Hokkaido

Kenny and I went to Hokkaido in a guided tour during mid-May. Before the trip, there's a briefing of what to expect, the guy told us the weather will be ard 10+ to 20+ degree. And guess wat, the first day there was 0 to 10 degree sia! Not only that i didn't bring jacket with adequate thickness, i wasted luggage space by bringing 3/4 pants, slippers and tanks, OMG. Other than the weather had caught us by surprise, anything else was extremely relaxing and fun.

This is the view of Tokyo from JAL plane before we touched down. Although Hokkaido is considered more "kampong" than Tokyo, there's still farm lands in the capital.

Then from Narita airport, we took 1 h to rush to internal airport and take another JAL flight. Heard from my friend that JAL is a good airline as SIA had lost to them before as the best airline. I really doubt that cos the food was bad... okay maybe i'm not used to it. Service is comparable to SIA though.

First stop, we went to the Japanese Ainu tribal village. They all look like Japanese to me hahaa.

They rear bears and dogs. Ppl can purchase cookies to feed the bear by passing it through the pipe.

They put up a performance, like praying for rain ritual and celebration.

Next, the ninja house/museum! This man had been greeting us loudly ever since we got down from the tour bus, which was still pretty far away. He goes, "YOSH!" "HAI!" "YASAY!"etc. As he handed me the sword for the photo shoot, he said,"Hold with da two hand... verli heavy." I just couldn't stop laughing. The whole place has an ancient feel~ that's why some traditional jap shows were shot there.

This was taken after the ninja show, wah so oiishi~

and kawaii neh~hahaa.

This is the view from our hotel room, damn nice, like a postcard. Every night there will be firework display that is released from a boat, traveling along the river from left to right.

When we went there, cherry blossom was about to end, so there were still some trees blossoming, like this one just outside the hotel entrance. The tour guide said Jap like sakura cos they look beautiful even when the flowers wilt and shed the petals, which will paint the ground pink.

Let's get down to biz, infinite strawberry picking! The owner allowed us to pick and eat any amount of strawberries there, of course cannot "dapao" la. It is the BEST strawberry i have ever tasted! They look perfect, firm, and shiny. And the taste is as good as its appearance. SOOOO SWEEEET and JUICY, with a slight pinch of sour. Mhm hmm~ The owner also planted apples and cherries but still not in season yet.

We went to another farm, milk farm, to make ice-cream in one of the farming tents heh heh. After mixing and beating milk, suger and cream tgt, the hardest part is this, keep turning the mixture in a bowl of ice so it would become frozen.

It was hard work, we also got free pudding to take away with us! The two "cow" sisters behind were the ones teaching us to make ice-cream.

Opposite the tent was this lone chained goat. The mountain behind it is called "羊蹄山", so appropriate rite. We went close to take pics with it and this is wat it did to us.

Distracted

And traumatized.

We later went to bear range. Most of the bears here were caught because they steal food from farms, destroy properties and threaten ppl's life or livelihood etc. The worse of the worse goes in and never comes out... just kidding. Anw, we bought cookies (100yen) and apples (200yen) to feed them. Bears which were hungry will make gesture of waving and begging to attract our attention to feed them. They prefer apples to cookies, and they're very good at catching food with their mouth, provided if you throw well enough.

We could also go to this area that is much closer to the bears. Just a wall and metal gate apart, i can feed them cookies by dropping it into the pipe hole above. One bear wanted more cookies from me by blowing into the hole and making sounds, like some kind of flute instrument hahaa. Scary moments when bears were fighting each other for the feeding spot, right in front and so close to us.

Shall stop here, more updates will come.