Japan Trip 2006. Tokyo and Asahikawa (Hokkaido).

 February 3, 2006  Posted in Uncategorized

Page 2006 in Tokyo, Japan

Flew from Tokyo into Asahikawa, Hokkaido with Philip for a snow-filled winter vacation:

The winter journey through Japan begins…
Freezing cold Hokkaido
Ice sculpture outside the airport. -9 degrees Celsius.
Our rental car
My brother Philip and me, freezing out butts off.

Drove through the blizzard to our first stop in Abashiri

My friend Hiro was driving while my brother and I passed out in the car, oblivious to the blizzard conditions…
Thanks Hiro for driving in such dangerous conditions, and got us there in one piece!
Dinner! Hokkaido is famous for crabs
We each get one of these… yum!
Hiro is a bit buzzed… 🙂

Next morning, we got on an icebreaker ship and drove through the Abashiri Hyoru (crushed ice) cruise

View from my ryokan (hotel) room
It snowed overnight, covering all the trees with a thin layer of snow
We bought tickets for the “Drift Ice” cruise (called Ryuhyo). My brother and I imagined it to be a ice-crushing ship like those in Alaska…
Just in time for our ride
Our cruise ship
chunks of ice near the dock
looks impressive so far… COLD.
after a few minutes of this, and hearing no ice-crushing sound from the front of the boat, I was told that the ice is really slush, and there will be NO ice-crushing at all 🙁
My good friend (and family tour guide for Japan) Hiro Kanasaki
It was quite windy that day… freezing wind-chill
The more “packed” area, but still slush.
looking at the “trail” behind the ship
I passed out 😉