Thursday, May 29 - Traveling to Kushiro

 We spent another long day getting this trip going.  

Bob’s theory of avoiding jet lag by staying up during the whole flight from LAX to Tokyo and then crashing, didn’t work for me .  I went to sleep at nine and awoke right at midnight and couldn’t get back to sleep for the rest of the night!   Bob fared better with about six hours of rest.  
We finally got up and went to an airport cafe where we got coffee and prepackaged donuts before checking out of our airport hotel and walking back into Terminal 3 of the Haneda Airport.  We’re flying out of Terminal 2, but were able to to check our bags to Kushiro before climbing onto the free bus to Terminal 2.  We walked down several long hallways to Gate 50B where we met Raymond who is joining our trip in order to be trained to lead this tour after Mark and Mayumi Brazil retire soon.   

We were to have lunch in Kushiro as soon as we arrived but Raymond said plans had changed and we should pick up lunch here as we would be birding as soon as we landed, so I started off to get something when an announcement on the loud speaker told us our gate had been changed from 50 to 505... a good long walk but not as bad as it sounds!   I picked up a couple of sandwiches at a 7-11 which has an amazing variety of hot and cold packed meals, and we ate them as we met the other six members of our tour.  We piled onto a bus that took us out to a plane, and we took off for the 1.5 hour flight to Hokkaido.  

We landed at 1:30, flying over vast stretches of forest, then grazing land, and landed in the tiny Kushiro airport, met Mark and Mayumi, and set off in three vans with plenty of room for us and the luggage.   

We passed lush green fields with dairy cows and multiple fast-flowing rivers where we stopped to bird.  Right away we saw the bird of Hokkaido, the beautiful Red-crowned Crane, a 5’ tall white crane with black wing tips and a splash of red on its forehead.  We saw several more birds at other stops until we arrived  at  La Vista Spa at 4 PM.   This hotel caters to Japanese visitors who come for a few days to relax in the hot springs and eat gourmet food.  We have a lovely room with a river view and our own private wooden soaking tub!

in Onsen gear

This was our first Onsen Hotel and Mark and Mayumi were anxious to school us in the etiquette these places demand.   We were given loose pajama-like robes and told to change into them and reassemble at the Onsen entrance.
Bob was not interested so I joined the others. The men went into one bath and the women into another.   We sat down on stools in individual cubbies to washed ourselves and then walked over to an indoor and an outdoor pool.  They were about 20‘ across, shallow,  with sitting areas.  You are not supposed to swim or splash, but just soak and relax.  It as very pleasant, but I didn’t last very long as it was quite warm, and I was afraid of dozing off!

It was time for dinner at 5:45. We settled into two tables got a multi-course dinner. The food served in this hotel is Kaiseki

Our Table with Bob and Mark

. 

The kaiseki dining experience typically begins with a platter of appetizers, followed by sashimi, cooked dishes, a rice course, and finally, dessert.   Everything is presented with beautiful artistry made with the freshest ingredients, but when I say “dishes” above it means a quite endless parade of dishes which can be overwhelming!  We started with platters of a variety of fish and bits of vegetables.  In front of each of was a ‘hot pot” of broth, fish and other vegetables set over a flame to cook.  We had sashimi, savory egg custards with shrimp and ginkgo seeds, and finally sweet beaten rice.  We couldn’t possibly eat all that, and weren’t supposed to which really goes against our upbringing of not wasting food, but it seems to be the custom here - maybe just vacation meals? 

  

Got back to our room to organize our gear and hopefully get a good night’s rest!

Shashimi with my hot pot in back

Tue-Wed, May 27-28 - Flying toTokyo

We had to deliver Mitsy to the Cat House Hotel on Sunday as Monday is a holiday. Bob got a few bruises while putting her in her carrier.  She struggled wildly but never attacked him. Unfortunately, the flailing carrier door whacked him in several places.

Monday we got everything packed, and  got up at 4:30 on Tuesday morning.  Our taxi was right on time and so was the 5:50 Santa Barbara Air Bus to LAX.  The Brucatos would have taken the 4 AM bus and had plenty of time to relax, but we gambled on the 5:50 bus and, of course, hit terrible traffic at the 101/405 interchange.  However, we miraculously arrived at the airport with two hours to spare, whipped through check-in and security and then had the long slog from Terminal 4 over to the Tom Bradley.   After enjoying cappuccinos we arrived at our gate and walked right onto our American Airlines 787.   A very nice plane and our seats in Premium Economy were roomy and comfortable.  

We took off at 10:30 and were immediately served lunch with GnTs and Bloody Marys; the food was only OK, but as we hadn’t eaten since last night, it tasted pretty good.  Bob’s theory was that we should stay up for the eleven hours of the flight, arriving in Tokyo mid-afternoon, check in to our hotel and collapse in the evening - that would get us over jet lag…we’ll see!

The flight was all in daylight, but, of course, they wanted us to sleep and the new windows on the 787 can be darkened by the flight staff!  You can adjust it a bit, but it’s too dark for seeing much of anything.  Bob was not impressed!  We got dinner just before we landed, flying over farm lands, golf courses, villages, and wide expanses of water.

Haneda airport is quite impressive and huge: 3 very large terminals, but with good people moving skills.  We entered Immigration and found ourselves in a very large room crammed full of people.   We managed to find the end of the line and started moving, eventually entering long roped-off walkways.  We walked back and forth the entire length of the room 14 times before we arrived at an immigration officer.  Bob had downloaded QR codes for us that greatly sped up our entry.  We grabbed our waiting bags and we were out without incident.  Immediately found an ATM which shot out pristine 10,000 Yen notes (~$70), walked to the end of a long walkway and into the Villa Fontaine Hotel where we’re staying the night.

We got a small, but well-designed room overlooking the Tema River.  And in the bathroom we found our first Japanese Toilet!!    Wow!  It does everything but press your clothes: two different types of sprays, adjustable spray strength, and adjustable toilet seat temperature.  We haven’t figured all this out yet!

We went back down to the airport connecting walkway (full of shops and restaurants) for a bite to eat and found a cute cafe that boasted having an English menu which we never saw, but with the help of photos we ordered a few plates of which the delicious grilled sable fish was the best, followed by a dessert of sweet red bean paste with sweet, but very rubbery, white dumplings on top!  It was quite like the diner in “Midnight Diner”, a wonderful Netflix series, if you haven’t seen it.

Back to our room for bed and prep for our flight to Hokkaido and meeting our group tomorrow.

Setting Off

Flag of Hokkaido, Japan: Green for the forests,
Blue for the ocean and White for the snow.

We're heading to the northern island of Japan, Hokkaido, and exploring its northeast corner for two weeks. Our tour is with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours and is called Birding and Culture, so it should be very interesting, especially as we have never been to Japan before. 

Mark Brazil, our leader, is the author of "Birds of Japan", and along with his wife, Mayumi, who was born and educated on Hokkaido, they will be showing us around their homeland.  We will be staying in hotels and small family inns, several with onsen, natural hot spring public baths  which I'm sure we will enjoy especially as the weather on Hokkaido tends to be overcast, cool, and drizzly.   Great food, scenery, and adventure awaits!