hokkaido pt IV: onsen

Jozankei, an area about an hour from Sapporo, is known for its high number of onsen, or hot spring, resorts. Onsen is basically you strip and get stark naked into a hot pool of water with complete strangers. Nothing strange about that. Some resorts are even mixed - so boys and girls in a lovely hot pot together. Ours was not.

 Snow confusing our temporal senses. Spring? Winter? Who knows?

The actual resort. No photos from inside I'm afraid (tee-hee) but it was nice. 40 degrees in the water and a shining sun above your head. Not sure I'd be excessively comfortable with a mixed one though. So shy, so shy!

That's all from Hokkaido. It's not the most exciting of places, and it would certainly be easier if you could drive around (it's huge!) as transportation isn't as convenient and developed as in our dear Tokyo. Very happy we went though, and it's always fun travelling with the bausses!

If you're on Facebook - all the good photos are there as my camera is rather quite French balcony compared to Viv's gazebo miracle machine. If not, I'll show you at some point if you're nice enough.

That shall be all for now. Ta!

Jo x

hokkaido pt III: food

 Omuraisu: rice wrapped in omelette. Here with fresh tomato and ruccola. This is yummy stuff.

 Ice cream every day! Hokkaido is famous for milk, so that's the special one. Also melon, god knows why.

 NB! Not mine. Salmon sashimi with rice. 

 Katsudon. Pork with egg (?).

 Me, me, me! Veggie tempura with rice and pickles (tsukemono). The pink stuff is cherry blossom salt, and the green is green tea salt.

 Crab galore for my girls, whereas for me...

 ...more veggie tempura and rice. Also the nice staff gave me fruit as I had to ask them to remove the crab and the udon noodles (fishy sauce).

 Sapporo limited edition Classic beer. Needless to say....disgusting. Beer is not my cup of tea.

Ramen is meat broth with pork and noodles and veggies. Really, really traditional. So, naturally, I went into a ramen-only restaurant and asked them to do it veggie for me. Don't think I made any friends there.

Next up: onsen!

Jo x

hokkaido pt II: otaru

Otaru is a small town by the sea side, roughly around 40 minutes from Sapporo. It consisted of two things: sushi restaurants and glassware shops. No joke. I've seen enough glass products to last me a lifetime. But the sun was out, allowing us to be bausses with shades, and enjoy a day strolling around and taking funky photos.

by Vivien Hsiao

Follow up: FOOD POST! I know you want it.

Jo x

hokkaido pt I: sapporo

Ho, ho, ho - photos are a tad delayed I admit, but in order to quench your drenching thirst to take part in my travels, I shall post more and better than initially planned. Ho, ho - who's a nice girl now?! Anyway, less talk, more photo-ing. As such:

 Weirdest place. Ever.

 Oompa-loompas!

 Temple stuff.

 Observation hill.

PUG!

All of the above is Sapporo. For the rest of the photos, click HERE.

bitch is back II

I'm back from Hokkaido and as promised, photos will be posted this evening. But for now I shall have to dig in to the mountain of work that awaits. I just finished redecorating my note pad, so I think I'm out of excuses.

Ta!

Jo x