Hokkaido Road trips

Road Trip #1: Lake Toya 

On our second Saturday in Niseko, 21st November. We took off with the van to visit Lake Toya for a day trip with 3 friends from Estonia and 2 from Poland. We didn't have international driving license so they drove us along. Lake toya is about 42km away from Hirafu and it took us an hour to reach.

 

The view was amazing as we drove along the road surrounding the lake

Went down the van to have a closer view of the lake. The moment we went down it was freezing cold, strong wind that our ears hurt so bad. Have to run back the van to grab my beanie haha.

 

the lake is beautiful!

We took the Uzusan ropeway up mt Usu (1500 yen round trip)

 

view of lake Toya from above

There's a hiking trail that is temporary close for maintenance but we trespassed 

The place looks quite dry

Road trip #2: Shakotan 

On the next day Sunday 22nd November, i planned to visit Shakotan peninsula as i heard it was beautiful so i asked a friend from Czech Republic if he would like to go with us, he went with us and drove us along. It was about 73km, took us one and a half hours to reach, it was a long drive.

Stopped by this place where there's lots of people fishing

We can see the sea along the road

We're finally here!! We took another 30 min to reach cape Kamui. Enjoying every moment there.

The view is just breathtaking! Cant stop wow-ing as we walked around.

Cape Kamui

That's our friend 

We didn't have much time as the sky is getting dark early but we manage to some other places then head back.

Road trip #3: Noboribetsu

The next weekend all of us workers went to visit Noboribetsu. This is our last day trip as the snow is starting to fall the day after and so it is hard to drive on slippery road.

You can see smoke coming up everywhere and hot sulfur water boiling underneath 




We all went to the walking trail. It was quite dangerous as the trail is covered with slippery ice. We kept falling, it was scary!  


Found this natural foot spa whee

The water is warm, not hot enough but feels good to soak in after a long walk. I didn't bring any towel so end up  drying my feet with the wind after that.

After that we went for onsen and then homeee

Osaka, Japan

5D4N

Osaka train station

City here we comeee...

Osaka train station is quite confusing, been there a few times and always got lost. Many different pathways that lead to different train platform

Dotonbori& Shinsaibashi

Here we are at one of the busy and touristic place full of fancy decorated food shop

 

Shinsaibashi shopping street & takoyaki shop

Finally got to take a picture with this famous Glico man

 

 We went into this mostly 100 yen sushi store Daiki Suisan Kaiten sushi and order too much sushi in the end                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

My first takoyaki in Japan. It was ok.

looking at this direction while walking, drooling, trying to keep myself from spending too much

 

Went to an anime street and saw mario. The street is full of shops selling video games. Also saw this narrow shop selling bowls somewhere.

We decided to treat ourselves some waffles topped with ice cream and berry sauce (640 yen)

Our look when we are walking for so long trying to look for Umeda sky tower using google map

Minoo falls

We wanted to get out from the city hustle and bustle so we found this place online and here we are. We went there a bit late in the afternoon so the sky got dark very soon since it is winter

 

Its a relaxing place and quiet surroundings. Bought some souvenir at this cat themed store

After some time time hiking we reached our destination. Minoo falls! Spent some time sitting there eating rice ball and admiring the waterfall.

 

sweet persimmon everywhere during this fall-winter season! Chesnut too

Osaka Central Fish market

 

We planned to wake up early in the morning about 3am to watch the tuna auction in one of the Osaka fish market about 1.5km away from our apartment. No train service at this time so we walked. Auction starts at 4.15am. It is nice to walk around the market and see how they work. We also found a canteen food store that sells fresh seafood but too bad it is open later in the day.

 market is already so busy although it is so early in the morning. Watching this guy trying to sort of chainsaw a tuna using all his strength 

Kaiyukan Aquarium 

Visit Kaiyukan aquarium is one of the must do thing in my list. Maybe its because i really wanted to see the whale shark haha. But as we keep walking in the aquarium i got bored quite soon oops. The aquarium is located at the bay area of Osaka

 

There's this hugeee ferris wheel nearby

I think this is my first time seeing dolphin besides on tv.

Capybara, largest species of rodent!! Looks like huge guinea pig

whale shark

hmm what fish is this

The jellyfishes displayed here are very impressive 

Eating Subway for lunch by the bay. I had a 500 yen set that comes with drinks

Osaka castle 

Found our way here using google map. We sat on the bench and admiring it from a distance, didn't enter the castle

The castle is really beautiful especially when the lights are on in the evening :)

 

Back in town

Staying in airb&b apartment just walking distance from Fukushima station. Really small apartment but cosy. There's a walking distance supermarket that has discounted food when the store are almost closing. So we went and got some good stuff back to apartment. Half price! Also got some cheese 204yen, wedges, onigiri 110yen each, carton coffee 90yen from family mart. Feast time

This was when we are at Osaka airport, i think is our last meal before flying home. Some beef, salmon fish, salad, seaweed and miso soup at Yoshinoya 吉野家


We pack our few essential clothing and left our big luggage in Osaka airport locker before flying over to Hokkaido so we dont need to bring it along.