Sunday, June 1 - to Daisetsu National Park

Bob got up at six to meet the others for birding and I stayed behind to try and get more sleep.  The futons were very comfortable as were the bean-filled pillows, but getting up off the floor was a chore.  And I still woke up at three when it started to get light. 

 Bob returned and said they got even better views of the Black Woodpecker than yesterday and enjoyed a walk around this small village surrounded by snow-capped volcanoes. 

In my hotel kimono

We had a  good buffet breakfast, although we avoided the raw eggs on rice, we could get toast with jam for the first time! When we returned to our rooms, we found little cloth bags hanging from our door handles containing two tiny glass bottles of milk from the local dairy - delicious!

 

We packed up and drove off, climbing up into dense forest with views of spectacular snowy peaks. We stopped and birded and took pictures of gorgeous waterfalls. 

 This well-engineered road has several substantial tunnels carved through the mountains as well as many snowsheds, as this area is very popular with hikers, skiers, and tourists.

 

Enjoying soft serve!

We descended from the mountains into an area of vast rice paddies which was surprising as I didn't expect to see rice grown in such a cold climate, but I guess at least one crop can be grown in the summer months.

 

Rice paddies

 

We stopped for an another adventure in 7-11 shopping as we needed to pick up lunch for tomorrow when we'll be near the top of Hokkaido's tallest mountain.  We drove from there a short ways to a tiny restaurant on a country side road run by one woman.  She was expecting us  and had a "Sold Out": sign on the door. 

She gave us large tossed green salads and veggie quiche which would have been enough but there is always more!  We each got a small casserole with chicken and potatoes in a tomato gravy. 

We rolled out of there and continued driving for another hour, rising up into the same mountain range once again and reaching Hotel Bearmonte, a large ski inn at the foot of Mt Asahidake, 7500'.

 We were warned that our hotels would not be able to do laundry.  Most Japanese tourists only come for long weekends and have no need of laundry facilities so hotels don't provide the service.  We have been hand laundering, but I had done my research and found that three of our accommodations have coin machines, and this is one of them!  I grabbed my laundry bag and found the machine right on our floor.

A very cute machine with lots of instructions in Japanese, so I just dumped the clothes in and closed the lid, hoping for the best which seemed to do the trick.  The dryer was up another floor, but our spacious warm rooms had plenty of room for my clotheslines and we were all set!

We reassembled at four and walked around the hotel, still with plenty of snow on the ground with ferns and skunk cabbage emerging from the ground.  We walked on a boardwalk surrounded by yellow Marsh Marigolds and spotted more birds.

We met at six for dinner: a huge buffet!  I got sushi, buckwheat noodles, ceviche(!) and several other dishes.  We were happily eating when plates of pork steak  and potato arrived!  When will we learn that there is always more food coming!!   We finished up with creme brulee and soft serve ice cream.