北海道自転車旅行：7/15 女満別へ

July 15, we've went half way through our trip, and it was finally the day our 2 other friends: 宗霖 & his sister would fly in at Memanbetsu (女満別) to join us.

いいな〜太陽は〜！
After days of cloud, fog and rain, it's finally a sunny day once again... once we got out of the valley of Lake Akan (阿寒湖), that is. With all that moisture gathered around the lake and closed in the surrounding mountains, it's still cloudy and cool in the valley, and we sure were happy to leave the valley and it's bad weather, though a little disappointed that we didn't had the chance to see the lake in it's full glory. After the short climb out, we were soon under clear blue skies, forcing us to promptly change from winter clothes to shorts and T-shirts. But sure we missed the sun shine a lot, and it was a long time since we last touched our sun screen bottles, which were once again needed.

After this sign, we were officially out of the Akan area, and starting a a whole day's worth of happy downhill rides. That's right, that's downhill all the way from 9:30am to 1:30pm, almost 50km on route 240, all the way to the city of Bihoro (美幌). Well, actually we made frequent stops and rests, so only half of the time was riding. I recall that although I didn't rode in the front all the way, I still got an average speed of 20km/hr on that downhill. Half way we made a stop at a 7-eleven. Somehow 7-elevens were rare in rural area of Hokkaido, but this one showed up right when we got hungry, with a very nice 100yen sell on all rice balls. Yum!

Route 240 was another route that cut through massive farms, so here comes the cows again.


Here's a scary curve. Scary not because you tend to enter the curve at downhill high speeds, but because there's word by word warning signs by the curve, that said "Death ... accident ... frequently ... happening ... section" (死・亡・事・故・多・発・路・段). A sign for each character, with the signs of "death" in front of the others, so you only see "death" (死亡) when you are entering the curve.
いい加減にしなさいよ〜！
What are the Japanese government's traffic division thinking, that's scare the heck out of people!


Here's another tire guy with a seat belt. The Japanese government seems to like roadside jokes as safety campaigns...

Soon we arrived at Bihoro (美幌), and made a stop at the first Seicomart convenient store we saw along the road. We originally planned to get stuff and cook, but Seicomart's got their new bento (lunch rice in a box) out right on that day: a huge plate of curry rice with fried pork and shrimp (てんぷら丼かつカレー弁当), 毅軍 got lazy and bought it (it was so good!). So we all had microwaved convenient store lunch. We originally planned to stay in Bihoro, but after the amazing progress we made, it's still in the middle of the day. So after a lazy rest at the Seicomart reading comics (manga), maps and a short nap, we were back on the road toward Memanbetu(女満別) .

Yet less then 1 km later, still in Bihoro we stopped again at a Co-Op supermarket.

As we secured our luggages on our bikes in the bike parking area of the supermarket, a clerk walked out of the door toward. Assuming we might be in the way of other customers, we said sorry and prepared to move. Yet he just smiled and asked: "do you like coffee? or tea?" Huh? "Coffee's OK, but..." And he cut us off: "Just wait right here." Before we understood what the situation was he walked out again and handed each of us a can of iced coffee "These are for you!" It was then we noticed his badge on his apron: "Store Manager (店長)". And he left, walking into the store again. The coffee is the Georgia brand (one of Coca-Cola Japan's brands), with different Hokkaido scenic spot photos printed on each can. Just as we finished enjoying the free coffee, the manager was out again, this time giving us free oranges, and telling us to take care on the road (気をつけて！). How touching! Feeling somewhat in debt for all the gifts, we walked into the supermarket to see if there's anything needed. As the Co-Op chain of supermarkets always had the best deals, it's real nice to shop there anyways.


The route between Bihoro(美幌) and Memanbetsu(女満別) is yet another peaceful road cutting between great green plains. There were road signs with beautiful cartoon style drawings of a plane and a lake, showing that we are in the direction of the Memanbetsu International Airport and Abashiri Lake (網走湖). The Airport is where our friends will land, and Abashiri Lake is a large lake extending from Memanbetsu into near by Abashiri, which then connects to the sea via Abashiri river (網走川).

Welcome to the world of green rice paddies and great blue skies.

When we got close to the airport, it was still quite early in the afternoon. our friends were scheduled to arrive later in the night, with a 2 hour delay due to a Typhoon close to Tokyo, so it's still several hours before they land. Yet, as I liked little Japanese airports, which are still built to high quality standards, yet not as crowed, and may have a observation area on the roof, I still suggested we have a tour of the airport.

So here we are, at the Memanbetsu Airport (女満別空港), which, with the small building and large parking lot, looks more like a shopping mall from up front.

