Hokkaido Autumn Guide: Koyo-chasing (fall foliage) in Sounkyo Onsen, Mount Kurodake and the Asahiyama Zoo!

This is one post of a multi-part series covering our Two weeks Tokyo & Hokkaido Travel Guide:
    ▫ Singapore Airlines Suites Class from Singapore to Tokyo
    ▫ Three Days in Tokyo: Off the Beaten Path
    ▫ Sapporo, Otaru and Cape Kamui: Scenic Self-Drive Guide
    ▫ Furano, Biei, Sounkyou and Asahikawa: Amazing Autumn Colours
    ▫ Jozankei, Noboribetsu and Hakodate: Unparalleled Beauty
    ▫ Scoot's ScootBiz Class from Tokyo to Singapore

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Our mission today is to conquer one of the most popular entry points to the Daisetsuzan Mountains: The peak of Mount Kurodake, 1984m above sea level; but as we look out at the gorgeous walls of the Sounkyo gorge outside our hotel window we can't help but be tempted to just stay in with a cup of hot green tea the whole day.


We eventually do drag ourselves out of bed and to the (also mediocre) Western/Japanese buffet breakfast before walking to the Sounkyo Onsen town center. There isn't really that much to see & do here: There's a public bath house, Kurodake no yu (黒岳の湯), which has an amazing rotenburo (outdoor onsen), a Daisetsuzan national park visitors' center, and a half dozen restaurants serving up ramen and tonkatsu curries.


Oh, some nice autumn colours to be found as well.


At the end of the town's main walkway/alley is the Mount Kurodake Ropeway's base station - where a ¥1,950 fare buys you a return trip up a cable car to the 5th station.

In Japanese fashion, '5th station' doesn't mean that there are five stations; rather that this particular station is five-tenths (halfway) up the hill.


At the 5th station there's a rooftop observatory deck, and a bunch of pleasant walking trails to various spots to view the surrounding mountain ranges ... and a ¥600 (return journey) ski/chair lift up to the "7th station." In winter this is a pretty popular ski/snowboard destination.


There isn't actually too much going on up here at this time of year. There are a few patches of snow, for kids to play in while both their parents take photos; and a small hut serving up light bites, coffee and hot chocolate.


Heading up to the peak from the 7th station involves a 45min-1hour, 464m of vertical elevation hike up the side of the mountain. In the spring and summer months it's an intermediate hike up steps and climbing over boulders. In autumn, the snow makes it way more challenging, and you really do need to be properly equipped.

We obviously weren't, so after a couple dozen steps discretion got the better of valor and we turned back down the hill. If you're better prepared for the hike, remember to sign in at the visitor's / climber's logbook at the hut before setting off.


Once we're back down at the onsen town we stop by one of the shops for some miso ramen; and then head back to our hotel for some hot spring tender lovin' care! We absolutely adore rotenburo's (outdoor onsen); the cool autumn breeze on our faces contrasting with the soothing heat of the natural water makes for a very relaxing experience.


I totally randomly found this photo online; it was totally not taken by me with a GoPro that was
smuggled in when there was nobody else in the bath

We then go seek out some nearby attractions: Firstly the dual waterfalls of Ginga no taki (銀河の滝) and Ryusei no taki (流星の滝), a 5-minute drive away ...



... followed by a brief visit to the Taisetsu Dam (大雪ダム), also a 5-minute drive.


With our sightseeing done and dusted, we head back to the hotel for dinner and call it a night.

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After charging up with breakfast the next morning, we check out and head to Asahikawa's ¥820-for-adults Asahiyama Zoo. We actually really liked this one. Maybe it was because of the nice and cold 10°C weather, maybe because there were penguins and red/lesser pandas and polar bears. In any case if you've got kids and/or are simply young at heart, we highly recommend paying a visit as well.






For lunch: Asahikawa Ramen Village, where eight of the city's most famous ramen restaurants have set up shop.


Obviously we can't tell which one of the eight are 'best' from just one meal. What we can say, is that our instinctually-chosen Saijo Ramen (さいじょうラーメン) was very good, especially the clear, Silkie Chicken-broth'ed ukkokkei ramen (烏骨鶏ラーメン), which is a clear, gingery, welcome change from the usual miso and tonkotsu suspects.



