Furano—>Biei

Today was all about reliving old experiences and sampling new ones. Furano, Biei and Bibaushi invoke images of rolling hills, vivid flowers and lone trees like no other place in my mind.

The cheese factory was a new experience. It was a little out of town and we didn’t have a car last time to reach there. There were free samples, including a black cheese made with cuttlefish ink, as well as hands-on cheese making sessions.

 

Next to the factory was an ice cream factory. We didn’t try it cos it was too early in the morning. A short walk to the back led us to a photographer’s gallery where the owner sold me one of his books.

Then it was off to Farm Tomita, arguably the biggest tourist attraction in Furano. The lavender had wilted by now, but there was still plenty of other flowers. Lavender inside the greenhouse if photographed a certain way gave the impression that it was outside.

The famous slope was bare, compared with full bloom last time.

Between Furano and Biei was the Trick Art Museum [English translation of Japanese site] where 2D paintings gave the illusion of 3D. Fun stuff.

 

Yet again we missed the narrow lunch window and most places in Biei were closed. We ended up eating instant ramen from 7-Eleven in our car. Sometimes we splurge out on expensive meals and yet sometimes we go back to poor student mode.

The starting point of the Biei circuit is Pension Ken & Mary with its distinctive tree. They charge ¥300 entrance to the café, or we can buy something to drink and sit on the terrace. No brainer, duh.

The sun was almost setting when we reached the Shikisai Hill otherwise known as four seasons hill farm. The hay figure was a memory from last time, as was their pumpkin ice cream.

We had dinner at an izakaya - drinking places that are part pub and part tapas bar. We ordered sushi, yakitori, fried camembert, and beef on hotplate. I had a beer and mm a sake. Such a pleasant way of spending an evening.

The softball gold medal match was on. I saw the first few innings at the bar and caught the final few after getting back to the b&b. To see the elation on the faces of the winning Japanese team was gorgeous. When the last US hitter got run out, one of the commentators cried and squealed, even not knowing Japanese I could tell her excitement.

Bibaushi—>Sapporo

We found ourselves lingering, not wanting to leave, because Bibaushi is so stunning. We traced our route from the station to Takushinkan, this time by car. I’ve tried over the years to try to find more works by Shinzo Maeda and realise his son Akira has taken up his mantle. We bought a big stack of postcards, wanting to buy the whole lot.

A side note is that Takushinkan charged for parking, but only a minute away was a service area with free parking. We wondered why they even charge when every single car parked at the service area. Just as well because we had the sweetest sweetcorn and juiciest cherry tomatoes at the small shop there. The hospitality of the shopkeeper was amazing, she even gave us small doughy rolls to taste. May be our poor student persona was showing again.

The GPS directed us back to Sapporo via Asahikawa, weird. It was lunchtime and we stopped at a huge shopping mall. Had more buta-don and quickly looked around the giant Jusco supermarket. Food was amazing.

We took the fast, and expensive, highway to Sapporo. Instead of wasting time checking into the hotel we headed straight for Sapporo Factory for a little shopping. Not far away was the Sapporo Bier Garten. The beer museum was closed by the time we got there, but dinner had just begun.

Wow. Talk about vast and organised. The speciality is jingisukan, the romanji spelling for Genghis Khan. No surprise that it’s barbequed lamb. There are several different restaurants in the complex and the choices are - full buffet, 100 minute all-you-can-eat, à la carte and a grill. We opted for the AYCE, which for ¥3,570 included beer and soft drinks. I had 3 glasses (500ml each I think) of draft and a half-half mix of draft and black beer. Followed with a glass of oolong tea.

 

Another shopping mall next to the beer garden and the main attraction was the Uniqlo store. We both managed to buy something, woot!

When we checked into the Keio Plaza we were told that we had a standard (smoking) room for one night and had to move rooms for the second night. We were really, really annoyed. I mean, if a customer requests an additional night before their original booking, wouldn’t it make sense to have one room for both nights instead of treating it as two separate bookings? Not sure if it was the problem with our travel agent or the bureaucratic hotel.

Otaru

I didn’t think we’d make it back to Otaru. In my mind it’s got shopping and more shopping and how many pretty glass ornaments can we buy?

I’m glad mm insisted to return. After all, it’s only 30 mins drive from Sapporo. We had a great day. Tired from all the walking, but still good. Parking was difficult, at least for the free variety so we parked for the whole day. ¥100 for 30mins, max ¥1,200, we were prepared to pay the maximum price.

No visit to Otaru can be complete without a stop at the canal. I’ve never really gotten why it’s considered to absolutely stunningly beautiful. It’s pretty, but…I dunno.

 

Early lunch of uni rice at a food stall. We thought the place would get packed later but the crowds never appeared. They must have stuck to the restaurants on the main strip. And what a main strip. Took us the whole day to walk from one end to the other and back. Mostly glassware, music boxes and ornaments. There were repeats which suggested similar sources. Still, the handiwork was impressive.

