The F-Diaries:
Food, Film & Fotography.
Food, Film & Fotography.
Friday, June 30, 2006
The observatory on a hill.
Back to the pension for dinner, we finally got to see the rest of the pension. Total of 5 rooms and 5 set of guests. Aside from us, got a mother and teenage daughter, 2 aunties and 1 lady, a couple and their young child, and 2 OLs. The teenage daughter had this indifferent look and at the end of dinner slumped on her chair. LOL... pretty cute.
Dinner was served by Reina (at the dining room downstairs), the wife while the husband (unknown name) cooked. She can speak pretty ok English while the husband cannot. I read on some other blog that during peak period in summer they will hire girls from mainland Japan to help. We ordered a bottle of their house-label beer for Y600. I noticed the other tables all ordered the Furano wine. Dinner was pretty ok. Not the best western food I've eaten but it was ok. Very homely.
Tomte Rum labeled beer to kick off the meal. Very fruity taste.
Dinner at Tomte Rum. Clockwise from top left: Appetizer plate with wild vegetables, squid, cheese & crackers. Bread. Salad. Potato gratin. There was also a soup not pictured.
The main course. Breaded chicken fillet. A little too much breadcrumbs.
After dinner, I got some band-aids from Reina. Oh yeah, actually since the second day or so, I had blisters behind my ankle. Blame it on those shitty Timberland shoes I bought for half-price at Taka. Not going to buy cheapo shoes anymore! It was quite painful coz the shoe kept dugging into the back of my heel. Anyway as I was to find out the next day, bandaids does not solve the problem. Anyway, we also informed her that we are going out early next morning (4am) to catch the sunrise and asked her what time she wakes up. Er... apparently 6am. Haha... well anyway she said we could just open the door and let ourselves out. Japan is damn safe la. In Abashiri, the Pension Lamp had no lock at the front door at all lor. In fact I don't see any gates anywhere either.
Our cosy bedroom. The whole house was made of pine wood.
After dinner and relaxation in the room, time for a soothing bath. OMG! The bathroom is like the most advanced I've ever seen in Japan (and that's speaking alot). It has digital display to adjust ambience temperature, water temperature, and a whole lot of buttons I don't dare to touch in case anything explodes. Went back to bed that night clutching the alarm clock beneath the blankets. Don't want to wake the whole house up at 4am. :P
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
So, we reached Biei after nearly an hour but unfortunately the two girls did not alight (they were probably headed to Furano). There goes our chance of getting to know more people. :P Heh... I wonder whether they will chance upon this blog and then go "Hey... it's us!". Lol...
Alighted at Biei and since I had no idea where our car rental is located, we had to ask at the local tourist center just around the corner from the station. Shit... it was like a 10 mins walk away. Believe me, at this point our luggage was accumulating and my notebook + tripod didn't help matters. Found the car rental at last. It was called Atomu (atom in english) and we got this Mr Bean car. A Daihatsu 600cc lamb. Later we would find that this thing was severely underpowered and a lorry can actually overtake us while I was flooring the accelerator to the maximum! The top speed is like 100km/h and it cant go any faster than that anymore!
And it was like more expensive than the 1.3L we had in Abashiri. Oh well, no choice. Maybe next time should rent car at Furano instead. Got more choices there. Anyway, we headed towards our accomodation for the night first. A pension (haha...) called Tomte Rum. Surprisingly it was much nearer to Biei town area than the map suggests. Pretty good. Wow... really impressed when we reach the place. We couldn't check in yet, since it was just around 3pm. So we just obtained the dinner time (6.30pm) and started our journey to Furano since it was really late by now.
View of Biei.
The ride to Furano took about 40 mins. Along the way we passed through melon farms, flower gardens and lots of snow-capped mountains in the distance. Basically the whole Biei-Furano region is located on the plains with mountains in the near distance.
Reached Furano eventually, and decided to go to the wine factory first. Boy, we realized that the roads in Furano were much more complicated than I first imagined. Our map wasn't too useful as there were really too many roads to navigate. It didn't help too that our car did not have a GPS map console which our earlier car had! Somehow by a stroke of luck, I managed to get on the correct road after a while.
