MONDAY 22ND MAY - THE DAY BEFORE DEB'S BIRTHDAY

A great day today. We left our hotel after I had my final onsen experience this morning and headed up the Niseko Panoramic Line, coincidentally called Route 66, and indeed panoramic it was.

As we climbed up into the mountains, we stumbled across several hot springs villages, including one where the outdoor pools of the onsen were very public, particularly with a telescopic lens. There didn't appear to be anyone in them.

The higher we went, the more snow we encountered. There is an awful of water yet to come off the mountains as the snow melts.

Once back on the coastal plain, we travelled the Japanese equivalent of the Great Ocean Road. Very spectacular with many tunnels and a very rugged coastline.

We encountered some road works but we were able to work out that the stop and go man wanted us to stop even though we couldn't read any of his signs.

We also encountered a toiret, the first one we have encountered. We didn't go in to see what purposes a multi purpose toiret might be used for. Having said that, we shouldn't be critical of their English. Any English we get to see is greatly appreciated. Very little English is spoken in this part of Japan. We had a lovely experience with a young lady at the hotel last night. She was the resident English language staff member but wasn't very good. She was very apologetic for her poor English but, as we said to her, her English was a lot better than our Japanese. She was very sweet.

 

We are now in Otaru, a city of approximately 130,000 people. On the way in we drove up Mount Tengu to get a bird's eye view of the city. Our hotel is the one with the round structure of columns on the roof. Unfortunately the hazy conditions have returned so long distance photos are not very clear.

Mt. Tengu is also accessed by a ropeway which obviously also forms part of the skiing infrastructure in winter. It seems strange that the base of the ski field is almost at sea level, a very short distance from the ocean.

This afternoon, we went for a local walk. A feature of this area are the Otaru canals. Now a tourist attraction but they played an important role in the era of early sea trade.

Our car is safely stacked up nearby. I drove it into a lift, locked it and left it and the lift doors closed. The parking station is a 10 story high completely windowless building.

 

Tomorrow afternoon, we surrender our little pedal car (which by the way I discovered is 4WD - no ground clearance of course) which, but for the long useless drive down to Hakodate, has served us very well.

Tokyo on Wednesday, Singapore on Thursday for a few days then home.