 

I didn’t buy much. mm bought sake sets from the outlet, an award winning bottle of sake, music boxes and other souvenirs. We learned something new today at the Otaru Music Box Museum. Normally music boxes are 18-note, so are limited in the range of music they can play. High end music boxes have 36-, 50- and even 72-notes. One of the curators at the museum showed us the difference, and it was remarkable. The 72-note box played Ave Maria with both treble and bass, just like on the piano (same number of keys). Naturally the price increase is exponential.

Food-wise we had a heavenly day. The seafood stall offering grilled scallops on the shell for ¥100 was too good to pass up. We had one each, then returned to have 2-3 each. At Kitakaro where we got a tea set of coffee, ice cream and puff for ¥500 was equally value for money.

 

Dinner back at the wholesale fish market in Sapporo. By then it was dark and the stalls had closed, but not the restaurants. For this last dinner we totally gorged ourselves, I had the crab set meal and mm had sushi and tempura. The new room at the Keio Plaza was way better, so much so that I was impressed (or relieved) enough to take pictures.

home

Flight was at 4.40pm so we had the whole morning for shopping. Breakfast was ramen at the JR station. First time we had ramen this trip and it was a good one.

mm went crazy and bought a handbag and a couple of purses from Burberry Blue Label. Blue Label is exclusively licensed to Japan and seem to have a more contemporary design. We even got the tax refund immediately in the store, very convenient.

I didn’t buy anything, unless ice cream and gumi sweets count.

We were very late returning the car, mm was cornered by someone on a customer satisfaction survey. We were spared the pain of check-in cos of my gold card but everyone was treated equal at security. For the 3 flights leaving around that time there was one security checkpoint so imagine the queue.

The lounge was tiny, more like the waiting room at a train station albeit with better seats and free drinks. The flight was fine, we had 3 seats to ourselves.

Kushiro

Long drive today to Kushiro not helped by the poor weather. It rained and was cloudy all day. We missed the wetlands train by a few minutes, but we were only half-heartedly rushing for it anyway.

We made the tour of the wetlands by car instead. The Hosooka Viewpoint gave an expansive view of the meandering Kushiro river below us. This panorama was stitched from 6 photos, click for larger image.

Lunch was at Washo market, a non-descript building housing a wet market of about 80 stalls selling fruits, vegetables, seafood and other produce. The reason for the visit wasn’t because it is one of the three largest seafood markets in Hokkaido, it was to sample the katte-don, or “make-your-own” chirashi. It was simple. Buy your rice from one of the many stalls, picking the appropriate size. It’s sold by weight so no issue about scrimping. Next, go to one (or several) of the many seafood stalls and select the various items you want on your rice. That’s it. As was our focus on this trip, ebi, salmon roe and uni formed the main selection. Two chirashi plus a plate of uni came to ¥5,050.

 

The next stop was the Tancho Reserve that is home to a flock of red-capped cranes, Japan’s national bird. From pictures we thought it was an open nature reserve and were a little surprised to be confronted with high wired cages each housing a crane family. Strange. It could be that most of the cranes had migrated elsewhere, since they were only supposed to be on site during the winter. The theory that the ones remaining were in captivity was quickly debunked when a couple of them flew out of the cages and starting hanging out on the footpath. Clearly if they wanted to fly away they could, and these few chose to stay. It would still have been nice to see them in their natural habitat but it was also reassuring to know that they weren’t prisoners. They were tame though, we walked past them very close and they weren’t bothered.

We had coffee and ice cream at the small (rather deserted) souvenir shop off to one side of the carpark. The service we received was as usual impeccable.

There was just enough time to pay a short visit to the Kushiro City Marsh Observatory, another lookout to the wetlands.

Guess what? Our third beautiful dinner and more relaxing soaking in the onsen followed by Olympics. That’s the life.

Tokachigawa Onsen—>Obihiro—>Furano

Time to pack up and leave the Kangetsuen, sniff sniff. What a lovely place. Before heading out of the area totally, we explored the town around the hotel. Behind the visitors centre we enjoyed a foot bath and a few minutes’ drive away was the huge flower clock at Tokachigaoka Park.

 

Then it was time to head out in the direction of Obihiro and the Tokachi Millennium Forest, a nature reserve that is an eclectic combination of wilderness, agriculture, ecology, education, art and technology. The owners expect the site to be sustainable for 1,000 years and aim:

to nurture and maintain the natural woods where various animals and plants live. By planting conventional species of trees, we are restoring the original Tokachi forest. We welcome our visitors to come and discover the abundant nature of the forest, and to ultimately enhance their knowledge of agriculture.

The park was designed by Dan Pearson who was also responsible for Roppongi Hills and Millenium Dome. There were distinct zones - forest, grassy plain, agriculture garden and even a cheese factory. Located randomly in the park are works by various artists, the most famous being Yoko Ono.

 

We spent a bit of our money at the cheese factory on goat’s cheese. Got to sample fresh milk from this morning too.

