Day 8: Red Headed Cranes

Wow! Day #8 sure came quickly. It was now Sunday, February 15th. 

Here was one thing that stymied me for much too long. I have the toilet lid down in this photo, but with the lid up, I could NOT figure out HOW to flush the toilet! I hunted all over looking for the flush handle. 

Sheesh! 

Would you believe you have to press down on that flush thingamajig? Sigh...

OK... But that's not all. Then to wash your hands...

I kept trying to turn on the water with the cold knob, but nothing would happen. Art is a retired engineer. He explained that the hot and cold knobs only controlled the temperature. The knob in the middle indicated whether the water would be directed to the faucet or the shower. Sigh.... OK.... Took me a few times to finally get it in my brain.

And then breakfast. After all that toilet excitement, I needed a peaceful breakfast.

Yikes! So many choices. So many people!  And where is the coffee to wake me up?

Sigh...

Kay took me to the coffee machine and showed me how to use it.

Kuni, our tour escort in Japan warned that he called this "Food Wars" because there were 10 tour groups staying at this hotel.

Our first stop for today would be the International Crane Center.

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Tsuru or Tancho are the Japanese names for the red-headed cranes. We learned that the cranes almost became extinct and are now protected. Apparently, the people in the area noticed their decline in population 150 years ago and worked to protect them by providing food.

Male and female cranes mate for life. And both partners will tend to the eggs and then to the chicks that hatch from them. Our tour guide, Yumiko explained that the crane motif is thus often used in wedding items. 

We enjoyed looking at so many of these beautiful birds.

This is from Wikipedia:

This species is among the largest and heaviest cranes, typically measuring about 150 to 158 cm (4 ft 11 in to 5 ft 2 in) tall and 101.2–150 cm (3 ft 4 in – 4 ft 11 in) in length (from bill to tail tip). Across the large wingspan, the red-crowned crane measures 220–250 cm (7 ft 3 in – 8 ft 2 in).

Yes, they were huge.

I found this photo among the many, many we took.

It looks weird, but the crane is merely stretching his neck to clean under its wing.

I got confused seeing the second crane behind it.

 

Inside the International Crane Center, we saw a lot of crane origami and artifacts. I had to take a photo of that circle artwork created with hundreds (maybe thousands) of teeny tiny origami cranes.

Our next stop was the Kushiro Fisherman's Wharf.

Kay and Dareld had been looking forward to buying a King Crab and having it prepared for you.

We joined them in this quest.

Dareld and Kay are the culinary experts so they chose the crab.

This fellow then took out the crab and cooked it.

He brought it to our table to show us the crab before he cut it up to make it easier to eat.

He even gave us scallop skirts for hors d'oeuvres to munch on while we waited for the crab to cook. 

It was all great fun!

Our next stop was to see jewelry ice.

This from a Japan Travel website:

Each winter, part of Hokkaido's coast is covered in a natural phenomenon colloquially called "jewelry ice," in which a beach is covered in smooth blocks of ice shining like diamonds in the sun. Jewelry ice is created when ice floes from the Tokachi River break apart at the river's mouth and wash up onto the beach. The sand polishes each block to a gem-like shine.

It was a fun experience but there weren't a lot of jewelry ice available. Still... it was interesting to see this natural phenomenon.

This is what it was supposed to look like if there had been more Jewelry ice strewn on the beach.

After taking photos of all the jewelry ice, we got back on the bus and headed to our hotel for the night. We all got to taste a little sake or wine before our dinner.

There was a train station with a lot of stores next door to the hotel and yes, we were able to get everything our kids suggested that they would like.

We had a wonderful dinner at the hotel and then our guides all performed for us.

Our Hawaii tour escort, Micah is part of a Hawaiian entertainment family so he even knew my nephew who performs in Hawaii and the mainland.

Micah sang and played the ukulele while Kuni danced a hula. Tiger did a rousing song for his baseball team.

This was such a fun day and we would now be on our way back to Sapporo.

