For Victoria's birthday, August 27, we went to Hokkaido. You can get cheap flights in Japan ($80 one way) during the week before and after your birthday. It's a good deal, so we wanted to take advantage of it.

We flew into Chitose airport in Hokkaido, and discovered we had just missed the bus to the Lake we wanted to go to. We wandered around the airport for about three hours waiting for the bus. It gave us a good chance to eat and watch the planes though. Lunch was pretty good. They have a lot of potatoes in Hokkaido, so we ate baked potatoes. Elsewhere in Japan, potatoes aren't a common food. Rice is much more popular.

Eventually the bus came and took us to Lake Shikotsu, a small tourist enclave next to a lake. The lake is the second deepest in Japan and never freezes, despite cold winters. It is surrounded by volcanoes. There are two older volcanoes which helped create the lake, and one newer one that still has toxic gases coming out of it.

There were several campsites around the lake, but only two we could get to. Some of our info suggested your could get a bus to either one, but we found out that only one of them had a bus still. I really wanted to go to the campsite with the sandy beach, Morrapu, which was a 3.5 km hike through the woods. So we headed there for our first night. It was a nice hike through the woods, but it was pretty steep, because we went up a mountain first, then down the other side. When we got to the camp, we saw that it was not sand at all, but dirt with lots of rocks. It wasn't very nice at all. They had a grassy area, but it was all roped off. We got there around 5 or 5:30, and were getting hungry again. However, we discovered that the restaurant and store that the campsite was supposed to have were closed for the year. I think it was only open June-mid August.

Luckily there were a couple food stands nearby, but they were closing. We rushed over there and bought some cooked potatoes, corn, and corn dogs. It was better than going hungry, but not the best meal ever. The office of the campsite was closed, so we just pitched a tent and then paid in the morning. We chose a place by the water that wasn't too rocky, and was far away from the other 6 tents on the beach. We went to bed early, as you are prone to do when camping.

However, we were woken up at 2am by some stupid college kids who decided to have a party about 10 meters from our tent! They were yelling and screaming at everything. Then they started shooting fireworks. Victoria was really funny, yelling loudly at them in English and stuff. They pretty much seemed to ignore us. Eventually they went away, though.

We feel back to sleep but were woken up at about 5am by 50 crows outside on the beach cawing loudly. They sounded a little like growling dogs.

The next morning we decided to change campsites, since there wasn't a bus at this one, plus it was being quite loud.

So we walked back to town and caught the bus to Poropinai campsite. We only had fifteen minutes or so before the next bus back to town (a two hour wait after that), so we quickly paid and set up the tent. We threw our stuff in and made the bus in time. The campsite wasn't much better, but was more private. The toilets were just pit toilets though, while the other one had been flush.

Back in town we rented bikes and then tried to bike to some mossy caves that are nearby (okay, 14 km away). However, Victoria decided to turn around because it was a lot of uphill biking. I pressed on, and then it started raining, so I got pretty soaked. I made it to the caves, to discover massive construction in the parking lot. Apparently they were rebuilding the visitor's center, so no cars could enter. I went on foot up to the caves and they were blocked off with do not enter signs. I wish the tourist information desk had mentioned this in their brochure. Apparently for a short time, you can't go into the caves. I took a picture and then left. It was a little frustrating, since I had biked so far.

I made it back faster due to a shortcut I discovered. It was a small gravel road that cut off about 3km of uphill / downhill. I don't know why they didn't recommend this route, either.

It was really raining at this point, so we returned the bikes and went to a log cabin cafe place that was nice and cozy. We took a bus back to our campsite and discovered our tent was in a bit of a perilous place. There was a decent amount of water around the tent, so we decided to rent a bigger, more waterproof tent from the campsite for 1,500 yen. It was nice and spacious and dry, so it was worthwhile.

The next day we ate breakfast at a nearby place and paddled around in a paddle boat. It was pretty fun, but it was a slow paddle boat. Victoria thought too much of the paddle was out of the water. However, we did have good views of the volcanoes today.

We got a bus to Sapporo and were in a big city once more. We dropped our luggage off at the hotel, which was only a year old, and really nice (plus cheap!).

We just wandered around the city, going to the city hall lookout, and a famous park, in addition to shopping places. The park is famous because Sapporo's famous snow festival is held there every year in February. It started to rain some, so we went back to check-in to the hotel. That night we went to the Garlic-Garlic restaurant. They have one near Toyama, but the menu was considerably different. I think our family went to the same restaurant in Shikoku, and the menu was different there, too.

We were planning on going out that night, but it had gotten a little late, and Victoria was having bad problems because of the smoke in the restaurant. So we just went back to the hotel instead.

The next day (Saturday) we had some of the best weather of the trip, which was nice. Our flight wasn't until 5:30, so we had some time to wander around the city. We took a bus which drove around the city and deposited us at the Sapporo Beer Museum. The museum had a short, free tour, where they explained the history of the company, and how to make beer. Then we ate lunch at their German-style beer hall. The food was quite good, actually.

Then we walked back to the station to do a little shopping before finally catching a train to the airport. Unfortunately, we checked in a little late, so we couldn't get a window seat. Victoria finds a window seating comforting, since she is terrified of flying. However, she did nobly after a bottle of whiskey.

We couldn't get a direct flight back to Toyama, so we had to fly to Tokyo on Saturday, and Toyama Sunday evening. So we ended up with 22 hours in Tokyo. Our hotel, Hotel New Park Ueno, was nicely priced and quite cozy. It was a little old, but we didn't suffer from it. We went out to dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, Tokyo - Ueno. It was pretty much like all the other Hard Rock Cafes, but Victoria had never been to one, and I quite fancied something more like at home.

Sunday we went to the center of town to visit the Imperial Gardens. In June, we tried to go there two other times but weren't able to because of rain and a park closure. So we were very happy to be able to go again. I was a little disappointed with the gardens, actually. They were not very decorative, like many Japanese gardens. Victoria liked this about it, but I didn't. To me it just looked like any old park in America. Some grassy fields, trees, and bathrooms.

This time we went to the airport early and got window seats for our flight back to Toyama. The weather in Tokyo was quite nice, so of course, when we arrived in Toyama, it was pouring down rain. Still, it was a really nice trip.