Within one day mum and dad saw two sets of TV crew from two different countries filming food related programs in two different places 120km apart in Hokkaido. They saw a Japanese TV crew filming in Kushiro Washo Ichiba 釧路和商市場 in the morning and late afternoon they saw a Taiwanese crew filming 莎莎 probably for 食尚玩家 in Kita no Yatai 北の屋台 in Obihiro 帯広. 莎莎 was actually filming in Banchou Butadon in the afternoon according to the old lady at the shop. Auntie J was happy to meet a fellow country woman and took a picture with 莎莎.
Unfortunately, they still have no idea who the Japanese actress was.
Update
The Japanese actress was an AV star called Rio. She has her own blog here.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Obihiro 帯広
Nowadays with so much written on every place imaginable, you often feel like you've already been there before you set off on your journey. Using Google map, you can see every shop front along a busy street and with all the online travel guides and blogs you can even get a feel of what the place is like. But once in a while, you get surprises when you arrived at the actual destination. Mum and dad just could not forget the bugs in Shiretoko Five Lakes and the sight of dozens of chimneys covered by dense fog just before sunset driving into the city of Kushiro. The fog reminded them of San Francisco.
Obihiro 帯広 was probably the city with the highest non-construction related noise pollution that they have ever visited. Every street corner, no matter where you were and what time of the day, you would hear a continuous stream of public broadcast which covered everything from road safety to commercial ads. This was a strange contrast to the sparsely populated street in early evening. The city seemed to liven up as it got deeper into the night. Kita no Yatai 北の屋台 (Food stalls of the North) with two rows of open-air food stalls along a small stretch of street was jam packed with customers. Perhaps it was the long weekend 三連休 which drew the crowd out.
Instead of rubbing shoulders with the locals, they decided to have dinner in another famous Obihiro offering, Butadon 豚丼 (pork bowl). As you can see from the Wikipedia entry, this dish originated from Obihiro and Banchou ばんちょう is the original butadon store. A photo just would not do justice to a simple dish like this. Highly recommended if you ever visit Obihiro.
Shops selling Butadon were everywhere. They also tried the shop within Obihiro JR station. This shop was established just 1 year after Banchou, which opened in Showa 8 year. The meat was not as fatty and perhaps why it lost out just that little bit.
Obihiro 帯広 was probably the city with the highest non-construction related noise pollution that they have ever visited. Every street corner, no matter where you were and what time of the day, you would hear a continuous stream of public broadcast which covered everything from road safety to commercial ads. This was a strange contrast to the sparsely populated street in early evening. The city seemed to liven up as it got deeper into the night. Kita no Yatai 北の屋台 (Food stalls of the North) with two rows of open-air food stalls along a small stretch of street was jam packed with customers. Perhaps it was the long weekend 三連休 which drew the crowd out.
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| Kitanoyatai 北の屋台 |
Instead of rubbing shoulders with the locals, they decided to have dinner in another famous Obihiro offering, Butadon 豚丼 (pork bowl). As you can see from the Wikipedia entry, this dish originated from Obihiro and Banchou ばんちょう is the original butadon store. A photo just would not do justice to a simple dish like this. Highly recommended if you ever visit Obihiro.
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| The queue outside Banchou Butadon 豚丼のばんちょう |
Friday, July 30, 2010
Kushiro Shitsugen National Park 釧路湿原
Photos taken there were quite pretty and it was comfortable hike around the trail. Worth visiting if you are around the area and have never been, but visiting once is probably enough.
Kushiro Washo Market 釧路和商市場
Kushiro fish market is one of the three biggest fish market in Hokkaido and the other two being Sapporo and Hakodate. One of the famous offerings is ”As you like it" bowl 勝手丼, where you buy a bowl of rice (a few sizes are available) and pick your favorite sashimi ingredients as you go around different stalls in the market. Only mum managed to pick up her appetite after the previous night robatayaki dinner and did one small bowl. There were a bewildering choices of toppings, but mum set her eyes on the tray of ぶどうえび, which literally means "grape" prawn perhaps on the back of its purple color. There seems to be no English name for this prawn other than the long Latin name. For some really wonderful close-ups of them, please check out this website http://www.siretoko.com/budo.htm. Mum picked two of them with the green-brown roes sticking to their underside. The flesh was firmer than the more common Botan prawns ボタンエビ and there was almost a sweetness in it. While they have eaten the same prawns in Tokyo Tsukiji market before, the ones in Kushiro were huge in comparison and they have never had the roes.
