An innocent girl

This girl (outside of her apt. in Lake Toya), had much fun with this fun snow sliding. As she noticed me, she came to greet me "O Hiyo". So cute and innocent. Again, when we blame too much snow, we should thank the snow for bringing the simple natural joy to this innocent girl. Nothing in the internet world can replace this one.

豐來軒, Lake Toya, Hokkaido, Japan

There are quite a no. of family run restaurants in Lake Toya. I came to visit this shop and tried a miso ramen. Found out the green onion is very strong and the bean sprouts are very juicy. The miso soup is a bit salty to me but that's the classic miso ramen. Then I noticed an aerial photo showing where this ramen shop is and the volcano called 金比羅 is actually very near to the residential area (about 0.5km).

Starry snow white, Lake Toya, Hokkaido, Japan

The hotel in Lake Toya set this starry light tunnel opposite to the hotel. At first, I used a tripod to take a longer exposure time to 1 to 2 seconds at F10, but it turned out it's too explosive lighting. Then further reduce it to F16, but the result isn't too good. Finally I noticed some tiny white leather is in the lighting. That means the tiny LED has too much light reflection. So:

1. I switched it to F6.5 at 1/6 second shutter speed. It came out as it was at the scene.

2. So I decided to detach the camera from the tripod. This one is at F4 at 1/25 second.

3. This one at F4 at 1/13 second.

4. This one at F4 at 1/25 second. (*without any post-processing).

dinner buffet, Lake Toya Manseikaku, Hokkaido, Japan

This hot spring offers a half board (breakfast plus dinner) stay. The dinner variety is pretty nice though some of the food may be strange to me, such as frozen lychee. In general, it's still better than I expected.

1. See the frozen lychee, but it's very welcome to the Japanese.

2. the veggie is pretty fresh.

3. Sashimi is pretty nice and the shrimp is at average.

4. can't expect much from the hot food at buffet.

5. this is somewhat surprising to me. Grilled minute steak. I see the evenly fat on the steak. I know it should be very soft. Yes, it is. I took 3 cut of it.

6. curry rice at average.

7. the dessert is at average too. The tangerine is pretty sweet though.

8. milk ice cream. In Hokkaido, how can we miss the local dairy product.

9-12. the cafe. I noticed the kids are pretty self-discipline. When they were putting on their jackets, their parents told them not to wear that in the seat as it would affect the others. I saw a girl dropping some ice cream on the floor. She used some tissue to wipe it without anyone telling her. Well, some may say "this is the job of the waiters/waitresses.". Yes, we can think that way, but the important point is that the kid should be taught about responsibility regardless of asking for "services".

Goodbye Lake Toya, Hokkaido, Japan

Got on the hotel coach leaving Lake Toya. The bus took a half way round the lake to the hilltop on the other side of where the hotel is. This journey took more than 40 minutes already; so you would know how big this lake is and how big scale of the volcano eruption happened 110,000 years ago. This lake is really something.

On this section of the journey, I tried every way to take some better shots but failed 99% since the trees blocked the way while the bus was moving pretty fast (I found out the roads here aren't steep and the Gov't did a lot of work in stretching the roads flatter; so the heavier vehicles can move pretty fast on the road.).

Again, I took my D-lux 3 to use the sport mode to take the photos. Supposed the 550D should have done a better job, but somehow the shutter sound of 550D is a bit too loud. Yes, a camera sound is loud in a quiet coach. The Japanese culture is that you should be considerate to the others by switching your cell. phone to silent mode on many public transportation. So we need to follow the local customs if it's not difficult. The difficult part of taking these photos is to keep my eyes wide open and be aware of any shorter trees ahead of the bus and what the bending road is. Besides, the coach's glass is also a problem. I couldn't stick too close to the glass as it would cause some sound. Anyway, it's very rewarding to see such a picturesque lake scenery photo, especially on the 2nd photo below.

Cafe Raidojuku, Lake Toya, Hokkaido, Japan

In most countries, there are always some very nice friendly people in small towns. Big cities have fast pace that no one care for some warm true friendly smile. So when we slow down, we get those back and start to smile again. In this cozy cafe, I found it again.

1. a bear sits at the fire place, reading his favourite books.

2. the bar area.

3. the cafe offers curry rice, sandwich and some fried noodles. Not many choices but if they do it right, these 3 choices are good enough. At least this curry rice is very nice. Rice cooked to a perfect texture - separate but not hard to chew. Curry very aromatic with lots of veggie which is good to balance the hot. Curry rice is at about JPY600 (US$8)

4/5. Madam made the coffee in quite some steps. She used some nice roast UCC coffee beans. We had an iced coffee and a Vienna coffee. Pretty good.

6. the entrance.

Lake Toya 洞爺湖, Hokkaido, Japan

This lake is a big crater from a super volcano eruption taking place about 110,000 years ago. As water settled in, there became a lake. Then around 40,000 years ago, another big eruption occured in the middle of the lake. Some big and small islands arose and in Japanese it's called Nakajima 中島. The whole area of Lake Toya is about 70 square kilometers with 43 kilometer shore line. On and off surrounding the lake, there have been some new born volcanoes. As a result, hot springs can be found almost anywhere of this place. There have been various hot springs resorts or local residences offering hot springs with 3 meals a day, ranging from JPY6,000 to 40,000.

1/2. view from the hotel room (Toya Lake Manseikaku). Pretty snowy.

3. hotel at night.

4. the lake.

5. the geographic drawing.

6. the center islands.

7. the north west coast of the lake.

8. taking a cruise to the central islands.

9. the west coast.

10-14. around the central islands.

15. looks like a snow skiing field.

16. Windsor Hill hotel.

17. back to the resort area.

18-20. taken along the lake walk.

21. the snow is very foamy actually.