For The Love of Travel

A lovely ‘high tea’ brekkie before I started my day. Delicious bitefuls of savoury items (croque monsieur; baked potatoes; slice of pork; green salad; sweet corn soup) and a few sweets (yoghurt with berries; 2 small fruit pieces; scone/jam/cream) at the end. Yum!

It began to snow just as I turned on the ignition…but thankfully stopped within about 10 minutes of setting off. My first stop today at Mishima-San’s Shibazakura garden in Kutchan which I knew wouldn’t be in bloom, but I wanted to witness the location, ‘cos its so lovely in May in pics. Check out that pink and yellow contrast, wow! As I was driving past, I noticed a darling little green cottage …..

And Mt Yotei @ 1898 metres, was loomingly magnificently, despite the overcast weather. Its also called ‘Ezo Fuji’ because it resembles Mt Fuji, another stratovolcano I’ll be meeting later in the trip!

As I was leaving Kutchan, I couldn’t help but notice this very unsavoury establishment……what the ???!!

And Mt Niseko was on the opposite side of the highway, gloomy, brooding and looking like a painting. I loved the colour layering of the image….

I chose to make this one a B&W image..reminded me of a few Japanese prints I had seen….

More than 50% of Japan’s total milk production and 90% of the cheeses originate from Hokkaido. Called into the Niseko Cheese factory and purchased some ‘super’ blue cheese. Takashi, behind the counter, told me they made the cheese from Holstein herds. Very yum!

Its quite the experience driving from Kutchan to Sapporo via the Nakayama Pass – superb mountain vistas for most of the way. And an incredible mountain tunnel system you travel through as well. Well worth the effort.

The Unwind Hotel and Bar is perfectly situated in Otaru…walking distance for me to lots of attractions. It also has a free wine hour between 5-6pm each night. Mustn’t have had too many Aussies staying to date 🙂

The Stained Glass Museum was first cab off the rank, housed in what used to be the Takahashi Warehouse, built in 1923 by Naoji Takahashi, an entrepreneur and politician. Its original use was to store soybeans – its wooden framework and stone walls providing good heat insulation. It now houses British stained glass from the 20thC, brought across from Britain after churches were torn down due to the decrease in people’s religious interest. Canterbury Tales, as one example of the glass on display. For those interested, here’s a link to the museum

https://www.nitorihd.co.jp/otaru-art-base/en/stained-glass-museum/

The Nitori Museum of Art, on its ground floor, has a collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany, known as an artist and ‘master of light’, designed in the Art Nouveau era.

The fourth floor had a series of Japanese paintings and I loved Tamako Kataoka’s work (she was a ‘Nihonga’ painter using mineral pigments and occasionally ink):

The third floor has Western art and I was taken with Kuniyoshi Utagawa’s woodblock print from the mid 1800’s, ‘Storehouse of Treasured Goods: Scribblings on the Wall’:

The second floor, loved this wooden sculpture by Koun Takamura (1852-1934):

This vase caught my attention in the Art Nouveau/Art Deco section of the Museum:

I’m driving along the Shakotan Peninsula today, another cold and blustery day.

15 minutes drive from Iwanai, perched on the coast, the Tomari Nuclear Power Station, run by Hokkaido Electric, has attracted its share of unwelcome attention during Japan’s history as a nuclear-powered nation. The plant’s first two reactors, Tomari 1 and 2, went online in 1989, just three years after the Chernobyl disaster sparked a widespread antinuclear movement throughout Japan. A quarter of a century later, the plant’s third reactor was the first in Japan to resume commercial operations after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was crippled in the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

The village of Tomari is tucked into a cove facing the blustery Sea of Japan and surrounded by dark, snow-dusted cliffs. It’s home to fewer than 2,000 people these days. In the older parts of the village, small boxy homes bunch up together, dried fish hanging from their weathered wooden eaves. Children and seniors there get free health care courtesy of money from the plant, and every household gets a free computer and annual packets of free tickets to the local hot springs. 95% of the town’s budget comes from the support money from the government and Hokkaido Electric. Tomari is not subject to the economic doom that so many other small, shrinking towns in Hokkaido are facing.

Cape Kamui (‘divine being’ in Ainu mythology) is an 800m walk along Charenka’s path, with magnificent views of the Sea of Japan. See next two pics below…glorious. NOT today, the wind was blowing so strongly I could barely open the car door and it slammed shut again. Cold and miserable…..drove on.

Spirits improved with the sun shining over Otaru as I drove in.

Otaru has a rich history, the herring ‘gold rush’ in the 1850’s transforming the traditional Ainu community. Warehouses were built to store the fish; next came the banks; and the railroad was built that still links the city to Sapporo today. Found in abundance in the seas near Otaru, this little fish was ground up and used as fertiliser for cotton and indigo fields, only 10% being sold for consumption. The role that herring fertiliser played in the modernisation of Japan’s primary industries cannot be understated. However as a result of over fishing, the stock depleted and the industry came to a grinding halt by the late 1950’s. Today, tourism dominates. Charming architecture, seafood restaurants, and the trademark canal built in 1923.