(An aside: When I lived in Japan, the weekend after I moved into my apartment was not spent buying bedding and such like, but climbing Mt Fuji. The thing to do when climbing Mt Fuji is to get to the top to see the sunrise. I think I have mentioned that the sun rises very early in summer in Japan? So "getting to the top in time to see the sunrise" means "getting up way before even sparrow fart to start climbing in the dark". This was also my first experience of a Japanese mountain hut... which for the most part was spent lying awake on my back packed in among people I did not know listening to them snore - and by "packed in", I mean I could feel the people on either side of me, down the entire length of my body. All in all, it was not a very restful weekend. When I got back to my empty apartment on the Sunday evening, I lay down on the bare tatami, slept like a log and woke up feeling fine. Ah, youth.)
In keeping with the rest of the hotel, breakfast was the traditional kind.
Téo very kindly gave massages to those in need.
After breakfast we set off to see the nearby Shiretoko Five Lakes - which once again was very kind of Yoko seeing as she had already been there yesterday.
The lakes attract a lot of tourists - and there are bears in the area. So, before we could enter we had to get a "bear passport" by sitting through a presentation on what to do if we encountered any bears. Despite the overarching message of "you don't want to come across a bear" I remained very hopeful of FINALLY seeing one... until we were on the walkways with so many other people, where I had to admit a sighting was very unlikely.
It was still very pretty though.
(Click to see full size)
Then it was back in the car - and very welcome air conditioning - to drive to Lake Kussharo.
We'd finished the adventures of Humphrey the hamster - the Wombles kept the kids quiet for this trip.
After a couple of hours we stopped at a lookout. It was nice to get out and stretch our legs, but the view was nothing spectacular.
You can see our destination, Lake Kussharo. And for those who've been to our place, see how similar Hokkaido looks to our part of Switzerland?
We were a bit puzzled by the number of cars, lack of people, and pretty ordinary view...and then realised we needed to cross the road and climb a little way.
The reason for the look out immediately become clear.
It turned out we were at Lake Mashu - which I'd read about but not thought to actually see, as most of the time the crater is filled with fog. But not today! The lake has the officially clearest water in the world, with visibility to 41.6 m. It also has no rivers flowing into it - all the water comes from rain. This means the water purity is a useful indicator of pollution. For this reason, access is impossible - and thank goodness, as otherwise there'd likely be some very ugly development down there.
Coming back down to the cars, Téo somehow tripped... and left a bit of skin on the path.
These were the worst bits, two days later.
We took him dripping blood into a nearby roadside restaurant/souvenir shop where, after cleaning him up as best we could, we had lunch.
Melons for sale ... $88 for five! I bought a few slices out of curiosity, and honestly they were not even that good. The $3 ones we get from France are much much better.
Lukan of course went to inspect the souvenirs... it being now August, and him turning 7 in August, and 7 being the age that pocket money starts, he was desperate to Buy Something with his newly granted riches. Despite our advice to wait until we got to the big toy store in Tokyo, Buy Something he did - a green pom pom key ring.
There it is, along with all his other key ring treasures.
The view from the restaurant.
A zoomed in photo from the car park of Mt Meakan, an active volcano we planned to climb the next day.
As we headed to our hotel on the shores of Lake Kussharo the weather closed in a little. The kids needed a good run around, so we went down to the water... where the walk was quickly abandoned in favour of skipping stones.
Forced inside by the steadily increasing rain, we went to explore the games room.
The weekend I met C, I beat him on a ski machine. I can't claim the same for real skis.
I broke 2 out of the 3 entry rules for the onsen - I had a camera with me, and I have a tattoo. Luckily no one kicked me out... but in any case it was quite crowded so I couldn't manage a picture. Even if I had, it would not have been interesting as the view was a wall of the hotel - what a missed opportunity with the lake right next door!
For dinner we decided not to take the buffet but instead go to the restaurant. We were a bit disappointed to discover we weren't allowed to wear yukatas in the restaurant - Lukan especially, who had a lot to say about how stupid it was that we had to go back to our room to get dressed properly here when we never had to anywhere else. A good serving of edamame and chips stopped his whinging though. Our meals were very yummy too.
And that was pretty much that for the day!
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