We would have stayed at the forest for the whole day if not for needing to move on…and find lunch. We headed back to Obihiro, parked, and found out that most shops and restaurants were closed. It was only just after 2pm. Sigh. By sheer luck we came across Kita no Yatai which was a narrow alleyway of small stalls that looked interesting. These open at night for drinking and chatting so we wouldn’t get to experience them, what a shame.

One of the restaurants that were open nearby served buta-don, which is associated with the area. The options depended on the number of slices of pork on rice. We chose the smaller 4-slice portion and supplemented with a vegetable tempura.

Next stop after Obihiro was Furano. Funny thing about GPS, not all roads are registered on satellite. When we got to one of the toll booths the attendant tried very hard, with lots of words and drawing on a map, to explain to us that a new highway just opened. It was only driving on it, and freaking out the GPS (driving through a blank screen was hilarious), that we figured out what was happening.

We checked into the b&b and drove to town for dinner at Kumagera. Its speciality was raw beef don, tofu cheese and beef hot pot. mm had the beef don and I opted to try the bear set meal. Yes, bear meat. They warned that since it’s difficult to hunt bear, it may not be available all the time but they had it tonight. It tasted gamey but not as strong as venison, a little chewy like jerky but in general quite nice.

 

The restaurant also had a large selection of sake, so it became impossible for us not to try a glass.

The pension had a small onsen bath and we enjoyed that for a while. The best thing actually was the open shower area and we could talk and share the bathing experience. No wonder the Japanese talk about the social aspect of going to the onsen. There is no embarrassment about being naked with other bathers, unlike what might occur in other countries. No staring, no judging, no lewdness. Stripping away clothing is like leaving social barriers and other stresses of real life behind. Once in the baths, the flow, the heat and the sound of the water has a cleansing and peaceful effect.

Sapporo

We visited Hokkaido in 2002 and were awed by the beautiful scenery. We’ve talked so many times in the intervening years about going back, and it’s taken 6 years. Even though we are missing the peak tourist season, July, when lavenders flower, we figured there will be so many other things to see and experience.

The flight arrived early but the long queue at immigration ate away the time advantage. We wheeled our bags to the Toyota Car Rental counter only to discover that, hee, it’s affliated with Hertz. No wonder when we reserved online that it was so efficiently English. In a procedure that reminded us of Heathrow, we registered at the counter and then were taken by van about 5 mins’ drive offsite to the main rental location.

Our car was a Ractis, class P2 (similar to group B or C). For 8 days it was ¥75,600 including insurance. Automatic and came with GPS. I’d emailed them previously to ask for an English-speaking GPS and that was what we got. The people who got the car next to us at the parking bay obviously didn’t make that specification and had to change their car.

First thing I noticed when I got into the car, I didn’t know where the handbrake was. How embarrassing. Turned out it’s a foot pedal located where the clutch would have been if it were a manual car. :blush

Second thing about the GPS. It spoke English but the dashboard was still in Japanese. There were English instructions but we managed with the kanji anyway. Programming a location was dead easy - just key in the phone number!

The last time we’d rented a car on a long holiday was New Zealand, although I’d driven in the US in the last couple of years. But driving was easy, it helped that Japan is on the right side of the road and the roads are in good condition.

This first night we stayed at the Keio Plaza. Location was perfect, a few minutes’ walk from the JR station. We hadn’t booked all our nights for this trip, and were hoping that the tourist information office could help. We took bundles of brochures off to dinner to talk about options.

By the time we remembered that we had a car, we were at the ticket machines in the subway station. Hee. It was only 2 stops to Susukino the nightlife district. We had conveyer belt sushi and our first indulgence was to order a bunch of uni nigiri. Yummy. Dinner came to ¥3,276.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped off at Robinson’s (a decidedly un-Japanese name for a department store) and ogled at the displays of greenhouse fruits. Amazing. Artificial, but still amazing.

First impressions. Seemed to me that there are more tourists than we remembered, especially from other Asian countries. Hokkaido has always been the Japanese people’s best kept secret but now more and more people are learning about this. Sapporo probably isn’t the best example cos it’s the largest city and the starting point for visitors.

Sapporo—>Furano—>Tokachigawa Onsen

We got up early to visit the tourist information office. We’d decided to revisit a favourite and spend 2 nights at Furano. Yes, it’s another tourist mecca but it really is very pretty. Disappointly the tourist information office couldn’t help us book accommodation; and neither could the travel agency we were directed to. We decided to stop off on our way to Tokachigawa to make the reservation ourselves. With the sheer number of hotels and b&bs in Furano we weren’t worried.

That settled, we headed off for brunch at the seafood market. The more popular one is Nijo Market near Odori Park but we went to the Central Wholesale Market which was just 10 mins’ drive away. The advantage was the less crowded location and easy parking. We’d also seen a leaflet for Kaisen-ichiba Kitano Gourmet which reassured us that a) there’d be some English and b) it had a phone number for GPS direction. We weren’t disappointed, the prawn looked like it was gonna jump off the bowl, the seafood was so fresh. Two chirashi plus a grilled conch came to ¥6,750. No need for drinks, a jug of cold tea was on every table. Watched the finish of the woman’s marathon, so impressive when the runners enter the bird’s nest stadium.

