (tho we wasn’t to know her superb driving skills till later..)

our super driver~

we spent the first day touring central Sapporo, first to the beautiful odori park.. it was really nice there, with all the pretty flowers and fountains..

odori park~

but we got bored soon and headed to the clock tower nearby. It was really small and museum-like and passages were in jap so we also left after a short while. Next stop: Sapporo beer musem, where we had beer ice-cream! innovative yah? haha.. it really tasted like those black beer lo.. although I don’t really like to drink, this tasted surprisingly okay to me.. hee~ oh oh.. and the beer here is cheap! for a small amount, u can get 3 glassful of beer to drink! I bet laura loved this place the most.. haha..

we had dinner at a ramen shop which we spent a long time trying to locate it.. apparently ramen’s quite famous here.. there’s like a whole street of ramen shops lo.. recommended by a certain “expert”, ramen tastes best when go with beer~ wahaha..

we headed down towards otaru the next day. but before tt, we dropped by the historical village of Hokkaido.. the place is like so big, so spacious.. its done in such a way to resemble how the villages were like in the past.. oso duno whether because it is a weekday, because Hokkaido is lydat, or is it because this place is not so popular.. no one de leh.. haha.. the place was pretty boring, but we had lots of fun at the playground, trying vainlessly to walk on stilts and reliving childhood with the see-saw and swing rides.. haha..

I wanted to go to the sea village de (don’t know y i always like things related to water~) but no time lah.. we didn’t cover some villages already leave so late le.. cant imagine if we try to walk everything.. since we left late, by time we reach otaru was already close to 2plus in the noon.. and it didn’t help we cldn’t find a carpark! haha.. our first task at otaru? ice-cream!!!! haha.. we walked into this store just beside our carpark which had a lot of weird flavours.. it seems unusual now for a ice-cream store in japan not to have weird flavours.. haha.. I got double scope butter-potato and rose, cuz tt was what my idol got as well when she went.. haha..

ryoko hirosue~

I still can rem Leona tricking amy into eating uni(sea urchin) flavoured ice-cream by telling her its vanilla.. haha.. and she fell for it.. think she trusted her ママさま too much.. keke.. the look on her face after she tasted it was so comical.. haha..

on our way to the famous musical box museum / store, we stopped by a street stall and eat some bbQ scallops.. totemo oiishi~ it was so fresh, I think they just caught it not long, when u order, they open the shell and bbQ it with the shell right infront of u.. even smelling it I was so hungry liao.. so eating it is a must! all of us ate except ian, even amy-who-doesn’t-like-to-eat-seafood tried abit lo.. n it was delicious! see… =p

we promised to come back for more on the way back, but who knows by time we turned back, it was so late the stall had long closed! tts because we spend most of our time in otaru at the musical box museum~ the place was pretty huge and filled with lots of different kinds of musical boxes.. got weird ones like sushi.. got cute ones like angels.. got extravagant ones like merry-go-round and ferris wheel… but those gals absolutely love their musical boxes… they were like choosing and picking.. yu even did one for herself! there was still shop by the side where u choose the music u wan, but its just a plain box.. then u go and buy the individual items u wan.. but the bad thing is u have to do it ur own (maybe good to some?) the worst was by time we got all the items ready to pay, they say we only got 5mins to do it wor.. jialat.. then later they extend to longer for us.. so okay lah.. the rest all shopping in the main museum, only left me to help yu with her box.. but lydat also better lah.. to many pple also difficult to wrk on one box.. keke..

yu's personalised musical box~

since we left Sapporo late, we had to delay leaving otaru late too.. we just managed a glimpse of the famous otaru canal then had to rush off le.. like tour grp lydat.. haha.. the drive down to lake toya was long n tedious lo.. its like a highway with only 1 lane.. wanna overtake slow cars oso difficult.. also don’t know why the route we take got so many huge heavy vehicles lo.. slow us down.. but got one speedster siao de.. one shot overtake 6cars.. in tunnel somemore.. he no crash count him lucky.. so dark somemore lo.. no streetlamps de.. rain somemore.. haiyo.. at least got nice view cuz the highway was by the sea.. I bet day time wld be much nicer~ but I driving so didn’t really get to admire lo..

