Emmeline's last bow

Emmeline

After losing our Darling Dinky, it was sad to say goodbye to Emmeline just two months later.

Just before leaving for Japan, I instructed my family: "do not euthanise any cats in my absence". It was said half in jest, but little did I know that a few days after my departure Emmeline would suffer a serious ear infection which led to a vet visit, and diagnosis that she too had feline cancer.  She was treated for the ear infection, and so was still alive (but feeble, not eating well) when I returned.  She fell ill again shortly, and had difficulties breathing - difficult to watch.  So we took her back to the vet, and said goodbye one last time.

Emmie and her little pirates

Emmeline started off being called "MC", itself a short form for "mother cat".  She was the mother of our cute little "pirate kittens" (her first and last litter, for we sterilised her after) and was a very devoted mother to them.  

After the little pirates got adopted, MC continued to hang around and from an occasional visitor, became a regular inhabitant of our front yard.  She was on good terms with Mollie and Paddy (our late tom cat), and snuffled amiably at the indoor cats when she caught glimpses of them through the open door.  Eventually we decided that we had been thoroughly adopted and therefore formally named her "Emmeline", or "Emmie" for short.

Watching over her kit.

Emmie's health had its ups and downs.  She developed a mouth infection which resulted in expensive dental treatment and the loss of numerous teeth (she became our $500 cat).  From the front yard, we moved her to the back yard to watch over her recovery.  But she was hard to budge - even after her health improved, she became the undisputed queen of the yard, with all our other cats watching her warily whenever they ventured into her territory.  She happily invaded the house too, lying on our sofa in the afternoons.

It's hard picking out her photos; she looks a great deal like Mickey (our other dear departed black & white) so I'm picking out the ones I definitely know are of her....

Emmie indeed gave us many warm and fuzzy moments, and we miss her.

Last Stop Hakodate

Nightfall - Mount Hakodate

We reached the last destination of our Hokkaido trip, Hakodate, where we would stay one night before flying back to Singapore via Tokyo the next day.  The good thing about flying ANA is that we can make use of the extensive domestic flight network, enabling us to see more cities.

Anyway, Hakodate, like Otaru, has lots of trade links to Russia, and from there to Europe.  It has imbibed considerable European influences as can be seen in the old city at Motomachi, where there are a few churches - Anglican, Catholic, and Russian Orthodox - next to each other. The British consulate is not far off, as is the old Hakodate Public Hall.

Converted Warehouses in Hakodate 

We had gotten a 2-day tourist bus ticket, so we happily rode around the old town, getting off whenever we felt like it.  Aside from the churches, we went to the old pierside area where the ships used to unload their goods, to be stored in the long warehouses along the pier.  Today, these warehouses have been converted for retail use, with little shops selling food, handicrafts etc within.  And it was here that we found out that just as Furano has "Delice" and Otaru "Le Tao", Hakodate's major cheesecake maker is "Snaffles"!  Snaffles have a few branches in Singapore, and I must say I rather enjoy eating their "catch cakes".  We had the opportunity to sample a wider range of Snaffles' products here too.

The number one tourist activity in Hakodate, though, is to see the night view from Mount Hakodate.  We  went up early - or at least so I thought - but by the time we got there, the place was really crowded with people lined three deep in order to get photos of the view. The view was beautiful, with the glittering lights outlining the city.

Hakodate morning seafood market

The view was nice, yes, but the highlight of our visit was definitely the morning seafood market.  Situated across the road from our hotel, we walked over for our seafood breakfast.  We started with sea urchin - freshly opened up, with some cooked shellfish on the side.  We ate it all up with gusto.

The market itself had many other little food stalls.  After hearing that Hokkaido (aside from melons) was also well known for its potatoes, I was glad that I finally managed to get one freshly baked potato with a dab of fresh butter inside.  It was indeed a good and satisfying snack and I also thoroughly enjoyed the matcha ice cream which rounded off my meal.

After going to Kyoto last year, Hokkaido presents an interesting contrast.  Settled in the early 20th century, it has a far more modern feel to it than the ancient capital.  I enjoyed the Hokkaido produce - potatoes, vegetables, melons and dairy products, and marvelled at the scenery - the majestic volcanos, serene lakes and the pastoral beauty of its flower fields. I look forward to my next visit to Japan....

Sapporo station is the place to be

A room with a view

I have a confession to make.  Although we spent three nights in Sapporo, we spent most of our days outside Spporo, doing day trips.  As a result, we didn't see much of Sapporo at all, except for the gigantic and rather enjoyable Sapporo station (co-located with a gigantic mall!)

