Monday, June 2 – A snowy day!

 

We awoke to brilliant sunshine which was great as we’re planning on going up on to the slopes of Mt. Asahi-dake, Hokkaido’s highest peak and an active volcano.

My breakfast selections

 After breakfast we left for the short walk to the start of the Asahi-Dake Ropeway (gondola) wearing our snow gear. I had my rain pants on over my heavier pants as I knew I would fall in the snow, light wool shirt, down jacket and windbreaker.

 

 We took the first gondola ride of the day and rode for ten minutes gaining about 1500’ to the upper station and started walking up the slope with hiking poles. 

Gondola shadow

The snowpack was about 1 meter and the top layer soft and slippery.  It was quite tough going and took a lot of energy.  Patches of Japanese Stone Pine , also known as creeping pine, were emerging from the snow.  It is a prostrate, bushy pine whose branches wind about 1-2’ above the soil.  It is completely covered with snow for months, and the branches spring up as it is exposed in the spring.  The rocky areas were covered with mosses, bracken, lovely yellow rhododendrons.  We got great views of the beautiful Siberian Rubythroat, one of the most colorful birds of the trip.

 

Fumaroles

Setting off

We arrived at an area with benches where we could catch our breaths and admire the mountain and chain of peaks extending north and south.  The side of the mountain has many fumaroles gushing steam with two impressive ones nearby that we walked over to.

 

Steaming Fumarole

Siberian Rubythroat on a Stone Pine

Golden Rhododendron

I looked up and saw our clear sky had completely clouded up to the west and clouds soon covered the sky.  We started down, circling north on a trail with steep rough stone steps that took all my balance to maneuver.  Barbara fell in the snow, and shortly thereafter I did also.  Not very gracefully, but at least into soft snow, and with my rain pants on, so I remained dry!

 

Down uneven stone steps

We stopped by some benches and ate our 7-11 lunches we had purchased yesterday.  I had a rice cake with sesame and seaweed, and a Onigiri, a triangular rice cake wrapped in nori, crunchy dried sheet of seaweed, which was very tasty.   Mark passed around some Kit Kat bars which are a very popular fad in Japan with over 300 different flavors, regional specialties and collectors – who knew?

 

We passed a small circular crater filled with snow with a small turquoise pond in the bottom.  We staggered down the stone steps onto a final slippery downhill snowy slog to the Ropeway station.  We grabbed the next gondola and were soon down by the hotel at 2 PM where we collapsed for a couple of hours.

 

Final slog down to the Ropeway station

We met up at 5:30 in a lovely library room of the hotel for the bird list and from there to the dining room for a buffet dinner.  Mark and Mayumi had cancelled the “main course” so we could pick the quantity and items we wanted.   After dinner we gathered on the front patio of the hotel in the drizzle to watch for a Eurasian woodcock to fly by which it did but quite far away.