lucky I had my 白い恋人! bought last nite to try, c nice anot.. if nice can buy as souvenir.. n it tasted pretty gd.. crisp biscuit layering with sweet choco inside.. yum yum~ by time we reached the hotel in lake toya.. almost 11 liao lo.. haha..

hunter and the hunted~

we spent the next entire day at and ard lake toya.. our itinerary was kinda impromptu because I didn’t really manage to research much on this place, but I just know this is a must-come place.. haha.. but luckily the 旅館 we were lodging at had this superb booklet which recommends the places to visit ard the area. Armed with tt, along with the formidable gps on our baby.. we headed out to the milk farm~ we had quite a cheesy breakfast with all the cheese products lah.. like cheesecakes and I had an assorted cheese plate.. haha.. just b4 we left the place, we had… ice-cream again~~~ haha.. but this time I didn’t eat anyway, felt too full from the breakfast anyway.. there was this wide piece of land where they played badminton.. there’s a rack where u can just take the racquets.. they got soccer ball too.. but so sad no one play with me.. haha.. apart from that, this was a special place, cuz it was where we discovered amy had supernatural powers!!! the ability to talk to animals!!! this lamb was the first of many animals she spoke to during our 1week tour of Hokkaido.. I will slowly introduce the rest of the cast when they appear.. and amy says later she was just trying to make friends.. haha..

"friend" #1

after tt, we wanted to go fruit picking de, but so sad no fruits in season… we had to be contented by just looking at them ripening ones.. but some of us bought some jam from there.. the jam was absolutely delicious!! it tasted very fresh~ the apple one was not bad but it was the strawberry one tt caught my attention.. I could feel the fruit bits while tasting the jam lo.. supposed to go up Mt Usu to view the Showa Shinzan, a new crater created due to recent movements of plates.. but the ropeway ride up to the summit is pretty expensive.. and there was no way to hike up the trail.. so we just ate lunch there lo.. as usual, laura got her “ramen + beer” set.. I ordered this seafood teppanyaki which looked so tantalizing lah.. Leona n minchu ordered tt too, but they share lo.. and amy ordered a Genghis Khan set.. when my order came, I was like.. “woah.. this is so worth it..” it was such a big portion with the scallops n muscles.. who knows they tell us later is 2 shares.. dammit! haha.. but more funny one is amy lo.. eat halfway only then realize it was lamb meat.. think she really hit off well with the lamb in the morn tts y now she totally couldn’t bring herself to eat anymore.. we had to swap our food for her meat else she wld just be eating veg lo.. haha..

no~ baba~

after having our fill, we took a ship ride towards this deer island in the middle of the lake.. I so love this kind of adventures.. like go 寻宝 lydat.. haha.. but the island’s pretty small.. and we could only see the deers from behind a fence (though heard from Sabina sometime later tt they could enter the enclosure.. damn, I think we went too late.. ) but nvm lah.. at least I learnt something on the way there.. now I know tt these (below) are actually called “seals”.. according to some animal talking expert.. haha..

"friends" #2
"friend" #3.. laura's friend too~ haha..

for the first time, we split up for meals because there was the sushi gang and the non raw food gang.. haha.. so Leona, laura, minchu and I headed off to this nearby sushi place, which had really fresh sashimi and sushi.. I swear, even the crabmeat taste so good.. its not I 夸张, but I have never ever tasted anything like this b4.. the 口感 is so gd.. it was one of the few items I ordered twice lo cuz tt nite I hardly repeat any orders..

after that, we met up with them at the pier, to catch the nightly fireworks! so cool yah.. every nite of the summer they will let off fireworks by the lake.. and this is something special cuz the fireworks don’t always explode in the sky.. sometimes it is just over the surface of the water.. the effect of the dusts falling down towards the lake is marvelous.. to think the next day we still can see fireworks in hakodate I so looking forward to it..

firewrks~

took a 2hr drive down to hakodate amidst the gloomy sky and the endless rain~ drop laura off so tt she can go meet her お母さん.. not her real family lah.. cuz she lived here, in hakodate, like a few yrs ago for a homestay program.. so now tt we r back just go visit visit lo.. anyway, we went to this really interesting place which had a park shaped in the form of a star! we went up to the tower and although the view was tt nice (probably cuz was raining), the sight of the park was amazing.. it was so huge n close up I cldn’t even take a full pic of the star.. haha.. but I managed to get a pic from goryokaku tower, which I think Josiah wld like.. haha..