The wine factory was pretty deserted, only 1-2 cars in the parking area. This is definitely the non-peak season. There was nothing much inside though, just a cellar and some machines. We did see some bottles of wine labelled to be matured on 2050 or something though, which was kinda interesting. Went up to the top floor which was the tasting/gift shop. Tried some of the wines by ourselves and the lavender fragrance in the wines was indeed refreshing. Couldn't drink much though coz I was driving. :P
Furano Wine Factory. Did you realize they like to add "factory" and "museum" to everything?
We bought a coupla bottles each and tasted their red grape juice as well. Yum... indeed very rich and full-bodied. Surprisingly we spent only like 30 mins at the place? And it was here that we first see the famous lavender of Furano. Unfortunately, this being spring, we only saw bald lavenders, i.e. lavender bushes without the flowers. So, we can only imagine the beautiful violet colors in our mind.
Next stop, grape juice factory! This is pretty much like the wine factory that I believe they are from the same company. Oh we saw a vineyard too. But no grapes though. Inside we got to taste the white grape juice! I must say I like the white one better (though the red one was already very nice) because it was lighter and more refreshing. I bought a mini bottle and KS bought a big one.
After the short stop, we headed towards the cheese factory. This was really very very hard to get to, despite us stopping to ask a bypasser. Its location was very far from the town center and the lack of distinct signboards didn't help. Ultimately we reached there right before it closed. We hurried to the cream factory right beside it which was really an ice-cream parlour. I got the cheese and milk double scoop while KS got the cheese single. Seriously, to visit the attractions in Biei-Furano you really need a car. The attractions are all so far from each other!
Cheese and milk double scoop, without much cheesie taste.
Then we went to the cheese factory which was already in the midst of closing shop for the day. Had a brief look-around and bought a mini bottle of milk and a mini cheesecake each (Y210 for each item). We tried their cheese too but seemed rather tasteless to me. :P
Metal birdies outside the Cheese Factory.
A postcardy shot outside the Cheese Factory.
The surroundings of the cheese factory is really pleasant. The nice cooling weather plus the tranquil surroundings really made me wanna nuah there. But unfortunately, we had a schedule to keep. Must return to Furano by 6pm.
To be continued...
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Since it is not unusual for bad service, it is better to applaud exemplary service instead. Alain Figaret just outside Kino @ Taka is probably not very familiar to everyone because it only sells dress shirts (aka office wear) and related accessories. The shop front is pretty small and is easy to miss. But I've received really good service there for the 3 times I've been there. The first time I went, Angela (one of the senior staff there), guided me through the various shirt collars and prompted me to try the shirts for size and for the designs. She knows her stuff and gives advice on the collar styles, designs and materials in a non-condescending manner. At the end when I was ready to pay, I casually asked whether there will be a sale (since it is the GSS after all). She honestly said there's going to be one soon so I mean no point for me to buy then coz I don't need it urgently. So after all the trying and stuff I did not buy in the end. BUT, and that's a big but, I did not get the sour face treatment! I mean she could have silently cursed me la haha but at least she didn't show it. I mean she was really pleasant about it, at least I could tell it was sincere. Wow really good service lor.
The second time I went was when the sale begun and I got the shirts I wanted. I wanted a tie too and again I was patiently shown the various designs. When I was discussing with CY about which design to get, Angela would discretely move away to let us decide, unlike some places where they linger around u irritatingly. Anyway to cut the story short, since I wanna eat dinner now, it's not often I get good service in boutiques (maybe because I look poor? :P) so this is indeed a good experience. Coupled with the fact that their shirts and stuff are really nice and reasonably priced too, I have to give it the thumbs up!
Oh another experience is at Taka dept store where I got good service from one senior staff (the younger staff all cannot make it) at the men's dept. Can someone stop hiring young chinese guys with spiky hair?! After choosing my stuff he offered to queue in line for me! I only had to go to the cashier when it is my turn. Thumbs up again!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
In other news, I really need a Dell 24" widescreen LCD display now (together with a decent PC of course). Argh...
