Noboribetsu 登別 , Oyado Kiyomizu-ya Onsen 清水屋温泉, Hokkaido 北海道 Oct 2013

I arranged for night at Noboribetsu as I wanted my mother and family to enjoy the real onsen (hot spring) and Kaiseki ((懐石料理)

Otaru 小樽市, Hokkaido 北海道 Oct 2013

We spent a whole day at Otaru 小樽 . It was a raining day, luckily just sizzling rain, so we were able to slowly walked through this romantic small harbor city.

Asahiyama Zoo 旭山動物園, Hokkaido 北海道 2013

My son Desmond has been chasing me to update this post, his favourite place of Asahiyama Zoo at Hokkaido. This zoo is beautiful and fun, even my mother also really impressed with this zoo. We purchased the JR Asahiyama Zoo Pass which included return train tickets from Sapporo to Asahikawa, bus ticket transfer from Asahikawa to Asahiyama Zoo and also tickets enter to Zoo, valid for 4days, it was a kind of good deal. You may refer to more details here.

Santouka Ramen 山頭火拉麵, Hokkaido 北海道 2013

Finally I have found a bowl of my favourite ramen at Santouka Ramen located at Asahikawa. A bowl of rich but not greasy (I think Chinese best describe my feeling 濃而不腻 ) (but in their website they said the soup is mild, maybe for Japanese standard their type of soup is considered mild), pearl-colored Tonkotsu soup (soup derived from pork bones) . I didn't appreciate very rich and sticky soup base until both lips can stick together, example a bowl of ramen we had in JR Kyoto station.

Fall Foliage at Sounkyo 層雲峡 (Daisetsuzan National Park), chair lift , Hokkaido 北海道 2013 (Part 2)

Ok, now come to 2nd part of Fall Foliage at Sounkyo. After took the ropeway, we continue to take chair lift which brought us to summit of mount Kurodake (1984 metres). The chair lift itself look quite scary right ? actually don't need to scare the height, it was very close to the ground. And we have very nice view of the difference colour of leaves through out the journey to the summit.

Fall Foliage at Sounkyo 層雲峡 (Daisetsuzan National Park), ropeway , Hokkaido 北海道 2013 (Part 1)

The main aim of the trip to Sapporo was to bring my mother to see autumn colours. When we were at Sapporo, there was not much colours to see since it was still at early stage of autumn, you may check here for the autumn colour report. We have to go northern part at Sounkyo to see the colours. When we saw the beautiful colours, the long hours (90mins by train, 120mins by bus) spent to travel here, it was too worth it!!

Clock Tower 時計台, Former Hokkaido Government Office Building, Bento & Meal, Hokkaido 北海道 2013

Since my memory still fresh, I have to quickly update about the Japan trip, we went to Tokyo then Hokkaido. The whole trip it was planned by me, total 6 family members, from the ticket booking, trip itinerary, hotels, transport & foods. I think I can apply for a travel agent job ^_^ . I was tried to cover all individual's requirement, like my mother wanted to see autumn colour, my son wanted to go zoo, my daughter wanted to try macarons, and I want to try all good foods from Kobe beef, kaiseki dinner, ramen, and crab meal..All requirements were fulfilled without failed. Lets check my first post here!