Spring water from Mount Yotei

On our way to a nearby national park, we noticed a rest stop at the side the road that was packed with cars early in the morning.  We stopped in to see what the fuss was about.  

The place is called Yoteino Wakimizu, in the nearby town called Makkari.

Turns out it's an area where the natural spring water from Mount Yotei flows, and you can freely collect as much of the water as you would like. 

 

We had only our water bottles with us to fill.  

But others came fully equipped to get a good supply!

On site is a little shop selling amazing tofu made from the spring water, with plenty of samples to try. Heaven for Oscar who loves tofu!

Nikka Whisky!

Back in Hokkaido, we ventured back up to the Nikka distillery.  Rit was really looking forward to stocking up his Japanese whisky collection.  Well, the news reports were not wrong when they said there is a shortage of Japanese whisky. In the gift shop, there were so many 'sold out' signs, especially for the single malts.  He was gutted! At least he managed some samples in the sample room.  

Rit with his free samples! (The kids and I had some apple juice, green tea and dried beef jerky!)

The tour is quite interesting even for non-whisky lovers.

The sign here reads 'Scotch Whisky' and has some information on the distillery in Fort William!

Ryokan Stay!!

We headed up to Hokkaido and over to a hot spring resort town - Noboribetsu. We stayed at a beautiful old ryokan - traditional Japanese inn - called Daichi Takimotokan.  The hotel is well known in Japan for its many baths. I think the hotel has about 40 baths. We did our best to try them all!

The room is Japanese style.  So when you first enter, there is an entryway for you to remove your shoes, then you enter the main room which has a tatami floor.  The room is set out with a low table, ready for you to enjoy some Japanese green tea and omochi, a sweet cake made from pounded rice.

Rose enjoyed making and pouring our tea.  The tea is quite bitter, but complements the very sweet omochi.

We went to the onsen before dinner. Getting in the spirit, we all donned our matching yukata.

After dinner, we came back to the room to find it had been changed for us, with futon on the floor for us to sleep.  We slept so well!

There was a sign in the room to request that we didn't open the mesh screen which covered our windows because neighbouring crows had a habit of flying into fully opened windows and wrecking havoc in the rooms! We didn't have any crow visitors but we heard plenty of them.

Disney Sea

The next day we spent at Disney Sea.

The kids loved the Nemo simulation, Raging Spirits, Tower of Terror and best of all was the Indiana Jones Adventure!

We cooled off next to the Pirates of the Caribbean who soaked the crowd with giant hoses and buckets of water.

At the end of the day, we took a lovely boat ride around the lake; Rose was zonked out!

Tokyo Disney

The kids first time to any Disney resort and they loved it!

Our first ride was a star wars simulator. Rose and Oscar were screaming and whooping with delight. (I was gripping the seat handles in terror!)

Tokyo was so hot! We had no option but to take plenty of cold snacks and drinks. There were some cute Mickey Mouse ice lollies.

Rose was amused at the numerous 'buggy parks' there were for families to park their pushchairs. And so orderly!

The Journey

This time we flew via Germany to get to Japan.
The flight from Edinburgh to Dusseldorf was only an hour and a half.  We had a few hours before our flight to Tokyo, so we took the train into the main station and then a subway to the old town. We enjoyed a nice walk by the Rhine and then a quick lunch in a shaded square. Oscar, who loves soup, chose a carrot and ginger soup. While the rest of us shared a plate of currywurst and potatoes.
Quick jaunt back to the airport for our flight to Tokyo.

This time we flew All Nippon Airways, ANA. On our last trip, we flew with JAL (Japan Airlines), so Oscar was so excited to be trying a new airline.  The crew were fantastic, we had some nice dinner. We had pre-chosen a 'nana-mono' dinner for Rose - raw vegetables and fruit. It's the first time she has ever eaten anything on a flight. We had plenty of leg room and so we managed to get 7 hours sleep on the 12 hour flight.

 Arrived in Tokyo with energy for Tokyo Disney!

Nippon #2

It’s been three years since our last Japanese adventure. We are delighted to be back.

Currently waiting at Tokyo Haneda airport for our flight up to Hokkaido. Rit and the kids are reading while I enjoy the massage chairs next to the Japanese grannies.

We had a great time at Tokyo Disney; we’ll post more on that later.
Scorchio in Tokyo - about 35oC and humid.  But at least the forecasted thunderstorms never materialised. And it’ll be much cooler in Hokkaido - we hope!

All Nippon Airways boarding now for Sapporo! We’re off!