Thursday, June 15, 2006
The 2nd major fiasco of the trip happened today. More on that later. Woke up very early in the morning in the hope of catching the sunrise on photo. I think I must have slipped out of my room at around 4am. But damn the sun was already up. A coupla meters behind the pension is actually some railway tracks. I thought there must be some potential nice shots to be taken there. So I braved the chilly temperature (definitely below 10 degree) and brought my tripod and stuff out and tried various angles and settings. Photos didn't turn out as great as I expected though. So not going to post them here until I got the time to process them further.
Went back and basically lie down and wait for the time to leave. Since the train leaves at 6.32am I thought I can just wake KS up at 6 and still be on time. And so I lazed...
*Time Passed*
Reached station around 6.28am and was surprised when the digital signboard did not display our train. HOLY SHIT! The train left at 6.23am and NOT 6.32am! WTF! Arghh.... Can't believe I overlooked it! Best liao... I already wanted to faint. Luckily the stationmaster was nice enough and he showed us the alternatives. The next express train leaves at 10am+ but we could take the normal train at 7.40am which will mean that we will reach our destination Asahikawa 2 hours late. No choice, we had to take it. However, we were pleasantly surprised that we received a refund of Y2000 because the normal train was cheaper. Not sure whether other countries have this kind of policy but it sure is good.
So we just nuahed at the station until the train arrived and it was those kind of single carriage trains. Took about an hour to reach Kitami where we had to wait a bit more to change to the train which would take us straight to Asahikawa. The long train ride wasn't that bad. Initially the scenery was all farmland. Can see tractors, livestock, and crops just starting to be planted. Later on we reached the mountain regions and the view changed to snowy landscapes.
Scenery outside the train. From farmland to snowy mountains.
Reached Asahikawa at last and first thing we did of course was to get our railway passes. Alas, we had just missed the train to Biei, so we had to wait around an hour for the next one. Since we had time, we decided to have ramen for lunch. Our guide book listed several recommended places and we chose the one nearest to the station. Managed to find it after a little difficulty. The place is called Mei Guang Gan (in han yu pin yin) and apparently it is rather famous. KS ordered shoyu ramen and I had chashu ramen, which basically is the same as KS's but with a whole lot more chashu. Y700 and Y1000 respectively. Would've ordered the gyoza if we weren't so strapped for time. For the uninitiated, gyoza is the standard accompaniment for ramen. It's like eating donuts and coffee. The unique characteristic of ramen at this place is the huge chunks of bamboo shoots. The chashu was delicious also. But I got kinda overdosed with it coz mine really had a lot of it.
Chashu ramen (shoyu based) with chunks of bamboo shoots.
Interestingly, there were also a pair of foreigners who came around the same time as us. They looked Taiwanese and carried huge backpacks as well. They were girls btw. We had to eat our noodles fast because we realized we don't have much time left. Wow... the girls also ate their noodles in record time! I was alreadi kinda like struggling to finish the bowl lor. Anyway right after we finished, we got our bags and rushed straight to the station. The two girls also finished but they kinda walked leisurely meters behind us. Later we would find out that we are all leaving on the same train! And they walked leisurely because actually we still had some time to spare before the train leaves. :P Anyway, we got on the single carriage train and headed towards Biei. For a sign of how touristy the Biei/Furano region is, the train had English announcements as well. Very rare in Hokkaido.
To be continued...
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Reached Abashiri around 3pm and instead of the deserted town, we started to see some resemblence to a big town. Actually the place where we stayed, around the JR station area, is not really the center of the town. Hence that was why we couldn't find much dining outlets at night. Anyway our destination was the famous Abashiri Prison Museum. Abashiri is famous for its high security and harsh prison ever since the early 1900s(?). Can you imagine the winters there? Neither can I.
The prison museum is actually the site of the old prison in the mountain region. The new prison is at the flatlands. We parked our car and was unpleasantly surprised again that it costs around Y1000 to go in! The only bad thing about Jap is that you usually need to pay to go in anywhere, even temples (hence their priests go around in Mercedes'). Yeah it was kinda expensive so we decided to check out the omiyage shop instead. A common theme throughout Jap is the abundance of omiyage. Here we saw t-shirts and even red bean cakes with the title of the prison. -_-" The most common omiyage in Jap must be red bean cakes!
The bridge every prisoner has to pass through so that they can reflect on themselves from the pond.
