One is met with a very refreshing view of Lake Toya and Ezo Fuji (Mt Yotei) at the far end, when you wake up in the morning as you look out the large picture window of your tatami room.
This is a nice place to stay overnight when you're exploring the Lake Toya area.
At night, they feature lights at the garden just by the lake and a few minutes of fireworks. It's great to go for a walk. In our case, it was winter time but it was still nice to go for an evening stroll. We were lucky to see a couple of big white swans swimming around the edge of the lake.
Since the area is also quite remote, there is not much options to go out. The hotel offers great buffet dinner. They have a large dining hall, but despite it being full when we visited, the ambiance was rather relaxing.
Nearby, we went for snow activities at the famous Rusutsu Ski Resort, visited the Bear Farm in Showa-Shinsan, and just enjoyed the drive in the midst of all the beautiful sceneries.
On our way from Sapporo to Lake Toya in Hokkaido, Japan, what emerged from the road ahead was this beautiful snow-capped mountain that looks very much like the famous majestic Mt. Fuji (highest mountain in Japan).
And as we jokingly called out Mt. Fuji to the kids, our local guide overheard us said we were actually right. Well, half right! This mountain is quite famous and is the Mt. Fuji of Hokkaido, and is nicknamed Ezo Mt. Fuji. Ezo is the old name of Hokkaido, the island on the northern end of Japan.
Ezo Mt. Fuji is located in the area of Shiribeshi, the southwestern part of Hokkaido, where its main attraction is its amazing natural scenery. The area consists of volcanoes, mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, amazing lakes, ponds and a wealth of natural wildlife. Visitors to the area do skiing, snowboarding, other snow activities, rafting, and of course the traditional Japanese hot spring (onsen). In the summer, there are a lot of national park activities, farming, jam making, enjoying the seafood and fresh produce.
The official name of this mountain though is called Mt. Yotei and it's approx ~1,900 meters high, compared to the ~3,700 meter Mt. Fuji.
What a wonderful surprise to have one of our meals in a family-owned cafe out in Chirabetsu, Hokkaido, almost in the middle of nowhere, but with great views of Ezo Mt Fuji (Mt. Yotei) as well as delicious food!
Knowing that we wanted to explore the backroads of Hokkaido, our local guide searched the internet for locally recommended place like this. It's a quaint and cozy little home, owned by a Japanese couple who runs the restaurant themselves. It is actually an active home, and they live on the 2nd floor :-) Small tables of 4-6 were set up on the 1st floor. We were a group of 16 in the family and we had the place to ourselves :-)
The menu was amazing! Started off with home made bread and Hokkaido butter, hot miso soup, cold sesame tofu for appetizer, grilled salmon with enoki mushrooms kept hot on a foil pouch, with a side of fresh colorful veggies, pumpkin and potato topped with Japanese
dressing made of mayo with fish/shrimp roe.
The view was equally amazing! Fresh powder snow on a large field and Ezo Mt. Fuji in the background.
The home also hosts a very beautiful owl believed to bring good luck and happiness. Owl is fu-kuro in Japanese, which means "no troubles".
Upon leaving, the lovely Japanese couple came out and bade us goodbye, and gave us each a candy cane as a souvenir :-)
If you're driving from Sapporo to one of the ski resorts in the area such as Rusutsu, stop by this place for an amazing lunch with friends. Highly recommended!
http://www.forestscene.net/