50501 Fun

I don't usually post on Sundays. However, one of my dear teacher buddies from Illinois just texted this photo to me and I really can't help but to post it. The Trump protests have brought out such creativity in people that it's absolutely amazing and so much fun!

Have a happy week everybody. 

Day 7: Swan Lake and Ice Fishing

It was now Saturday, February 14th. We'd bought extra handwarmers for the next couple of days. It was startling to realize our trip was more than half over.

Breakfast was at 6:30 again. Yes, that buffet dinner the night before was wonderful and so was the breakfast. We were enjoying having salad with our breakfast every morning. There was a lovely wintry scene outside the window of the restaurant. Large suitcases were being packed to move to the hotel we'd be at in two days. Our small blue bags would be coming with us.

Here's our hotel.

Goodness! It was Valentine's Day!

The guides all gave us a lot of fun Valentine snacks to have on our journey.

Actually...

Valentine's Day (February 14th) in Japan is for women to give chocolates to men to express affection or obligation, reversing Western traditions.

However, White Day is celebrated on March 14th. That's when men give reciprocal gifts to women who gave  them Valentine's gifts the month before. I think the guys give treats like white chocolates or cookies, etc.

No thank you.  I prefer dark chocolate, please.

We were arriving at Lake Kussharo to see the Whooper swans.

There's a hot spring below so it was really fun to stick your hand in the very warm water. That must be why the swans were loving it here at the caldera lake.

I've never seen so many swans flocking together. They were so beautiful and graceful.

Art enjoyed feeling the warm hot spring water too.

We had this delicious hot pot lunch here cooking our seafood and vegetables in this wonderful soup broth. 

And yes, there was a gift shop there where we could do MORE omiyage (gift) shopping. No we didn't overdo purchases this time. We learned our lesson during our trip last year. 😏

After lunch, we were driven to Lake Masshu. It was breathtakingly beautiful. I could not stop taking photos of this incredible place.

Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido.

When we arrived at the New Akan Hotel, we were told we could try ice fishing. The hotel was right next to Lake Akan which was completely frozen over. 

You could do it the easy way and go into a big tent and snag a lot of smelt that were planted there.

Or you could do it the hard way and bait hooks yourself and wait until a smelt decides to try it. Guess what Art, Kay and Dareld decided to do.

Yup. We had to bait the 3 hooks with super, teeny tiny worms and drop it into the hole. I didn't even realize the little bobbing float meant some fish had tried to take my bait.

Here's Art with his big catch. He then worked on adding one of those little pink worms to his hook and guess what. He baited his finger. Yup. The hook was imbedded in his finger. 😲

Would you believe he caught a couple of fish after that? It must have been the taste of blood on the hook. 

After about an hour, the four of us combined were able to catch a total of about 7 fish. We had coupons where we could have had our smelt cooked for us tempura style. Uuummm.... we donated it to the workers.

We were hungry after all that work and had a huge buffet meal. And yes, I indulged in desserts as well. I just COULDN'T pass it up. The endless variety was too much of a temptation.

We were told that there would be a fireworks display on the frozen lake. Kay and Dareld ventured out into the cold to get their photo. Did I mention that they are OVER a decade younger than us?  We took our fireworks photo from our window and went to bed.

I was looking forward to seeing the tancho (Japanese Red-headed Cranes) on the morrow. I did have a good night's sleep at last.

Day 6: Ice Floes and an Icebreaker Boat

It was Friday and the itinerary showed that we were going to Abashiri to board an icebreaker boat. 

We began the morning with an endless variety of Hokkaido delicacies for our breakfast. It wouldn't be easy to go back to my usual overnight oats.

And yes, we especially enjoyed having an endless supply of ikura which are salmon eggs and very, very expensive in Hawaii.

   

We'd traveled many, many miles since leaving Chitose on February 7th and arriving at Lake Saroma the day before.

We went to the Okhotsk Drift Ice Museum and got to do a fun experiment. We were handed a wet towel as we entered a refrigerated room. We then twirled our towels in the freezing air to see it frozen in seconds.

