Hokkaido: Sounkyo & Asahiyama Zoo

On Thursday, the ONE day it rained, we went to the Sounkyo Gorge. Everything we had read said it would be the prefect time of year to go as the autumn colors would be brilliant. We were a little too soon for the best colors, but we were still able to see a good array! Unfortunately, when we arrived at the top of the Mt. Kuro, it began to rain and become very foggy.




After heading back to the main area, we decided to get some lunch - and much to my luck we found a ramen shop with Asahikawa ramen! It's a special ramen only known to this area that is delicious! The best I've ever had!

After drying off a little, we decided to head back out into the rain to find the picture famous waterfalls, Ginga and Ryusei, about 2 miles down the highway. Thankfully, the rain stopped once we got there and held off for the rest of the day, allowing us time to dry out - we should have thought to bring an umbrella with us!





I tried taking a picture of all of our "omiyage" or souveniers, mostly for others as is Japanese tradition, but missed a few items like the corn chocolate, and birthday gifts (of course). ;-)

On Friday, we met up with Carla in Asahikawa to go to the Asahiyama Zoo - the most famous zoo in Japan. It was crowded with people, the weather was pleasant, and we got to see some pretty cool exhibits. Jeremy and I wore our matching KUMA shirts that we bought in Sounkyo - Kuma means "bear" in Japanese, a play off the popular Puma name brand. We thought it was clever, plus it had a tiny outline of Hokkaido in the U. Everyone seemed to love the penguins, sea lions, polar bears, and red pandas. They even had robot animal rides for the kids! Our lunch bentos were pretty neat too - with animals printed on the nori. :-) And I couldn't help but take a picture of the long line of trash cans, all neatly separated into their specific categories... ahh, the Japanese trash system...










One of the best things we saw was this picture diagram about the Sika deer, a native species to Hokkaido. And remember, kids, a sika deer is NOT a "bambi" - the adult deer have spots too!



And with that, we had to say good-bye to our 4-day train passes we picked up in Sapporo for this excursion. It was actually quite nice to be able to travel at our leisure without having to worry about purchasing tickets for each ride.