We raced down to the lobby past Shabolz et al, who were all already checking out, and to the dining room where we begged to be allowed to eat what hadn't yet been cleared away. Then we were off - several hours of driving to Sōunkyō Onsen in Daisetsuzan National Park.
It was a day of listening to the continuing adventures of Humphrey the hamster, and seeing road works.
Kawaii!
It was also the day when the kids finally got their wish - kaiten sushi!
Andy, in the booth next to ours, ordered chips - which he assured me are all the rage at kaiten sushi these days.Thankfully our kids didn't see this, so there was no clamouring in our booth. But seriously, chips with sushi? What is the world coming to?
There was edamame too. No idea if this is traditional to eat with sushi, but it was somehow more acceptable.
Lukan likes salmon roe sushi.
He eats the eggs one at a time.
And shudders and grimaces when they pop in his mouth. Every time.
Cheeky Andy.
We arrived at Sōunkyō in the late afternoon, driving up through a valley of cliffs to the onsen itself.
Pretty!
First stop - the tourist center to check out the hike we had planned for the next two days.
There's bears in them there hills, so next stop:
The bear bell shop. Then the hotel:
While checking in we discovered our allotted dinner time was 6pm, which seemed very early but as the hotel was very big and a huge bus load of Malaysians had just arrived, we thought we'd better obey - so we pretty much just dumped our stuff and headed straight to the restaurant. There were nightly fireworks at this hotel too, but we opted for the onsen instead.
It was actually dark, this picture is from two nights in the future.
I could (of course!) hear the kids on the other side of the fence. As there was no one else soaking outside, I considered clambering over the rocks and peeking around to say hello... only then I decided it wouldn't be very dignified to be caught butt naked, spread-eagled over a rock, peering into the men's side.
Not long afterwards, given an inability to get on to wifi, it was bed time.
