What did we do in Hokkaido? (Day 3)

Date: 28 June 2008

We drove to Furano on the morning of day 3. It took us just under 3 hours to get there. Thanks to GPS, we did not get lost and the journey was quite enjoyable, despite the winding roads in the mountain area made didi throw up once.



Farm Tomita was the first flower field we visited. Since it was still early for the season, the lavenders were just started to bloom. We enjoyed our lavender ice cream there but everything went down hill from there.


didi wants his second helping of ice cream, but since he was still coughing quite badly, I said no. Then, our drama king got all worked up and thew a fit in the middle of the flowers fields. As you can see in the photo above, he refused to pose with daddy.

After the drama in the flower field, everyone got quite exhausted so we decided to get to the pension and check in. The name of the pension I booked was ペンション星に願いをlocated on top of a hill with great view of Furano.

This was when we got lost. We entered the phone number of the pension into the GPS system, it took us to a residential area which looks nothing like that photo I saw on the Internet. So, we call the pension owner and he gave us a post code, which didn't quite help either. Luckily I printed out a map before we went to Japan. So, you cannot solely rely on the phone numbers when it comes to GPS system of Japan.


We decided to go to town for lunch after snooping around the pension where we stayed for the night. Last time when daDi and I visited Japan, we liked yakiniku and one of the lunch options on my list is yakiniku. So, we headed to Yamadori for some hot sizzling BBQ. We ordered some grape "juice" which we think the kids would love it. When didi's cousin Yan Yan had her first sip, the waitress ran over to us and told us that it was no juice. Yes, it was some very sweet wine and we all laughed. Did Yan Yan get drunk? We are not quite sure because she was still her energetic-self and it was really hard to tell.

So, who finally gulped down those fine wine of Japan? Well, Auntie Joyce and Uncle Alun had the honor and became light headed. They had to take a nap in the car/too drunk to get up for the next attraction.


So, it was daDi, maMi, didi and Yan Yan who toured the lovely forest and cottages at Prince Hotel Furano. We had coffee and cakes and inhaled some second hand smoke in that lovely coffee house located in the woods, where air is supposed to be clean and fresh. C'est la vie, I guess.

After everyone woke up, we drove back to the pension and enjoyed the lovely 成吉斯汗BBQ. I also learned one thing from this trip. Young kids really aren't quite ready for private Japanese home style type of accommodations, they just make too much noise. I had to consistently remind them to be gentle and stay quiet because there were other guests too. Too tiring for me.