I'll have to tell my granddaughter to try this when they are hit with subzero weather in Chicago.

I know it's crazy but we had to try that caramel soft serve that was sprinkled with little salt crystals. Dareld and Art even finished their cones while looking out at the ocean from the observation deck.

And then we had a very fancy lunch with the entire tour group.

I may have lost most of my sense of taste, but this really was wonderful and I got enough of a flavor to know it was all to be savored.

After being warmed up by the wonderful luncheon, we arrived at Abashiri and boarded the icebreaker boat.

We were all seated inside the boat watching as the icebreaker boat cut its way through the ice floes (sheets of floating ice).

Eventually, we decided to all go outside onto the deck to see the action.

The stern or back of the boat showed the trail we'd made through the ice floe.

Once our boat docked, we were back on the bus heading to the Shiretoko Peninsula which is one of UNESCO's World Natural Heritage sites.

Here we stopped at the Oshin-Koshin Waterfall which is supposed to be in the group of 100 most beautiful waterfalls in Japan. 

OK... It was nice, but looked pretty frozen. We walked up to look at it and then did the penguin walk coming down. That's me with the white down coat being careful not to slip. 

We boarded the bus and headed to Shiretoko Daiichi Hotel. 

And yes, we had to pack for another two nights in those blue bags.

Actually, we also had a carryon that we brought along so we did have lots of storage capacity.

It's just the sorting and planning what to bring that makes my head spin. 

Most people have no problem with it. Sigh...

I think it's really cool that they have a separate toilet and bath area. And yes, there are those toilet slippers again. 

The bath area is interesting because you are to wash yourself outside the tub and then soak in the bathtub.

And yes, we had all the seafood dishes we could ever want for dinner. We were told that this hotel was supposed to have the Best Buffet in Hokkaido. 

It was another wonderful day and we were looking forward to visiting a lake of swans on the following day. Art loved the adventure of seeing all the different places and learning about them. I did too, but I also loved meeting other people and exchanging travel adventures together. 

Throughout the trip, Kay was mindful of my not getting lost, or knowing how the coffee machine works, where the drinks were, etc. Art also noticed that she was just like our daughter, Tiffany in the way she sort of watched over me. When I mentioned this to Tif, she laughed and said that's because I tend to always have a bewildered look. 😳

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

OK... I needed to break into my travel blogging to reassure everyone that we're more or less safe from all the devastating rainstorms and flooding that has hit the islands. It's so sad to see families whose homes have been devastated. The power outages have also caused horrible problems for so many of the grocery stores.

The rainstorm was so bad 2 weeks ago that schools and government offices were closed. Mom’s day care that she calls "Senior Club" was closed as a precaution.

Well... just when we thought it was over, this week we got another round of very heavy rains. We haven't had something like this in a long, long time. In fact, we were complaining at one time that it seemed we were in a drought. 

What we've had to deal with isn't much at all compared to what many others on the islands have suffered but I thought I'd write about it.

The first thing that happened was the support poles around our house developing these water bubbles. These poles support our carport and patio. First we saw these bubbles lifting the paint and plaster away from the poles. When Art poked a hole in it, a lot of water drained out. But where did the leak come from? We don't know but once the rain stops, we'll have to look and see what we can find.

And then I was walking up the stairs and saw this! 😮

The stairs are separating from the outside wall of the house.

Ack! 

Sigh...

I guess when it all dries out, we'll caulk it again.

And then this! 

It was a leak from the window. But we couldn't figure out where in the window it was coming from.

Friday morning, when I looked out at the neighbor's house, I saw that they'd put plywood sheets over their ocean facing windows. That's where the bad weather was coming from.

It never occurred to us to put up our hurricane sheeting on that window.

So in between episodes of rain, we went out and put up the hurricane protection on that leaky window.

Our TV weatherman Guy Hagi is always saying, "We have the best weather on the planet." 

Well... I'm looking forward to seeing that again because right now... it's the pits!

