Cont Hokkaido trip

My com is finally rescued from a virus attack, yay, and i shall con with the hokkaido pics. We took a ferry to an island in the middle Lake Toya. The ferry is 4 levels tall and look like a fairytale castle.

Its a peaceful island deliberately planted with pine trees 60 years ago, so the tress are neatly arranged. Only deers and a pair of swans live there and they're considered wild as the people employed there only take care of the park and not the animals. Some pathways are covered with shredded pine trees which were teared down by typhoon, making them more comfortable for ppl to walk on.

The second hotel stay was a tradition tatami style, and the dinner looked more exquisite too. But we had to sit on the floor to eat, and my legs got so numb that I had to stretch both my legs out beyond my eating table, so no class hahaa!

The next day, we went to a place for our lunch and the scenery around that place was so beautiful and relaxing. Really starting to like the countryside of Japan where there are little high rise buildings, and everything is neat and clean.

One thing we couldn't miss about Japan is the vending machine culture. Hot, cold or things that have already been made convenient like instant noodles are sold in convenient vending machines lo.

Next, we reached a home-made jam shop. There were many jams for us to try from, but we didn't get any as the taste was too weird. The anpanman shop is just beside it, fully packed with toys, sweets and children clothes, very cool.

Lavender farm, too bad most flowers were not fully bloomed yet. The lavender ice-cream is a must! And there were also lavender cream puff and pudding and so on.

Snow crab!!! It costed abt S$60+ and we had to share it with another couple, ate all the meat but couldn't finish the roe. Frankly speaking, the meat tasted better than the roe, which is really bland.

The famous Otaru, a preserved heritage that will look more romantic at night. It was said so beautiful that even a camera idiot can take nice pictures of it hahaa. Too bad we went in the day.

This is a music box shop cum museum, just remember to keep bag close to you and not break anything.

A real chocolate factory!!!YAY!!! It has European design, and even the staff looked like a toy soldiers. There's even a performance by singing toys, just like the ones in Charlie and the chocolate factory. The only disappointment was that the shop only sell 3 kinds of chocolates, at usual price also.

For hardcore shoppers, these are the two places you cannot miss. The 1st is the sapporo shopping arcade, good for buying tibits and food, some shops are tax-free for tourists. The 2nd is Mall Rera, a factory outlet that has nike, swatch, levi's to coach. I'm glad that i my 1st trip to japan is Hokkaido, not Tokyo cos i heard city ppl are not as friendly as countryside, which is also quite true in other countries i guess. Still, I look forward to another Japan trip heh heh!

Met my mentor a few days ago and we talked about what's going on in our own lives. We even ate lunch together and he dropped me off at clementi cos he going somewhere else and couldn't drive me home. The point is that it was the 1st time we talked so much which mostly not work related hahaa. I really own him a great favor for teaching me so many stuff and unconditionally giving me advice whenever i need.