Final Destination The bus journey from Shiretoko-Shari station 知床斜里駅 to Utoro ウトロ was one of the most scenic rides ever. For the most part, that 60-minute ride brought us close to the coast and we were able to get a good view of the beautiful Okhotsk sea. I […]
the typhoon wrecked all my plans. maybe it was fate. i saw it coming but i didn’t expect it to come all the way to hokkaido. days earlier, we watched on tv how it battered kyushu and brought massive rain to the southern regions. but hokkaido was bright and sunny, that […]
bibaushi, biei, furano i was quite confident all train stations in japan, no matter how isolated or remote, would be civilised ie nice train platforms, modern toilets, huge station signs announcing the station name etc. i mean, i’ve visited a good number of train stations in the country and i’d never […]
the plan was to head straight from tokyo to hakodate. due to unforseen circumstances, we were forced to spend a night in aomori then move to hakodate the next morning. read the story here: hokkaido/july 2014 – preamble. the port city, onsen town, capital and dessert paradise from aomori 青森 […]
A not-so-perfect plan Last July, we packed the whole family to Hokkaido. Because the venerable ones decreed that if we were heading to Japan, then to Hokkaido, they must go. Since the planner was given a free rein, and in spite of a few, not-so-minor constraints (no driving, […]
the last word 