We stayed at the JR Tower Hotel Nikko Sapporo, located at the station itself.  We took the bus from Furano to Sapporo and were quite delighted to find out that the bus station was literally on the doorstep of the hotel.  It was such a breeze checking in! We had a room on a lovely high floor with a gigantic picture window.  We would spend much time sitting here, just taking in our beautiful view of Sapporo, with the mountains in the background.

Elder-friendly shower

The room itself was pretty decent but what I thought was truly thoughtful was its elderly friendly bathroom, with an enclosed area housing both shower and bath, with a stool to sit in, and the faucet placed at a comfortably low level (taller people could use another set).  The floor looked to be non slip and there were a number of well placed grab bars.  And what I like about Japan - differently coloured toothbrushes so you don't get mixed up on who's is who's. They do these little things so very well.

The beauty of staying at Sapporo station though is that it is handy for everything - buying our breakfast buns, a simple ramen meal, food souvenirs to take home, etc.  We also tried out one of the conveyor belt sushi restaurants here too - enjoyable but my  favourite sushi experience this time continues to be in Furano with the big pieces of fish.

Crab, many ways

We also had one of the most unique meals of our trip here - a kaiseki crab feast at Kani Honke crab restaurant.  The restaurant is a few streets away from our hotel and it is famous for its crab.  We chose from the kaiseki sets available, gorging on crab sashimi, boiled cold crab, crab sushi, baked crab in its shell, crab gratin in a cute little crab shaped clay dish featured in our meal.   There were different varieties of crab available, Alaskan king crab, snow crab etc.  I think we didn't get much more than a bit of the King crab leg but the flesh was really so sweet. Whilst it was fun to see all the different ways crab could come in, at the end of it just that cold boiled crab was simply perfect.  That's the beauty of fresh sea food. 

We also tried out the regional  specialty - "Genghiskhan" or "Jingisukan", named after the conquering Mongol.  It is essentially a mutton BBQ type dish and unfortunately we probably didn't know how to order it. The lean meat was fine but there was also some strange cuts which were quite tough.

I should probably have spent a little more time in Sapporo, visiting some of the sights here. But we could only get the hotel for three nights and so we decided to travel down to Hakodate and spend our last night in Hokkaido there, before flying back to Siingapore.

More photos of Sapporo here!.

Geological wonders - the Shikotsu-Toya National Park

We took a 1-day tour out of Sapporo to visit two caldera lakes, Lake Shikotsu and Lake Toya.  The tour took us also to the crater of Mount Usu, which is a live volcano (!) although its last eruption was in 1977 (quite a spectacular one, as it turned out) and a view of Mount Yotei, a mini-Mount Fuji.

I do recommend these day tours for people who want to see the country side but don't want to have to work too much for it.  The Chuo Bus tour we took left from the bus station just next to our hotel, was very informative, good value (includes lunch), and was very efficiently and well run (just what every good Singaporean wants).  We had an "audio-lingual" tour, ie we had our own set of headphones and so could select the commentary in the language of our choice (English, Chinese, Korean, and of course Japanese).  The commentary covered  quite a bit of background on the development of Hokkaido as well as on the places we were visiting, the flora and fauna of the region, and even (when we were getting back to Sapporo) on Sapporo gourmet delights.

Lake Shikotsu and our glass bottomed-boat

Columns on the floor of Lake Shikotsu

We travelled first to Lake Shikotsu, where we took a boat ride in a glass-bottomed boat from which we could view the lake floor.  The water is amazingly clear at the sides, although it did get slightly more murky the further out we got from the shore.  What was fascinating was that there were these columns appearing at the base of the lake.  The explanation was that this was caused by volcanic activity in the past, when caverns formed by magma collapsed, leaving the columns.  The crater eventually filled with water, creating the lake.  The lake itself is quite deep in the middle, so much so that it does not freeze even in the depths of the Hokkaido winter.  You can read more about Lake Shikotsu in this good write-up I've found on the Lake and surrounding mountains.

Our next stop would be at a little rest stop where (accordingly to the commentary) the locals were famous for their mushrooms.  So we had a yummy bowl of mushroom miso soup, tonnes of mushrooms within for the princely sum of 100Y!!!  A good deal indeed.

Two of the four cute little islands of Lake Toya

We went to Lake Toya next - this is another caldera lake, but with four cute little islands in the middle! No, we did not visit the islands.  Unfortunately for us.  But it was nonetheless an interesting visit, and we spent some time by the lakeside enjoying the scenery.