The exit of the museum is conveniently located beside the souvenir shop. And as can be seen from the photo below, it isn't guarded nor gated. So if you put one plus one together, you can imagine what we did. Anyway it was my idea, KS wasn't too keen but still he joined me eventually :P How ironic... considering this used to be a prison.
Left: The entrance. Right: The exit of the prison museum.
The museum compound itself is rather big. Many sections with different purposes. For instance there is the bathing area, solitary confinement, chapel, cells, etc. Very informative if you can read Jap. Unfortunately I don't.
How the corridor of the prison used to look like.
Nice little stream in the prison museum.
Left soon after as it was closing soon. I took over the wheel this time and headed to the drift ice museum. Another famous thing about Abashiri is the drift ice. During the thick of winter you can take a cruise to the sea to see chunks of ice floating around. The museum needed entry fee as usual so we skipped it and went up the free observatory instead. Wow... really spectacular views of the surroundings as the whole place was up the mountain. It really gives me a perspective of how big the world is. Can see the full 360 degree view of the sky. The wind was really strong up there though. Literally strong enough to shake me from head to toe. We can also see the Abashiri lake and the new prison there.
The observatory of the drift ice museum.
Beautiful clouds taken from the observatory.
Sun bursting through the clouds.
Abashiri lake. The shape looks a bit weird but its really grand in real life.
Next we went to find the Abashiri park. Took us some time to find it as it wasn't really well signboarded. Turned out it was kind of like East Coast Park over here in Singapore instead of a flowery kind of park. Got playgrounds, cycling tracks, basketball courts that kinda thing. So we didn't stay there and proceeded back to return our car. We first went to pump the car full of petrol. First time at a Jap petrol station. Wah the service was 101% lor. You just wind down your window and tell them you want to fill 'em up and they will do the rest and wiped the windscreen with burning passion. When we were pulling out, this female attendant gestured to us to show us the way out. Even to the point of running and literally "showing" us the way. Kind of like how the ground crew at the airport gestures to the pilot. Only in Japan.
And then... back to the Mazda car rental where to cut the long story short, I paid Y20000 for the damages. Then back again to Pension Lamp and the uncle said in funny English: Ah its you again! Haha...
Put down our stuff and off we go in search of dinner. There was actually quite a distance to walk to the restaurants area. Maybe around 20mins from the JR station. Oh yeah, in every part of Hokkaido (and probably Japan) there are brochures advertising the restaurants of that place. And most of the time there will be discount coupons in it. In fact, it isn't restricted to just restaurants. You can find discounts for museums, rides, etc. So its a good idea to check out the tourist center or similar places when you first arrive. We settled for this izakaya called Kita Tori which offered 5% discount and a free dish of some dunno what cheesy tempura. Started our meal with some cold nihon-shu (known as sake outside Japan) and the compulsory appetizer of cold pasta. All izakayas offer you a compulsory appetizer usually costing around Y200 per person. Basically we had all the food below plus grilled pork fat and salmon ochazuke (green tea poured over rice) for me and cold ramen served soba style for KS. It was really hard to order as the menu was all in Jap. We ordered those dishes which we had an idea of what it is. The yakitori was really chunky and meaty with onions in between. The pork was equally flavorful. The chicken skin also did not disappoint. It was very crispy and superb. Believe me, the Japs know how to grill it perfectly. Originally I ordered the pork fat with the idea that it was pork belly meat. But turned out to be just grilled pork fat. Wow... trust me, I have never eaten pork fat as delicious as this in Singapore. Grilled until it was crunchy. I had a glass of umeshu and KS a beer to top it off. Oiishi! Dinner added up to around Y3000 per person. Reasonable for an izakaya.
Clockwise from top left: Pasta appetizer. Shisamo (pregnant fish). Chicken wings. Yakitori (chicken). Pork. Chicken skin.
For anyone who is curious what an izakaya's fridge looks like. They have bottled coke!
After dinner we saw a pachinko place and KS was kinda hyped up. Turned out everyone was playing on the jackpot machines instead (called slots there). But the minimum amount to play is Y1000 and that kinda doused KS's enthusiasm. Oh well... I was equally enthusiastic about pachinko in my first time. After that we stopped at Lawson's (a kombini) just beside the JR station to stock up on some milk. Hey, it's Hokkaido after all.
