Our next adventure - Houseboat?

After my camper van adventure in 2014, I decided that the next adventure would be on water - house boating.

I checked out house boating in Australia, New Zealand, and even Canada. Canada because when we were travelling in Canada in late 2012, we passed by Shuswap, British Columbia, which claims to be "the house boating capital".



And I have a few options.

The simplest option was just to travel with the wife and kid. Three of us on a cosy little houseboat for 4 to 6.

Another option was to bring my in-laws and maybe my mom. This would mean a slightly larger houseboat, and likely would be more expensive. And I would have to bear the travel costs for some or all of them.

And recently, I had another idea. More on that later.

But it's 2018 and I haven't gone house boating yet.

Planes, Trains, and no I'm not driving from Tokyo to Sapporo

I'm not sure that it is possible to drive from Tokyo to Sapporo.

Anyway, for our next holiday to Japan, we thought we would like to return to Hokkaido, because the last time (end 2016), we decided to skip Hokkaido so that I could try Kobe beef. Considering I had been to Japan 3 times, and have not had Kobe beef.

So to save time, I thought we could fly straight to Sapporo.

The first thing I found was that there were NO direct flights from SG to Sapporo.

Other airlines (like Thai) would have a stopover in another city. Even Japanese Airlines like JAL & ANA would have a stopover in Narita or Haneda before going on to Sapporo. And if you do choose to fly JAL (maybe ANA, too), note that there are some SG to Tokyo flights that land in Narita, and then 3 hours later your "connecting" flight to Sapporo (Chitose) takes off from HANEDA - the OTHER airport.

Hokkaido - why we plan to go there again.

We went to Hokkaido in 1998 as part of a group tour (sponsored by the Japanese Govt - Thank you JICA! - for ASEAN countries), and then returned in 2012. And then again in 2013.

For our last trip in 2016, we skipped Hokkaido reluctantly, because we brought our kid along - her first overseas trip - and we didn't want to be overly ambitious and visit like 5 or 6 cities... Actually, we covered 4 cities (not counting the brief stopover at Kyoto where we bought an eki-ben on our way to Tokyo/Shinjuku).

The other reason (or real reason) is that Kobe is quite a distance from Hokkaido.

But here are 35 reasons to visit Hokkaido at least once in your life. Or more.

Those are 35 places and things I haven't really done in Hokkaido. So it is on my list.

Smoke Gets in Your Face (smoking in Japan)

Sorry, this is not a post on tips on smoking in Japan.

As a non-smoker in a relatively advanced society (Singapore) where smoking in public is strictly or quite rigorously controlled, it sometimes seems like a step back in time to experience second-hand smoke in Japan.

I was recently reminded of this when we were seated in the non-smoking section of a cafe, with my (not quite) 2-year-old daughter... right next to the table which was in the smoking section.

And really, there was no point complaining because a) there were no other seats/table available, and b) the cafe was really small, so there were no place in that cafe that was truly free of smoke. And this is Japan.

Not that I would have complained. If there were other seats, I might have moved, but I am not a confrontational sort.

Rail Pass. Green pass. Nozumi Shinkansen

This time round, we were thinking of getting a Green pass for first class comfort. And because we could do with more space.

The Green Pass costs about $800 for 14 days. The regular pass costs $590. Over $200 difference.

BUT, I just realised that other than the long distance between Osaka and Tokyo, other short distance do not offer green cars. So there is no call for a Green pass. The Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto-Nara routes are so short that a regular pass will do.

Also the Rail Pass does not allow travel on the fastest Shinkansen, the Nozomi.

A Green car ticket on a Nozomi Shinkansen will cost over Y10,000, raising the overall cost of a trip from Tokyo Haneda Airport to Osaka to about Y20,000.

Trip will also take just over 200 minutes (about 3.5 hours).

Without using the Nozomi Shinkansen, it would be about Y15,000 and it would be covered by the Green Rail Pass (no extra fare).

But the trip will take closer to 4 hours.

Return to Japan (2016)

We are planning to return to Japan.

And because we haven't been to Osaka in the last two trip, this time we will aim to spend some time there. Especially after seeing this article "20 things to do in Osaka".

And because, the first city we visited in 1998 was Osaka.

