Hokkaido Part 3

What is a good camping trip without a little rain? The girls were so excited to wear their raincoats. Don't worry about Alice there was no chance of her suffocating under the poncho.

As you can see, Alice was quick to get herself out from under any protective outerwear that we might try and put on her.

At the trail head we paid 200 yen to walk along this trail which was worth it when they gave us some colorful umbrellas to carry the whole way.

The real reason that trails are so well manicured on both sides is because Alice took care to pull off any leaves trying to to grow where they shouldn't. Ryan likes to call her a little tick with her arms waving in the air.

  Helen was so happy to have a picture with the three girls. Note the bear bell and neckerchiefs.

This is beautiful Lake Shikotsu in the background. I remembered how much Helen loves hiking, it is her favorite part of camping. She happily chit-chatted the whole way up the mountain.

Hokkaido Part 2

Tents have come a long way since I was a kid. instead of the poles running through sleeves, they get clipped on so that even a two year can do it. 

Here is a shot of the island in the middle of Lake Toya. This is Ryan's favorite picture. I took it, but I just don't appreciate wildfowl of any kind. I just assume that they are related to Canada geese and make the same amount of mess.

The girls embraced climbing up fallen trees on this trip. There are a lot of similarities between goats and kids. Behind the girls you can see little infant bamboo. We never saw any large bamboo growth.  I think that it all freezes in the winter and then has to grow as fast as it can up here in the north.

There are no picnic tables at campsites in Japan, so we had to make do with what we had. Note the child in the background that has learned to crawl and put small leaves/rocks/sticks in her mouth. Is there anything better than a tent for containing a child?

We hiked to this lovely waterfall.  Sadly the light wasn't so great for a picture, but note that everyone is looking at the camera.

 Here we are standing in front of a real live smoldering volcano. It had smoke billowing out of it and everything. Thrilling.

 The girls practiced their jumping along the boardwalk.

One of our goals while in Hokkaido was to try the local dish - Genghis Khan. After conferring at our campsite with the host through pantomime and short phrases we were directed to this restaurant. Actually he wrote the name of it down on a piece of paper. As a side note, the Japanese characters he wrote didn't match any of the phrases you see on any of the signs in the picture. We had to show our little piece of paper to people at neighboring locations until we finally "found" it.

Here is Ryan bravely cooking our tasty treat. Perhaps for our next trip we will learn the Japanese characters for "small portion".

Hokkaido Trip Part 1

Last week we took the 9 hour ferry from Hachinohe to Tomakomai, Hokkaido - the northernmost island in Japan. We had heard that Hokkaido is like the Alaska of Japan, complete with bears. Ryan enhanced the map below so that you will be able to find all the places we visited.

 Our first order of business was the zoo north of Furano. After we got off the ferry at 1:30 in the morning, Ryan just drove us straight up to the farthest point we wanted to see. Then we slept in the zoo parking lot for 4 hours until it opened. We saw our first pink pelicans which were a hit for our pink loving girls.

I was so excited to see these Steller's sea eagles, and not just for their name. Ryan and I watched a nature video to get ourselves ready for the trip and these eagles look like cartoons, I had to confirm they were real.

Next stop, Furano which is famous for it's flowers in the summer. In fact, you can see this very field on the website I linked up. Just as a side note, this may not be the best destination for individuals with allergies (like myself).

Here we are at Flowerland and the excitement of hay bails won out as most thrilling over the 100s of flowers.

In retrospect, there may have been signs to the effect of "don't enter the fields," but in Japanese it may have been the names of the flowers.

On our way out of town we asked Helen if she would rather go to the cheesemaking factory or the grape juice factory. She chose the later, and she was glad she did once she laid eyes on these "bucking broncos."

Here is where we camped the first night. To set the record straight, Alice doesn't not weight 30 pounds, she is merely wearing 5 layers of cloths to stay warm.

Tanabata Festival

Last month our little town celebrated Tanabata by hanging these streamers from bamboo poles down main street. The girls loved going through the streamers. We went last year during the day and it was not nearly as exciting as it is at night with all of the decorations lit up.

After walking up and down the street we got what we thought was ice cream, but was really more like an icy. The man scooped up a white center of "ice cream" and then used his paddle to put 6 different colors and flavors around the outside. Yum, yum.

This is perhaps the largest Hydrangea that I have ever seen and it is right outside our door.

 Alice got 5 teeth last month and cloths pins are a fairly harmless teething option.