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

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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