God forgive me~

what will delight Josiah more is tt I visited churches after this! haha.. well.. don’t worry.. I am still an atheists (a nicer wrd for free-thinker, which I learnt from them in Japan! haha). They just wanted to see the architecture and since Hokkaido was rumoured to be first inhibited by foreigners, the buildings were very European in style..so they were pretty nice to look at.. the shopping warehouses at the pier (bay hakodate) was even more European.. u wldn’t feel u r in japan.. I think they have something similar to this in yokohama, the redbrick warehouses at minato mirai~ but I didn’t walk into the buildings in yokohama b4 tho..
gateway of russian church~

the day really had a series of unfortunate events.. first rain.. cant shop properly.. then wanna go up mount hakodate, also cant cuz so foggy also.. then cant find parking space so illegal park by the road lo.. kenna parking fine lo.. not 30SGD ok.. its like 15000yen? tts like 200SGD lah! so those in Singapore, u 生在福中不知福　lo… don’t always complain complain.. but I still think we had such a bad day cuz we were reduced to the power of 6.. missing the 7th element, everything go against us.. still got fireworks leh.. cancelled cuz of the rain lo.. damn u, rain!

bay hakodate~
ian, laura, yu, leona, amy, me, minchu (from left to right~)

weather the next morning wasn’t any better.. it was still drizzling when we head out to asaichi for sashimi breakfast.. yay! sashimi~ hakodate, the southern most tip of Hokkaido, is widely known for its fresh seafood~ so, nothing in the world will stop us from missing it.. well.. except if u r amy or ian.. haha.. we took quite some to order our food because there were too many combinations that we were spoilt for choice! don’t know what to order that we can really feel satisfied.. haha.. most of our orders r similar, just tt maybe leona’s one won’t have ikura, yu’s doesn’t have uni~ but most of us all got crab as one of the ingredients.. this says just how tasty the one we ate at lake toya was.. haha.. but laura ordered this additional ika somen which, was a hell of an experience. At first, when it came, we didn’t really notice it.. but when we really saw it, we like freaked out lo.. haha.. kinda lah.. well.. the squid we had on the plate was still moving lo.. I was like, no way am I going to eat it! you know there r purple spots on the legs of the squid, these spots were like appearing and disappearing from time to time.. its like they were breathing.. oh my god.. even now when I recall it, I still feel… eeyeeerrr~ haha.. but eventually I still ate it due to pressure from everyone.. unfortunately, I got one with the suction pores.. I put some wasabi on it and it like, squirm lah.. now THAT really freaked me out.. haha.. Its like screaming “ouch ouch, the wasabi’s hot” haha.. I heard that these pores may suck on ur tongue sometimes so I purposely made it face away from my tongue.. n it didn’t stick.. luckily.. haha..

later we walked ard the market and there was this section where there was a pond? there were many ika swimming ard in it.. they let pple fish it (or shld u say.. ika it? haha) then they cut it up there and then and serve it on a plate for u to eat immediately w/o cooking it.. it was so so gross..

we spend the next few hrs driving back up to sapporo.. it was still raining so we couldn’t visit the onuma national park.. heard from laura its quite beautiful lo.. wat a pity.. when we reached back Sapporo, we also didn’t immediately check in the hostel but went to the Sapporo factory shopping center to walk walk shop shop lo.. the open area was actually pretty nice, with sunflowers decorating the place.. we split up again up dinner cuz they wanna wat indian food but yu not really feeling well, so i had chinese food with her lo..