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| What You See is What You Get WYSWYG!! But then which ones to pick?? |
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| ぶどうえび "grape" prawn |
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| ”As you like it" bowl 勝手丼 |
Nabekyuu 奈辺久 in Lake Akan 阿寒湖
Part of the fun in doing fly-drive holiday without too much planning is finding places to eat. Mum likes to venture into different shops and start asking the shop assistants what their local favorites are. Other than their trip to San Fransisco which they had booked many restaurants prior to leaving Hong Kong, mostly they just relied on locals' word of mouth. That was how they ended up eating in Nabekyuu 奈辺久 for lunch. Dad was particularly impressed by its hot soba with shrimp tempura.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Lake Akan 阿寒湖
Next stop - Lake Akan 阿寒湖. The most commercially developed among the three lakes in the area. Before they left the Lake Mashu area, they made a couple more stops along the way.
Iozan 硫黄山, literally sulphur mountain, gave the Kawayu area its ubiquitous bad-egg smell and the wonderful skin softening hot spring, one of the best, if not the best in terms of therapeutic quality among all the ones they have soaked in.
Lake Mashu Soft Ice 摩周湖のあいす - handmade soft ice-cream using the locally produced milk. Perhaps the most creamy ice-cream they had in a region famous for their dairy products. If you ever go to Lake Mashu, you should definitely give it a try.
The town next to Lake Akan is quaint and quiet and the whole place survives off the hundreds of tourists streaming through the town daily. A small stretch of the street is choc-a-bloc full of souvenir shops selling woodcraft.
Iozan 硫黄山, literally sulphur mountain, gave the Kawayu area its ubiquitous bad-egg smell and the wonderful skin softening hot spring, one of the best, if not the best in terms of therapeutic quality among all the ones they have soaked in.
Lake Mashu Soft Ice 摩周湖のあいす - handmade soft ice-cream using the locally produced milk. Perhaps the most creamy ice-cream they had in a region famous for their dairy products. If you ever go to Lake Mashu, you should definitely give it a try.
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| Self-portrait wooden sculpture |
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| Beautiful shop - felt like continental Europe |
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| Foxy band - 狐バンド |
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| Made famous by the movie 非誠勿擾 (If You Are The One) |
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| Lake Akan - view from the ferry |
Lake Mashu 摩周湖, Lake Kussharo 屈斜路湖
A 2-hour drive took them from Utoro to Kawayu 川湯. After checking into a hot spring hotel there, they rushed out to catch a glimpse of the sunset in Lake Mashu 摩周湖. A short drive from Kawayu through some windy mountainous road took them to the various observation points. Just below the third observation point where they parked, one could see Lake Kussharo 屈斜路湖 from afar.
Lake Mashu was the most zen place of nature that they have been. There was a certain sense of mystic with the mist creeping out from the pool of water trapped inside a volcanic crater. Despite the long, long drive from Sapporo, it was worth the drive even if it was just to see Lake Mashu once.
Mum and dad went back there again in the morning.
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| Lake Kussharo 屈斜路湖 (view from Lake Mashu 摩周湖) |
Lake Mashu was the most zen place of nature that they have been. There was a certain sense of mystic with the mist creeping out from the pool of water trapped inside a volcanic crater. Despite the long, long drive from Sapporo, it was worth the drive even if it was just to see Lake Mashu once.
Mum and dad went back there again in the morning.
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| Some people are more serious about taking photos than others. |
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
ウトロ漁協婦人部食堂 Utoro Wife of Fisherman's Co-op Canteen
It's almost 3pm when we got back to Utoro and a lot of the places have stopped serving lunch. Before they left Hong Kong Airport, mum took a few photos from the pages of an Hokkaido travel guide. One of the shots was the address to this place with a weird name and the best thing was it stayed open until 4pm for lunch. It didn't take long to find once the GPS directed you to the nearby area. Three middle-age ladies were chatting in the restaurant when they arrived.
The rice bowls were nothing fancy, just fresh ingredients.
The rice bowls were nothing fancy, just fresh ingredients.
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| Another panorama taken with NEX-5 |
Kamuiwakkayu Falls カムイワッカ湯の滝
Before you visit Kamuiwakkayu Falls カムイワッカ湯の滝, you would read the various travel guides online telling you that the upper sections are all closed due to one reason or another and only the lowest section is still open. "What a shame, I have missed the ultimate hot spring experience." would probably be your first reaction.
When mum and dad got there, they decided not to venture up even the first section. Water was running down over the rocks. Walking up would be just about doable barefoot but walking down may not be fun.
Perhaps the ultimate hot spring experience is only for the dare devils.
When mum and dad got there, they decided not to venture up even the first section. Water was running down over the rocks. Walking up would be just about doable barefoot but walking down may not be fun.
Perhaps the ultimate hot spring experience is only for the dare devils.
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| Kamuiwakkayu Falls カムイワッカ湯の滝 |
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Shiretoko Five Lakes 知床五湖
If you ask mum what left the deepest impression on her in Shiretoko Five Lakes, it wouldn't be the clear blue sky or the zigzag wooden structure leading out to one of the lakes or even the mirror-like reflection of the beautiful scenery on the lake. It would be...... BUGS!! And they were everywhere and they swarmed you as soon as you stand still for more than 2 seconds. They would look for any orifice in your body and decide to fly in. "Psssst....pssst...", imagine that.