Dessert was yubari melon from a street stall, Japan’s version of luxurious cantaloupe melons. To give a perspective on just how luxurious, the best pair in this year’s first auction fetched ¥2.5 million in May. Ours were more modest, at ¥100 a slice.

The drive to Furano was just under 2 hours. Would have been faster if we hadn’t gotten stuck behind some truly sloooooooow drivers on the single-lane A-roads. The speed limit was 50km/hr, so okay, we were above the limit. Then again, so were 98% of the other drivers. Not sure of the purpose of setting such a low speed limit only for it to be broken by almost everyone.

It was straightforward booking the hotel, even with the language difficulty. We went for a pension near the ski lift that mentioned an in-house onsen. Stopped off for an ice cream and then we continued on our way to our destination for the next 3 nights, Kangetsuen at Tokachigawa Onsen.

This was the highlight of the trip. The Japanese-styled room was simply furnished but roomy. The sizes of the rooms are measured by the jo. Ours was 8-jo which converts to 12.24m². The futons were put away in the closet during the day, and the hotel staff set them out on the tatami during dinner. Originally we wanted to book the rooms with en suite spa, but our agent couldn’t secure them.

 

Our stay included breakfast and dinner. The dinners were traditional Kaiseki style, consisting of a multitude of delicate courses carefully cooked and presented. The attention to detail was amazing, from the small glass of pre-dinner drink to the orientation of the plates.

After dinner was another highlight, the onsen. After thoroughly showering, it was time to try out the different baths. There was a main mineral bath with whirlpool section, a separate whirlpool, waterfall, stone walking pool, sauna and an outdoor bath. My favourite was the outdoor bath, overlooking what looked like the fields outside the hotel and further, a nearby bridge (hard to see without glasses, hee). Rocks form the boundary of the bath and there were submerged areas to sit on when the water got too hot.

The Olympics were on tv. We watched volleyball, basketball, gymnastics and other games. Commentary in Japanese was interestingly incomprehensible. Naturally they focused on the Japan team, and it looked like they were doing very well.

Akan—>Mashu—>Sulphur Mountain

Breakfast was in the large dining room and self-service. All the traditional items were available - rice, fish, noodles, pickles. There was a local item that was like semolina with croutons that was interesting. Yogurt was more sticky than what we were used to, and had a mild taste. The tea from a teabag was awful so I stuck to oolong and green teas.

The drive to Akan was under 2 hours. We had our first petrol station experience on the way. It had been years since we’d been to a fully serviced place. They even cleaned our windows, and directed traffic to guide us back out to the road. Talk about great courtesy and service.

Lake Akan is one of three lakes in the Akan National Park. We just missed the hourly sightseeing boat so we took the speedboat option.

The main attraction of Lake Akan was to see marimo, slow-growing algae balls that populate the bottom of the lake. Marimo was declared a national treasure and there is a concerted effort to preserve them. The Marimo Observation Centre is located on an island at the top end of the lake. The round shape of the marimo is formed through gentle rotation of waves, and one of the exhibits replicated this action. It’s just like a relaxed version of lava lamps. [hurray for flickr video]

Back on shore, we walked the length of the village of Akankohan. The main industry being tourism, there was an abundance of souvenir shops. But hidden between buildings were hand or foot baths. Temperatures ranged from cool to too-hot-to-put-your-foot-for-more-than-5-seconds. Very enjoyable and relaxing.

The far end of the village behind the Ainu tribal museum was a 30-minute nature walk that led back to the lake. The end of the walk was the Singing Marimo monument, from what we could gather it had song lyrics carved into a rock.

Lunch was rice bowls at a local family place. Pork for mm and ebi for me. As with many Japanese we came across on this trip, we communicated through a combination of hand gestures, pointing and lots of nodding. The Japanese has a cute tendency to continue talking in fast Japanese even though they fully understand that we understand 0% of what they are talking about. It’s as if by talking even more, some of it will get through.

We hurried to Lake Mashu. The drive took longer cos of slow moving vehicles. We ended up at Observatory No 1, and a nice view. Apparently the lake is often covered by mist from the Kushiro wetlands but today it was open though overcast. Apparently also the view from Observatory No 3 is better (there isn’t any No 2) but we didn’t have time.

The next stop was Io-zan, or sulphur mountain. Similar to the hellmouth at Noboribetsu but on a smaller scale, there was a short path that led up a little into the mountain where we could see, feel and smell the sulphur seeping out from the rockface.

Another fully loaded, beautifully cooked dinner course and hot spring evening followed. Heh, we even did laundry.

I didn’t realise until mm told me that we were going too fast, even worse than a tour group. Sorry, mm. Let’s slow down and take our time.

