http://falloutxjapan.blogspot.com/search/label/Hokkaido

it's a very important memory to me.

The main attraction was Otaru which is a small town in Hokkaido. Otaru is the most romantic towns, and its streets feel european. Snow was falling quite heavily in the morning, much to our delight, but as we reached Otaru, the snow became rain, and coupled with the huge wind, most of us choose to go into the shops to avoid the cold.
Otaru is famous for its musical box. I went up a tower to get a bird's eye view of the town. Ok, there was a mountain there which I suppose was quite famous, but due to time contraint , we didnt go up there. At Otaru, I also tasted the freshest scallop in my life. It was huge and the meat is tender and sweet. The obasang preparing the scallop for me just added soy sause to the meat, and cooked it over fire with the shells. It is a must try. My sis tried the corn, which was supposed to be famous, and we tried the different flavoured ice-cream in otaru too, green tea, cheese, melon and some others.
Had lunch at the mess, which sort of resembled food court, but it is a huge old warehouse turned into a place for restaurants to set up business. bEcause it was a own lunch, we had to communicate with the chef what we want. And we dont speak jap, and they dont speak english or chinese, it took us about 30 minutes before we can confirm our orders. The serving was huge and generous and the food was much better than the one we had been eating in hotel restaurants.
We had been eating buffet for reasons which I dont know. It seems that the tour agency had arranged that because they were concerned that we cant get use to the jap food. But on the other hand, having buffet everyday is a torture.
We went to the white lover chocolate factory. because the production is limited daily, we had difficulty getting the chocolates. Therefore, our last hope is to get the fresh stock at the sirport the next day. The factory was like a children's play house. It has figures, and christmas sledge and plants and lights which we would have enjoyed thoroughly if not for the wind and rain.
We went back to sapporo for some more shopping, and waited until we went on to our last destination. The grand park and the clock tower, which was supposed to be the heritage building in Sapporo. Next, we went to the NHS tower, and me and my sis went up the cable tower for a view of the city. That concludes our journey and we went for our dinner, which was sabu sabu, and to us it is like seoul garden, so we loved it thoroughly. greasy, oily and marinated meat. Yum.

Morning, we were the first group the reach the yin he waterfall and liu xing waterfall. It was a pleasant experience because we get to walk on undisturbed snow, and see that the yin he (milky way) waterfall has already frozen. But the smaller liu xin (shooting star) waterfull is not completely frozen, so one still can hear the trickling of water down. It was nice, the names of the waterfall, the small flakes floating down, the white surrounding. and our group members started a snow ball fight with out tour guide.
Then we went back to Sapporo, but on the way, we stopped by the founder folks' museum. After lunch, we went out again for snowmobile trip.
First timer at motorcyclist, and first time doing snowmobile. It was fun-er, safer and challenging then skii-ing. The route that the snowmobile company took us up the mountain was sooo picturesque but I was too concerned about maintaining a safe distance that I missed quite alot of the nice scene. Then there is a steep slope down, at least steep for first timers. and we stopped for picture taking and regroup before we make our way down.
Next stop at the salmon museum and the old sapporo beer factory which has turned into a great shopping mall.

More sceneries today. Breakfast was a romantic affair at the hotel, because the restaurant overlooked the nearly frozen lake akan, which was supposed to be a crater lake.
We went to liu huang san, literally sulphur mountain. Along the way there, I could already smell the sulphur, and for a while, i thought some one farted on the bus. Anyway, we were early, so the snow and the scenery are still unspoilt. My guide managed to explain how some trees get ice on their branchs etc. Anyway, it was another journey to the white fairyland which I used to see on books only.
Then we head towards the direction of abashiri. There we stopped by another lake to see wild swans coming over for the winter. Also, the highlight is a mystical sea creature called sea angel. Before the trip to Hokkaido, I saw the intinerary mention about the sea angels, and I wondered what it was. Apparently, it is some sea creature related to sea slugs and they really live up to their names as angels. They have these tiny wings, which they flap front and back for motion. The whole body was transparent, except for the red heart. And they have something which looked like horns, but the whole thing really looked like an angel...and they only survive in cold waters, so no point importing them to singapore science center. That is the kind of thing which I felt is worth my air ticket, no some leather wallets called blue label. Thats just my opinion lar.
After lunch, we went to the drift ice museum to experience minus several degrees temperature, and see some real drift ices that flowed down from some peninsula and oktubutsu sea. I have a problem with pronouncing the place names, because I am confused over the english and chinese translation of the names. Usually, I remember them by the Chinese name. So, Abashiri is Wang zhou to me.
Then our last stop is a fox farm, to see fat fluffy fox in their winter coats. Once again, the sunset never fails to surprise me.
Overnight at cheng yun xia, which is like a valley, and it is the coldest place throughout our whole trip.