when we eventually did check in the hotel, I was so relieve to hear that there was finally a internet enabled computer for me to use.. nvm there’s no wireless and I cant use my own laptop, I was already so desperate for the internet that I can make do with it.. cuz that time was bidding period.. and this sem, I had really limited modules I could do.. and I had problems because I not enough pts lah and cors don’t let me add some modules.. I was so worried, yet so pek cek that NUS is so inefficient. Alright, the CNM guy did call me when I arrived in Sapporo on the first day, but till that day at the hostel, I was still unable to add and bid for the NM mod leh.. angry lo..

we went to a sheep farm the first thing the next morn, much to amy’s delight~ but too bad when we reach there, the sheep were enclosed in an area and was like quite far from us.. but it didn’t stop us from having a good time! at least we had ice-cream~ haha.. the milk ice-cream was really tasty.. =)

instigated by don't know who again~

visited the shiroi koribito factory next~ the place’s really beautiful.. the clock tower was magnificent with the surrounding buildings.. and there were pretty bed of roses all around.. we had this cake buffet in the café and all the cakes were so sweet and delicious~ actually they were so rich that after a few rounds, most of us couldn’t go on anymore.. haha.. we then explored the factory.. it’s done up like a museum.. we get to see how they make the famous koribito.. actually, just more on the packaging lo.. haha.. but well.. at least we got a free sample~ *bites* yum yum~

laura-chan~

we went to this place called okura-san where people come here to race up the long flight of stairs.. haha.. just kidding.. but leona and I did race up the stairs.. just for fun~ I wanted to bet loser treat dinner de.. but she didn’t fall for it.. didn’t wanna bet.. sianz.. lucky her lo.. cuz I won in the end.. but when run halfway, I was really scared I would lose cuz she’s been keeping up the pace.. then I thought, the route so narrow, even she slow down I also difficult to overtake her.. if she used her body block me, I surely lose le lo.. haha.. anyway, pple actually come here to practise skiing during summer.. its not covered in ice.. just a long green slope.. it is abit impractical lah.. because skiing on ice and skiing over dry area is different.. but I guess they just use it to practise certain techniques, or maybe the timing of jumps.. I mean, better than not training at all during the summer break right? hmm.. but summer in Hokkaido is not tt long also mah.. wonder y.. haha.. but too bad we came quite late.. no one practicing le..
おくらさん～

since it was still early, we decided to drop by the moerenuma park lo.. it was really a place which left us with mixed feelings.. the park was a really huge place.. and it was grand and pretty and green.. I challenged Leona up this small mountain again.. although I did give her a headstart this time round.. haha.. and I was so happy we made the decision to come up because we could view the entire park from the top.. and it so happened to be sunset at that point of time so it was extremely amazing.. it was like a mini mtFuji.. haha.. but who knows when we went down, there was trouble awaiting..
top of mountain~

because laura and yu didn’t wanna climb the mountain, they decided to wait for us downstairs.. so when we went down we walked to go look for them lo.. who knows when we found them eventually, they were like in some kind of trouble? while we were up there enjoying the sunset, they were sitting somewhere near the pond, with some old otaku man taking their pictures w/o their knowledge. I think they didn’t even realize it lo, its because this jap family walk past then saw him taking pics of them.. Being nice people, they confronted him and told laura and yu abt it.. I think the family demanded him to delete the photos because they think he took photos of their daughter too, who looks like she’s only 12yrs old lo.. think they scared he’s a pedophile.. so anyway, when we arrived, the 7 of them (including laura and yu) had him surrounded in a circle.. and the Dad n Mum were like talking to him, at times shouting.. what they say I don’t know lah cuz most of the time they were conversing in jap.. but I know the Mum very agitated lah..