Somehow we didn't see much being said about these little flying pests in the same breath when the natural beauty of this place was mentioned.
They didn't get to see the other 4 lakes but then given the bugs, not sure if they would enjoy hiking further.
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| Get off me!! |
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| Panorama shot by NEX-5, no more photo stitching |
They didn't get to see the other 4 lakes but then given the bugs, not sure if they would enjoy hiking further.
Shiretoko National Park 知床国立公園
It was a short drive from the town of Shari to Shiretoko National Park and there are a few things sights worth stopping by along the way.
Oshinkoshin Fall オシンコシンの滝 - unfortunately it was closed to visitors on the day due to landslide hazard. Despite that, it's a real tourist trap and the souvenir shop there did great business.
In every corner of the earth, there are rocks which resemble life-like creatures. Lion Rock in Hong Kong is just one of those examples. But the proof of the pudding is when you travel past the object and think "my god isn't that a giant xxxx?" without ever learning it is there in the first place. The Turtle Rock in Shiretoko 知床の亀岩 had that effect on mum. Guess it's another good thing not to do too much research before you visit a new place. You can see the turtle in winter hibernation here.
They just missed a bus going up the National Park when they arrived at the Utoro tourist center. While waiting for the bus, they realized that only one foot path walking out to the Shiretoko Five Lakes was opened. All the other ones were closed because of bears. The bus ride up the National Park was reminiscent to the one in New Zealand's Doubtful Sound.
Oshinkoshin Fall オシンコシンの滝 - unfortunately it was closed to visitors on the day due to landslide hazard. Despite that, it's a real tourist trap and the souvenir shop there did great business.
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| Oshinkoshin Fall オシンコシンの滝 |
In every corner of the earth, there are rocks which resemble life-like creatures. Lion Rock in Hong Kong is just one of those examples. But the proof of the pudding is when you travel past the object and think "my god isn't that a giant xxxx?" without ever learning it is there in the first place. The Turtle Rock in Shiretoko 知床の亀岩 had that effect on mum. Guess it's another good thing not to do too much research before you visit a new place. You can see the turtle in winter hibernation here.
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| Shiretoko's Turtle Rock 知床の亀岩 |
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| Sunny Hokkaido - why mum came back with a tan! |
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| You're never far from local desserts and cakes. |
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| Still need to look up what this might be. |
Hotel Grantia in Shiretoko ホテルグランティア知床斜里駅前
Mum and dad spent a total of nine nights in Hokkaido and they stayed in a different hotel every single night. Even when they stayed in the same place, they would still move from one hotel to another. Guess there's no better ways to find out about hotels......
Hotel Grantia in Shiretoko must be the best value among all the places they stayed during this trip. For JPY 8,900 each, they got a room with a view of the beautiful JR station, the bird sculpture and the nearby mountains. It was also half-board, ie you get breakfast and dinner for the price. While breakfast was served in the hotel, dinner was provided by one of the nearby restaurants, which you picked prior to arriving at the hotel. They took the "red" pork shabu-shabu サチク赤豚 しゃぶしゃぶ option for dinner. The servings were hearty and the locally produced pork was tender. The best thing was - you pay the same JPY 8,900 for just one person, ie no single-premium, staying in the same twin bedroom.
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| The room was spacious and modern with 2 single beds. |
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| Bird's eye view from the window. |
Hotel Grantia in Shiretoko must be the best value among all the places they stayed during this trip. For JPY 8,900 each, they got a room with a view of the beautiful JR station, the bird sculpture and the nearby mountains. It was also half-board, ie you get breakfast and dinner for the price. While breakfast was served in the hotel, dinner was provided by one of the nearby restaurants, which you picked prior to arriving at the hotel. They took the "red" pork shabu-shabu サチク赤豚 しゃぶしゃぶ option for dinner. The servings were hearty and the locally produced pork was tender. The best thing was - you pay the same JPY 8,900 for just one person, ie no single-premium, staying in the same twin bedroom.
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| サチク赤豚 "red" pork raised in Shiretoko |
Monday, July 26, 2010
Evening in Shari, Shiretoko
The sun was setting with its warm orange glow when they arrived at Shari 斜里 in Shiretoko 知床. The hotel where they were staying for the night was literally 1 minute walk away from the Shari JR Station, and the station did not look like any other JR station.
Birds form an important part of Shiretoko's heritage. The area supports 264 species of birds which account for 49% of Japan's total. Little wonder that the most prominent art piece in this tiny town is a semi-transparent sculpture of a bird made from wire.
Birds form an important part of Shiretoko's heritage. The area supports 264 species of birds which account for 49% of Japan's total. Little wonder that the most prominent art piece in this tiny town is a semi-transparent sculpture of a bird made from wire.
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