Isaac, Joy and Papa Go Japan: Day 5 and 6, Asahidake and Mombetsu
On Day 5, we woke up at Hotel Bearmonte and when we looked out the window of our “Western Room with Loft” we saw the surroundings covered in a blanket of white.
“It snowed last night!” the kids exclaimed.
Yes, winter comes earlier to Hokkaido than the rest of Japan and we witnessed the arrival of the first post-autumn snow. It was a pretty sight.
After consuming an obscene amount of food at the breakfast buffet, we packed up our things and loaded up the car to head to Asahidake Ropeway.
To be fair, it was only a short walk from Hotel Bearmonte to the ropeway but the ground was covered in snow and only Joy had her mother’s waterproof snow boots on. Isaac was wearing his Nike track shoes and I was wearing my Allbirds sneakers. Not the best choice for traipsing in snow.
So we drove that short distance and parked the car as near to the entrance of the ropeway as possible, then took the scenic ride up Hokkaido’s highest mountain (2,291m).
We had a lovely hike at the Sugatami Station (altitude 1,600m), wearing borrowed rubber boots. We would have finished the full one-hour hike but snow starting falling heavily. Weather in the mountains must be respected and it can turn bad very quickly. So one must always know one’s limits.
Then it was lunch at the ropeway restaurant, and a drive back to Higashikawa.
The next day, I decided that we would drive out to Mombetsu. Actually it was not so organized. We were just looking for breakfast and we just drove further and further away from our home base until we found ourselves back in Kamikawa, but this time we found another ramen place there. Parking our car in the snow-covered car park, we walked over to Asahi Shokudo, and we were their first customers of the day.
Their ramen was worth driving from Higashikawa to Kamikawa for. Try their Maboroshi ramen made from natural Okhotsk sea salt. Limited to 20 bowls a day. I had Bowl One of Twenty.
Also great, their miso ramen. Some of the best ramen I’ve ever tasted. The owner, a handsome elderly gentleman whose face was on many of the photos on the wall, posing with celebrities, asked me where we were heading.
“Mombetsu,” I blurted out, even though it was just a random thought in my mind. I didn’t even know what was there. Just that I haven’t been there before, and I’ve covered A LOT of Hokkaido in prior trips.
“Ah,” he said, “about 95km from here. Maybe three hours in this weather. Drive carefully, ok? Big snow.”
I thanked him for the advice and my teens and I drove off towards Monbetsu. Along the way, I asked Isaac to look the town up and read me some facts.
Turns out Mombetsu is famous for crabs and for the port, the sea ice, and icebreaker ships. Well, it wasn’t quite sea ice season but we were already on our way there, so what the heck. Let’s go.
The snow got heavier and heavier as I drove on the highway. I was super-cautious because we Singaporeans don’t drive in snow very often.
As my children fell asleep one by one, my iPhone started playing Angels We Have Heard on High, by Sixpence None the Richer, though the car stereo.
On my windscreen, I saw snow gently falling. In the car, I heard:
“Angels we have heard on high,
Singing sweetly through the night,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their brave delight.”
It was like a scene out of a winter movie. Except I was also a hyper-alert father driving as carefully as I can, mindful of the sleeping young charges in my care.
When we got to Mombetsu, there was no snow. Just windy cold coastal weather. I drove the kids to the Okhotsk Tower where you can normally see the sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk and take icebreaker cruises. We settled for visiting the underwater observatory that is 8m below sea level.
And oh, we also made sure we visited the giant Crab Claw Statue that is the pride of Monbetsu town. Not visiting the Crab Claw in Mombetsu is like not visiting the Merlion in Singapore, ok? Must go one.
Wish I tasted some of that Monbetsu crab though. But it was a long drive back to Monbetsu, and at 4pm, it would soon be nightfall and I still had that snowy part of the highway to drive through. And miles to go before I eat.
Dinner.
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Isaac, Joy and Papa Go Japan: Day 3 and 4, Higashikawa, Otaru, Sounkyo and Asahidake
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I did not plan to drive around the entire island of Hokkaido in the few days we had. It would not be practical or fun. So I decided to keep things within the centre of Hokkaido.
From Shikotsuko, we drove to Higashikawa (my favourite town) and stayed at my friends’ B&B. Dinner was spent watching the Rugby World Cup Finals with my friends (they were rooting for England) while Isaac and Joy played with their kids, who were a few years younger. Jody and Nina adore big sister Joy, whom they met when she came visiting during my solo trip with her when she turned 12, and the girls were happy to see her again.
The next morning, we set off again, without any plans once more. I thought, perhaps we could drive out to Otaru, just to have a look. Frankly, it was just an excuse to drive, as the drive itself is very pleasant. I told them, “Otaru is famous for their canals.”