after awhile, we saw 3 figures running towards us hurriedly.. apparently, the son went to call the police and they rushed here lo.. after they come, one spoke to us, the other spoke to that disgusting man lo.. haha.. actually, I do think what the guy did was normal.. like yu said, I bet in Tokyo, a lot of people might have their pics taken by other people secretly.. this time we only know it because the family was kind enough to alert us.. but what I don’t understand is that, even after being asked to delete the pics, he still refuse to do so.. some may argue, u r in a public place, he is just taking pics of the place and u r in it.. it is his camera and u have no right to touch or delete pics of his.. but it is exactly this type of behaviour that irks me.. true, camera is urs, no doubt, but if u r taking a pic of me, I believe it is something personal.. and if I don’t like it, I should have the power to request for it to be deleted.. sometimes, my friends oso do this too lo.. I don’t agree with it, but I don’t know how to tell them.. it’s like, they secretly take pic of another friend, and if that friend finds out, and wans it to be deleted.. they refuse? and get really piss when it was deleted w/o their consent? I mean, we’r all friends right.. just delete it lah.. let’s show some respect for one another lo.. otherwise, how to be considered “friends”?

so when the otaku man insist there is no wrong in him taking the pics, I was so pissed lo.. if we could understand one another, I would have went up and yell at him lo.. actually throughout everything, I really wanted to go up to him and give him a piece of my mind.. I really couldn’t stand him.. but I couldn’t do anything at all.. as a friend, I couldn’t protect my own friends.. I couldn’t prevent it from happening, I couldn’t reduce the damage.. I felt so useless.. I felt like it was I who caused them such distress.. =(

anyway, the police made him delete the relevant photos in front of us and then informed us that they will take him into custody and destroy his memory card lo.. at least b4 we left he apologise to us, and knelt down somemore.. I think abit too 夸张 lo.. but I think that’s how they do things in japan ba..

as we left for furano the next day, we left all the bad memories behind.. the lavender fields here were fantastic~ not only the lavenders, the other flowers were in bloom and the whole farm was so attractive.. even im not a gal, I still found the whole sight very pleasing overall.. put in the tall mountains in the backdrop.. it really seems out of the world.. went to the melon farm just beside, but it was really small, and the fruits wasn’t really in season, so there wasn’t any in the land.. but we ate some at the store and it was sweet! we had melon ice-cream too~ I think the vanilla went really well with it else it would have been too sweet~ there were lavender ice-cream too.. but.. I didn’t try cuz I don’t wanna ruin the melon taste I had.. haha..

furano fields~
minchu cant wait to eat~

we checked in pretty early because there wasn’t really anything much to do in furano.. its like the いなか of all いなかs (countryside).. aha.. so we slacked ard the room we had.. this time a long corridor-liked one where all 7 of us shared.. the past days we always had to split into 2different rooms.. always headache how to split.. haha.. tho it looked abit run-down.. it was the story of our trip cuz we were on budget mah.. cheap hostels surely lydat de.. this one is long, the nite b4 was empty, the one is hakodate was small yet pretty, the one in lake toya was huge lah.. but the best was still the first nite.. the room was so posh ok.. soft comfortable beds, carpeted floor, tv, radio, bathroom in the room.. still got nice view of the ferris wheel.. awww.. haha.. but we got that room only because it was with the package mah.. together with the air tix and rental for car.. but I like this room cuz got wireless! haha.. for the first time I could use my laptop, but when I on.. I was like.. devastated.. cuz somehow, I cant detect their netwrk!!! ahhh~ I so sian I just lie there do nothing lo.. grrr..

we went for dinner at this yamadori grilled meat place just next door to our hostel.. and the food was decent~ its like seoul-garden style where u have to cook your own.. but of cuz not buffet style lo.. must order ala-carte de.. I ordered beef and mutton cuz i very long no eat mutton le.. I think ever since I went japan, that was the only time I ate mutton lo.. haha.. after we had our fill, we went to play firewrks~ yay! not watch, but play.. Leona and I bought some fireworks when we bumped into each other at harajuku just the day b4 we left for Hokkaido.. I always wanted to like, set off one on my own.. rather than always just watching only.. and I was afraid Hokkaido don’t have so I bought from daiso in Tokyo lo.. they do sell! and its quite cheap.. how I wish Singapore got sell.. wanted to smuggle home de.. but think the risk too huge le.. cant afford to do so.. haha..

