After having curry omurice, we headed off on a 2 hours drive from Furano back to Sapporo city. The drive was done on the tolled Doto expressway was approximately 1,200 or 1,400Y, can’t really remember.

Our stay in Sapporo was planned to be a short and quick one since it is likely that we will return here on our next visit.

For the night, we stayed at Cross Hotel Sapporo, which was situated right in the heart of the city. It was somewhat a hipster hotel with live music and band performances happening on some nights. Room wise – it was a very small quadruple room – 2 super-single bed with a queen mattress on the sofa-bed – given the hefty price of almost $500 (no breakfast) for a night. There was barely any walking space after we open our luggage. Thankfully it was only for one night.

After chancing upon a picture of Unkai Terrace (Sea Clouds) before our trip from an online article, I knew that it was a place that I had to visit.

We had to alter our itinerary time and again as you can only visit Unkai Terrace during pre-dawn timing to catch the waves of Sea Clouds. Furthermore, Sea Clouds occurrence (which only happens in summer) is not a guarantee and the sea of clouds possibility occurrence will be updated on their website on the afternoon before. Use google chrome to automatically translate the page, otherwise, you just have to look for the number before the % sign.

As promised, I will be writing an entry to share several tips on how to effectively plan for a road trip overseas. Although it has been 7 months overdue but.. better late than never ?

Just to share, this self-drive Hokkaido trip is my first ever road trip with friends (been on one with the family in Perth when I was really young) and I was not the driver. Nevertheless, I guess it doesn’t matter since this post is about “planning” and not “driving”, which is kind of like my forte (I feel). Alright, here we go.

It was a pity that our time in Shiretoko was very short (1 night & 1 morning). We could only choose 1 attraction to cover – which was visiting the Five Lakes National Park, hoping to spot a brown bear since it was the high season.

After bidding farewell to the awesome ryokan at Hotel Kifu Club Shiretoko, we took a short drive to the Five Lakes National Park. Thankfully, the skies were slowly clearing up from the rain yesterday.

As you can see, there’s still a bit of snow on the mountain top..

This ryokan (Japanese-styled inn) was one of, if not the, best accommodation we had in this trip. Initially, I was a bit turned off by the price of a 1 night stay ($380 for 2 people) which was the second most expensive accommodation in this trip. However, do note that this price includes BOTH dinner and breakfast and it turns out to be quite reasonable after all.

FYI: This hotel (likely to be a family business) only has 15 rooms so do book early to avoid disappointment!

They say the ancients live among rivers, source of life. Today, backpackers live(or lay down) among electrical sockets, our source of life.

This is Spa on Air's shared community room in South Korea's Incheon Airport, pretty viable option for resting at the airport.

At the age of mobile device, you may forget the keys and wallet, but never your phone and powerbanks. Otherwise, various nerve-racking symptoms await you, those seriously ill may even feel false vibrations and notification sound from their bag, it's bad.

What I want to share with travelers today is my traveling essential that's actual a duo whenever I'm abroad: International Adapters/Extension Cords.

WHERE TO SHOP IN OSAKA?

1. Dotonbori / Namba (The place with the famous Gulica Running Man)

This should be the liveliest place in Osaka when it comes to food & shopping. Never-ending displays of neon light boards, fanciful 3D attention catching advertising and a lot a lot of people.

Although I stayed in Osaka for my trip, we barely traveled to any Osaka Attractions. Our itinerary in Osaka was filled with food, more food and shopping. Well, here are my recommendations:

THE MUST-EATS

1. ENDO SUSHI @ OSAKA CENTRAL FISH MARKET

Pokémon GO

Pokemon GO has been the craze all over the world, catching Pokémons buying groceries, driving, and jumping off a cliff?!
But, sadly Pokémon GO isn’t open yet to most(if any) of the Asian countries due to server crashing issues.Ugh.
There is one place in Asia that many fans are looking forward to: Japan.As the birth place of Pokémons, many would’ve expect Japan to be on the list of first launches. Unfortunately, not the case.

But now, Pokemon Go for Japan might actually have a hint of hope coming soon!

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