Day 3: Snowmobile and Banana Boat?

We learned it was 23 degrees outside in Asahikawa that Tuesday morning, February 10th. 

Art had done some laundry in the hotel bathroom sink the day before. Wow! The bathroom could not have been made any smaller. Thankfully, our socks and such were dry. 

We'd also bought more handwarmers.

We were still the last ones down to breakfast. We weren't late, just last 😳.... Hawaii travelers tend to get everywhere early.

On the way down to breakfast with Kay and Dareld, we met Australians who were there for skiing. Apparently, Hokkaido is great for skiing. Hmmm.... lots of hills, lots of snow, lots of cold. I guess so.

The skies were blue and although the streets were snow covered, at least our driver could see the surroundings clearly.

We passed Furano which is famous for its lavender fields.  

We actually came to Furano in June, 2014 with another tour company. My brother and mom had come with us. 

We still laugh about how we came to this famous lavender field, but when we got there... the guide said, "I hope you knew that July is lavender season, not June." 😯 Uuuummm...nooo ... Ah well, we got to try lavender ice cream.

OK, so we were now back in Furano, but it was for a snowmobile ride. When we were in Hawaii, Art had signed us up for a snowmobile ride. I said OK not knowing exactly what that was going to be like.

And I also agreed to a banana boat ride. Hmmm... I figured it would be an actual comfortable boat on the snow. 

So here we were gathered around the fellow teaching us all how to operate the snowmobile. Uuuummm.... You mean we were going to do our own snowmobile? 

Here's Dareld and Kay on their snowmobile.

And see how I'm smiling?

That was before Art started the machine and drove over all the ruts and hills in the snow. The chair in the back was digging through my 6 layers of clothing and causing my back to ache. There wasn't much padding in the seat back.

Who me? Grumble? Naah...

Art had a great time.

And here's the banana boat. We did this with tour buddies Dana and Rebecca. 😂 OK... Also not what I expected.

But what the heck... It was a new experience.

Our lunch with Kay and Dareld was at a restaurant serving local pork chops. 

It was rather good and we enjoyed it. 

We then headed back to Asahikawa for their winter festival.

There were more snow sculptures. I think I heard that some of the sculptures were made by students. I must have misheard them because I know what my snowmen looked like when we lived in Illinois.

We had to try this snow maze. 

Yes, I took a few wrong turns, but we made it out OK.

There were two ice slides. One was for little kids and the other for whoever wanted to have the experience. 

Nope. Not with my vertigo problem.

But yes, Dareld and Kay absolutely loved it.

When Art came down that hill and I saw him turning around and around on the inner tube I was grateful I chose to watch and take photos because this would have been catastrophic for my dizzy brain.

Returning to our hotel, we were happy to see that there was an Aeon Mall 2 blocks away. We had been given "Payday envelopes" to pay for our own dinners. We chose McDonalds to have an Ebi (Shimp) Filet burger and chicken nuggets. I also had a melon drink. I'd really gotten to like their carbonated melon drinks in many of buffets we were eating at.

We spent quite a lot of time at Daiso (100 Yen store) and several other shops.

When we got back to our hotel, we had to pack our "Tohoku blue bags" for two nights while our big suitcases were to meet us 3 days later.

OK, you understand it takes me a lot of time to think what to pack and repack for those blue bags. We were also pretty darn tired. Remember...we were the oldest people on this tour.

Kay and Dareld on the other hand are much younger and have a lot more energy although Art would probably have gone with them. They shared these photos with us from the Asahikawa Winter Festival which was pretty much right next to our hotel. Looks like the snow had been cleared off the ice sculptures and they were darn amazing. Art was determined the next morning to go and take some photos himself.