[Note: USD vs JPY is currently 109.597, but for quick rule of thumb use 100]

7 April: Namsangol, Insadong

Took the subway one stop to Namsangol Park & Heritage Village. I thought there’d be an entrance fee but it was free. Nice peaceful park, not too large and good for walking. There was one section where they buried a time capsule to be opened in 40 years’ time.

Another part of the park was a replica of a traditional Korean village. The houses were real, and for a change there was furniture so we could picture what it was like.

  

Long, tiring walk to Dongdaemum market. Eventually we went back to Insadong to continue exploration, it seems we like it there best. More shopping, of shoes and cheap t-shirts. We also discovered a small shopping complex that had quite hip stores, and art in the form of toilet seats and pans.

Back to hotel to drop our shopping off. Then to a restaurant behind the hotel where we had raw beef with pears (ages since we had that) and hot pot. Pretty good. Afterwards we walked the food off before going to the Korean Sauna. First we had to go inside a hot oven to sweat, then after resting we were led to the spa area. It’s like the Japanese version where you shower then try out all sorts of different baths. Middle-aged women scrubbed, washed and massaged us, it was an experience. Was like 1am when we left.

Oh, it was my birthday today.

8 April:

The morning was spent at Namdaemun market where we found some areas and stalls we didn’t see last time. Like the part where there were stalls selling nothing but kimchi. Other stalls were equally interesting.

 

Had lunch at a restaurant along that alley that was full of restaurants. Tofu soup, seaweed rice and stuffed pork innards. The dishes were displayed outside the shop and all we needed to do was point.

Went back to Myeongdong and circulated the blocks several times. Had green tea at a very posh and lovely teahouse, trying to kill time. We decided to go to the airport early, had dinner there and visited the duty free shops.

Good trip. Full set of photos are on flickr

5 April: Catholic Cathedral, Deoksugung Palace, Namdaemun Market

We decided to go to Korea for our birthdays trip this year. Flight departed at some god-awful hour and arrived at 5am. By the time we got out to the bus it was almost 6am. Even though the language was completely unknown, getting the airport bus tickets was straightforward, soon we found ourselves on the comfortable bus with reclining seats. And fast asleep.

Got to the hotel early, and they let us check-in. Woot! We stayed at the Sejong Hotel which is just behind Myeongdong and convenient. We unpacked and decided to rest for a while. Because we were so tired it turned out to be a 3 hr nap, which was probably a good thing. We went out around lunch and explored the streets of Myeongdong. I was in Seoul for business 18 months ago and remembered some parts, though it took me a little bit to re-orientate myself. We had lunch at a restaurant that only sold chicken, and there were only two types — roast or ginseng. We had ginseng chicken, one each … small chicken.

After lunch we walked to the Catholic Cathedral where a couple had just finished their wedding ceremony. We sat around for a little while, then the lights went out! Must be saving energy since the ceremony finished.

We left the cathedral, walked through Lotte Hotel to the City Hall area. Totally unplanned but we caught some changing of the guard ceremony at the Deoksugung Palace. It is ironic that the palace is surrounded by skyscrapers and next to a Dunkin’ Donuts.

 

From the Deoksugung, we walked to Namdaemun Market. There were all sorts of stalls including food, snacks, clothing, scarves, shoes, kitchenware. We were tired, so we went to a basement café that was straight out of the 1950s to have coffee and tea. It was quiet though, and we both fell asleep a little.

Went back to the hotel via subway, fell asleep for an hour again (lots of napping today!), then went out to a nearby restaurant where we had an all-you-can-eat barbeque dinner of beef and pork. They kept serving us food and we were very full. We also shared a bottle of rice wine.

Read our brochures for a little bit, then went to bed.

6 April: Insadong, Changdeokgung Palace

Took the City Tour bus from the stop opposite our hotel. It’s one of those hop-on-hop-off affairs so we plan to use it as our mode of transport today. The bus took us to Namsan and Seoul Tower — places we’d never go on our own. Our intended destination was Changdeokgung Palace but it got obvious that the bus wasn’t going to get us there in time for the 1pm tour. So we stayed on the bus for one more stop and stopped at Insadong.

I love Insadong, it’s a quaint little street with art galleries and antique shops. We went to a tiny family-style restaurant I stumbled into last time I was in Seoul. Sitting on the heated floor, communicating with the ladies who worked there in sign language. We had a most wonderful lunch of all sorts of dishes — fish, soup, steamed egg, tons of kimchi, tofu, pork … everything in small plates arranged all over the table. KRW20,000 each, IIRC.

More walking around Insadong, but there wasn’t enough time to fully explore before we had to make our way to Changdeokgung Palace to join the 3pm tour (we had to join a tour as that’s the only way visitors can go in). Nice palace, but empty buildings.

 

I think I’ve see too many historical buildings in my life, it was nice, nothing exciting. The flowers were very pretty though.

 

After the Changdeokgung we hopped back to the bus and went to Itaewon, which is supposed to be vibrant and full of shopping. We didn’t like it, it had too much of an even more downmarket version of Camden market to it. Luckily we had the tour bus ticket and spent half an hour walking around before catching the next bus back to the hotel.

