Hokkaido - Otaru

Otaru..., Otaru..., if I have to chose a fav. place in hokkaido, it would be otaru
A quaint little harbour town. Everything is quite simply charming!

One of the most famous thing there is musical box. This is the junction in front of the musical box museum. Every 15mins the chimes from the various clocks tower can be heard. One in particular runs on steam.

Inside the musical box museum. More mechandising then museum actually.


Make - Your - Own - Musical Box

The museum of antique musical box

This fella actually moves quite naturally when it plays.

Other musical boxes

The live seafood are amazing. You pick, they BBQ immediately. Taste fantastic.
Also seen are these giant crab. Notice the size comparison with my daugther!


The famous Otaru Canal. This picture was taken at about 4am in the morning.

Hokkaido - Bihoro Pass

A fantastic panoramic view overlooking lake kussharo. I believe this is the biggest crater lake in whole of Japan.

hokkaido - Kofuku Eki

This is one interesting sites that we visit.
This is an old railway station that is no longer in operation. The station name kofuku means happiness.


A lot of people (esp. married couple) take their photos and pin it to the station for blessing. It's a very small hut and from the outside....nothing really special.....





...but the inside is another story.

Hokkaido - Takinoue

Surrounded by mountains, Takinoue is a beautiful town with many waterfalls and valleys.

Moss pink grow in colonies of thousands of small flowers colored white, light pink or dark pink. As the name suggests, they look like a pink carpet of moss blanketing entire hills.



The gift shop naturally sells everything related to Moss Pink. Including ice-cream.
Imagine 2 kids sitting there licking ice-cream like that's the best thing that they ever tasted. They became the star attraction there. Everyone stop and take photo.

Hokkaido - Kamiyubetsu

Feels like someone planted holland in hokkaido. If you like tulips, here's the place. The picture says it all.





Flowers so perfect it actually looks fake.

Hokkaido - Lake Akan

Lake Akan is a beautiful crater lake in Akan National Park. This is where locals go for their holiday!


The Ainu village. Great showcase of wooden craft-work.



Along with that you have a lot of merchandise based on a rare algae that can be found in the lake called marimo. They have marimo everything here!

Ferry ride while enjoying the sunset.


And Finally, back at the hotel for some R&R