Time for some city life. Our next destination would have been too long of a drive from Biei, so we stopped off at Asahikawa, Hokkaido’s second largest city, for its famous zoo and shoyu ramen. The Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa is one of Japan’s most famous due to its unique enclosures, which allow visitors to see the animals from various angles and more close up than at other zoos. Collectively, we have been to our fair share of zoos, but we can all agree that we have never experienced anything like Asahiyama. We were a mere few feet away from two hippos having a friendly tussle, watched seals swim vertically through a transparent tube and witnessed the most surreal scene of all, a male and female chimpanzee copulating while another chimpanzee beat on a metal gong in time to the action. Sorry, no photos or videos of that…it just felt wrong.
Speaking of wrong, it would have been wrong to leave Asahikawa without eating its shoyu, or soy sauce based, ramen at Ramen Aoba — the birthplace of Asahikawa-style ramen. Luckily, there was only one couple waiting in front of us at the 15 seater restaurant. The broth was tasty and lighter than the tonkotsu broths at establishments like Ichiran in Osaka. The owners were the sweetest people and had us sign the 104th guest book since their opening in 1947. After our meal the owner took us outside a couple storefronts down the street and gifted us with three bags of their packaged ramen. That’s their son’s face on the packaging, ha!
Besides its ramen and zoo Asahikawa is also known for its sake breweries. We visited one, Otokoyama (男山), where I sacrificed myself for the sake tasting since Philip was driving. What I found more interesting than the sake was the perpetual line of people lining up to fill multiple empty plastic bottles from a few taps located outside the brewery. I figured out that the remarkably pure and cold water used to make the sake, water from melted snow in the Daisetsuzan mountains, is offered free to anyone up for the taking. I filled up my one lonely water bottle and enviously eyed the hard core water enthusiasts who brought along their own dollies to load up their many gallons.
The water came in handy for our next long stretch to the town of Abashiri along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. The farm land of Furano and Biei was left behind as we climbed in elevation and saw the flora change to more evergreens. It was hard not to stop every 15 minutes to enjoy yet another spectacular view. Philip was the model of patience as he indulged me whenever he heard, “Stop, stop, stop, get me outta’ here!,” and gently pulled the car over to the side. Three hours later we arrived at one of the most charming and delightful hotels we have ever stayed in — Auberge Kita No Dan Dan. This splurge was well worth it, since we walked around the hotel in our yukata (lightweight kimono robe), bathed in the onsen on site and enjoyed a most decadent breakfast. Beauty and whimsy graced every corner in every nook. It was hard for me to stop oohing and aahing and going crazy with my camera.
