A Longer Trip to Hokkaido

[drron]

There are a few restaurants on the floor below the JR Inn. They didn't seem to be very popular. we went for one that had a few selections. It wasn't that great but not bad either. Mrsdrron had salmon sashimi on rice whilst I had the tempura on rice.




They both came as sets with miso soup and pickles..

The next day the rain was heavy in the morning. So we just wandered around the Mall but spending more time on the food outlets. We went righ around the Aeon supermarket. Even here thee prices for spirits is very low. First the whiskies.














But also the large bottles you can get 4 and 5 litres.

 

[drron]

And banana Kit Kats.


And some nice looking sushi and sashimi.






Huge scallops.

 

[drron]

Not sure what these were.


On the wine section was this.


Yes missing Tasmania and the ACT. And only 2 cities.
We then had lunch. Mrsdrron wasn't hungry so had a mango smoothie. I went for the Takoyaki as there was always a line there. They were producing them non stop.










And they were nice.

 

[drron]

It looked like it had stopped raining so we went outside and started walking to the shopping street. The Emergecy services were giving demonstrations.






No I didn't turn on the siren.


As we passed the display the rain started up again and was getting heavier so back inside and had a good look at Royces chocolates.






Then we went back to the supermarket and bought some sushi as well as a bottle of wine and beer. Pretty good seafood .

 

[drron]

Monday morning wasn't looking good weather wise but it was the day to pick up our hire car at Toyota although it was a hertz booking. The view from our room on awakening.


Check out time was 10am and we were to pick up our rental at midday. Fortunately the JR Inn has a "lounge" near the front desk. any guest can use it and a coffee machine is provided so we each had a cappuccino. We left there at ~1115. There was no one on the front desk and there were Closed signs at each computer. Well check in will not be until 3pm.
We took our bags and we sat on a seat where the grey and white cars are turning in the picture above.


An old Japanese man sat down beside us and started talking. so I got out my phone and started using Google translate. But he didn't understand what was written in Japanese so I switched to the microphone and he only understood a little. A Japanese woman came over and acted as a translator between google translate and the old fellow. Found out he was 92 and born locally. I then had to go to the Toyota office leaving Mrsdrron with our new friends.

Our trip nearly ended then. At the Toyota office I was told our rental was cancelled because I didn't turn up on the 5th. I knew I had orignally booked the 7t. I looked up my emails and there ws a confirmation email from Hertz saying pick up was on the 5th. I really hadn't noticed that. But I went to my Hokkaido emails and the original email from Hertz said the 7th. That saved my bacon as until then it was just a shrug of the shoulders and sorry. But on producing the email the woman went and spoke to a fellow at a desk presumably the manager. So she came back saying we can rent you a C1 car. It would be ready and at 1230. So I went back to Mrsdrron and she was still chatting away to the 92 year old. Neither knew what the other was saying. I guess he was just lonely.

Back to Toyota. I now just had that doubt everything would be OK so signed for all the insurances. However that still came to slightly less than the original booking for a Corolla. Our car was a Toyota Passo. More room than we expected. Today filled it for the first time - 21 litres after 550Km drive. Fuel was 167 yen per litre- $1.67.

Back to pick up Mrsdrron. apparently our friend hsad deliberately missed 2 busses to keep the conversation going. Gave us a big wave good bye. So scenes on the way to Furano.

 

[drron]

A little north of Biei we came across a Flower farm so stopped.

 

[drron]

It's quite sad that this sign was ignoredby some.


But the bees love this time of year.




Nice views over the surrounding country.




And a little vineyard next door.

 

[drron]

A lovely start for our time in the flower fields.
We then treated ourselves to a lavender ice cream each.

 

[drron]

Our lavender ice cream.


Couldn't help a few more shots walking back to the car.








A couple of wrong turns but eventually found our hotel. So our room.










We had a couple of problems. First the GPS. It is too smart. Typing in the name of your destination. No space bar and you just keep typing. However after about 6 letters it comes up with suggestions. So for prince hotel it came up with a list of Prince hotels virtually all in Honshu and not the closest one on the list. Sometines putting the name in a different arrangement of words but putting in Furano as the first word brought up about 10 places in Furano but no hotels or restaurants.
So I reverted to google maps on my phone. The airalo esim worked well in Sapporo and Asahikawa but very flaky when in Furano and in rural areas. I wouldn't advise it for Hokkaido.

 

[RooFlyer]

So I reverted to google maps on my phone

can you get your phone to talk to the screen in the car? The GPS I had in my car in Hokkaido only accepted addresses in Japanese or using the destination phone number. I wanted to go to locations for instance lookouts without phone numbers so I had to also use Google Maps on my phone and plugged it into the car USB & it worked like at home.

 

[drron]

Ours is an English GPS. It does accept English names and phone numbers but sometimes comes up with phone number not recognised.

But just by studying the map the night before there are much easier routes than Google comes up with although they take longer. Two days ago for example driving from Furano to Kushiro I noticed Route 38 went between the 2. Easy Peasy and a nice scenic route. Today I will follow 44 then 243 which will take us along the coast most of the way. naturally the sea fog is beginning to roll in here in Kushiro.

 

[drron]

Our little box car.




We tried to book for dinner at the hotel. There are no A La carte restaurants and of the 8 restaurants we could only get a booking for the dinner buffet in the banquet hall at 9.30. No thanks. So we went to the shop. Several interesting things including the first time we have seen strawberry and red bean kit kats.


Pictures of these birds are all over the place.


So we had a bottle of white wine. Quite OK and only 1240 yen. Mrsdrron had a packet of crisps - better than any in Australia plus grape jelly. I had of course some more interesting stuff.




Both were good.
Then the night views from our room.

 

[drron]

After breakfast the next morning which was a buffet in the banquet hall it was off to find some gardens. took a wrong turn but my sense of direction didn't let me down. two turns later we were at the Tomita farm one of the biggest farms and free to enter and park. The parking lot was next to one of their lavender paddocks so that's where we started. But first the hotel.




We had only started when we heard the special flower train.














Now as you can see they have ropes up round the flowers and lots of signs to keep out of the flowers. Doesn't stop the moronic tik tokers, instagrammers and influences. Lots of evidence.

 

[drron]

Lots of Lavender.

 

[Black Duck]

Lovely flowers. Is that a Japanese top Mrsdrron is wearing? It looks lovely on her.

 

[drron]

Lovely flowers. Is that a Japanese top Mrsdrron is wearing? It looks lovely on her.

It is a top she bought for our Cherry blossom cruise around Japan but not bought in Japan.
So back to flowers.
Tomita farm has several shops and cafes that obviosly py for the flowers. The place was very busy.




The major shop leads through to the area that they produce perfumes and Lavender oil.




It also gives you a quick glimpse of more of the farm.


So out the back we went.

 

[drron]

 

[drron]

 

[drron]

A shop for dried flowers.










And new things to eat.

 

[drron]

And staff transport.