Sunday, July 23, 2017

Hokkaido Lavender Tour (part 1)

Hokkaido Lavender Summer Tour from 15-21 July 2017 ... the group really enjoyed ourselves in this 7D5N tour in Hokkaido. we were having a good time staying in the 4- or 5-star hotels in Hokkaido that come with the onsen hot spring and bathing facility. We enjoyed the Japanese food very much, with a vast variety of choices. 

The weather was kind to us with the cooling temperature of around 25°C. The tour guide, Henry, informed us that in the preceding week, the temperature shot up to 35°C. 

As informed by Henry, most tour groups would only visit Farm Tomita; but our itinerary has an additional flowers field to visit: Shikisai No Oka Farm. According to plan, most flowers were blooming, and we were really excited seeing so much flowers blooming together. We were also very excited visiting the cherries farm, plucking and eating cherries for one hour - eat all you can. 

With 25 years of experience, Henry is from Hong Kong and speaks fluent Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Japanese. He even participated as a Cantonese-English translator for a few of the famous Hong Kong film stars. The 44-seater tour bus was only a few months old driven by a diligent and responsible bus driver, Mr Kawasan, ferrying us around for the entire tour. Every time we alighted from the bus, Mr Kawasan would wish us in Japanese "have a good day".

Do CLICK HERE here to view part 1 of photos courtesy of yours truly (KC Leong).
 Visiting Chitose Salmon Aquarium ... Salmon fill the 20 tanks here, along with 60 types of northern freshwater fish that are bred and available for visitors to view. 
 Visiting Noboribetsu Date Jiadaimura to see the Edo era style buildings and to relive the history of samurai. In the photo: Camellia and Ronnie
 Visiting Jigokudani, also known as Hell Valley ... the sulphurous valley with boiling ponds and steaming streams 
 Overnight at Noboribetsu Manseikaku enjoying with the onsen bath ... (left) Tung, Kheng Lian, Annie, Eunice, Joanne, Alice, KL Tan
 Visiting the Bear Ranch which is located at the summit of a 550m mountain, and feeding the Ezo brown bears with biscuits.
 Passing by Lake Toya ... Celine Gan
 Otaru Canal .. where charming century-old stone warehouses lined the canal
 Visiting Otaru Music Box Museum ... and make a stop at Otaru Kitaichi Glass Factory, a famous glassware handicraft in Hokkaido.
 Putting up a night in Jozankei Milione and enjoy ourselves with a second onsen bath
 Visiting Asahiyama Zoo, a municipal zoo opened in July 1967
 Visiting Otokoyama Sake Brewery where we can see brewing equipment and sample Otokoyama sake for free
 Visiting Ryusei and Ginga Waterfall where one is a male waterfall; the other, a female waterfall
Putting up a night in Sounkyo Choyo Resort Hotel and enjoy ourselves with the third consecutive day of onsen bath. The hotel is just 10 meters from a river; opening the window at night when sleeping, one could hear the flow of the water and the air was extremely fresh.



Do click here for Part 2 (the flowers and cherries).

Posted by KC Leong

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