We got off the bus and noticed a local restaurant right by the bus stop and decided we should have dinner there. We interpreted the Korean menu using a complicated series of guesswork and comparisons with photos on the walls. We had miso bean curd set and a clear beef soup. VERY nice. And cheap too, KRW5,000 I think.

 

Lots of walking today, I was tired.

I haven’t yet been in Mumbai for holiday but there’s so much new about India. No wonder it’s such a popular destination.

They kept feeding us on the plane. Drinks, snacks, more food. I had tandoori chicken (quite spicy), ice cream and lots of wine (heehee). Got out of the airport quickly. The greeting area was crowded with lots of drivers holding names for their clients but it wasn’t a problem to find my driver and get to the car. I’d been warned about beggars and unauthorised drivers but that wasn’t a problem either. In India it’s not unusual to have a driver, and it’s recommended for those travelling on their own. Stayed at the Marriott, which took about an hour from the airport. Whenever we stopped at traffic lights women or children would be knocking on car windows to get them to buy balloons or flowers. I looked away.

The feel of the roads is like Kenya actually — concrete roads, then dirt and/or rubbish, then houses. Streetside stalls selling sweets, cigarettes and papers, just like Kenya.

  

Lots of tuktuks, like Bangkok. They’re called ricksaws here. Driving takes nerves of steel, lots of honking and cars just swerving out of the side road. Actually there’s no difference between main road and side road, there are no road markings.

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There is a big difference between the suburbs and downtown Mumbai. Downtown is just like any big city, may be busier and dirtier, but I felt fine walking around even in the dark. Outside was poorer and more “local”.

India is a land of contrasts — the poverty of the children sleeping on the streets vs the opulence of my hotel suite; the streetside stalls vs the modern shopping malls.

 

There was a cow outside our office building. Not in some suburbs or village … right outside the business district.

In-town check-in, now that's the way to go. Without the burden of heavy baggage you can have lunch in town thus avoiding a) having to lug suitcases all the way to the airport and b) paying airport food prices. Comfort for price, it was good value.

Flight was good, we had 3 seats to ourselves and read all the newspapers onboard. Shanghai airport was big but empty, as if waiting for planeloads of passengers that haven't quite arrived yet. Bus trip into town was fairly long, in addition to the driver there was a matronly conductor who would shout out the names of the stops. We had to take a taxi from our stop to the hotel but it was only a short ride. We stayed at the Mayfair, on the west side of town, it felt brand new because part of the hotel was still being renovated and the health club wasn't opened yet. And because it wasn't in the town centre it was nearly half the price of say, the Shangri-la. For what we saved over just one night, we were able to cover taxi fares for the entire trip.

Dinner was new and fabulous food. Cold appetisers of marinated duck's tongue and chopped greens. Hot dishes of mini chicken kidneys and beans, pork knuckle in soup (not fat at all, yummilicious!). We were completely stuffed by then but could not resist ordering dessert - deep fried pumpkin cakes that were just so light and melt-in-the-mouth. One bite and the fullness in our stomachs was quickly forgotten.

Stayed up for New Year's Eve of course, but in the comfort of our hotel room. I had a half bottle of champagne I'd brought from home so we had a toast. It was nice.

The Yuyuan Garden itself is a private garden that dates back some 400 years and is now open to the public. The surrounding buildings are in the same style as the gardens and have been converted to shops and restaurants. Man, how many people can fit into that space?

Lunch was at this tiny dumpling place inside the complex - buy your ticket, give the ticket to the servers and the food arrives to your seat minutes afterwards. Steaming hot dumplings and savoury beancurd soup. Despite the "cosiness" of the establishment, ie 8-9 people around a table that would otherwise sit 4, there was no shortage of willing customers. People must know the food is good, the take-out section had a permanent line snaking out from the tiny serving window all the way down the other side of the building.

In the afternooon we visited a quaint teahouse situated in the middle of a small lake, the architecture and furnishings suggest times past. The dried tea leaves came in a small ball that expanded in the glass like a pretty shy flower opening up.

Early dinner at "Old Shanghai". Fried glutinous rice cake with hairy crab roe, chinese cabbage with dried scallops, crystal prawns. The most expensive meal of the trip, but still good food. There was a wedding banquet at the restaurant, funny thing was the bride and groom totally disappeared toward the end of the meal and the wedding cake was cut by the waiters into large chunks which were deposited at each table. The guests just used their chopsticks to get a piece of the chunk, no new cutlery was laid out. Then at the end what looked suspiciously like 2 kitkat bars were given to each seat and the bride and groom's bounty was taken by another guest who swooped to their seat and pocketed the bars to herself. Bizarro behaviour if you asked me.

Around 1.5-2 hours by bus is the water village of Zhou Zhuang, literally meaning Zhou's village. It dates back more than 900 years and was basically built alongside the banks of crisscrossing rivers and canals. The operative word is quaint, just about, the small houses riverside have been converted to restaurants and shops, the bridges well trodden by visitors, boat cruises with boatmen and women who sang while padding. It was a pleasant way to spend the day, except it was marred by the aggressive and at times annoying sales tactics of every single person who wasn't a tourist.

