For Day 1 click HERE
Day 2 Click HERE
Day 3 Click HERE
Day 4 Click HERE
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Destination: Hokkaido Japan
Duration: 8D7N 14th Dec to 21 Dec 2017
Mode of Travel: Hokkaido Passion Package Tour with Chan Brothers Travel
Flight: SQ to Tokyo, Air Do/ANA domestic to Hokkaido
Flight: SQ to Tokyo, Air Do/ANA domestic to Hokkaido
Damage: S$3451/per pax (including all transportation, 7 breakfasts, 5 lunches and 6 dinners).
Tipping for tour guide and drive ￥6400/per pax (approx. S$80)
Tipping for tour guide and drive ￥6400/per pax (approx. S$80)
Travel Buddies: Voo family of 4 with 2 teenage boys
Weather: 1 to -16 degrees with plenty of snow
Currency: We divide Yen with 80 to convert to S$
Time difference: 1 hour ahead of Singapore
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18.12.2017
Day 5
Outline itinerary of Day 5 (Furano and Tokachigawa)
* Blue Pond
* Herb Hill Furano
* Glass Forest
Buffet Breakfast at the hotel's cafe at 7am.
All hotels had this practice of putting a tag on tables which we flipped to "Finish dinning"/ "Unoccupied" when we were done.
I think this it's is a good way to avoid clearing food away not knowing that it's still wanted.
It's woody and homely here.
Free flow tamago omg.....
My breakfast tray. I went back for more tamago after this.
After breakkie, I walked out of the hotel to explore a bit.
Area of Jozankei was bigger than I thought.
I wanted to go to the main river but couldn't find any walkway and snow was too thick to bash through towards that direction.
They called this a hand bath. Further down was a convenient store but I didn't go in, u-turn back to the hotel, joined the group to start our day 5 journey.
Travelling time was about 2hrs from Jozankei to Furano I think. We made a toilet break here.
No address unfortunately, but it's a 5 star public washroom.
Toilet so awesome, it's really a pleasure.
Okie, here's the Hello Kitty hoodie that I bought in Otaru. Cute right!
First attraction of Furano was an extra "treat" by our tour guide:
Blue Pond
Shirogane, Kamikawa District, Hokkaido 071-0235, Japan
Shirogane, Kamikawa District, Hokkaido 071-0235, Japan
The bus parked at the bay and we all penguin walked towards the pond.
Along the way were balls and cushions of snow, very very beautiful.
The explanatory board was all in Japanese, but managed to find out more online.
Blue Pond with magical blue water.
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| Photo credit: Kent Shiraishi |
The blue was caused by resence of colloidal aluminium hydroxide.
We missed the blue unfortunately as the pond was frozen and completely covered by snow.
The streams with faster moving water didn't freeze but was in dark blue.
It's a pity we didn't see the icy blue but the streams with icing sugar balls was pretty enough.
At times like this, I love my lousy heavy camera.
And we went about disturbing the thick snow.
The wind had been blowing at the left direction.
Pics taken on the moving bus......
It's suffocating back home surrounded by closely built tall buildings, it's congested everywhere, anywhere in Singapore.
There's a lot of space in Hokkaido. Little houses with roofs covered with snow accompanied by wild tall or short pine trees became a very precious sight to me.
So, even the public toilet was cute. Look at that perfect smooth layer of snow on the roof.
The rest of the morning was on the road till lunch time.
Herb Hill Furano Souvenir Shop/Viking Restaurant
Japan, 〒071-0500 Hokkaido, Sorachi District, 上富良野町2222-2
Herb Hill Furano sells mainly lavender products. Personally I like lavender but didn't need any more skin and body products, so didn't buy anything.
Second floor was this little cafe where we had lunch
Simple buffet bar with finger food, soup and ramen.
My tray with bites, corn soup and plain ramen.
Individual serving of Omu Curry Rice.
Though earlier on we were already informed that Omu Curry would be served, my silly hubby STILL over ate at the buffet bar. Very annoying as the 3 of us had to eat his share. Sometimes I think it's more difficult to discipline him than my sons.
Pretty lavender ice cream tasted like milk ice-cream.
It's all white and frozen outside. Trees were wrapped up to prevent them from freezing.
We saw a big dog house with a grouchy fellow of my height standing at the door. Looked as if it's waiting for someone to open the door.
Glass Forest in Furano
Rokugou-Shigaichi 3, Furano-shi
We attended a candle making class!
We filled in our small glass with colored sand, decorations and inserting the candle wick in the middle.
Pouring clear liquid wax was the last step.
This was the machine for hardening the wax. The process needed about an hour, which was great for us to shop around while waiting.
Of all the glass ornaments and crystal accessories, I bought a cloth claw hair clip instead. I wanted to wear it during CNY but it went missing in the house -___-|||
Owl in Japanese sounded like "no hardship", so it's an auspicious animal as a ornament.
Almost wanted to buy Cinderalla glass slippers but on second thought was too troublesome to hand carry back.
Thinking that we wouldn't be exposed to outdoor, we left our jackets in the bus. The washroom was however outdoor, it's about -5 degree. We had to run to the toilet and back to the shop lolxx...
Meanwhile peeping into this glass workshop from outside while we could tahan.
Since already freezing I gotten my son to take this pic for me.
When it's done we ran for our lives indoor for warmer lolxx...
After some crazy self freezing, our candles were ready for collection.
Nice break from usual sight-seeing.
Travelling from Furano to Tokachigawa.
Tokachigawa Grandvrio Hotel
089-0571 Hokkaido Nakagawa County, Makubetsu Charater Yoda 384-1
It's another spacious traditional hotel room.
With Shiseido toiletries.
This time we made our bed, fun, lolxx...
My period chose to come at this time, so no more Onsen for me. But still wore their comfortable Yukata. Love it, I felt more "secured" wearing the pants.
Buffet dinner in the hotel.
This buffet had a lot of DIY counters. Here's DIY shabu shabu pork which I helped myself with a few servings cos' it's DELICIOUS though it didn't look special here.
DIY ramen station.
Overall the buffet spread was very simple.
Putting everything together, my dinner was very home cooked.
This day, half the time was travelling on the road, not much activities, rather relaxing.
I have 3 more posts to go for Hokkaido before blogging about Dream Cruise. Hope to get them all churn out before I go Siem Reap again in June.