From Osaka, we can go on to visit Kyoto, Nara, and Kobe.


Haven't been to Kobe. We'll eat at a McDonald's there and tell people we've eaten beef in Kobe.

Reminiscing about Omoshiroyamakogen

It was two years ago (21 Oct 2013) that PL and I trek from Omoshiroyamakogen to Yamadera

I was reminded of it because I noticed that there were more that the usual "activity" on this blog.

Someone was reading my travel blog!!!

Because they were searching for tips on hiking Omoshiroyama so they could hike it too.

Here's the blog piece.

They paid to climb 1015 steps at the temple at Yamadera. Good for them. I calculated that 1015 steps was more than 60 storeys. Thank you, but no thank you.

Maybe we should have, but we had the rest of the holiday to get through. We needed to conserve our strength. Wouldn't do to kill ourselves within two days of our arrival.

The pictures they took brought back memories. So I looked through mine.

And I couldn't help but think that I would like to go back there, maybe in November one year when the Autumn colours will be more obvious and it would be lovely.

In 2013, we went there because that was my original honeymoon plans. If we had gotten married in Oct.

But for logistics and other reasons, we got married in July 2013, and went to NZ for our honeymoon. (Which I just realised I never posted. Must rectify that soon... maybe...)

Anyway, we had a good time in NZ, though it was on the cold side.

Christchurch had a big Earthquake in 2011, and it was still recovering. many parts of the city were damaged and had either to be restored or demolished. It was a lovely city, with many lovely buildings. I wish I could see it before the quake, but then I might be heartbroken then.

But I really wanted to go to Omoshiroyama to see the autumn colours. So in Oct, a few months after my honeymoon, we travelled again to Japan. As was my original plan.

Oct 21 was a little early. There were some autumn colours, but I think it would have been more spectacular a week or two later.

Maybe I shall return. In a few years.

Learning Points and future plans

General points
- Stay a few days. Most places were interesting enough to stay more than a few days.

- Less is more. Go to fewer cities. Spend more days there.

- Remember rush hours in cities. Avoid travel on subways during the morning rush hour unless your travel plans involve experiencing the fabled "Train pushers" of the Tokyo metro.

We are planning a return to Japan in October to see the autumn colours. The plan is for a hike from Omoshiroyama-Kogen to Yamadera. This will be a day trip from Sendai.

After that, we may just travel up to Hakodate (by train) and visit Onuma Park. Perhaps Autumn colours would be nice there too.

Then we plan to go up to Asahikawa again, to re-visit the Izakaya with the spicy gyoza. And perhaps visit our friend, Cowboy. :-)

Then we will head down to Sapporo for a day or two, before heading back to Tokyo/Narita for our flight back.

The Black Cat - Travelling light in Japan

[Updated on 16 June 2012, originally posted 10 April 2012]
 
One service in Japan that is quite unique is the luggage delivery service or Takuhaibin (a.k.a. Tak-Q-Bin) of which the most extensive is the Yamato Transport Company, whose logo is a black cat or Kuroneko.

Our plan was to "leapfrog" our main luggage and travel light. So when we arrived at our hotel in Narita, we repacked our "day pack" for 3 days, and forwarded our bulky luggage to the hotel in Asahikawa by Tak-Q-Bin. Then we lived out of our day pack for our day in Abashiri.

We spent two nights in Abashiri and before heading to Asahikawa by train, and were reunited with our main luggage.

At Loisir Hotel, Asahikawa, we repacked our day packs with fresh clothes and send the luggage to our hotel in Hakodate. We also had the opportunity to use the coin laundry at Loisir to wash our clothes. Would have been nice to stay at Loisir a little later in our trip when we would have more to wash.

At both International Garden Hotel Narita and Loisir Hotel Asahikawa, the Bell desk arranged for the Ta-Q-bin. The Narita Hotel was better in that they did accept credit cards. The Loisir Hotel required cash payment. From Loisir, we sent our luggage to Hotel Ekimae, Hakodate.

At Hotel Ekimae, which is a very small hotel, the staff who spoke good English explained that they would send the luggage COD to Shinjuku Prince Hotel. And we would pay when we collected our luggage at Shinjuku. Apparently, they were less of an agent and more of a facilitator. The charges were a little more for this COD arrangement. The pay in advance were both about Y3400 (Y1700 for each piece). the COD arrangement was Y4000 or more.

