(4) Hokkaido Trip: 5 - 6 June 2015 Sounkyo / Utoro-Shiretoko

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5-June-2015

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We checked out of the Asahikawa hotel in the morning, and drove up the Sounkyo mountainous district.

After an hour plus of driving uphill, we arrived at the hotel in Sounkyo.

It was very windy and cold (2 deg C) when we got there.

After checking in to the hotel, we decided to explore around Sounkyo town centre. A small town and small population.

We came upon the Sounkyo Visitor Centre and cable car station. Upon checking with them, the cable car (ropeway) service was suspended for the rest of the day as it was too windy. They asked us to come back the next day.

Anyway, we proceeded to have lunch at Beer Grill Canyon.

After lunch, we drove on to see the Meotodaki Twin Falls (Ginga No Taki and Ryusei No Taki).

Sounkyo is one of the largest canyons in Japan, formed by Ishikari River digging through the Daisetsuzan Mountains, a range of peaks at a level of about 2,000 meters. There are many waterfalls in the region, and two of the most beautiful are Ginga No Taki and Ryusei No Taki. Ginga No Taki is a graceful waterfall with water flowing like white threads, while Ryusei No Taki shows a robust appearance with water strongly falling about 90m. The falls are also referred to as Otoko Taki (male waterfall) and Onnna Taki (female waterfall) for their contrasting appearance, and also jointly as to as Meotodaki (meaning “husband and wife waterfalls”).

Because the two falls flow at an angle, facing one another, you cannot observe them at the same time unless you stand between them. The best observation point is the parking space on the way from the hot spring town to Taisetsu Lake. The view of the waterfalls falling from the high-rise cliffs against the background of the blue sky is overwhelming. The leaves of the trees turn red in the winter, presenting a picturesque scene combined with the white flow of water.

Both falls are popular spots for ice climbing. When the waterfalls freeze up in winter and form massive ice pillars, climbers from throughout Japan visit the place, aiming to reach the peak. You can watch or climb these waterfalls to feel their magnificence.

We went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the hot spring bath downstairs. We were provided Japanese yukata, hence we need to learn how to wear them.

Buffet dinner was included as part of the room package and served at the hotel lobby.

After meal, there wasn't anything else to do outside and strong wind was still blowing. Lucky we brought along our own TV box where we could connect to the TV in the room via HDMI and pair the box with the WIFI egg.

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6-June-2015

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Hwee Ling and myself woke up early in the morning 6am to catch to first cable car up to the first cable car stop (at 1300m) of Mount Kurodake.

Further down the path, there was another cable car station, this was were you could get a chair lift to the summit of Mount Kurodake at 1984m.

We checked out of the hotel and began driving east. We stopped over at the Kitakitsune Fox Farm.

We moved on and we had a long drive towards Utoro-Shiretoko. Along the way we had two more places to visit.

Next stop was the Kamiyubetsu Tulip Park かみゆうべつチューリップ公園

We came at the wrong season and it seemed most of the tulips were already harvested.

There were some tulips but they were withering away.

Next stop was the Higashimokoto Shibazakura Park 東藻琴芝櫻公園

Moss phlox is called “Shibazakura” in Japanese that means that “grass cherry blossoms” because it is like a little cherry blossoms blooming on the ground. Shibazakura has variety of colors including light pink, red, light purple and white. Higashimokoto Shibazakura Park is the best famous viewing spot for Shibazakura in Hokkaido. They have Shibazakura in 100,000 square-meter site. The color of most of Shibazakura planted in Higashimokoto is light pink.

The moss phlox were not in full bloom.

We continued our drive to Shari and drove along the "Road to Heaven".

This straight road stretching for 18 km across Shari city is called "Road to Heaven" because it appears to be an endless road that extends all the way to heaven. Visitors can look out over this straight road from an observation deck providing views only Hokkaido can offer.

Just before we arrived in Utoro, we stopped over at the rest stop and visited the Oshinkoshin Waterfall オシンコシンの滝

We arrived at the Iruka Hotel , booked through Booking.com.

A quiet seaside town where we did not really see any other tourists, let alone those tourists from the big North Asian countries. Great!

And this was the ground floor corner unit where we stayed 2 nights. Very friendly hosts and comfortable stay. Highly recommended. After we dropped off our stuff inside the apartment, we were famished and it was dinner time.

We drove to the small town centre and settled our dinner at one of the local restaurants there.

There was no English menu, we did not speak many Japanese words. So it was finger pointing at the menu, while the restaurant owner read out the top active ingredients, in this way you know exactly what were the dishes were about in lack of photographs. That was how we placed our order.

After dinner, we adjourned to the apartment to rest early for the night since we had a long day.