JapAX

Hello,

The title is somewhat misleading today, as we`ve actually seen some nice things, but that`s the title of a really good X-Files episode, which I started to think about today.

Anyhoo, we`re now located in Mashu (Masyu) in Akan National Park, which is nice since yesterday nothing really happened (which I suppose would make the title Nothing Important Happened Yesterday, but that doesn`t really have such a nice edge to it). The only thing we really did yesterday was to sit on different trains. We went from Furano at about 10 am and were going to Abashiri; only it took 6 hours, so when we finally got there, things were about to close up. We rented some bicykles and tried to go to the main attraction, the Prison, which to the Japanese is like Alcatraz is for the Americans, only this prison is still in use. But we got lost on our way and the prison closed at 5, so we headed back to the station and waited there for 2 hours or so to travel here to Mashu (there weren`t any cheap places to sleep at in Abashiri).

We made a good choice though; since the hotel we`re staying at now is really nice. Big comfortable rooms, free bicykles and they even picked us up from the trainstation yesterday evening. We`re thinking if going back to Abashiri tomorrow morning though, as it only takes 2 hours from here, and it would be nice to see the prison. We`ll see how it goes.

Well, I should focus more on the things we`ve done here in Mashu, as that`s really the only thing new that`s happened since our last post. This morning we went on a touristbus that passes all the major sights here, and since the weather`s not all so nice, we decided that was the way to go.

We first "saw" Mashu-ko, a famous lake that once held the worldrecord in waterclarity (35m), but it was so foggy you couldn`t see anything, hardly even the bus that stood some 20 meters away. We then saw (for real this time) Izo-san, another vulcaneous mountain, which was very rich in sulphur (or phosphor, don`t really remember) as you can see in the picture. It had a lot of steam coming up from it too; there were even people selling eggs that were boiled in the steam. They tasted like regular kitchen-boiled eggs, but it was fun to try.

We then went to Kussharo-ko, I believe its name was, a much larger lake (57km around) with volcanically warmed sand around it (though it was so cold in the air you didn`t really feel it. The scalding hot mini-onsens here and there you still felt though). That lake, by the way, has its own version of the Loch Ness monster, called Kusshi (Kesshi, I forget the name). It looked like a blue Nessie (well, the souvenirs of it did, sadly enough we didn`t see it).

After that it was pretty much done, we took this photo of us with two of the other tourists from the bus (they asked us), and since then we`ve only been at our hotel really.

Well, this post was maybe a bit scarce, but it`s still something to read for you die-hard fans out there (just kidding). Anyway, see you!

Hello,

Been a few days since our last post, but since we are up in Hokkaido and travelling here and forth in the countryside, it`s a bit hard to find internet.

Anyway, since out last post we`ve had the time to explore Sapporo quite a bit, been to southern Hokkaido to Toya-ko Onsen and also Noboribetsu Onsen (the latter was today even), and (apparently) experienced a rather massive earthquake. Once again terror lashes upon Japan and we don`t even notice it. Although this happened something like 40 km north of Tokyo, and we were something like 400 km north, so at least we have a good excuse. We didn`t even hear about it till our relatives called and asked if we were okay.

Well, enough about what we didn`t experience, and more about what we actually did experience.

After our last post we stayed in Sapporo for three nights, and had time to explore it more. We went to see the famed Sapporo TV-Tower (the eiffel-tower look-alike in the picture), where on the grounds beneath it was a Fairtrade-festival\gathering of sorts. They sold organic things and played traditonal Ainu-music amongst other things.

We also visited the American Phred and his Beer-Inn (the picture below is of him), where we gave him two beers from our homecountry The Aland Islands (in Finland). He was grateful and even bought us two (delicious) beers. It was nice to talk to someone who could speak english in it`s proper form for once. But we also talked to two of his friends for quite a bit, whom also were nice, and were then joined by yet another two people. They were two women working for the Sapporo City (if we understood it correctly. I`m sure at least the one nearest me did). They were really nice and we ended up talking to them until we had to go, since our curfew at the International Youth Hostel was early. Phred, by the way, had more than 5000 beers on display, and more than 300 for sale. I highly recommend the place.

Well, that`s about it for Sapporo, and since I`m in somewhat of a hurry (every 10 minutes costs me 100 Yen) and we want to go to sleep early, I going to make this post in a haste.

For your information we are now back in Sapporo for the night, since there weren`t any cheap place to stay in Noboribetsu Onsen, so we just took the train up here again and are travelling to Furano tomorrow morning. It`s nice to have a JR-pass.

Well, after Sapporo we went to Toya-ko, as mentioned. A really nice, really volcanic little town, which displays 400 fireworks every night from the huge craterlake besides the town (the town is on the south side). We went up in the volcanoes via ropeway and hiked along a mountaintrail for a few kilometers. It was really nice, but extremely tough, since the sun blazed and there were fumaroles everywhere (volcanic vents that release gas, sometimes poisonous, although not the ones we went by). I`ll post all the pictures at the end later.

After that we went, as said, to Noboribetsu Onsen. The most famous Onses Resort in Hokkaido apparently (onsen=hot spring). We went to a really luxurious Onsen-hotel and paid 2000 Yen there, where we stayed for three hours enjoying the more than 15 different, mineral-rich, onsens. And the 82 degrees celsius sauna with a freezing cold onsen right nest to, so it almost felt like Finland again. We didn`t take any pictures there, since it wouldn`t really be appreciated by all the naked people.

Anyhoo, I`m feeling extremely rushed right now, so I`ll just upload the pictures and maybe write a more fulfilling post when we acquire internet again.

Enjoy!