Summer holiday 2009: Day 2

I was worried about the weather but the next day, it was blue skys all over. Getting up early, I went to have a bath. Whenever I go to an Onsen, I have a bath twice a day, in the morning & in the evening to use the opportunity fully. The first bath of the day outside is amazing. Having a bath while watching the blue sky and the blue ocean in front of your eyes is the ultimate luxury, isn’t it? However, I knew I would be driving all morning, I made it short, had breakfast with my family and travelled to Hakodate railway station by bus.

Arriving at the station, I went to the rental car company to get the car. The car we booked in Tokyo was a compact car, but we were given a new Nissan Wingroad 1.5L. The engine displacement of 1.5L was a bit unsuitable for driving on the long straight roads of Hokkaido, but you know, hiring a bigger car with a bigger engine displacement is more expensive. Thinking about the fuel cost and the size of the car being big enough for 4 people, I signed the form and we were on the road!

The destination was Toyako (lake). It was a 3 hour drive. It was the first time I have driven in Hokkaido but there were no traffic lights! There were some at the big main intersections, of course, but once we were out of the city, there was no big intersections thus no traffic lights: we did not need to be stopped by them and we drove normal roads smoothly like motorways. When I checked on the internet, I had read that you did not need to use motorways in Hokkaido and it was true. It was like when I was a student (oh, about 20 years ago), when I travelled from Miami to Quay West by a rental car while I was travelling the USA on my own. This time, because I did not want to waste our time, to make sure, I used the motorways. You can drive easily without traffic jams. Thanks to that, we got to the lake half an hour earlier than planned.

Toyako is a caldera lake which was made after a few volcanic eruptions about 100,000 years ago. On the skirt of the lake were the two active volcanoes Mt Usu and Showashinzan. It is one of the main tourist spots in Hokkaido. As I told you before on this blog, last year’s Summit was held here and this wonderful scenery was introduced to the world.

Because my daughter (2nd grade at junior high school) chose volcanos as the theme for her independent research for the summer holidays, we went to the Volcano Science Museum for her preparatory study and visited the actual site of the large-scaled eruption in the year 2000. My daughter seemed very impressed by looking at the tragic site which still preserves the horror of the natural disaster, but I was worried because she was just standing there, without taking notes or doing anything; but all of a sudden, she grabbed my camera and to keep the data, she started to take photos of the place. I was wondering if she would finish the research successfully once we got home.

We then went to her next research spots: Mt Usu & Showashinzan, which was only 5 minutes drive. Showashinzan is a lava dome that appeared on the side of Mt Usu after the eruptions. This was a suitable example for volcanic study. You can still see the smoke coming out everywhere and real volcanic activity. Because of the beautiful appearance, it is designated as a protected area of Japan. After taking a photo with the mountain behind us, we got in a ropeway to go up Mt Usu.

Mt Usu is a very active volcano and four eruptions were recorded within 100 years during the 20th century. They walked to the mouth after getting off the ropeway following the mountain’s ridge line and saw some big smoke coming out. It was a 2 hour walk. I said “they” because I did not go there. I was going to come with them but it was too hot and watching all the ups & downs of the mountain, I decided to change my plan and headed off to the hotel on my own. (I could not tell them that it was because of my lack of fitness… Shame on me!)

We stayed at a hotel a bit away from Toyako but another Onsen. It was a huge Onsen hotel. I was amazed with the buffet style dinner: there was sashimi, scallops, squid, sea eggs, salmon roes, crabs, tuna and other woodland delicacies and seafood. It was not that expensive either. I saw many families staying there with us. The second day, too, went very quickly like the first.


★ Japanese used car stock : http://jpctrade.com/stock/index.html
★ JPCTRADE Home page : http://jpctrade.com/
★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955