In Japan at the end
of April/beginning of May, there is about one full week of holidays
that have been called "Golden Week." This set of holidays
has become one of the major travel seasons for Japanese people because
sometimes it is the only chance for people to travel without taking
vacation days. Last year I didn't do anything special for Golden
Week, so this year I decided to take my friend John up on his offer
to travel around Hokkaido a bit. |
On Saturday, we stopped in the city
of Otaru for lunch. Otaru is known for its quaint European atmosphere
as well as the scenic canal that runs through the city and many
historic sites. Otaru is right next to the sea as well, which means
there were plenty of fishing boats as well.
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The Dock
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Starfish
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A Violin Player
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There is a scenic walkway along this canal
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This is definitely not a Japanese instrument
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After we had a sushi lunch in Otaru
we continued West towards Shakotan Peninsula. Shakotan is famous
for nama uni don, which is raw sea urchin over rice.....
Needless to say, we didn't eat any. The beaches there were really
nice, and the scenery was excellent.
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Two of us stayed in this tent on the beach (I slept in the car)
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Shakotan has a lot of strange rock formations
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Watch out Travis!
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Me and Travis
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This cape had a really long walk to get to the bottom
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The view from the bottom
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Travis, trying to be "artistic"
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Nate and John
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This is part of my effort to put more pictures of myself on my website
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At night we set up a grill and grilled meat, it was nice after the
evening of walking
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The next day we took a really nice walk along another cape with
beautiful views. This was the lighthouse at the beginning of the
walk.
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The water was really blue here
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A view of the town below
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The walk itself veered quite a distance past the asphalt
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More of the cape
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Some people where having lunch at the bottom of the cliff
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This is one of the most famous rock formations in Shakotan
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Another view of it
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Nate, Me, John, Travis, and a Japanese boy whom we invited into
the picture.
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After spending Sunday morning looking
around Shakotan some more, we headed to Lake Toya thanks to the
hospitality of my friend Jason. We visited the crater sites that
I visited this past January. Now that
the snow had melted, I could see a lot more of where the road had
been before the eruption.
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I'm not sure what Travis is doing...
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This area is still extremely active
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This is a road sign post that has since been buried by the eruption
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Nate, John, and Travis, looking contemplative at Lake Toya
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Yeah, so this is an odd picture of
me sitting on a stone cat at Lake Toya. Anyway...after Toya we went
back to Asahikawa for okonomiyaki and karaoke. All in all,
it was an extremely fun Golden Week, although after it was over,
I definitely needed another vacation! HAHA
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