Furano

The rest of our time in Hokkaido we spent in the lovely town, Furano. It's mascot is a belly button, since it is in the centre of the island. There are these funny pictures of belly buttons everywhere. 

We picked this area because it is centrally located. There are a several national parks close by with volcano that we could easily get to, and it is close to the flowers. Hokkaido is well known for its lavender season. There were lots of lavender products and themed souvenirs. That was one things I wanted to see. Furano was the place where we could easily visit all the sights that were at the top of our list. 


Little did I know that there is a Anpanman shop close to where we were staying. That became the number one thing on our Furano bucket list. Anpanman is a bread boy superhero. Anpan is actually an Asian bread pastry filled with red bean paste. It was a show I watched as a kid, and since we were in my birth country, had to relive my childhood favorites. Now Anpanman is now one of the kids favorites. Henry likes the villain Baikinman the best, haha. I knew he would love him the best because they are both pretty mischievous. The store was fabulous. There were all the Anpanman toys, books, clothes on the first floor the the kids could play with. The second floor housed a Anpanman gallery with giant stuffed Anpanmans, and the kids could actually meet Anpanman! 

I really love sharing my Japanese childhood with my kids. I taught them Japanese words to use while we were traveling. It is really wonderful to share these things with my children that have impacted my life so much. Anpanman is one of those things. 

Having just as much fun or more drawing with the kids. 

Japan has aesthetic and function down to perfection. This shop was absolute kid heaven. We wanted to go again, but it was not easily accessible by public transport. We made the most of our time there. 

Views on our hike. 

Flowers! Why we came to Hokkaido. 

No pictures please!

We are forever travel companions. Glad we are because we have it down to an art. 

We hike up a volcano! The kids have been really excited about hiking up a volcano since we learned that Hokkaido had them. We had very limited time, but we enjoyed being on a volcano. It was freezing and very misty. The higher we got the thicker the mist. A memory we will never forget. 

This is not the exact view from the onsen, but it is pretty close. On our way up to the volcano, our bus stopped at an onsen with a natural hot spring from the volcano. We had the most Japanese cultural experience and spent a few hours at the onsen. Cosette and I went together, and the boys went together. The water from the hot spring was so hot! I could not even stand in it. Cosette did not even try. It was so hot. There was a door leading outside to an outdoor hot spring. That was amazing! Sitting up on a mountain with a stunning view relaxing in a hot spring. This was my favorite part of the trip. We had a visitor by our hot spring. A kitsune, fox, was hanging around our outdoor hot spring. It spent a long time there and eventually came right down by the base of our hot spring. It was an amazing experience. Cosette was a little wary about the other ladies in there with us. She whispered to me, "Mom, I have never seen another naked person before". She got over it quickly, but it was fun to spend some girl time together. 

Hiking with our Totoro leaves. These plants look just like the leaves that Totoro had on his head while Satsuki and Mae are waiting for their Dad at the bus stop. 

These couple days were the only ones Lyndon ventured out with us. He got sick the night we went to the onsen. The rest of the trip me and the kids ventured around the Japanese countryside. Like I said in the previous post, this trip was the making lemonade with the lemons we had. It turned out pretty sweet.