Lake Toya is clearly more developed and accessible than Lake Shikotsu - there's a few decent sized hotels here - I an see this place being very popular for say conferences or corporate retreats (if the Japanese have such things that is). We had lunch here. It was a pretty good lunch, lots of veggies, but also a hamburger and a panko-encrusted prawn.  

Mount Usu crater

Next stop - Mount Usu, an active volcano which last erupted in 2000-2001.  It was great fun, as we went up a ropeway to the top of the mountain and then saw the volcano crater. Apparently  there is a walk which takes you much closer to the crater's edge but we did not go there....

The mountain actually overlooks Lake Toya, so we had beautiful views of the lake from this vantage point, next to the little volcano Mount Showa Shinzan. Mount Showa Shinzan came up by itself in the middle of a farmer's field between 28 Dec 1943 and Sep 1945 as a result of volcanic activity in the region.   

Lake Toya with Mount Showa Shinzan

Mount Yotei was the last mountain we came close to on our tour.  Japan has a number of mountains which they call "mini mount Fujis", so called because of the regular symmetrical shape of its slopes.  Mount Yotei is one of them.  We did not visit it per se but we viewed it from Lake Toya and also drove near it.  We saw it from various points and this was one of the last photos taken - by this time, it was getting darker, so it looks rather moody from my photo.  

Mount Yotei

Lots more photos in my Hokkaido album on Flickr.

Visiting Otaru

Otaru Canal

From Furano, we took the train to Sapporo, where we would stay for a few days, making day trips out to the surrounding areas. The first of these was to Otaru.  Otaru is an old shipping town, which historically was an important trading centre for countries such as China and Russia.  From the latter, European influences crept in. Today, Otaru is famous for its canal, old merchant houses, music boxes and beautiful glass.  It is also a handy day trip out of Sapporo.

I had forgotten to mention this earlier but it turned out whilst we were safely in Hokkaido, southern Japan was being lashed by Typhoon Nangka. We did, however, experience rather rainy weather on our visit to Shisaki- no-oka, near Biei, and it was likewise a rather windy day in Otaru, with the weather worsening as the day went along. 

But when we started the day, taking the train out from Sapporo station, it was a beautifully sunny day.  The

Otaru Orgel Doh - one of the glass shops,
with the steam clock in front

train would take us also down the coast in some sections, giving us the opportunity to to gaze at the cold blue waters of the sea. When we got off, at Otaru, we followed the crowds and sure enough, they took us to the canal where once upon a time the canal boats would load up from the warehouses situated on the sides of the canal. Today, the warehouses have been transformed to eating places, and tourist boats ply up and down the canal. Strapping young men in striped t-shirts also offer trishaw services - I suppose this is meant to establish Otaru's claim to be the Venice of the East, or at least of Japan. 

The other point of similarity between Otaru and Venice is, of course, glass. There are many glass shops  here

Music Box lovers rejoice!

in Otaru, along the main shopping street of Sakaimachi Street.  This was the old merchants' quarters, and these sturdy houses indeed look a little more European than Japanese at least to my eyes.  Today they are shops - mostly selling souvenirs, glass and music boxes.  Some times they combine the two and you can get a music box, with a little glass figurine of your choice perched on top!  We spent some time looking for and finally found the Music Box museum.  The music boxes mainly feature European themes, and include a rather large organ which is really a music box!  

Other highlights of our visit include a steam clock (a gift from Vancouver, Canada), walking along the old railway line and taking a morning break at  Le Tao.  Le Tao is Otaru's answer to Furano Delice, with its own version of the Double Fromage cheesecake.  But it has expanded well beyond Otaru with branches in Sapporo as well.   We did have another break at Misono, a little ice cream parlour on the way back to the station.

More info on Otaru here and more pictures of Otaru at my Flickr page - Hokkaido album.

Dining out in Furano

Furano's peak season is in summer (lavender) and winter (ski-ing and snow).  As a result, they do have quite a number of hotels and quite nice little restaurants for a small town.

Toiletries and spa goodies at Hotel Natulux

Most of the hotels, however, are up near the ski slopes or away in the surrounding area so we were lucky to get rooms at the Hotel Natulux, located right by the Furano bus and train station for easy access.  It was a nice hotel, with a superb range of toiletries which of course we appreciated very much!   The hotel came with breakfast too - choice of western or Japanese breakfast, so as we were there for a few nights we had the opportunity to try both.  The best thing about breakfast was the bottle of fresh milk - so rich that the cream has risen to the top and sticks to the foil top - so you have to shake it hard to redistribute the cream again.  