mini firewrks~

so anyway, that night, I got my wish! I got to set off 7 firewrks on my own~ mini ones lo.. hahaa.. got some is like parachute de, shoot very high.. some r like jets.. with the base below it sprays towards the top~ they were really pretty~ next time I go japan, I must do this again.. must buy more types to try~ haha..

after having lots of fun, we went to an onsen (hot spring) nearby.. since we came Hokkaido.. we hav been going onsen for like.. 3nites le lo.. no choice lah.. no night life here so only can go relax relax lo.. haha.. but the place we went was so scary lah.. the road leading up to the hotel had almost no lights.. and there were moths flying all around the place.. it was so difficult to run out of and into the car lo.. think ian smashed a few moths on our windscreen.. haha..

got back to the room, only then I realize got lan cable wor~ haha.. wasted my time in the evening doing nothing.. so I got down to blogging the Mt Fuji post with ian practising his magic trick, keep using me as experiment.. so irritating.. haha.. kidding lah.. anyway, b4 I knew it, all of them were asleep, and just as I was packing up to sleep, something weird caught my eye.. someone’s leg was crossed and propped up.. I was so curious as to whether she was asleep or not.. haha.. it’s funny isn’t it.. sleeping like that.. I have heard of pple sleeping with eyes open, pple who snores damn loud, pple sleeping with mouth open (those in the train in jap, they open really wide..) but I’ve never heard of pple crossing and propping their leg while sleeping b4.. haha..

after eating ice-cream again at the cheese factory, we spend our last day in Hokkaido at asahiyama zoo.. it was pretty big, but I think singapore’s one bigger leh, tho I cant be too sure cuz very long no go zoo le.. haha.. but they do have some weird animals.. like kapibara!!! till then, I have only heard of its name cuz of mawe, keep on asking me to get the soft-toy for her.. I thought it was just a made-up character like hello-kitty..

kapibara~

laura and yu~

haha.. there were the usual lions, tigers and rhinos too.. but I realized that laura really love bears quite a lot huh.. when ian keep on irritating her about hunting n eating bear meat when we were in lake toya, I thought she was just playing along with him by “growling” at him.. when we were here, she purposely must take pics of the bear.. take a few somemore.. when norm she hardly even whip out her camera.. but a lot of animals here like nocturnal de leh.. fox kun, raccoon kun, porcupine also kun.. haha..

we left for the asahikawa airport pretty early cuz everyone tired of walking le.. plus had to go settle the stupid fine.. don’t know can don’t pay anot.. haha.. but expected lah.. must pay.. 15000yen plus 10000yen refundable deposit.. though broke, we still shopped crazily in the airport, buying as many shiroi koribito as we could.. haha..i bought like 7boxes lah.. but worth it lo.. the friends who I bought for all say nice.. =)

don’t know whether is we tired or wait till sianz, we started telling each other lame jokes, riddles and 欠扁问答題.. haha.. all the way till on plane oso no stop.. then we played orientation games like Fuzzy Wazzy, What’s next.. but the most fun was black magic! because Leona cldn’t get it, haha.. cuz she usually very fast get these things de..(she got What’s next and im still clueless! stupid ian don’t wanna tell me.. like minchu say, must be a lame one.. haha) so the 3 of us were torturing Leona most of the plane ride..(i wonder if she knows it now le mah.. haha.. ) too bad we played for too long.. wanted to let her sleep then take pics de.. cuz throughout the trip, they have been taking pics when some of us were sleeping in the car.. everyone kenna at least once le lo.. only haven’t got Leona yet.. damn! even I also kenna le lo, the only time I sat in the backseat I kenna.. sianz.. but on the plane to Hokkaido I already got taken by laura le~ I was reading for most of the plane ride then lo.. only nap 10mins also 中! sian.. haha..

when we got back to Tokyo, we can practically feel the heat surrounding us.. grr.. back to horrendous heat.. we got on to the train and changed trains at Shinagawa to get back to their dorm. said our goodbyes to laura, cuz she isn’t staying at the dorm mah.. *sigh* sad, but it’s only the first of many goodbyes.. = (