It was finally the day that all of us had been waiting for. We bought the flight tickets more than a year ago and it took us one year to plan for this trip. There were a lot of things that we had to plan since we were going around on our own especially when we rented a car to go around. It was our first family trip after such a long time.
We took a night flight so we could sleep during our journey to Hokkaido and able to kick-start our adventure once we landed. Our flight left on time and landed The Land Of The Rising Sun around 8.15am, Japan’s time.
When we were at the airport, there were a few things we need to settle before we could pick up our rented car. I went to collect the famous Jaga Pokkuru as well as SIM cards which were bought through Klook while my brother and his wife went to collect the travel stamps in the airport.
We rented our car from Times and were supposed to get a Toyota Sienta. However, we ended up with a Mazda. According to my brother, it is more spacious. The process was smooth and we did not face any difficulties when we went to pick up our car. Hence, highly recommended to those who want to rent a car in Hokkaido.
Our first destination was to Furano. We had our lunch at Furano Cheese Factory. This place is a to-go place for those who love cheese and ice cream. We had to place our order through a vending machine and passed the tickets to the staff at the counter. They will call out your order numbers so you could collect your order at the counter. The funny thing was, they used Japanese. Hence, we strategize that should no one stood up when a number was called out, that order would be ours. To our surprise, the staff called out our order numbers in English.
We explored the place after we finished our lunch. They sell soft serve ice-cream – classic cheese flavoured (¥360) and it was really good. We bought one to share but the husband ended buying one for himself. We took some photos before we continued our journey to Farm Tomita. It was said that the greenhouse has lavenders that bloom all year round, even through winters. Sadly, when we were there, there was no lavender. However, we went to the cafe to have lavender ice cream and lavender coffee (¥570).
Next destination were Blue Pond and Shirahige Falls. It was really crowded at Blue Pond. As for Shirahige Falls, the view was magnificent. What surprised us the most was the sky turned dark when it was close to 5pm! It was freezing so, we did not spend a lot of time at both places.
It was close to 6.30pm when we arrived Asahikawa, the place where we would be staying a night at. Before we checked in, we went to Asahikawa Ramen Village to have our dinner. This is a place to be in Asahikawa for ramen lovers. We did not know which ramen store to go for but the one that we went comes with a fairly English-friendly menu. Since Shoyu ramen is a specialty of Asahikawa, do go for it.
The hotel we were staying for the night was Court Hotel Asahikawa. We booked a decent tatami family room. Since we did not overspend our food budget on the day, we purchased the hotel’s breakfast deal (¥6000) for the next day. Since we had been really tired from all those traveling, it was best to have breakfast in the hotel instead of searching out for food outside.
It was around 11pm when we turned in, which was 10pm in Malaysia. Truly early but we were really exhausted especially for my brother who had been the one driving whole day. We will be heading to Otaru the next day so, stay tuned on my next post!
No comments:
Post a Comment