Autumn Leaves Japan

Friday, October 14, 2022
Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
Since the Kyushu trip was short we decided to join this trip for the first 10 days to get our monies worth. There were 13 of us on the trip, plus Owen and Takako, We had only travelled with a couple of them before so it was nice to meet some new faces. Certainly a change from the smaller groups on the first two trips.
We arrived mid afternoon into the Crown Plaza Sapporo, the rest of the group flew up from Tokyo and arrived about 9:30pm. We saw them for breakfast.
The first two nights of the tour proper were at the 'Grand Hotel' at Shogetsu. This was situated in a very pretty narrow ravine whose sides were covered in autumn leaves. I was told that Japanese autumn colours are much more variegated than the American ones. That is you get many more reds, yellows, browns kaki's than the solid red  in America.
We  were there for two nights and managed to have an 'family' onsen both nights. Such an onsen is much like a big bathroom which you could book and both Leith and I could be in together.
We had a day getting to the Hoheikyo Dam which also some great colours back up from the dam wall.
On the way down to Hakodate we stopped off at the Ainu Museum at Nibutani. Ainu are the indigenous people of Japan who were very nearly wiped out. These days the Government are trying to right past wrongs but doing it very slowly I understand.

Hakodate had been a trading town with Russia in the past (it is only about 600km across the sea to Vladivostok). It also a cable car up to a nearby peak, which has a great view of the city. Just before dusk we went up to see the sunset. It was perfect weather which meant it was extremely crowded with people lining the viewing platform railing 3or 4 deep! We went up and down by local bus - the cable car was closed for maintenance- which was standing room only in both directions.
We spent a day visiting O-numa National Park where we had a simply western style lunch at a lakeside cafe. 
We had a day exploring the Oirase Gorge and Lake Towada. We had a bus to take us along the gorge which also has a walking path. One could walk or bicycle the full length or the bus stopped at a few points to let walkers out. It was lovely drive Leith walked a couple of kilometres. We then took the local boat from one side of the lake to  the other seeing some more autumn leaves on the way,
As a change from a Japanese meal we went to a busy Korean restaurant one night which was fun, We had the normal gas rings set into the table however I noted that there was no separate ventilation for the rings . There must have been 10 -15 tables with very little cooking smell so the ventilation must have been good.
Another memory is travelling down the Geibi gorge on large punt. This Video shows the trip much better than my still shots.
As you can gather we saw many Autumn Leaves starting from the north island and then working our way down to Tokyo. We also had a great variety of food most of which had been included in the overall cost of the trip.
We left the group after 10 days which went all to quickly.
As the group changed trains at Omiya we stayed on and travelled on to Tokyo to catch our plane the next day to Sydney. This was the first time we had been in the Tokyo Station by ourselves. It has 20+ platforms with probably more than five exits. Very easy to get lost!
We had Takako write down the  name of the hotel (Hotel Metropolitan) which we knew was just outside one of the exits, it was then no problem being taken to the right exit, and from there we could see the entry to the hotel. 
Our room was on the 34 floor and we had a corner room so two windows of view including the railway tracks. What joy!
We decided to have dinner brought up to the room so we could continue with the night view.
Next morning we had to get ourselves to Tokyo's Haneda airport (alternative to Narita) by at least 6:00pm for a 10:15pm flight back to Sydney. We had a very helpful person at the Ticket office who got us a ticket Tokyo - Shinagawa and then a separate ticket Shinagawa - Haneda  all for about $2 for the both of us. (On the Haneda website it mentions that the taxi into Tokyo is about AU$70!)
Spent the morning exploring. We do like the old Tokyo station which has been done up. We went to an art exhibition celebrating 150 years of Japanese trains.
The trip to Haneda turned out to be so easier than I expected. I was worried we would get lost in Shinagawa however it was much smaller than Tokyo and the Haneda line was well signposted.
We arrived at Haneda with about four hours to spare.
Pleasant flight but not much sleep since we were served a full meal at about 11:30pm and breakfast at about 5:30am 
Nice to arrive back to Sydney to a lovely sunny day.

Another great trip even more so in that none of got the dreaded COVID
I noted this great saying from Sandra who was one of our party.

"Your eyes are your camera,
taking photos along the way
and your memory plays them back to
enjoy another day"

Maybe that is why we like travelling

Comments

Tbugs
2022-11-21

Lovely trip, David & Leith. Many thanks for sharing. Sounds like you had a great trip. WY & J

Louise
2022-11-21

Lots of pretty autumn pictures here - and your adventures with food. Thanks for sharing your enjoyment. Xx

Kwan
2022-11-22

What beautiful colours - and, yes, many variations. Your photos are great, and i also like the info and photos provided through the links, in particular, the video of the boat ride (?punt) through the gorge - gorgeous. Thanks David xx

2025-02-09

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