Lunch was largely eaten on the road so we had to make up for it at dinner.  We went to Kumagera, known for their beef shashimi and nabe (hot pot).  The beef shashimi comprised thin slices of wagyu over seasoned rice.  There is a yummy soy-wasabe-savoury marinade which is poured over the beef before eating - probably lightly cooks the beef, much like lemon and olive oil for fish caparccio.  The hot pot nicely complemented the beef too - duck, chicken, venison (one little piece) and vegetables in a miso broth.  Washed down, of course, with Sapporo beer.

Fukuzushi - Chirashi Sushi Bowl

Another night, we went to Fukuzushi, right next to the hotel.  I had a lovely, huge chirashi sushi bowl. Large pieces of sashimi (that's what they are known for, apparently) - really a delight to eat these large fresh pieces of fish.  Probably the best meal I had in Furano!  

We also went to a well-known little patisserie, Furano Delice (I call it "Felice" for short, and I do feel happiness there!).  It's known for its milk pudding but we ate their Double Fromage Cheese Cake - with a normal cheese cake base at the bottom and a mousse-y layer on top.  Really quite light and yummy, so it's easy to

Happiness at Furano Delice

get down.  I must confess that I was also very happy with the mini cheesecake I bought from Furano Marche (the shopping mall for tourists, specialising in local produce) the day before.

Curry Rice at Masaya- check out the milk!

Apparently Furano is also famous for its omelette curry rice, so I had to have that too, at Masaya, an omelette curry rice restaurant at the heart of town.  I got the Furano special, so called because itis meant to showcase the best of local produce. As such it is served with a little bottle of milk (much like what we have been eating for breakfast every morning).  I am not a big fan of Japanese curry (lacks the lemak-lemak flavour of Southeast Asian curries) and I guess this still doesn't change things but I liked the thinly cooked omelette the rice came in, the tender strips of pork and the pickled cabbage (sauerkraut style) on the side.

So that's the run-down on meals in Furano.  The food adventures continue in Sapporo.....

Furano and Biei - a world of flowers

This year, I went to Hokkaido to experience the beauty of Japan in flowers and lavender.  We arrived in the town of Ashikawa on 11 July and such is the tourist appeal of Hokkaido in the summer, that there is a special "Lavender Bus" from Ashikawa airport straight to Furano.  In winter, Furano is all about ski-ing.  But in summer, it is about lavender and indeed there is an entire website devoted to this topic.

There are numerous lavender farms around Furano but one of the most famous is Farm Tomita, so of course that was where we went. And, we were not disappointed. We had selected the timing of our visit carefully.  Lavender, apparently, fluoresces in July and the peak of its fluorescence is in the third week.  The Japanese take it very seriously, just as they monitor and track the opening of the cherry blossoms ("sakura") they also have a fluorescence index to monitor the blooming of the lavender.  But of course the peak of the lavender bloom is when the tourists are out in full force and so we decided we would not compete with them and arrived one week before.  Even so, the fields were beautiful, a deep purple in colour and stretching out across the horizon.

Lavender field, Farm Tomita (Lavendin in front, Lavende at the back)

Now in a previous visit to Provence in France, we had missed the lavender season (and it was raining) but we learnt there that the French felt that only their lavender ("Lavende") was the true lavender and the type found in other countries including Japan was a less form ("Lavendin"). I am forced to say that I personally find the deep purple of "Lavendin" far more photogenic.  But, I should say also that the Farm Tomita features many varieties of lavender, including (I think) "Lavende".  And in truth, there are many different types of lavender available.  A relatively simple list can be found here.

Lavende, complete with bee

Lavendin, I suspect

It was also really quite interesting to track the lavender flowers fluorescing.  Our hotel had a few pots of lavender out in front and we managed to see the little flowers opening up.  I have never really seen the lavender flowers in such profusion before.

Fluorescing

 Lavender products could also be had a-plenty. And in addition, Furano is well known for its Yubari melon,  the price of which can go into the thousands and ten thousands of Japanese yen.Fortunately we got our slice for just 200Y each.

Yubari melon

Lavender Ice Cream

Lots  more photos of my visit to Farm Tomita can be found here.

We would do more flower gazing the next day, at Shikisai-no-oka, a flower farm between Furano and the nearby town of Biei.  Biei is considered one of the most beautiful villages in Japan - a reference really to the peaceful rolling hills and flower farms and fruit farms in the area.  But unfortunately, it was a rainy day when we went there and this discouraged us from roaming around.  The flower farm, however, was all one could ask for. Here're one or two pictures just to spark off some interest.  More photos can be enjoyed on my Flickr page.

Flowers and a distant view of hills

Flower fields, Shikisai-no-oka