will i am's delayed diary

Sapporo was just a short drive from Otaru, under an hour. Like most of the cities in Japan, very block-ish in design, hence contains a barrage of traffic lights and cross-junctions. Parked our car at one of many public parking spots ( the one we parked at had a clamp at the bottom that only released after paying the bill ) and went on foot. Spent most of our time there shopping really. So many drug stores with Chinese-speaking staff. However, with the Payke app, you can get most English product information just by scanning the barcode. In addition to drug stores, we also went treasure hunting at Donki ( amazing selection of sex toys ), Daiso, Book-off, etc. We had our lunch at Ginza Lion beer hall. Great place for Western food. At around 3:00 PM, we left Sapporo for Chitose. Dropped mum and Sis off at the AirBnB, while Bro and I went to pump petrol and return the rental. FYI, some petrol stations in Japan have the service and self-service pumps. Unknowingly, I stopped at the sel...

The journey from Hakodate to Otaru took us another four hours in a north-easterly direction. I must say that Otaru was the hottest in our whole trip. The sun was blazing and we all dumped our jackets in the car. Like Hakodate, Otaru is also a port city with a long history. The pride of the city is the Otaru Canal. Tourists often take cruises on the canal to admire the old warehouses and merchant building lined along it. One look at a bunch Korean ladies baking in the sun deterred us from trying the same. Our tummies were growling after a short walk in the scorching sun, and we quickly went to find food. A PRC working at the tourist information center pointed us to Otaru Denuki Koji , a collection of twenty small restaurants in a heritage building. The place has a whimsical design, like a building out of Miyazaki's onsen town in "Spirited Away". Within a small courtyard was a statue of Udatsu Kozo, a statue with round-rim glasses holding a skewer  dango . Not al...

One night was all we had at Lake Toya. Got up early and had a simple breakfast of eggs at the AirBnB. Upon checking out, we finally had a chance to greet our host's dog. Didn't hear a single bark since yesterday. A two-hour drive ahead of us to Hakodate. We were in a little of a rush because we had to reach Hakodate before the seafood market closes at 2:00 PM. The first stop was at Yakumo where I realized that we were running low on fuel. Asked Bro to probe ahead for highway oasis ahead and he came up empty. Unlike Malaysia, the highway in Hokkaido does not have many petrol stations on it. In our region of travel, there were only four highway oasis that have more complete amenities. Seeing how critical our fuel level was, we had no choice but to exit the highway at Kutchan. Bro went to talk to the guy manning the highway exit. Good thing that the staff had a phrase book for all sorts of emergency situations. He handed us a map to the nearest petrol station in town. Phew! We w...

After three nights in Biei, we checked out of the AirBnB. Started bright and early because we had a four-hour drive ahead of us to Lake Toya . Our first toilet and kōhī break was at Sungawa Highway Oasis, one of the few big ones along the way. Somehow, we were lured into the souvenir shop, and that cost us nearly an hour and nearly JPY5,000. LOL. Bro got a Kaonashi soft toy and that became a regular feature in our photos. Continued our journey without getting waylaid, and we arrived at noon. Parked our car at one of the free public car parks, and walked to the touristy lake area. Grabbed a simple lunch at a Seicomart-- just a couple of sandwiches. Our first photo craze was a bunch of wisterias and azaleas behind The Lake View Toya Nonokaze Resort. A bad case of flower deprivation since Biei. Once we had gotten that out of our system, we headed to the Nakanoshima Cruise Pier to catch the TOYAKOKISEN cruise to Nakajima Island , which is in the middle of Lake Toya. Print out a co...