POSTSCRIPT:

I wrote the above post on Saturday. On Sunday morning, I saw that the hurricane sheets did manage to keep out the rain which fell heavily overnight. 

They’re saying the rains aren’t over yet. I’m hoping it will be light and that the worst is over because the people living in lower parts of the island are really suffering right now.🤞

Day 5: Fishes, Toys and the Onsen

Wow! Day 5 came pretty quickly. It was now Thursday, February 12th. 

It was time for our breakfast at the hotel and our Hawaii tour escort, Micah had been making sure that tables would be reserved for Dareld, Kay and us. 

We always made sure to leave our room almost as neat as we found it. 

I'm always impressed with the Japanese toilets. Notice there are even bathroom slippers provided for you when you go into that teeny toilet. The Toto bidet provides you with a water jet to clean your front and back and often times fan to dry your bottom. Notice the handle on the right? The arrow pointing up says "Big" meaning poop. The arrow pointing down says "Small" meaning pee. This is great for water conservation.

We were on the road by 9:00 and it was a white-out again. 

I wondered how our driver was able to see where he was driving.

The arrow pointing downward and covered with snow shows the edge of the road. Good grief! You could hardly see the arrows. Art says they were lighted. Reeeeallly?!?!

I'm glad I wasn't in the first row. Kay and Dareld had those seats. We were behind them so I didn't have the driver's view.

At last, we made it safely to the Northern Earth Aquarium. It's one of the biggest fresh water aquariums in Japan.

The Tambaqui were interesting. They swam very slowly and we wondered if they would actually touch mouths. Yup. They did. It must be some kind of communication?

The Ito or Japanese Huchen apparently can grow to a huge size.

I got this from Wikipedia:

The Sakhalin taimen also known as the Japanese huchen or stringfish 
(Japanese: 伊富/イトウ, romanized: itō), is a large species of salmonid freshwater fish in Northeast Asia, found in the lakes and large rivers of Primorsky, Khabarovsk, Sakhalin and Kuril Islands of Far Eastern Russia, as well as Hokkaido of Japan.

Here is our fellow traveler, Stephen who bravely stuck his hand into the water for the "doctor fish" to nibble dead skin. The wonderful part about living in Hawaii is if you talk to someone for any length of time you will find a connection. Stephen's wife, Grace actually went to school with Art's cousin. We had fun learning how we could all somehow be connected.

Yup. It was another sumptuous lunch. Gosh... so many carbs. I did see my glucose rise during this trip, but it was worth it and I've got it under control again. 

Cha Cha World was our next stop and we saw a lot of toys from around the world. They apparently have 10,000 wooden toys from 40 countries.

I saw the Ainu statue that my aunt had given me decades ago when I visited her in Sendai while in college. And yes, we loved seeing the wooden animals from Kenya. Art brought those home when he visited our son while Keola was serving in the Peace Corps.

I was texting my aunt in Sendai about our trip and showed her these dolls from Sendai. She texted back delightedly saying those dolls are no longer made.

What a surprise when I returned home to Hawaii. My aunt had sent us a picture book about those special dolls. Mom loved reading the book.

Hokkaido is famous for all the amazing seafood that can be found there. 

My brother had told us that he really liked scallop skirts.

This is from AI: 

Scallop skirts (or mantles) are the edible, frilly, and nutrient-rich muscle surrounding the main adductor muscle. Often discarded, they are prized for intense flavor in stocks, sauces (like dashi), or as a textured, chewy snack when dried or stir-fried.

So yes, we got him lots of scallop skirts for taking such good care of mom while we were away.

We were now at Lake Saroma Tsuruga Resort.

That night, I decided I needed to go to the onsen at least once on this trip. Kay (my new and wonderful traveling friend) offered to show me where to go and what to do. Amazingly, we were the only ones at the onsen which is a large pool of water from the hot springs.

After that long, very warm soak in the onsen and a delicious dinner, we went to bed and had a good night's sleep. I told Art how I'd met two other travelers who actually graduated from the same high school as me... granted... much...much later. Siiigh...