The prefect night-cap, Hokkaido milk!
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Woke up very early as per usual here to a sunny morning. Still felt feverish though my forehead felt normal leh. Packed our stuff and down we go for breakfast at 7am. Can smell the breakfast even before we entered the dining room. Oh yeah we also saw a lot of fugitive photos in the minshuku and even in Abashiri. I think it's because Hokkaido is considered the wilderness of Japan and fugitives come here to hide.
Clockwise from upper left: Salmon, which is larger than it looks. Some ikan bilis. Raw egg to be beaten and poured over rice. Konyaku. Pickles. In the center is fish roe.
After paying around Y7000 each for the lodging and dinner + breakfast (compulsory), we bid farewell to this minshuku and drove over to the town center to pick one of the numerous cruise outlets there. It was then we realized we forgot to return the room key. -_-" Anyway, we decided to return it later and first choose one cruise company called Fox which is also a cafe which offers free internet access. The Shiretoko peninsular is mountainous and its impossible to see its coastal side by anything other than from the sea. Thus a cruise is a must-try for anyone visiting it. There are two kinds of boats. One is a big ferry kind which is shown below. The other is a smaller speedboat type which is faster and costs more but is able to go nearer to the coast. We chose the latter for around Y3000. For each type of boat there are also 2 courses. One is the 1.5 hour trip and the other the 3-4 hour trip. The former has up to 5 trips per day while the latter embarks only once per day (in the late morning). We chose the former, which went halfway up the peninsular. The longer trip would have taken us right to the end of the peninsular (and burnt a larger hole in our wallets).
The jetty where the big boat leaves. The big tour groups will all go into one boat.
We still had 30mins to spare so we explored the port area and saw an enormous rock covered with seagulls. Think we spent too much time shooting the birds and returned back to the cruise area just on time. Quickly rushed to the boat and was unpleasantly shocked that the boat was kinda packed. Turned out that all the outlets basically share the same boat! Sian... no more window seats. As we were reaching the u-turning point of the trip, the captain informed us that there was a bear in the cliff. Wah... at first I couldn't see it. Only until KS pointed to me several times did I realize that that black thing is a bear. Didn't take too many photos along the way because the boat was rocking and I had on my 70-300 lens which was useless for sceneries. Oh well...
Left: Another bear sighting. Right: That's how far it really is from the boat.
To the lighthouse.
Returned back to the port and poked around the town. Then we returned the keys and drove to explore the hot spring region of Utoro. Basically it's quite near the town center except that its in a mountain area, so walking there might not be such a good idea. There's a lot of big hotels there and bus-loads of Jap tourists. Saw a bus leaving the compound and the mandatory waving by all the hotel employees.
Hot spring for hands near Utoro port.
Whoah... wooden bear.
As it was still early, and I was so enamoured by the 5 lakes, I drove back to the mountain area towards the 5 lakes. KS was unaware of my plan though. Haha... anyway as we reach the nature center we saw that the road to Rausu was open! It was closed yesterday due to bad weather. So off we went, and boy was it the best ride we had. A few moments after we drove up towards Shiretoko Pass, the scenery started to become snowy. We passed an uncle in full
Up the mountains. See what a difference a sunny morning makes compared to the previous day?
Welcome to Shiretoko. On the way up to Shiretoko Pass.
Bear alert. Though I don't foresee they will suddenly run across the road.
As we got higher and higher, I passed the wheel to KS. Which initially was kinda troublesome because he hadn't got used to the sharp brakes and he can't drive with his shoes on. -_-" After a while we couldn't stand it anymore... the scenery was just sooooo beautiful. We had reached rather high up the mountains and everywhere was snow! I hadn't expected this at all while I was researching for this trip. Thankfully there was a place for us to park by the roadside and we actually climbed over a short fence and up the slope! You can see our location and where our car was in the photo below.
There's our car down below.
Spent quite some time frolicking in the snow and up the slope. It was so tranquil and beautiful. Really speechless.
A complicated looking bald tree.
There's Mt. Rausu in the distance.
