Japan - Day 11

It wasn't raining today, but the clouds were low, so we gave up on the idea of climbing Mt Meakan - I'm sure to Yoko's relief!

We were ready earlier than the others in the morning so, before the drive to the next hotel, took the kids for a walk through the forest on a small peninsula near the hotel. Lake Kussharo being a crater lake, there was even a steaming part, but that's not what I took any photos of.

We were headed to Lake Akan today, but stopped first a little further around Lake Kussharo at some hot sands.

 The lake water was quite cold, but the hot spring right on the edge under the sand was really hot.

I just discovered while writing this that Lake Kussharo is Japan's largest, and the world's second largest, crater lake.

Then it was on to Lake Akan.

Yoko chose a very nice hotel for our last night in Hokkaido.

The view of Mt Oakan from our room... 

... and from the dining room that evening. 

Lake Akan is famous for big balls of algae. The hotel lobby had some in tanks - upon seeing them, I realised what the green pom pom keyring was that Lukan had bought.

There were also even more expensive melons for sale - $108 for 5! Seriously??

After checking in - and then locating the kids in the vastness of the lobby, where they were running around doing a treasure hunt - I convinced our family to go on a short walk to see boiling mud. Oh, how I love boiling mud! Thick, gloopy, bubbly, splattery mud - I could watch it for hours.

Unfortunately this was not very good boiling mud, and no one was impressed.

Boiling muddy water. No fun to watch at all.

The mud was near the water's edge... which at this point was very hot.

There was also a small shinto shrine.

Once back at the hotel it was onsen time. The way that onsens work at hotels is that there is one for the boys and one for the girls, which then switch overnight so that the one which was for the girls is now for the boys. On this day, the girls' onsen was down by the lake while the boys' one was on the roof. Both were huge - mine had at least 5 indoor pools and a big outdoor pool.

 You can just see the top of Mt Oaken peeking above the clouds.

Next was dinner.

The hotel was beautiful, the after-onsen pyjamas less so.

Followed by toasted marshmallows.

 Yoko forbid her family from wearing the pyjamas.

We had less shame.

And once the kids were in bed, drinks at the bar. I have to say, even if it mightn't be the best look, it really is very nice to have a drink at a posh hotel in pyjamas and bare feet. And, if you should have more than one or two drinks, it also makes going to bed much easier afterwards.

Sadly, this was our last night with Yoko, Shabolz, Andy, Jean-Paul and Micheline - we were getting up early to fly back to Tokyo so wouldn't see them in the morning. We had such a lovely time in Hokkaido, a truly fabulous holiday. Thank you once again to Yoko for all the organizing of hotels and transport, to Shabolz and Andy for being such excellent hiking companions, and to Yoko, Jean-Paul and Micheline for your patience during our hikes!

Japan - Day 10

We woke to pouring rain... so no hiking up Mt Meakan today. Instead we drove north for a bit, to visit Abashiri prison museum.

The prison opened in 1890, and was pretty much the equivalent of being sent to Siberia.

Crossing the Mirror Bridge to get in. On seeing their reflections in the water, prisoners were supposed to reflect on their crimes.

In those days Japan claimed all of Hokkaido, but the northern part of the island was mostly undeveloped and the Meiji government was worried that Russia would march in and take it. So the idea was to send prisoners there to build a road connecting the north to the settled parts in the centre and south.

Walking up to the main entrance.

You know the story of the Burma Railway in WWII? It was pretty much the same here: the prisoners cleared the forest and built the road by hand, in appalling conditions.

I doubt the real prisoners smiled quite so much.

But they did it, in record time, and Hokkaido was safely entirely Japanese.

(click to enlarge)

The prison still exists, in a modern form - the original buildings were moved to the museum site but there were replica modern cells too.

Not much different from student housing!

Apart from the bars, of course.

There was a restaurant serving replicas of the prisoners' meals. We went to a different one.

 Despite loving Japanese noodles at home, Téo refused to try them in Japan until... yesterday. Guess what? He loved them!

Lukan was very happy that the menu included the Italian kind.

The museum being an outdoor museum, we were quite soggy - but we dutifully visited all the buildings before heading home.

On the way back we stopped at another Mt Io. We pulled in just as the rain stopped - and just ahead of a huge bus load of Chinese tourists, prompting me to sprint across to the interesting part in order to snap some unpeopled shots.

We could walk up quite close to the vents, and could hear boiling water under our feet - it was pretty cool! The Chinese tourists didn't stay long, but we didn't linger either as the rain soon started again.

Not fancying the same restaurant menu as the night before, we asked TripAdvisor where to go for dinner. The top recommendations were all full, but at last we found a great little izakaya that hit the spot perfectly.

Mmm, deep-fried chicken. He declined the deep-fried intestines, however.

Then it was back to the hotel for an onsen and bed.

The ol' switcher-poo

You know, Téo says at dinner, about 10 minutes after I went to bed last night, I heard... you know.

What? I ask.

You know. He lowers his voice. S-E-X.

The au pair kind of chokes on her food.

We were watching a movie, I explain. A romantic comedy I add, a trifle belatedly. I feel I need to strengthen the case to the au pair that we were not watching porn by giving the name of the film, only I've forgotten it in English and I suspect the French name - Sex Friends - won't help.

What exactly did you hear? I ask Téo, thinking that surely whatever can be heard in an American romantic comedy is pretty mild, and maybe he made a mistake.

You know. Push-push-push.

The au pair chokes a bit more. Oh good grief, why on earth did I ask?

Well, yes, that's why I sent you to bed, because I knew there'd be a sex scene.

Lukan pipes up. Is it fun to watch sex in a movie?

Holy crap.

Ahh, well, it can be.... ahhh...you'll find out when you're older.

I imagine it's very... he puts on what he thinks is a sexy pose... relaxin'.

Holy holy crap.

But mummy, I have a question for you. This is Téo again. How do you know how to do it? The first time?

Well, your body kind of just knows. It's ... instinctive.

He looks blank. We've already explained the basic mechanics so I know he's asking for more detailed information. Which, actually, I had planned on providing to both kids at some point... but now is not the time. I'm compelled to say something more, however.

You live in a farming village, haven't you seen animals having sex?

Mummy said it again! says Lukan delightedly - who's long been banned from saying "sexy" given it's his adjective of choice to describe himself,  which along with the sexy pose we find somewhat disturbing. Yipee! That means I can too! Sex! Sex! Sex!

Well, bees explode when they do it, says Téo. Males bees. Only the male ones. They explode. And do you know what rhinos do? They charge each other, head first. And hippos throw their poo.

Really? I ask. I didn't know that.

Yeah, says Téo, it was in my Science & Vie magazine one time. 

Sex, sex, sex! chirps Lukan unabated.

At this point the au pair excuses herself from the table.

I kind of want to verify the bee, rhino and hippo thing ... the iPad is right there... but then I remember a video I once saw. Nope, getting online is most definitely not going to help matters.

Huh, I say. Well, I'm pretty sure you won't explode. And you won't have to charge anyone, or throw poo ... unless you want to.

Never before have I been actually thankful for the conversational trump card that is poo.

Japan - Day 9

So the hotel we were staying at was kind of old. Which there is nothing wrong with, only the futons were also old. Meaning, they were thin. Meaning, we were basically sleeping on a hard floor. This was not very soothing on an already sore body.

(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!