So generally, the hotels should be able to arrange for Ta-Q-Bin (You may wish to learn how to say "Nimotsu no tehai" which means to make arrangements for the luggage. "Nimotsu" is luggage. Or you could just say "Nimotsu" and "Ta-Q-bin" and they should be able to figure out what you mean). I guess the problem might be if both sending and receiving hotels are like Hotel Ekimae and do not collect the charges on behalf of Ta-Q-Bin. Not sure how that would work out.

One thing I liked about booking hotels with Agoda.com is that the hotel vouchers they send has the name of the hotel and address in Japanese characters. That really helps with the nimotsu no tehai when the staff helps you fill in the Ta-Q-bin delivery order form.

One inexplicable but not within the control of the Ta-Q-Bin is that by some strange coincidence, all the hotels we picked to send our luggage to were hotels with the smallest rooms! So with our bulky luggage, we were really squeezed for space.

Whereas when we got big rooms, we had no large luggage.

Murphy's Law at work.

Future plans

While the trip was fun, interesting ("totemo tanoshikatta desu!"), it could have been improved.


Tulips and Pink Moss

Knowing what we know now, the next time we come to Hokkaido to see the flowers, we will make Mombetsu (or Monbetsu) our starting point. Both Kamiyubetsu Tulip Park and Takinoue (ta-ki-no-wear) are closer to Mombetsu than Abashiri or Asahikawa.

That said, we did love the rather quiet Abashiri.

It may be better to fly into Mombetsu, rent a car and drive from Mombetsu to Takinoue, Yubetsu, Saromako, and the lake areas to the Northwest, and come back to Engaru (if we want to go on to Asahikawa via train) or back to Mombetsu, if flying out.

Best time to go, probably mid-May onwards for the tulips and phlox.


Mt Fuji
April would be a good time to visit Kawaguchiko as they have the pink moss (phlox) at the time too during their flower festival.  And Mt Fuji would have pink shoes at her feet. The Mt Kachi Kachi Ropeway will be a must on our next trip, if the weather is fine and Mt Fuji is visible.

If climbing Mt Fuji is the objective, should go in July when the trail opens.



Onuma Park - Mt Komagatake

Next time we may want to go up to Mt Komagatake near Onuma Park. If possible.

Also not necessary to rent a car, the train goes to Onuma. Just need to check if there are hotels there, or to camp there. There's Crawford Inn, but it's a western-style hotel.

There seems to be a station hotel also. Camping in Onuma Park is also an option, though the logistic may be more interesting, to say the least.

Onuma Park will be lovely in Autumn (October). Should aim for October.


Omoshiroyama-Kogen

This looks interesting for a day-hike. We can use Sendai as the base (Hotel there), early morning day trip to Omoshiroyama-Kogen. Hike to Yamadera (about 2 hours, 6 km). Take a train back.

Preparations so far

As of today, we have booked our tickets from Singapore to Narita, booked most of the hotels, booked the domestic air tickets from Haneda to Memanbetsu, and Hakodate back to Tokyo (we wanted to go to Osaka but there were no direct flight from Hakodate to Osaka), booked rental cars for driving around in Hokkaido (Abashiri & Asahikawa regions - for the flowers), and booked a mobile 3G wifi (mifi) for the duration of our trip.

We just have 2 more nights not yet booked, and rail pass not yet bought.

1st April 2012

G.

Rail pass bought! Two weeks pass for about S$1,400 for 2 persons. That's about $50 per day! We better use it lots!

JAL was to email the domestic tickets ($900) to me, but there has been some problems. 

G.

2nd April

Update: Domestic tickets settled in early April. Minor delay. Travel Insurance bought. Everything set. Only two nights without hotel which we will wing it. Maybe try a capsule hotel?

14 days to go!

6 May

ETC - sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.

I asked for an ETC card for the Asahikawa car rental, but not for the Abashiri rental. I figured I'll either try to get one that day or just pay cash.

Then I found a little pamphlet on the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) for Hokkaido and the Abashiri region is practically toll-free.

I guess I won't be needing the ETC card then! :-)