Asahikawa Capital Hotel

... 12480;イӝ 0;リー 素敵な日々 ;の日記 生きものた ;ちの日記 海大好き日 ;記

... milk (is Hokkaido the dairy center of Japan?) And a filling way to start off a hiking day.

The bus to Asahidake Onsen, one of the gateways to Daisetsuzan park was long but had an intersting approach. Like Sapporo, Asahikawa (which incidentally has tons of neon and the people walk around like they're in a real city) sits on a plain, surrounded by crop land. And the bus is tracking along heading towards the mountains in the distance that basically randomly erupt from ...

... us that this is an active volcano were the fumaroles that punctuate the peak, endlessly spewing sulfurous steam. Returning from our hike with cold and sodden feet, we were especially anxious to get to the gender-segregated onsen at the hostel, one inside, and one outside that is hotter. Ahh. We were slowed down the next day by a morning of heavy rain that let up about midday. This gave us a chance at a snow ...

... y salmon, lo caracteristico de la zona. Y aprovechandome de todas las degustaciones de dulces (bastante poco dulces, por cierto) que dan por la calle, que para algo soy un mochilero. Tren a Sapporo, la capital y 5 ciudad de Japon en poblacion, y enlace certero y predecible con otro tren que me lleva a Wakkanai, la punta mas noroccidental de la isla, en 5 horitas. Antes paro a comprar un mapa de trekking de las islas que voy a visitar, asi como del parque ...

We're in Sapporo now and it's absolutely amazing. However the hostel is charging ten yen per freaking minute to use the internet - which adds up to roughly $10 AUD an hour. So there won't be any further posts until we reach Tokyo again in another three days.

Missing you all,
Tom and Rachael

We're in Sapporo now and it's absolutely amazing. However the hostel is charging ten yen per freaking minute to use the internet - which adds up to roughly $10 AUD an hour. So there won't be any further posts until we reach Tokyo again in another three days.

Missing you all,
Tom and Rachael

Before we start our hot spring, we are serve with traditional Japanese dinner - in japanese style I guess. We are all make to dress up in Kimono for the dinner so that we can all proceed to our long waited hot spring bath after that. Exactly like what people were saying about Japanese hot spring bath ...

I know my lack of writing has been completely shameful but I had a day a few weeks ago that I have to tell you all about. Last Wednesday some friends and I went skiing at a place called Kurodake. Kurodake is in the Daisetsuzan National Park, a park which contains the tallest mountains on my island of Hokkaido. The mountains in the park are much taller than my local hill, Kamui Ski Links. This is good because the snow is ...

... got the location of an intersection where I could get the 2 "pasaport foto" that I needed. From there it was off to the city office, which is about 2 blocks from my place. There I had to take care of a bunch of paperwork. It was all to be filled out in kanji and after I gave my best effort with the first two characters the kind young lady at the "foreigner" desk filled the rest in for me. In order to get my bank account I needed a separate document than just the ...

Well, I've grown a bit taller in the last few days. I've also forgotten how to speak and read. I'm in Asahikawa now but let's go back to Minneapolis where I had to wake up really early in the morning to catch my first flight to Chicago. I had a 2 hour layover in Chi and for some reason I just totally started freaking out there. I was extremely nervous and rightfully so in my mind. However it just didn't really hit me until I got there. The flight was very long, 13.5 hours, and ...