- Lake Toya (Toya-ko) 洞爷湖 - A huge caldera lake with an ice-cream cone island of Oshima in the middle.
- Mt Showa 昭和新山 (above) - one of the newest volcanos in Japan; an interesting landform that was raised from a farmland after 2 years of volcanic activities. Smoke still comes out from the various outlets. A mountain was born: On Dec 28, 1943, severe earthqualkes began shaking the area around Usu-zan and continued to do so until Sep 1945. In the intervening period, a new lava dome rose out of th eground, sometimes at the rate of 1.5 a day. By the time it had stopped growing, Showa Shin-zan "New mountain" named after the reigning emperor, stood 4005 m above sea level.
- Bear Ranch 熊牧场 - Bears! bears! bears! that are fed on apples from the visitors. No, no... do not get mistaken! Bears in Hokkaido are not herbivores! They are fed with meat, too... however, it seems like the bear enjoyed apples, so much so that lots of visitors bought bags of apples (5 for 200 yen) to feed them... The bears are very 'obedient'... to get the fruits, they are willing to follow requests such as "sit" and "stand"... it gave the impression that the bear was in the mercy of the visitor to get the fruit... sigh...
Noboribetsu 登别
- Jigokudani (Hell Valley) - A sulphurous valley where boiling ponds and steaming streams are.
- Shiraoi Ainu Village (Poroton Kotan) - A recreated village where the aborigines of Hokkaido live. A glimpse of their livelihood - the simple musical instrument (mukkur, a mouth harp made of bamboo and athread that creates a strange, resonating sound), the dried salmon, and the huts... and the 'ladder' that resembles the one I saw in Bhutan!
- Lunch near the seaside... where at the "Big Bear and the Salmon" restaurant.
Sapporo 札幌
- we drove on to the biggest city in Hokkaido.
- Tokeidai Clock (1880) - The building was the very first agricultural department of the university in Hokkaido, where a professor from America was engaged to teach the very small group of undergraduates on agriculture. On returning to US, he presented this clock tower to the university, that is now a museum.
- Sapporo TV Tower - Just a Tower... a 147 m tall tower...
- A dinner of BBQ pork and beef... interesting, the whipped egg served as the sauce to the cooked meat. Oh yes, it's the evening when CN sank her feet into the pseudo-frozen pond ;p
- JR Tower - we braved through the heavy snow to walk to this (supposedly) one of the newest shopping mall in town. There, we found the 100-yen shop!
- Checked in to Sapporo New Otani Hotel
