Golden Rock

We left our hotel at 6am and got a glimpse of the sunrise over the Burmese countryside
Jo gave up climbing and opted for the sedan chair

Close up
Our guide says it will take a 6.5 magnitude earthquake to cause the rock to slide off the ledge

Glutinous Rice Dessert

Hakkodate

We stopped at Onuma national park along the way.The lake is almost frozen.So different from my last trip in Autumn

View of the coast from the train

Our first meal at the Hakkodate market after arriving.

Our Japanese style room at the Yunogawa Prince Onsen

The view of Mount Hakkodate from our hot spring bath


Jo enjoying a dip in the hot spring

Even the monkeys like to soak in the hot spring




The sushi store at the Hakkodate market that sells fresh squid sashimi for Yen 1890

Otaru Canal

Otaru

It was another round of excellent breakfasting on Hokkaido produce. It will be another day of long journey as we head towards as we head back to central Hokkaido.We stopped at a horse ranch for lunch. The souvenir shop was selling products derived from horses.I bought a bottle of cream that would help keep your skin from getting dry in the harsh winter air. It seems the Japs like to eat horse meat sashimi.

By the time we reached the port city of Otaru it was a bout 4pm and getting dark. There were lots of European style buildings here as it was opened to foriegn trade. It use to produce lots of floating glass balls tied to fishing nets when the Herring trade was good in the old days. But when the fish stocks collapsed the factories turned to making intricate glasswares for tourists.

For dinner we would head back to Sapporo. It was 8pm after dinner when we went to see the Odori park where the hold the yearly ice sculpting competition. It was really cold but there were lots of people around taking photos of the X'mas lightings.The underground mall was closed by 8pm and we checked into our hotel for the nite.