South West Hokkaido Day 1

My accommodation from September 14 to 18 is the Kiroro Tribute Portfolio Hotel (1st photo) where I stayed in room #5701 (2nd photo). This place is a resort that is heavily geared towards winter, what with the Kiroro ski fields up the road. It is also in the middle of nowhere so dining options are somewhat limited.

First day there I drive down the east coast to Otamanbe, where I post a postcard to my Dad. The ladies running the post office are baffled by my appearance there. I leave them with the conundrum of how to place the stamps on the postcard without obscuring my text. I love messing with their heads! At the beach the country's love of plastic manifests itself in debris brought in by the tide.

I drive further down the coast to Yakumo, visiting the Panoramic Park there, before heading back to the hotel. I decide to use the new car's GPS to set the route. All's well until the car instructs me to turn left off route 5 onto route 9. OK, I'll bite even though the route is 90 degrees to where I want to go. We then turn onto route 229 and continue on. After a while I notice a wind farm in the distance. What I don't see is any scenery to the west of me. It couldn't be ... but a couple of minutes later my worst fears are realized as I see the sea. So I've driven from the south east coast to the west coast! Which basically has circled around where I'm staying.

The story has a happy ending as my car GPS does (eventually) navigate back to the hotel rather than just aimlessly taking me around the countryside until the car runs out of petrol and I die. To be fair, the west coast scenery is more majestic and there are many tunnels through the mountains. The last 3 photos show some of that scenery.Read more