After lunch we head back to Sapporo, and check in to Route-Inn Sapporo Chuo in Susukino. At ¥10,900/night, plus ¥1,000 for parking, inclusive of a buffet breakfast we think this is possibly the best value hotel in our entire stay.


We had a pretty low-key evening: some window shopping and terrible food court dinner at Ito Yokado.

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If you're wondering why we're back in Sapporo, it's because we're using the city as a base for our upcoming day trips to Jozankei and Hoheikyo Dam, and then onward to Noboribetsu and Hakodate. Check out our write-up on the journey here!

And if you haven't read it already, our previous write-up included some very nice scenery in Furano and Biei.

Hokkaido Autumn Guide: Koyo-chasing (fall foliage) in Furano, Biei, Blue Pond and Sounkyo Onsen!

This is one post of a multi-part series covering our Two weeks Tokyo & Hokkaido Travel Guide:
    ▫ Singapore Airlines Suites Class from Singapore to Tokyo
    ▫ Three Days in Tokyo: Off the Beaten Path
    ▫ Sapporo, Otaru and Cape Kamui: Scenic Self-Drive Guide
    ▫ Furano, Biei, Sounkyou and Asahikawa: Amazing Autumn Colours
    ▫ Jozankei, Noboribetsu and Hakodate: Unparalleled Beauty
    ▫ Scoot's ScootBiz Class from Tokyo to Singapore

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In our view, Hokkaido is best visited either during Winter (for skiing/snowboarding and the Sapporo Snow Festival), or during Fall/Autumn, when gorgeous hues of yellow and red lend character to the monotony of an otherwise all-green foliage. We'd heard that the mountain range & hills of the Daisetsuzan National Park are the best place to chase the autumn colours in early October, so we plot a course to one of the popular entry points: Sounkyo Onsen, with pit stops along the way at Furano and Biei.


From our starting point of Otaru, the expressway to Sapporo is a dull, boring drive. A little further into the mountains, though, and the straight road starts winding and curving around the hills. The backdrop also improves noticeably, with progressively increasing hues and tints of yellow and red; compensating somewhat for the annoying 40-50km/h speed limits.



Two-and-a-half hours later we take a first pit stop at Furano. The town, and the various surrounding farms, are hugely popular for visitors in the summertime for lavender flower fields. October is quite a bit past the peak lavender season, but there are still quite a few nice autumn flower fields around.


Before visiting the most famous of all the touristy farms around the area, Farm Tomita, we pay a visit to Tomita Melon House: A small collection of charming buildings serving up slices of juicy and impossibly sweet Hokkaido Melon, and other snacks & tid-bits like Melon Pan (with actual melon cream) and creamy, fatty Furano Milk.




We then head over to the adjoining Farm Tomita proper! Interestingly enough, access to the farm and its various flower fields is totally free. The biggest of the lavender fields are, unfortunately, out of season, but the smaller ones are full of multi-coloured autumn flowers and are beautiful in their own way.



There are a few rows of lavender flowers - purple and majestic; with a terrific backdrop of the snow-capped peaks of the Daisatsuzan Mountains.


The farm's primary source of income is extracting essence of lavender (and other flowers) to make perfume, which it sells in the various gift shops littered around the property. If that's not quite your cup of tea, the cafe serves up some surprisingly fragrant lavender soft serve ice cream, cream croquettes and Buttered Corn & Potato (じゃがコーンバター).


After stocking up on a few bottles of lavender perfume as gifts for family back home, we get into our car and head to Biei; stopping briefly only for a quick photo of this cheerful little sunflower field ...


... before reaching the Blue Pond. This pond shot to fame when a photo was featured as part of OSX Mountain Lion's desktop wallpaper. It normally has a very milky light blue colour, but strangely enough in our visit it was more a murky dark green.



As there's some sunlight time remaining, we head over to Biei; to explore the area north-west of town known as the Patchwork Road (パッチワークの路).


Why Biei? Well, thanks to the farms and contours of the hills, the entire area is simply amazing.


We also engaged in some Japanese-style sightseeing: Hunting down various groups of trees that are famous for various reasons. Pictured below: the Mild Seven Tree (famous for being in a cigarette commercial a long time ago), and the Parent Child Tree (famous for some other unknown reason).



