Just to share one of the things I love about this country….getting petrol for my car – the petrol attendant motions me in…with an elaborate gesticular display, to position my vehicle just so (manoeuvres worthy of any aircraft marshaller I’ve ever seen doing their work!); takes my credit card…returns it….fills car up….brings me a receipt to sign off on…..pretty much in 3 mins. Great system, love it.

I didn’t get up to much in Sapporo – I drove up to Mt Moiwa observation deck but it was closed; the TV tower looked awesome but I didn’t feel like getting views of city buildings; so I ventured out to see a statue of Dr Clark, famous for the phrase “boys be ambitious”, standing atop Hitsujigaoka Observation Hill. It has panoramic views of Sapporo but you need serious binoculars otherwise everything appears as a speck on the horizon! Observation Hill was originally a national research centre, where sheep were kept. Who was Dr (William Smith) Clark you ask…he was a professor of chemistry, botany and zoology; a colonel during the American Civil War and a leader in agricultural education – President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College 1867-1879. In 1876, during the Meiji Restoration era, he was hired by the Japanese government to establish the Sapporo Agricultural College (now the Uni of Hokkaido) and greatly earned the respect of his students and faculty members.

The weather’s improved with lots of sunshine, so a glorious day to travel through a new set of mountain ranges and passes…Lake Katsurazawa was frozen over, so no pics to be had there.

I travelled through the town of Mikasa, (from whence I remember volleyballs I used in competition in the dim dark past, came from)….I pulled over at the local timber mill, loving the way poles of timber are stacked.

I stood on the bridge looking over the Ikushunbetsu river to the side of the mill, and all of a sudden, there was a flapping of wings and I was lucky to see a Great Blue Heron take flight, a glimpse of unexpected majesty. (Because I’m not a twitcher, had to google to make sure it wasn’t a crane). I understand that unlike its cousin, the crane, which symbolises peace, luck and longevity, the meaning of the heron’s appearance is more mysterious…tied to spirits, gods, death and a link to another world. 

I barely managed to get the camera up in time, but pleased with the shot.

The Shirogane Blue Pond, wasn’t. It was pretty much frozen over, just with a few glimmers of melt starting…so this was the best I could do… 🙂

Just a few kilometres down the road, the Shirahige waterfall….after the waterfalls I’ve seen and captured, a bit of a meh! But still……

On the road to Kamifurano, discovered the Nisshin Dam and put my drone up….loved this view…

From Kamifurano to Asahikawa, I loved the farm fields in different stages of snow melt, the colour and patterns left on the landscape….and I was surprised by a fox wanting to cross the road (as happens) ….

Loved this pano too with Mt Furano and Mt Biei in the distance ….its so hard to capture the beauty of the environment you are driving through!