On the final day of our four days touring in Hokkaido, it had been raining insistently from the early morning. We had been wondering inside the lodge about where we should have a good time before boarding an airplane back to Tokyo departing Asahikawa airport at 19:35 pm.
As we had not expected that it would rain, it took us some time, looking at the maps and discussing on several options for a considerable time, until we finally decided to drive south back to Furano to taste delicious local cheese and pizza at the Furano Cheese Factory. From our lodge in Higashi-kagura forest near Asahikawa city, we drove through the country roads in the autumn gentle rain dripping to reach the site for just one and a half hour.
It was a pleasant and quite place. They produce 5 different kinds of original cheeses including the wine cheddar co-developed with Rakunou Gakuen University in 1982, as well as various dairy products such as Nailao ("奶酪"), an old Chinese court sweet, all which we can buy at its souvenir shop. Visitors can also observe the cheese making process. At lunch we ate the big genuine Neapolitan pizzas with full use of its original mozzarella cheese and local fresh products baked on the firewood cooking stove that they imported from Nepali, where the chief chef learned making pizza process. I was surprised to see that my ladies, my wife and the elder son's wife, not satisfied enough, further insisted to taste its original fresh ice-creams too, as I know they are always cautious not to be fat.
Last October 2014, just one month after my lonely Oregon touring, I traveled Hokkaido, northern main island of Japan, this time together with my wife and my eldest son’s family. They have a kid of less than two years. My wife usually prefers to relax herself at home, not interested so much in holidays getaway. Furthermore she does not have much trust in me when it comes to driving, although she has no driver’s license herself. But when I returned from Oregon, US, she unexpectedly proposed to travel to Hokkaido if we could make a driving tour together with our grandson.
We took an early flight for Chitose airport, which departed Haneda at 6:25 in the morning. After landing, we rushed into a rent-a-car shop and started the four days tour; for the 1st day from Chitose to Sapporo thru Lake Shikotsu , on the 2nd day we drove through Furano to Asahikawa, and on the 3rd and 4th days we had based on a country-style lodge in Higashi-Kagura Forest,visiting Asahiyama zoo and Furano Cheese factory.
Mt. Asahi-dake
For me Mt. Asahi-dake was the most memorable site. More than 40 years ago when I was a university student, I was heading to this mountain, as a final destination, with my trekking club friends. We were traversing the Daisetsu Mountain Range lying in the center of Hokkaido from Mt. Tokachi-dake through Mt. Tomuraushi. We had a small accident in boiling water for a morning meal in the tent, which injured our friend's leg seriously so that we gave up to continue the trekking just before reaching to Mt. Asahi-dake. Mt. Tomuraushi, among others, has been my most favorite mountain in Japan since then, so grandiose, quite, and beautiful with full of alpine plants. We needed to be only cautious not to surprise the local inhabitants of big brown bears with a weight of more than 300 kg. But I have been wondering how Mt. Asahi-dake, the highest in the range, looks like which we had missed to meet at that time.
Now 40 years later, I rode up on tramway to Sugatami Pond station with my family. We did not climb to the top of the mountain, the highest in the region with 2,291 meters above sea level. It was still covered with ever lasting snow and presented itself really awesome. I thought it deserved to be called a tycoon of Daisetsu Mountain Range, which literally means “the Big Snow Mountains”.