The entrance ticket included visits to the museums, ancestral homes and historical monuments around the village. At the far end of the village we found a shop owned by an artist, one of the very few who were not pushy. More reason to linger at his shop.

Hotpot dinner at the restaurant near the bus stop back in Shanghai. Chilly night, we were glad to find somewhere nearby. We chose the chicken and mushroom pot and the pot was as big as a wash basin! We had a bowl of soup each before we started. Dishes were priced individually but there was no service charge and drinks were free. We had 2 large bottles of beer and a tankard of soya milk respectively. Tried some new dishes, including sea cucumber (like thick seaweed) and cactus (surprisingly good). Staples like beef and lamb were fresh and melt-in-the-mouth. Yet another memorable meal.

And a fabulous day topped off with a visit to Xintiandi, the swanky nightlife/bar/cafè area. Bar prices were comparable with other major cities around the world. And on that Friday night it was buzzing.

Early (for us) start, so we could fit in as much as we could. Taxi to the imposing Jin Mao Tower which stood heads and shoulders above everything in the city. Visited the sky lobby of the Grand Hyatt, went all the way up to the top floor observation deck. View could have been spectacular if not for the smog, they really have to watch the air pollution there.

Lunch at Yunan Street South, a food street full of different restaurants. Initially we wanted to go to a really local dumpling place but we got distracted by the smell of lamb kebabs from a Tibetian food stall. Had to wait till the kebabs were ready, then they were gone in a flash.

Lunch proper was chicken, big bowl of noddles, wonton and soup. That, plus a beer, came to only RMB26.50. Who says cheap food can't be as delicious? For dessert we bought candied apples from a stall that sold all sorts of candied fruits, the apples were small and sour, which complimented the sweetness of the sugar coating perfectly.

Walked to Huai Hai Road, Shanghai's version of Oxford Street. Department stores and international brands at one end, flea market at the other. We bought some tissue box covers, a scarf and were seriously looking at binoculars and rucksacs. Although we were crap at bargaining, we still bought our stuff for relatively cheap prices.

Dinner at a place called Yang's Kitchen, a longer walk than expected away. It was situated at the end of a dark alleyway that led of the main road, not a place we would have known if not for the guidebook. Had the most yummilicous pumpkin and lily salad for starter. For mains we had crispy aromatic duck (yes! just like the ones in Chinatown), stewed pork, dumplings and eight treasures rice for dessert. What is it with meals in Shanghai? Don't think we had any duds.

The evening ended with a "romantic" walk along the famous Bund. In reality, too many people to be really romantic but the atmosphere was nice enough.

Our taxi dropped us off at the opposite side of the road for some reason, so we took the opportunity to take a walk around the hotel. What did we find? A supermarket. And true to tradition we paid a visit and couldn't resist buying food and grocery.

In the morning we went back to the Bund to see what it was like during the day. Then returned to Huai Hai Road to buy desserts to take home. For lunch we had shrimp noodles at that shop.

The time left before our flight was spent at the park opposite the hotel. Kids playing badminton and adults social dancing in the playground painted a perfect, idyllic picture. Our final meal was a snack of savoury soya milk, then it was off to the airport.

A good trip.

Just as we thought it couldn't get any more memorable. About an hour from Furano is Bibaushi, a small village on the way to Biei. It was a beautiful sunny day and we rented bikes and leisurely cycled around. We both agreed that it was the best part of a trip already full of bests. The rolling countryside with fields of corn, rice and what not is like an Asian version of Switzerland.

We cycled to the local school which is a much-photographed landmark. We also visited the Takushinkan, a museum of works by local photographer Shinzo Maeda, whose photographs of the local scenery are full of amazing colours and textures. We were glad we were on bikes because it gave us the freedom to stop every few minutes to admire the landscape and take pictures. It would have been more difficult with a car.

After Furano and Bibaushi we returned to Sapporo for our final 2 nights. About an hour from Sapporo is Otaru where we planned to visit last on our trip because we thought we'd get most of our shopping done there. We bought several music boxes, glassware and several sake sets. Unable to shake off the bicycling urge we rented bikes again and it proved to be very useful in nipping around the narrow streets.

The must see landmark in Otaru is the canal with the cluster of historic warehouses along the way, a remnant of Otaru's shipping past. The warehouses are all converted to shops and restaurants nowdays but by day or by night, walking along the canal still retained its romantic feel.

Hokkaido is the northernmost but least populated of Japan's islands. Our trip started in Sapporo and a bus trip from Chitose airport to our hotel, immediately we were treated to Japanese hospitality and politeness, even though we didn't know Japanese and the bus driver didn't know English, he made a special detour to bring us right to the hotel entrance.

Sapporo is one of the few cities in Japan where the street layout actually makes some sense. Blocks are named and numbered according to compass points, so walk north from block North 1-West 2 and it'd be North 2-West 2. For that first night we stayed at the Sapporo Grand which was within walking distance of the station and famous sights like Government House, Clock Tower and TV Tower.

