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...