Early morning, we have a visitor from the forest. We were still wondering why there were footsteps on the snow covered ground..

(The forest n mountains near my hotel)

The first sight of the day is the shooting star and milky way waterfalls. The scenery is rather nice. But the bigger waterfall has already froze.

(The waterfall that froze)

(Along the way to the 2nd waterfall)

(The 2nd waterfall - waterfall that had not froze)

Our next stop is the fox village. The guide recommended us to buy a potato chip that is real tasty.

(Snowman! Not created by me...)

(The fox itself)

Lunch is next to a lake where the swans gather..

(The beautiful swans on white snow)

(Winter scenery- It's snowing lightly then...)

(After lunch, we proceeded to view the cranes. An old lady has used her savings to buy food to feed the cranes from Siberia)

(The Siberian cranes that flew to Hokkaido during winter)

After the Siberian cranes, we were sent back to the hotel. It's really early! We reached the hotel aroud 4pm? Dinner is @ 6pm and luckily there's shops near the hotel, so we strolled along the streets and bought some souvenir.

(An Ainu exhibit)

Our hotel was along Lake Toya, but we didn't realise until the next morning. It's a nice scenery to view while eating our breakfast!  

The first itinerary of the day is a visit to Mt Showa and the bear ranch. Mt Showa is a newly formed mountain. It's formed via volcanic activities and is currently still an active volcano. To be frank, I was a bit disappointed that it's still not snowing. Snow is what Hokkaido winter is famous for. My disappointment was slowly diminished by the cute bears. They are not cute in apperance, but their actions and behaviour are rather cute. They would wave to you to attract your attention and begged you for food. Those who are in cage are rather hungry. They tried to attract our attention by waving frantically and when you threw apples in, the loud noise indicated that the bears were fighting for food. At one instance, they made a noise that sounded like a baby crying for food.

Mt Showa with the smoke indicating that it's still an active volcano

(Bears standing up as they saw apples in our hands)

(Bear begging for apples)

After the bear ranch, we headed off for a ride on the snow mobile. I was still rather skeptical about the possibility of the ride since it's not snowing, but as I proceeded closer and closer the resort, my skepticism disappeared.

(On the way to the resort offering the snowmobile ride.. and the start of a snowy trip. For the next few days, snow is everywhere...)

(The starting point of the ride)

The ride itself isn't as comfortable as I thought. It's a ride into the forest and hence it's rather bumpy when I increased the speed. The forest lanes were rather narrow and at times there will be 2 way traffic. Nevertheless, I didn't regret paying S$165 aka 10k yen to give it a try. It's something which I would never have a chance to try in Singapore. As we rode in the forest, the snow fell. It's really an unique experience.

The highlight of lunch today is the crab. It's the nicest crab I have ever tried. It's delicious as it has a natural sweet taste.

After lunch, we proceeded to the Hell valley. It's a natural hot spring. There's a mini snow bizzare when we alighted to walk towards the Hell valley. The tour guide advised us not to walk down towards the source of the hot spring as it's pretty slippery with the snow. Due to this advice and also as my mum was not feeling well, I didn't walk further down towards the source of the hot spring.

(Lunch- yummy crab! It's sweet!)

(Hell Valley)

(Another shot of the Hell Valley)

(As I waited for the rest of tour members to come back, I was busy taking shots of the scenery)

(French fries from the vending machine. I find the vending machine fascinating. They actually have cooked food like French Fries, takapochi. The  tour guide was explaining that manpower costs in Japan is horrifying high and hence that explained why Japan has lotsa of different kinds of vending machines to substitute the human beings.)

(Snowy forest next to my hotel room. I had my first attempt at outdoor onsen here. Not too bad an experience. )