My Weekend Pt. 2

The second half of the trip was spent at a small mountain onsen run by a friendly extended family. The image was taken from a ridge above the hotel and shows how precariously the hotel is perch on yet another ridge with the Furano valley in the distance. This is the real thing with a rare view of mountain peaks right from the outdoor pool. Best. Onsen. Ever.


The first thing James does when entering a room is scout out the tea-making possibilities.


This sunset from the first night was included.



Many hiking paths from the easy to the extreme extend to the front door and ever employee is an expert in the area. The mountain is extremely volcanic - though at the moment for the most part dormant - hence a good place to build an onsen (hot springs). Furthermore, it's also a good place to hike because we don't often see this kind of geography in Alberta.


The view from my futon on the floor looking out the window in the morning. The distinct impression was that we were seated on a cloud. What fun!


Last morning.

My Weekend Pt. 1

Having less time to update than I had initally thought, I am going to split my update into two parts and cover our time in Otaru here. As can be seen from the pictures - really poor weather - even though we pushed back our dates to try and out last the weather in Sapporo (to no avail).



Above, our hotel. Small and right on the ocean, it wasn't busy when we were there. I would love to stay there again but next time would want to plan out the meals better.



Edit: Looking up from the otherside of the hotel.



Because of the weather, there was lots of this in the hotel room. Cozy and good for visiting.



We did, however, feel particularly adventurous, and went out at the first sign the rain was letting up.

I'm Home

I saw James and Stef off to Honshu today to continue their Japanese adventure. While I am getting my life back to normal please enjoy these pictures of me pointing to volcanic steam vents in Daisetsusan National Park.

Picture from Susukino

A slight change in plans due to weather left us in Sapporo last night to wait out the rain. Needless to say, looking at the picture, everyone arrived smoothly in Japan. Excuse the image quality as I have not had a chance to edit the picture or re size it because I'm using the hotel's computers. Yesterday we saw a wonderful exhibit about the human body (the one that's touring the world) and then an exhibit of very very old Buddhist art that hasn't been displayed in public for years. Today we are off to the ocean after the tiniest bit of shopping and some tea.

Leaving Shikaoi in a rain storm

Missing from my daily stream of posts is any hint of what is coming up in my future. I thought it would be good form at this point outline where I'm going to be over the next couple of days to save needless worry about why my blog has gone silent all of a sudden. I plan join friends James and Stef from Canada in traveling around Hokkaido to all the places I have wanted to go but never had the excuse. The sea and the mountains are my two top priorities. The reason my blog will be silent is because we will be staying at small hotels that lack basic wireless high speed service in every room thus I see no reason to even bring my lap top. If I can mange an update I certainly will but otherwise a huge post with pictures and text at the end will have to do. I promise.

Finally the Sakura Pics!

Quick Tuesday Update

What's going on? Just general busyness. My scheadule is kind of screwed today so organizational time has gone out the window. Which is a shame really because I have a lot to do before the weekend. At least yesterday was productive. Anyways, the big project I'm working on is images of the cherry blossoms that have finally come out in Shikaoi. I will definately but up the post tomorrow afternoon (my time).

Whats all this Green stuff?

Next update: Cherry Blossoms!

カブトムシ〜！

Working around children in Japan I have absorbed a lot of their interests; including watching in horror the enormous popularity of giant beetles. In Fukushima, against my better judgement, I bought a preserved giant beetle that I knew would elicit "Ooohs" and "Ahhhs" from my students. (Best over-the-top reaction ever from the grade three's.) Honestly, I despise the thing; sleeping with care, worrying it will become a zombie hime kabuto. The root of this irrational fear, simply put; we just don't have insects this size in Alberta. Adding to my disbelief, this hellspawn can fly! I bet it can carry away small children. In Alberta (and Hokkaido) our winters are too cold for beetles to survive winter buried deep in trees. But Fukushima's forests are perfect. I have seen them before alive and in the wild but they were much smaller. Several different types of giant beetles exist. A live kabuto mushi over 10cm can be sold for over $30,000. (For unknown reasons, growing live kabuto mushi this big in captivity seems impossible expect for a few professionals, thus people search tirelessly in nature.) Once dead, a 8cm hime kabuto, such as mine, can be bought for as little as 1000 Yen. The thing will never make it to Canada. Once I have showed it to all of my students, I will throw it into the first bottomless pit I can find.