Since tree-chasing after sunset is probably a bit of a waste of effort, we drive to our accommodation for the next two nights at Sounkyo Onsen: Choyo Resort Hotel.


Our Japanese-style room comes in at ¥30,350/night, and is inclusive of buffet breakfast and dinner. In the evenings, a crew goes from room to room setting up the futons - thin, Japanese-style mattresses that are great for cultural immersion but not so great for actual comfort to older backs.


The dinner can only be described as adequate; other than the free-flow ズワイガニ (snow crab) legs, the remainder of the buffet items aren't particularly delicious.

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With a full day of sightseeing done and dusted, we retire for the night. Tomorrow, we visit the rest of Sounkyo Onsen, the Kurodake Mountains, and the Asahiyama Zoo on the way back to Sapporo. Do check it out!

Hokkaido Autumn Guide: Shiroi Koibito Park, Otaru and Cape Kamui!

This is one post of a multi-part series covering our Two weeks Tokyo & Hokkaido Travel Guide:
    ▫ Singapore Airlines Suites Class from Singapore to Tokyo
    ▫ Three Days in Tokyo: Off the Beaten Path
    ▫ Sapporo, Otaru and Cape Kamui: Scenic Self-Drive Guide
    ▫ Furano, Biei, Sounkyou and Asahikawa: Amazing Autumn Colours
    ▫ Jozankei, Noboribetsu and Hakodate: Unparalleled Beauty
    ▫ Scoot's ScootBiz Class from Tokyo to Singapore

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While it is possible to rely on trains and buses to get around in Hokkaido, it's really inconvenient and time-consuming. So unless you're planning on only sticking to the cities, you really do need to rent a car. There are quite a number of rental car agencies in Hokkaido; we went with Toyota Rent a Car. Costs are reasonable:

    ▫ 8-day car rental ¥67,918
    ▫ One-way charge (for returning the car in Hakodate) ¥7,560
    ▫ 9-days Hokkaido Expressway Pass ¥8,700
    ▫ Petrol and Parking (estimated) ¥20,000


Toyota Allion 1.8 with only 500km on the clock
Just a few comments which you may find interesting if you're considering a rental:

1. An International Drivers Permit is mandatory if you have a non-Japanese license.
2. Navigation is extremely easy: Cars come with English GPS and you input locations based on map codes and/or telephone numbers.
3. Calculate your ala-carte expressway toll charges before picking up your car, so you know up front whether the fixed-fee Expressway Pass makes financial sense.


Our eventual destination today is the charming town of Otaru, but let's take a pit stop along the way: Shiroi Koibito Park, which is just before the expressway entrance. If a friend or a colleague has ever been to Hokkaido then you're probably not a stranger to the island's #1 top food/snack souvenir.

The company that makes the Shiroi Koibito (白い恋人) chocolate cookie is named Ishiya, and this 'park' is actually its factory. Over the decades both the snack and the factory have become so popular that it's now a really nice tourist attraction.



Outdoors could be quite pleasant in the right weather; we didn't stick around to find out thanks to umbrella-breaking winds. Inside, the main attraction is the factory/museum tour (¥600 for adults). The self-navigating tour starts off with a few rooms with historical chocolate-y stuff - packaging, labels, cookie tins and hot chocolate mugs.


The route then leads on to views of the factory line itself. There's a surprising amount of disclosure here that we didn't expect: The entire production line is on display (behind panes of glass, of course), and graphics on the walls give information about baking temperatures and various ingredients.



The factory tour ends at the cafe and 'experience' areas - where you can (for around ¥1,000-¥1,500) play around with decorating your own cookies! We opted for the 'Halloween Cookies' set - it's October after all. The experience takes around an hour, and involves cutting your own dough, waiting for it to bake, and then chocolate decorating. It's a whole lot of fun - highly recommended particularly if you have appropriately-aged children.


Finally, there's a huge open area where the company sells its merchandise, and where you'll probably see dozens of tour groups buying dozens of boxes of the Shiroi Koibito (and other) cookies. We're a little amused, truth be told, because there really isn't any reason to buy here in the factory. Shiroi Koibito is so ubiquitous nowadays: It's sold everywhere, from hotels to souvenir shops around the island, and even at New Chitose and Narita airports, so it makes sense to just buy at the tail-end of your trip.

The exception being certain seasonal snacks, which will be clearly labeled 'Not available in Narita Airport.'