Another thing that I like about small airports is that I get to be very close to the planes.

The first floor is the normal check-in and arrival area, 2nd floor's the waiting area for flights and gift shops. Airport gift shops here seems like a compact version of all the gift shops around Hokkaido, so almost all the gifts were familiar to us after half a month's tour. We could even hold up each merchandise and know if it's a good one, or where we could find a similar one of better quality. But to my surprise, the price here is the same as outside, how rare. Most airport shops sell at rip-off prices. Sure enough, there was a free observation deck on the roof. There were ticket taking gates, now disabled. Seems that they once charged for getting up there, but with less then 10 flights daily, it's just common sense that people won't be willing to pay for getting up there. View's sure superb, with the runway, tarmac, surround rice paddies, and even the mountains far away all in clear sight.


And I always like to play with photos of direct sun light.

青春だ！！！


Plane watching...

I said: "After the tow tractor detaches from the plane, the ground workers are all done with their job, and would wave goodbye to the pilot and passengers before the pilot leaves for the runway." And here it is, seems to be the single most interesting part of airport work that shows a sign of humanity.

And here's the plane's steps to take off...


They had a tiny exhibition showing how large and thick plane tires are.

And it's finally time to leave


The route that leads us out of the airport into the city, goes along side the runway.

Memanbetsu is another peaceful little town with beautiful roads and buildings.

Interestingly relating to the nearby airport, Memanbetsu (女満別) and the surroundings are called The town of Oozora (大空町), and here's a dentist office with a banner featuring a drawing of blue skies and a plane.


We made a brief stop at the Memanbetsu station of the road (女満別道の駅), before going to the Lakeside camping area of Memanbetsu (女満別湖畔キャンプ場).


We had to cross the railroad to get to the lake side, and we took the bicycle friendly overpass that's part of the Memanbetsu train station-library complex, which it self is also very pretty.

Notice that we could already see the beautiful lake from the railway overpass.


And we are finally at Abashiri lake (網走湖). With this sparking beauty, the camping area is very crowded, with campers and people having barbecue. The toll post was closed early, but fear not; the moment we started to set up our tents, the fee collecting guy showed up. Somehow we hoped the guy wasn't that hard working... but the fee was OK.

And there goes my shutter happy finger once again. I love Abashiri lake!

That's a happy crow couple. Interesting how the birds seemed deeply in love.

I love the sunlight on the lake water.

And the sunset, makes it even more gorgeous!

Long after dinner, and after I used up nearly half of my camera's battery juice on the lake, our friends finally landed and called. So off again, to the airport. Good thing the airport was just under 5km from our camping site. What better place could we find for our friends tired from a day's flight?

The runway guiding lights were flashing in different colors, forming a beautiful sight in the night.

And the main terminal shows a different look at night, no longer your neighborhood shopping mall.

The gate at night, empty, it's plane companion long gone.

And here we are assembling two more bikes at the airport. Not making a scene this time, as most people have left, and the airport is closing doors and shutting lights just as we finished.

And soon we were back at the lakeside setting up a 3rd tent of 宗霖 & his sister's. Also, thank goodness they brought us replacement tent polls. Although the length didn't fit well, and the tent is still floppy, it's great that me and 毅軍 are no longer restricted to camping under trees.

Soon, we went off to a near by onsen bath. 宗霖's sister was like "What? I don't want to be all naked in front of others!" Well, we told her that all Japanese places even hotels are like that, unless the most expensive western style hotels. And guys and girls are seperated. But anyway, she resisted going for the night, and said that she wouldn't even have a single bath for the next 2 weeks if it's all public baths. (We thought, "we'll see about that...")

This night's public bath is the best, largest, most luxurious hot spring onsen we've ever seen; yet the admission at 390yen, it's dirt cheep. A part of the hotel 湯元ホテル山水, the bath part is called 美肌の湯 (bath of skin beauty). It had an indoor shower area nearly the size of two fullsize basketball courts, an icy cold pool the size of two home bathtubs, a warm & a hot pool that each could almost be a small swimming pool. And there were 2 water jet massages seats in the hot pool. A sauna (hot steam bath) room the size of a small 7-eleven. And then there's the out door areas, a warm & a hot pool, with Japanese garden style stone & plant decorations all around. Next, imagine two of all the areas mentioned above, one set for men and the other for woman. It was simply humongous. The whole building seems to be much bigger then the terminal building of the Memanbetsu airport! Despite the sheer size, it was as crowded as Disneyland. And all the different pools and gimmicks kept us in there enjoying it for hours! Ahhhhh, maybe it was the best bath we ever had. (Too bad someone didn't come...)

July 14th 阿寒湖 << | >> July 16th 網走