Travel Tour

Free Stock Photos for websites - FreeDigitalPhotos.net If you are planning for a visit to Hokkaido, let me give you a list of all the places of interest in Hokkaido which are inside the travel itineraries of most travel agencies that may be of interest to you!

On the last day of my Hokkaido tour with my wife on 28 Sep 09, our group visited the Hokkaido Jingu Shrine . The shrine is a Shinto Shrine. Shinto is a native religion of the Japanese which worships the god in the universe as symbolized by the sun. Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan before Buddhism and other religions set foot in Japan.

My wife and I set foot on the town of Otaru one bright afternoon in our tour after a hearty lunch. Otaru is a habour town in Hokkaido with the Otaru canal a famous landmark there. I have read so much of Otaru in the travel itineraries and coming to this picturesque town, we were not disappointed!

Shopping around in Hokkaido, Japan, you will find many memorabilia related to bears and foxes. Bears and foxes are the indigenous animals in Hokkaido and they still exist in the jungles of Hokkaido. The two animals have become the emblems of Hokkaido! The great brown bear of Hokkaido has spawned a number of memorabilia, with cups, T-shirts, keychains and more products ‘fronted’ by the animal itself. I believe Japanese and tourists alike have grown enamored of these two animals as they are always portrayed as cute in the many illustrations you see in the souvenir shops.

As part of my series of posts on my recent Hokkaido tour with my wife, today, let me give you a list of things to buy from Hokkaido! As all of you might have known, the White Lovers' Chocolate is the most famous chocolate in Japan, and if you are in Hokkaido, you must definitely buy at least one box of these chocolates as the White Lover Chocolate factory is located none other than Hokkaido!

While I was at Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, I saw this photo of a criminal plastered on the noticeboard in the airport, immediately I recalled similar such posters of Singapore's Mas Selamat.

Loyal readers of my blog would have read it here on my encounter to Uniqlo’s Singapore flagship outlet at Tampines One shopping centre on its opening day. Uniqlo is the leading Japanese casual wear retail chain.

I spotted these bloodtype bath powder bags in a store during my tour with my wife in Hokkaido about two months back. The letters on these packagings should be obvious to you: they denote the different blood groups of man.

Did you see the photo of the colourful plane below? If you take a closer look, you would have noticed that the plane is decked out in 'Pokemon' style, with the pictures of the cartoon characters adorning the facade of the plane. This was the plane my Dear and I travelled in when we made our return journey from the Chitose airport in Hokkaido back to Haneda airport in Tokyo. As such, this plane is a domestic-flight plane. Not all the domestic-flight planes in Chitose are similarly adorned with Pokemon characters. My Dear and I were lucky to travel in this lovely plane. Even the seat covers depict these Pokemon characters as well! There are some cool and beautiful models of these "Pokemon" planes on display at the airport. Domestic planes in Japan are of no-frill types. There is only a centralized projector screening screening movies for interested passengers to pass time as there is no individual TV station for each individual. It only makes sense. What I love ...

On the last night of our Hokkaido tour, after a frenzied shopping trail trying to cover as much of the shopping malls, streets and sights in Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido, my wife and I arrived at Susukino, the largest entertainment as well as red light district in Hokkaido! We stumbled on Susukino innocuously and left with ‘eyes wide open’! Save for the brightly-lit buildings and neon lights of the billboards of the towering buildings, we found the district a tad dimmer than our Orchard Road or City areas, that was a bit surprising to me as I thought that an entertainment as well as a red light district, even billed as the largest in Sapporo, should look quite bright like our world-(in)famous Geylang red light district. When you are at Susukino, do not ever think of seeing dozens of young, pretty and sexily-dressed Japanese girls at the roadside, beckoning to you, brazenly and boldly dragging you for a ‘discussion’ or hot dating ! No, there are no such things in Susukino ...

Last week, my wife and I embarked on a 7 day holiday tour to Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. It was our first visit to Japan and it was inevitable that we were thrilled and excited. My Dear and I have heard so much about Japan in our daily living in Singapore. In Singapore, we have often unwitting or not, taste the food and drinks of Japan, pick up some simple languages of Japan and watch the many cartoons, dramas, movies and documentaries of Japan on TV, which somehow shaped our impression of Japan! There we went, last week with a tour group, onboard a flight near midnight. The flight lasted 7 hours to reach Tokyo Narita Airport, reaching Japan at around 7 am (Japan’s time is 1 hour ahead of Singapore’s). The particular Japanese airline our group took was quite noisy and bumpy throughout the flight, which sent shivers through our spines at times through its deep ‘crests and troughs’. We arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport after a 7 hour flight and I must say I did not sleep ...

As soon as the tour guide announced that the next place of interest we would be visiting was Hell Valley, the whole of the tour group which included my wife and I were thrilled and ecstatic! Oh Hell Valley! What a name! What is this place that merits such a heavily-worded name? We were soon to find out. Within minutes, we arrived at Hell Valley, which is a valley that has clearly discernible steam vents, yellow sulphurous streams and some trees and grasses on the periphery. The weather was very hot and harsh and it just accentuated the hellish feeling of the valley. Our group proceeded on the trail which led us to hot fuming lakes, sulphurous streams, it seem that the name is befitting of the place which makes life almost inhospitable there! Cameras were up by the dozens, followed by clicks and clicks of the camera buttons as we lapped up pictures after pictures of the scenic valley.