But all good things have to come to an end. We continued our way and reached Shiretoko Pass soon after. There was a parking area and lotsa tourist buses also. This is the highest point of the road linking Utoro to Rausu and its just spectacular. I went to the mobile toilet there and boy was it the smelliest toilet in Japan. Whew... rushed out in record time and off we go again. It's nice to be in the passenger seat and enjoying the scenery. :P
Finally we reached Shiretoko Pass.
How it looks like from the passenger seat.
Nearing the foot of the mountain towards Rausu, we came to an rotenburo (outdoor hot spring) called Bear's Hot Spring. Maybe bears like to dip in hot springs also? Anyway got this guy bathing and we can see him from the car park. -_-" Actually I wanted to try, but KS wasn't too keen. Oh well. The female bath was covered with wooden walls though. :P Which actually if you climb up the slope a bit you can peek in. Erm... actually there was a lady inside. But I think she finished bathing liao and was dressed. But hey, it's Japan where nudity is so common, see until sian liao unlike prudish ol' Singapore.
Note the not so high walls.
Water from all the melting snow.
Anyway finally we reached our destination. Although I must say this whole Japan trip is tightly planned, this trip to Rausu was totally spur-of-the-moment. I never imagined the drive from Utoro to Rausu would be so stunning. Ok enuff... in Rausu we saw a river which salmons swim upstream when they wanna spawn. Salmon is a native fish in Hokkaido. Contrast it with Tokyo where you won't find salmon in any sushi-ya. Wanted to eat lunch at this place recommended by our Taiwan guidebook but of all days it had to close on Monday. So we looked around the seafood shop (seafood is considered as omiyage [souvenirs] in Hokkaido) and got treated to small pieces of king crab leg. Holy macaroni... this was the first time we ate king crab and its delicious! The meat was unlike normal Sri Lankan crabs we have here but its more like lobster meat. Then one guy wanted to tell us something but erm.. we don't really get it. After some mismash of communication, we finally got the idea that he was recommending us lunch at this restaurant near the shop. Since the sealion meal served at the restaurant above the shop didn't sound too enticing we decided to take up his recommendation.
Famous river in Rausu where salmons swim up to spawn when in season.
The place as can be seen below is wooden. It's by the coast and has a blue flag as its signpost. The food was displayed in an open fridge and we could choose what we want. Being thrifty we chose the moderately priced hoke set meal, when people around us were eating uni (sea urchin), kani (crabs) and ikura. Anyway hoke is grilled semi-dried fish and tasted pretty good. Lotsa bones though after you finish the meaty parts. This took us quite some time devour. Saw this couple who came in after us who were also on the same boat ride as us in the morning at Utoro. We also saw a tall hot babe there with some funky looking guys :P
A very popular place for lunch in Rausu.
Our lunch. The fish is much bigger than it looks.
After lunch, we walked back to our car, grabbed some drinks from a kombini (dunno why at this moment KS started to be enthu about cheap beers in Jap) and began the journey back to Abashiri (passing through Utoro). As we passed foot of the mountain, we saw a digital sign saying the road will be closed at 3.30pm. We were indeed lucky as it was around 2pm+. If the road was closed it would have taken us maybe an extra 2 hours drive back to Abashiri. Along the way we also saw the hiking uncle. He was maybe 75% on his journey to Rausu. Gambatte!
Asahi Black beer from a kombini in Rausu. This is the first time I've seen this ever.
To be continued...
This is what Oshinkoshin Falls looks like in summer. In fact, everywhere I've been to on this trip will be in greenery in summer. Photo from Pjechorin.
Another interesting fact is that 10 days before we went to the 5 lakes, the 2nd lake was still frozen! Read more about it at the Muroran Chronicles.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
This particular stretch of road was soooo straight.
Nothing unusual, but I like the geometrical shape.
The best I could do to create a silky waterfall effect without a ND filter and without overexposure.
Dear tag. Not as sharp as the one from the previous post though.
Doe eyed. Yeah I know its not a doe. :P
The view from the road up the mountain to the 5 lakes. The town below is Utoro.
Random shot of a pretty plant.
A framed view of the 2nd lake.
Another framed view.
Near the 5 lakes. First time taking a stitched panorama shot. Click on it to see a larger version.
Another stunning panorama of the 2nd lake.
Uncropped shot of the bear.
100% crop of the bear swimming.
Stunning sunset. With some color correction from PS of course.