Joy asked, “And?”
“That’s pretty much it,” I said. It is one big tourist trap, to be honest, and I told them, “Essentially, we are driving all the way to see Otaru’s Long Kangs.” They laughed and were cool with their father’s rather stupid travel plans.
“The canals are actually quite nice when it is winter, to be honest,” I added, trying to make it sound a bit more exciting.
When we got to Otaru, I found a parking lot near the canals and was quite pleased it said ¥100 for 30 minutes. After parking, I realized I read it wrongly and it was actually ¥400 for 30 minutes during the day, and ¥100 for 30 minutes AT NIGHT.
“We better not stay too long,” I told the kids. Joy, the financially-minded of the two, said, “Ya, not worth paying that kind of parking for Long Kang.”
So we snapped some photos, walked around the food court a bit, and then left Otaru. I figured we would get lunch further away, en route to Sounkyo, where we planned to stay the night.
Sounkyo is a quaint mountain resort area, located in Kamikawa. It is considered a touristy place, but a good base to hike Daisetsuzan National Park from. We stopped at a ramen place in Kamikawa called Yoshino, just off the highway. And wow, the ramen was great. They even had thick slices of Miton roast pork available as a side, in limited quantities. This is part of the fun of road trips: stumbling upon good places to eat.
After eating at Yoshino, we drove on to Sounkyo and stopped at the Twin Waterfalls rest stop. That was when we encountered some serious cold and wind chill. It was -1ºC and windy there. We looked at the majestic cliffs for a bit, stared at the waterfall which was not flowing very rapidly (Spring is when the ice melts and you get a grander sight) and then we ran into the souvenir store to enjoy some heat.
The store ladies were so kind, and offered us cups of soup. They had a hot pot set up with paper cups to serve their customers, and we were very thankful for the soup. So much so that I felt I had to buy some stuff there, in gratitude. I bought some sweets and grapes. You may have seen the Instastory of Joy and me eating said grapes in our ryokan later, and attempting to spit the seeds into the bowl.
I asked the kids if they wanted to climb the stairs to the viewing platform but the sign said, “20 minutes” and there was a sign to look out for bears. So we chickened out. Actually we were just lazy. It was too much of a climb on a cold autumn’s day just to see two off-peak waterfalls.
We finally checked into Kumoi Hotel, a nice little place that was renovated only two years ago. Many of these onsen hotels in areas like this tend to be old and tired. A couple of the hotels I saw along the way had signs with missing words in their names. But not the Kumoi.
The kids had to set up the futon beds themselves, something they learned to do in our first house, and I have to say, it is handy having two assistants to set up the beds.
At least this Sounkyo area had three restaurants open till 8pm, so we did not need to tabao food. We chose an Italian place called Bear Grill, run by a handsome old man who made great food.
We also stopped by the Seicomart, the FamilyMart of Hokkaido, to resupply our drinks and junk food. And then retired to our hotel.
Because the Kumoi has its own onsen baths, I took the kids to the baths and taught the son how it works. Joy already had some experience in our previous trip so she was fine. The son took some convincing. “Nobody will look at your junk lah,” I assured him.
I gave him pointers on how to use an onsen, like putting a small towel on his head, and using the same small towel to cover his lower bits. The butt, that one cannot cover, the small towel was not big enough.
The kids enjoyed the onsen experience thoroughly, and we vowed to do it again when we could. And we ended our night at Sounkyo with a movie screening in the room, where I introduced them to The Matrix. Suffice to say, their minds were blown.
The next morning we drove back towards Higashikawa and stopped at the Seven Stars Tree. It is a scenic spot where, I later learned, a famous oak tree, that was once used on the packaging of seven stars tobacco, stood.
I only found out when I got to the Tree. Great, we drove all this way to see a cigarette advertisement. But the view was really nice lah. So it was not for nothing.
We also made a stop at the Shirogane Blue Pond, which was recently upgraded with new viewing platforms and lights. There, we spotted some dumb tourists taking photos on a tree branch that grew over the water. This is why we can’t have nice things.
By then it was close to sunset, and I didn’t want to drive in the dark, so we drove to Hotel Bear Monte, near Asahidake mountain, where I booked a night in this bigger, fancier onsen hotel. It took a lot of talking to convince the kids that it is okay to walk around the hotel in our yukata. And even to have the buffet dinner wearing our takata.
“This is how the farmers used to do it, on their vacations to onsen hotels,” I told the kids. They looked a little skeptical but took to it eventually. So we walked here walked there, like a boss, in our yukatas.
Like Japanese farmers on their winter onsen vacations.
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