The Clock Tower is very much a New England styled building. It is the symbol of Sapporo and seemed to be constantly teeming with visitors. The TV Tower is located at the eastermost side of Odori Park, which dissects the city from east to west. The park is small but beautiful and peaceful, even though it was right in the centre of town.

The other attractions for us were Ramen-Yokocho and the Fish Market. Food places of course. The former is a narrow alleyway that has a dozen or so small ramen shops - we had other plans for dinner otherwise we would have tried one of them. Instead we had a crab feast of 3 types of crabs all beautifully cooked, as well as side dishes such as fish soup, salad and dessert. The Fish Market was full of stalls selling all sorts of fresh crabs, fish and our favourite, roe. There were a couple of small restaurants serving the freshest sushi and we ate some fabulous sushi at this one stall which was no more than a counter with 3 chairs, and the chef made the sushi one piece at a time and served straight to us.

From Sapporo we went Noboribetsu, where we stayed at the Daiichi Takimotokan hotspring hotel. The hotsprings are open 24 hours and there are over 10 different types of springs of various mineral content and temperatures. The spa is separated into male and female sections and all you're allowed to take into the spring is a teeny tea-towel which barely covers half your torso. But nakedness is so matter-of-fact that anyone who is overly modest stands out more. My 2 favourites are the foot spa and the outdoor spa. The foot spa is made up of 2 knee-deep trenches filled with hot and cold water respectively and you walk along the trenches experiencing the different temperatures. The outdoor spa is absolutely breathtaking, surrounded by trees and flowers while the hot water flows out from a bamboo pipe and steam wafts up from the surface. The sensation of lying there at night, our bodies immersed in this body of sulphurous nectar, gazing up at the stars surrounded by nature, is as close to heaven as we can get on earth.

All meals were provided and served in this cavernous dining hall. It was buffet style and there were numerous stalls serving different types of food, like grilled crabs, sushi rice, teriyaki steak, noodles and all sorts of other delicious foodstuff. Japanese breakfast is rice and all sorts of other goodies and a perfect start to the day.

Noboribetsu is a typical resort town, with one main road running through the resort lined with shops. At the top of the village is the Hell Valley, with sulphurous streams of hot water bubbling out of red and yellow rock formations. This is where the water in the spa comes from naturally. There are a few well marked walks in the valley and we joined a local guide on part of his walk, of course it was all in Japanese but we could sense how knowledgeable he was. He led us to a small pool and asked us to try a sip of the water. It was hot and acidic but supposed to have medicinal uses.

Further into the valley the red rock formation gave way to the regular greenery of a well maintained "wilderness". The other lakes in the were just as beautiful.

From one highlight to another. We took a bus back to Sapporo where we changed to another bus to Furano. Buses in Japan are clean, comfortable, reliable and cheaper than trains. We're lucky we can read a bit of kanji, which makes travelling so much easier. Even so stops are clearly shown on the bus, well basically, they're a doddle to take.

It was also the only day on our trip that rained, so spending it on the bus wasn't a bad deal. By good planning and a little bit of luck we got to Furano on an earlier bus and gained a couple of hours.

Furano town itself has very little to recommend it, it felt uncannily like an out-of-favour seaside town, and we dubbed it Westgate because it reminded us of Westgate in Kent. Furano of course is famous for the lavender farms. And spectacular they are. The lavender doesn't grow everywhere, they're grown in specially designated areas but when in season the entire hillside is completely covered by a lavender carpet.

There are special local trains that bring people over to the main fams. Farm Tomita is the biggest, the brochure suggested a visit of 1 1/2 hours, in the end we were there something like 5 hours but each minute was well spent. Lavender wasn't the only attraction, the other flowerbeds were equally well maintained and pretty.

I'll let the flowers do the talking ...

Getting to Guilin was perhaps the worst travel experience of my life. Yes the scenery of Guilin has been described as the finest under heaven but man we gotta get there first. See, Guilin has mist, lots of it, which sometimes makes it difficult to planes to land. Hence our plane had to turn back and land at Guangzhou - just why it didn't go back to Hong Kong was beyond me. We were forced to spend overnight in a half finished ... concoction of concrete and bricks... that called itself a hotel - the corridor was full of rubble and some parts of the walls were held in place by wooden beams. We dared not touch anything, the walls, floors, basin, taps were just filthy. In the morning we were at Guangzhou airport waiting for an onward connection, sitting there in the waiting area with thousands of other people in a stifling atmosphere we felt like refugees.

Once there and after a day or so we were able to relax and see the beauty. The mountain formations are one of the most unique in the world, jutting out from the river in strange shapes. The river is at its most spetacular from Guilin to Yangshuo, meandering its way through the misty mountains and rural villages. Although tourism is a big part of the economy there, many of the inhabitants were still farmers or fishermen. The traditional bamboo rafts they use on the river seemed too rickety but were fascinating.