3rd Day at Hokkaido, Japan

Date: 21 Jun 08

1st Stop: Ainu Village

The Ainus were the 原住民 of Japan. Originally they were not recognised to be Japanese and were commonly known as the "6 fingered", meaning they were treated as monsters. Later, as time goes by, they were slowly accepted into the society.

The traditional Ainus were really short and stout. But since Hokkaido was geographically situated near Russia, fusion takes place and Viola! Taller Ainus.

Near the entrance of Ainu Village

Bears were worshipped by the Ainus

Cute Ainu dog

Hello Bear!

Turtle Specimen in Ainu Museum

Animal specimens

How the Ainus capture bears

Olden tools used by Ainus

More animal specimens

Fishing tools used by the Ainus

Utensils used by Ainus in the olden days

Model of their house

The Ainus hang salmons at the top of their roof...

.. to smoke them dry for winter

2nd stop: Lunch

Flowers were growing every where

Herm.. The weather doesn't look too good

Self-entertained in the coach

Seriously, these were like just sprouting at the road side

Mummy and me

Family pic

The meadows were in waves form (波浪型) Some cigarette advertisement was taken on these meadows

3rd stop: Flowers viewing

Wild daisies

The whole flower plantation

Some purple flowers

Pretty!

These are lavenders

told you Mummy likes flowers

Purple foxgloves. The first time I know about this plant was in some gnome book, saying that foxes wear this plant so that they will be absolutely quiet when they are stealing chickens or something along that line.

We heart Mr Hay

I heart flowers! :D

Really very prettyyyyyyyyyy..

my Grandparents used to grew this

For unknown reason, my sis loves this plastic bag. Moooooo...

4th Stop: More flower viewing

When Mr Hay meets..

Ms Hay, they greeted each other "Hey hey!" (ya, meant to be a cold joke)

Evening primrose. Yes, this is our Evening Primrose Oil. Tour guide mentioned that the oil is used for cooking. Any excess will be used as fuel for vehicles. Very cool and environmentally friendly!

Family photo

The weather is good (though drizzling a bit)

Plantation of Lavender. So hope that they are in full bloom!

I grew to like the smell of lavender after this trip. Before this it was ok to me only.

Can you tell the meadows are wavy?

Guess what plant is this.

It's actually sunflower! One of my mum's favourite! Only managed to catch one in mid bloom.

Hello Mr Bee. Haa~

Colourful flowers

I like this flower too! Very colourful in a single plant!

These are called oriental poppy flowers

Caught this little flower in the midst of the grass

5th Stop: Farm Tomita

Lavender in green house, so they are actually slightly bigger

Where are we heading to?

To eat expensive rock melon. This slice here is 250Yen, which is SGD3.25. Melon can be as expensive as SGD1000 and above for one melon. The reason why the melon can be so expensive is because Japanese farmers can choose to grow only 1 melon per tree. They will select the best melon and cut away the rest of the growing melon so that that particular melon will be especially sweet and juicy. The lines on the the melon will also be very distinct. The more the stalk at the top of the melon resembles a "T", the higher the value.

Inside a store full of dried flowers. It is amazing that these dried flowers are in perfect condition despite the weather changes in Japan.

Men made out of dried plant. Amazing.

I like the roof.

This is a pillar covered with dried flowers.

1 side of the wall

It is amazing that the flowers are arranged in such a way that it is neat and not overly clustered.

They sell cute ornaments too.

Erm.. Some SGPP might be interested to see this. Kawaii japanese girls. Tour guide said that some of them their skirts are only 4 inches long. They are very skillful, will not 走光, guide knows because he has been byo-ing for a very long time already. Hahaha~

Pretty flowers!!

Cat and Dog combi 1

Cat and Dog combi 2 (behind our backs we were pinching each other. Kidding~)

Cute Japanese car

Cute car logo. Don't know what brand is this. Think Singapore don't have.

Japanese vehicle number plates have the surname of the owners on them.

Last stop: Hotel

Pardon the messy room. I was really tired.

The sitting area

This is a sample of the toilet bowl which YZ said was warm. We can wash our bottoms with it too. Water will squirt out at the pressing of a button.

After dinner we went to a nearby 7-11.

Me: *saw Hokkaido milk -- Hokkaido famous for milk too* Mummy! 我要喝奶!
Only realised that I sound a bit wrong after shouting out loud.

The famous milk