Sunday
We were really looking forward to a wonderful Hokkaido holiday. A came with us as the last trip to Japan ended in disaster. She came down with severe dengue and had to break her trip mid-way to come back to Malaysia to be treated. The Japanese doctor had no idea how to treat dengue!
On Sunday morning we touched down at Chitose in the morning and took a bus to Poplar to collect our Toyota. The car was spacious and was able to carry our 3 big bags.
Tim spent some time with the Japanese young man working at Toyota rental asking him to key in all the GPS for our 7 day destinations! I really marvel at the patience of the young man. I think we must have spent over 4 hours at Toyota. As it turned out, we could use our Google map and even Waze to direct us to our scheduled destinations!
Car rental was about RM2k for the 7 day 8 night trip. It was supposed to be a shorter trip but the airline had to change our flight from Saturday to Monday. Needless to say we were to be well compensated for the delay.
After getting all the destinations keyed in we travelled to Lake Toya as the first destination. We had lunch along the way. At the first rest stop, we bought curry rice, sushi and cup noodles to eat. It was extremely cold. I could feel the cold entering my bones. I had to buy socks and gloves for the protection from the cold. Maybe it was about 10 degrees celsius...brr...brr....Another thing about Japanese highway rest stops. Usually there is only one shopping mart and you can find everything there especially pre-packed warm food - yummy!
Lake Toya is a beautiful lake in Hakodate. We stopped at the Hotel at Lake Toya to take some lovely pictures of the lake.
I bought a white scarf for my neck at the shop located in the Hotel for 2k yen but lost it at one of the Airbnb. Until today, the host has not responded to me despite me sending her an email to check on this.
We then followed the GPS to our first lodging for the night at Hakodate. As it was dark and the roads were dimly lighted, it was quite a challenge to find Yuki's place in the middle of nowhere off the wind-swept roads of Hakodate. Hakodate is near the Pacific ocean. Travelling on the road fronting the ocean was an awesome experience. We saw ocean breakers in the form of cement blocks to keep the violent waves out. There did not seem to be anyone about like a ghost town.
Unfortunately we could not find Yuki's place and had to knock on doors. The first person who guided us was drunk (could smell liquor in the mouth). She took us back to the main road and refused to take us to the house as she said there was a police station nearby. The second couple ran a small shop. They did not allow us to use their phone.
Finally we had to go to the police station and asked the policeman to take us to the house. So our first day we had police escort to Yuki's place!
Finally we found the place! Praise the Lord! The lady running the place had switched off all the lights as she had to go to the airport, that was why we could not locate it in the first place.
We then went out to look for food. We found a nice Japanese eatery down the wind-swept road and had ramen all around. It was cold and the warm soup lighted us up.
After dinner, we decided to go up to Mount Hakodate to view the night view as it has been listed as one of the things to do in Hakodate. We asked for help and guidance from the restaurant workers and were able to use our google map to Mount Hakodate. That's when we found out that google map and waze can also be used in Japan and was also as good as the car GPS!
Unfortunately we were not allowed to go up by the policemen guarding the entrance to the mountain.
We then went back to the house and met up with some guests staying the night:
1. David, an Indonesian studying at Osaka Uni
2. Pearlyn & Gavin, Singaporeans who forgot to apply their international driving licence and had to find their way to the house by private car/taxi!
The house was nice and warm but with so many rooms, one toilet to wash and shower was really insufficient. We had a good sleep though.
End of day one.
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