In Singapore, every time I bake a cake, it is such a mundane, dull and unexciting affair, which I complete all within 5 minutes at the very most. If you do not understand what I mean, ‘bake a cake’ is just an euphemism for moving one’s bowels, now you get it, don’t you? Why am I writing such a topic? Is it that I run out of topic to write as to stoop to this ‘shitty’ level? Of course not, this post is a continuation of my holidays in Hokkaido, Japan last month, so sit back and enjoy! I have always heard so much about the Japanese toilet bowl which melds technology with one of man’s basic needs since evolution. Thus in Hokkaido, I was most pleased to witness the first ‘vestige’ of such brilliant toilet bowls in Japan’s airport. However, my first encounter with the toilet bowl then did not ‘translate into action’. I was starving after having been through tens of hours of flight and coach travel to get from Singapore to Hokkaido. I did not have the ‘prerequisite’ to do my first a...

Our Hokkaido tour (of my wife and I) led us to the Ainu Village one fine afternoon. The Ainu people were the aboriginals of Japan though an internet finding by me indicated that they obtained their indigenous people status officially only in 1998. I also learnt that the Ainu people were quite conscious of their status as it was deemed not to be as noble as the other tribes of Japan. The Ainu person on Hokkaido would have escaped modernization if not for the Meiji restoration, which saw Hokkaido opened up for development. History aside, our visit to Ainu Village was to come up, close and personal with the Ainu people though I also came beyond comfort level with somebody there, read on to find out more! When our tour group descended on Ainu Village, we were awed and intrigued by the gigantic boulder statue of an Ainu man as well as of other strange but interesting structures. We saw 3 to 4 Japanese dressed in Ainu costumes beckoning to our group, and we followed them into a hut for ...

One of the famous Japanese dishes die-hard foodies must try when they are in Japan is undisputedly Kobe beef! On the second last day of our Hokkaido tour, the tour guide took our group to a seafood restaurant selling various kinds of seafood, which includes the very popular Kobe beef for lunch. Of the 21 members of our tour group, there were only 3 groups of ‘takers’ for the Kobe beef and this was understandable as the price tag for a dish of Kobe beef: 10,000 yens, which translates to slightly more than Singapore 150 dollars! My mind has been hardwired not to spend such astronomical sum of money on food, hence my wife and I did not order Kobe beef. Nevertheless we did pose for a shot with the giant beef plate. Though we did not order and try Kobe beef, we believed that the beef we partook of during the one of the nights of our buffet dinner is Kobe beef as the beef is really thick, juicy, succulent, yummy and the best beef we have eaten so far! We ate so much meat in Hokkaido: pork, c...

It was already close to 7 pm (Japan time) after our tour group had completed our hearty Ramen dinner at one of the many Ramen stalls in Sapporo. Though night had already fell, the itinery of the day was not over as we would be proceeding to Mount Moiwa to view the spectacular views of the entire Sapporo City! Mount Moiwa is not a tall mountain in Sapporo as compared to its bevy of taller brethren in Hokkaido , standing at a height of 531 metres. Despites its shorter height, Mount Moiwa is the only mountain where one can enjoy a spectacular, bird-eye view of Sapporo city! My wife and I were thrilled to ascend up a mountain of another country and take in the 360-degree views of a city we visited. The other instance we had done so was at Hong Kong, where the whole of Hong Kong island presented itself to us as we admired the city sights from the top of Victoria Peak, which stands at 552 metres, slightly taller than Mount Moiwa. By comparison, Singapore’s tallest hill, Bukit Timah is only 1...

Continuing our Hokkaido tour, my wife and I, together with the rest of the tour group, arrived at the picturesque town of Biel one warm afternoon. Biel is famous for its magnificent fields and plains sloping beautifully complementing one another on the different mixes of colours against the backdrop of majestic mountains, simply breathtaking, it was just like a giant rainbow palette! Just look at the photo below! My wife and I were thrilled at arriving at one of these farms (not too sure the name of this farm, but believe t is near Tomita farm) and experienced the sights and aroma of the plethora of flowers in a myriad of different colours. My wife and I were particularly attracted to the Lavender flowers, which is famed in the region. Prior to visiting Hokkaido, I have only paid fleeting attention to Lavender, only knowing that the flower has romantic connotations. Coming to Hokkaido, I was fully enlightened on the usefulness of the flower, how these aromatic flowers are being harvest...

On the last night of our Hokkaido tour, after a frenzied shopping trail trying to cover as much of the shopping malls, streets and sights in Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido, my wife and I arrived at Susukino, the largest entertainment as well as red light district in Hokkaido! We stumbled on Susukino innocuously and left with ‘eyes wide open’! Save for the brightly-lit buildings and neon lights of the billboards of the towering buildings, we found the district a tad dimmer than our Orchard Road or City areas, that was a bit surprising to me as I thought that an entertainment as well as a red light district, even billed as the largest in Sapporo, should look quite bright like our world-(in)famous Geylang red light district. When you are at Susukino, do not ever think of seeing dozens of young, pretty and sexily-dressed Japanese girls at the roadside, beckoning to you, brazenly and boldly dragging you for a ‘discussion’. No, there are no such things in Susukino and we were briefed ...

When my Dear and I were at Hokkaido, the days of our tour flew really fast! There are a couple of reasons for this. First, with Hokkaido being near the north pole, days start early and nights come fast. When my wife and I woke up on the mornings of our hotel stays around 5.30 am, it seemed dark like in Singapore around this time but as we opened the thick curtains, we were surprised that the skies were already as bright as 8 am, in Singapore! Our six days in Hokkaido passed really fast as nightfall comes around 530 pm as the skies start to get darker. With a bulk of our tour everyday spent in tour coaches as we got from one place of interest to another, departing from 8 am from the hotel everyday, it is really a blessing that the weather was kind to our tour group on whatever precious little time we had at each travel destination except the last day when it was drizzling. If it were rainy, some mountain ascents would not have been possible and it would be indeed inconvenient to c...