Day 3. Niseko ニセコ

Ms. Takahashi of JR Otaru made my day	"This is for you"	Corn	Poppy and "Mt Fuji"

Another view of "Mt Fuji"	Cafe where I had lunch	3 Chutes coming down the hill	A close look
Chute Traffic Controller and a "Popula" tree	"A little rain won't stop us"	Onsen in the rain is more fun	Found a crack with a view to the female side

JR Rent-a-car: Second Try

I noticed something different about the sales girl at JR Rent-a-car counter in Otaru station. She spoke Japanese very slowly to me, in a the way that a kindergarten teacher talks to little kids. Even though I had no problem making conversation in Japanese, she was very considerate and tried to accommodate me as a foreigner. I was very touched.

I requested a small size car but that turned out to be not available, before I had to say anything, I was offered a free upgrade to a medium size car. She even walked me to where the car was parked, and offered to block other cars while I drove my car away. Again, what a big difference from yesterday's experience.

Niki仁木

I have heard that Niki, which is on the way from Otaru to Niseko, is a famous fruit production area in Hokkaido. The end of August is the season for grapes and melon. I always enjoy touring fruit gardens, and remembering a good friend of mine in Tokyo likes grapes very much, I decided to pay a visit to one of the gardens.

I pulled over to a road side fruit garden, and was welcomed by a farmer offering me a free plum for tasting. He was young man in his 20s, with dark skin and solid features. He looked exactly like the kind of farmer that I wish the fruits in supermarkets are grown by. We had a nice chat and I found out from him that other than grapes and melon, they also had cherries and Western pear. There are 2 kinds of grapes they grow in Niki, Buffalo which has dark and thin skin, and Delaware which is tiny and has thin pink skin. Both are seedless and taste really sweet. I asked him to show me their Buffalo grape farm, and took a few pictures. During my 30 minutes of visit, other than the welcome plum, I was also offered a slice of melon, freshly picked grapes (as I took pictures of them), another plum, and even a can of Apple juice.

Niseko Mountains

Most people know Niseko as a great ski resort in the winter, but during the summer it is also a great place for outdoor activities and onsen. The long list of activities includes horseback riding, fishing, rafting, paragliding, and hot air balloon riding. I decided to try river fishing because it sounded like nice way to cool of during in the hot afternoon.

As I drove my car towards the fishing ground, suddenly out of nowhere a bright red parachute flew across the sky. I chased the parachute and finally arrived at a flat area with a sign saying "Niseko Sky Sports Club". There was several people there who appeared just landed, and a controller holding a walkie-talkie to coordinate the take off. I was a bit nervous about barging into their club activities, but all of them were very friendly and explained what they do to me. It turned out their came all the way over from Nagoya to practice paragliding.

As we talked the weather turned bad and pretty soon it started raining heavily. But that didn't stop the "crazy" chuters from flying down. One might think that the chute itself would act as a huge umbrella, but since the chuter actually moves forward most of the time, everyone of them were rained pretty hard. To make it even worse (or exciting), the rain drops made a loud noise on the chute and it was quite scary, I was told.

If you are interested in finding out more about this club, check out their home page: http://homepage1.nifty.com/skysports/.

Niseko Ikoi no Mura ニセコいこいの村

I had 2 choices for tonight's lodging: a privated run ryokan called Anapoli Onsen which only costs 6900 yen plus service and tax, and a publicly owned resort called Niseko Ikoi no Mura for 10500 including service and tax. Remembering my failure the night before, I didn't want to choose a wrong place to stay. Usually lodges run by public services are cheap and decent, and if this place is more expensive than the standard, the facility must be really nice. I also like the way they quote the price which includes services and tax already. Another hint I got was the location, the Niseko Ikoi Mura is very close to other high class lodges such as Nikko and Tokyu hotels, so I guess its grade should be comparable. Finally just to make sure, I drove to see the Anapoli Onsen ryokan (how nice to have a car!) The exterior was shockingly old and dirty, I didn't bother to see the inside. No wonder this place posts so many brochures to advertise itself, because people went there once never want to go again.

Niseko Ikoi no Mura was a big winner. It is a beautifully built resort that sits on top of a small hill. The whole place looked brand new. The guest rooms were spacious and sparkling clean. My main focus area, the onsen, was spacious and bright, and it comes with a hugh open air section. The only complaint I have is that they don't have a cold water bath which is as important as the hot water one to me.

Since it was raining, soaking in the open air bath was quite a refreshing experience. I actually took a few pictures of the ripples made by rain drops. I thought, if it felt this good in the rain, the experience must be even more enjoyable in the snow. I have always been an advocate of implusive action and hated planning (or you can say I am very bad at planning), but I like this place so much that I decided to make reservations here for this coming ski season. Guess what, from 12/23 to 1/3 it had been fully booked! People know when they find a great place.

By the way, there was something about the open air onsen that worth mentioning. There is a crack between the stones separating the male and female sections, and I have a picture to prove it. Unfortunately there was no one on the other side (who would be so crazy to bath in the rain anyway!)

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