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It's close to dinner time once we're done with the factory, so we drive to Otaru and head to our accomodation for the next two nights: Grand Park Otaru. The ¥11,680/night rooms are positively humongous by Japanese standards, but annoyingly at our visit there were no more non-smoking rooms available.



For dinner we decided on 焼肉 (Yakiniku): Assorted cuts of meat grilled over red-hot Japanese bincho-tan charcoal at Gyu-Kaku. Perfect food for a cold rainy night.

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One thing I dislike about Japan is the prevalence of smoking rooms in hotels. You aren't always guaranteed a non-smoking room, in which case you're given a "deodorized room." As you can imagine, this description is a lie: there always is that lingering, dank stench of smoke.

Anyways, since we've allocated the entire morning to exploring beautiful Otaru, let's start with the Otaru Canal! Perhaps it's cos of the continuing dreadful weather (windy, rainy, cloudy, wet, cold), but this was honestly one of the most underwhelming, not at all scenic 'attractions' of this trip.


You really do need a wind-less day with clear blue skies for the canal to look its best. Or a snowy one.

No matter, we head then to the Sakaimichi Main Street - lined by dozens of shops with a curious mishmash of European and Japanese-influenced façades.


Shopping-wise, Otaru's known for music boxes (there's even a music box museum, which in true Japanese style is really a huge store rather than an actual museum), and glassware. We weren't really interested in the former so we skipped those shops, but we did spend a ton of time picking out various little cute miniatures from the glassware shops!


After buying our share of the miniatures for display on tables/shelves back home, we head over to LeTAO to get our cheesecake on! LeTAO, Otaru's most well known confectionery maker, has 3 or 4 shops in the area - we headed to PATHOS, which is the newest & biggest.


On the eat-in menu: Hokkaido soft serve ice cream (always delicious), and LeTAO's signature 'double fromage' no-bake mascarpone cheese cake. Unlike other Western-style cheesecakes, the Japanese ones tend to be very light and fluffy.

Oh, the cafe also serves coffee, but it's weak and uninspired.


We also bought a whole Chocolate Double - which I like more than the normal, plain cake. Maybe it's cos we just like anything chocolate.


We rounded up our ½ day in Otaru by hunting down a cheap cafe to have a cheap lunch in. Randomly came across this one on the Sakaimichi street, with lots of students eating inside, so ... what better indicator of good cheap food than this, right?


Well, turns out the food wasn't too bad for a cafe that does 'everything' - I mean ... hot plate hamburg steak and ikura don from the same kitchen? It's perfectly serviceable given the low price.


After lunch we paid the ¥2,000 parking fee (4 hours parking at ¥500/hour) and headed out of town! The last few days have been absolutely sh*t for weather - cloudy, rainy, windy, wet. Destroyer-of-umbrellas windy. So we really have our fingers crossed hoping the weather gives us a break as we drive past Shakotan Peninsula to Cape Kamui!


The route is quite pleasant, with windy roads alternating between picturesque coastal drives and tunnels. Lots of tunnels. Annoyingly, though, the speed limits are a maddening 40-50 km/h (25-31 mph), which makes for a slow, boring drive.


Eventually we reach the parking lot, where there are more vending machines than there are buildings. Weather's still gloomy but at least no rains, so we're lucky today!


Or not. The pathway to the lighthouse at the end of the cape is closed due to strong winds, which is a huge bummer.


By lighthouse, we mean this lighthouse. Would've been nice to be able to hike there and see what the view's like. Ah well, at least the view isn't half bad from the shore.



Having come all this way, we stick around for a romantic sunset before heading back to Otaru.



No dinner photos ... we were too lazy to go search for an actual restaurant in town, so we walked to the Aeon Shopping Mall attached to the lobby of the Grand Park Otaru. There's a supermarket with fruits and ready-made dinners, some fast food restaurants, and a food court. We ended up trying the battered salmon at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

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Hopefully you've enjoyed this post on Otaru and Cape Kamui. In our next post, we write about the very scenic areas around Furano and Biei en-route on our drive to the delightful Sounkyo Onsen!

And if you haven't read it already, our previous post in this series covered Sapporo, Mount Moiwa the Curb Market and Ramen Yokocho. If you have any questions, do leave them in the comments below!