melody

Asahidake 旭岳 Hokkaido Ice Pavilion Accommodation: Sounkyo Choyotei After a brief drizzle, the sun came out and we ascended the rope way to be greeted with the splendor of Mount Asahidake. The hotel staff told us the course is 難しくないので、子供もできる (it's not difficult, children can do it too) but I found it rather challenging. Going down the rocky steps can be rather dangerous! The round trip takes one hour if you keep going and do not stop. We had to stop at every viewpoint (there were 5 in total) to ooohh and waaaah and take lots of photos so we took a total of 3 hrs 30 min (we left the hotel at 0830, walked there and returned at 1200). Definitely recommend this place! The sign in the ropeway station toilet 1st Viewpoint 2nd Viewpoint 3rd Viewpoint 4th Viewpoint 5th Viewpoint The easier path. 夫婦池 Meoto Ike (Husband and Wife Lakes) The steaming hot Mount Asahidake Never too young. If this girl can do it, so can we! Never too old! These shoes were sufficient for me. Hiking shoes are not r...

Panorama Road Patchwork Road Accommodation: La Vista Daisetsuzan Mild Seven After checking out of Oyado Ichirin (and the owners waved us goodbye until we were out of sight), we drove along Panorama Road and Patchwork Road and did some tree-hunting. The map-codes on the map we got at Oyado Ichirin were really useful for this. Sadly, the "child" tree seems to be balding The "child' tree which is supposed to be in the middle is hardly visible and other smaller trees seem to have grown on the left. Seven Stars Tree There's a little shop beside Seven Stars Tree selling light snacks (but no toilet) Ken and Mary Tree One hour drive away is Asahidake 旭岳 our first stop for exploring the Daisetsuzan 大雪山 region. As visibility was not good, we decided not to go up the rope way and just chill in the hotel La Vista Daisetsuzan and go to the onsen public bath. The onsen is not bad though nothing fantastic. The dinner is a choice of either teppanyaki or nabe. I was expecting t...