Second day in Japan, and today proved that the trip will be full of natural wonders which would wow-ed me.
We went to  Shi sheng Chuan or something like that, to see wild swans fly in from Siberia for the winter. It was cold. Though the sun was big and bright and sunny, but it is a totally different sun whom I always see in Singapore. I think it was the coldest day, and yet the sunniest day at the same time.
The scenery was beautiful. There was a mountain range nearby and the lake, which was filled with mandarin ducks and swans. There is a feeding post and we just took a small bagful of grains to feed them.
Next, we went to a market.. Forgot the place. The market was full of seafood. The biggest crab, the biggest sotong, biggest fish etc..and there is not wet market smell like the one we have in Singapore.
The thing about the famous Japanese crab, I love it, but dont expect it to taste like the chilli crab here. I think the species of this crab is such that the meat will not be as tender and juicy as sri lankan crab, but still sweet and fresh. I still dont get the trick of eating it, because the meat dont come out in lump like the fatter sri lankan crab, rather they sort of integrate, so I lost a lot of meat, trying to dig them out..haha...anyway, food in Japan is as simple as those in Korea. No wonder the girls have fair skins...
The last place we went was the best because we went to see the gus, a bird which we can only see in Jurong bird park (if they have them in the first placE). did some research and turns out most of this specie of birds are endangered.
These birds are regarded as deity birds in my culture. I remember I once saw a tv show, and it showed a lengendary person, who kept one of this bird as pet. So this lengendary person was put to death by some bad guys in the show, and the bird somehow killed itself to follow its master. From then on, I thought such a bird is just like pheonix, a lengendary bird which does not exist, but turns out they are still here, and very endangered. Gained alot of knowledge about this wildlife from my trip here. We watched the wild birds feed in the protected enclosure and waited until 4pm when the birds all started to fly back to their wild homeland to take the most stunning photos I have ever took. All of us got ready for the birds to start flying home together. We got tricked by one group of them who flew the other direction. But the noise and commotion that the birds and humans caused are enough to leave a memorable experience to me.
We went in to see the professional photographers' photos. some are photos of the birds doing a courting dance, and some of the birds fighting of eagle. it was stunning becasue these birds are totally wild.
Lake Akan is where we spent our night. But before we can return to our rooms to rest, we made a slippery walk to the Ainu village. Ainu people are the natives to the area and along the way to the village, there are many shops selling sovenirs handmade by the lcoals. The long, cold and slippery walk was enough to make me think twice about how "sad" and "deprived" we are because we dont have snow in Singapore. Thats the reason also why I think soo many people dont hang out late at night at the more rural part of the country in winter. I spotted a brown fox-look-alike dog. Not sure what breed, but it definitely looked more comfortable then me in the winter night with its thick brown coat.

Everytime I go somewhere else, I want to tour around the ancient culture of the place. I didn't disappoint this time, I signed up for a tour going to Ainu village and learn some ancient culture in Northern Japan. The people was very hospitable and was able to share the music, dances, traditional clothing, and their way of life in 2 hour tour... really a short tour. The we went to a restaurant and have some fun cooking and eating Yakiniku, especially when you wash it down with ice cold Asahi beer( it was raining and was very cold outside though during lunch)

Oddly enough, this ryokan didn't get very good reviews on the official Japan travel site (http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com/db/sapporo/jozankei.htm). But my stay there was extremely pleasant. It was a mix between a traditional japanese ryokan and a hotel. Service is very personal - when you enter the room, you find two tumblers of water - one hot and one cold. There are also Jap snacks, tea leaves and a proper Jap tea set for you to brew your own tea. At 6pm, service staff enter the room to set out the tatami mats that you will sleep on at night. There are 4 different hot baths in the hotel, each of which are connected to an outdoor section. Since I was there in winter, I got to experience snow in my face while soaking in 43degree water. It was my most out of this world experience ever! Although I stayed there for only 1 night, I visited the hot baths 3 times! Also, the toiletries and facial products provided are of very good quality.