Our last breakfast at La Vista Hakodate Bay before heading north(ish) to beautiful Lake Tōya for the next two days of the tour.

But a word about breakfasts first.  This is unlike morning fast-breaking anywhere else.  First one lines up to be assigned a table, then lines up again for a tray, and moves slowly along the assembly line — first the Japanese selection and then, if so desired, the western style.

The selection includes as much as you can eat sashimi of baby shrimp, scallops, tuna, squid and trout plus two kinds of roe.  Plus rice of course and seaweed and eggs and miso soup.  You could be there all day.  Well from 6.30 am till 9.30 am.  Quite the feast and not designed for a quick on-the-run brekkie.

Onto our bus at 9.30 for the 2 hr drive along Uchiura Bay to Tōya-ko where we were greeted by warm sunshine and a good glimpse of the imposing Mount Yōtei, Hokkaidō’s Mount Fuji lookalike that towers (when there are no clouds) over this magnificent lake that was created after a massive earthquake 100,000 years ago (who keeps these records?!).

Admittedly, some imagination may be required to spot Yōtei-san in the photo above, but it’s definitely there and we all saw it.  Lots of snow on it too, which may explain why it blends so cleverly with the clouds.

Also please note the cherry blossoms.  While we really were a wee bit tardy to see the blooms in their salmon pink magnificence in Hakodate, the blooms are still in their prime around Lake Tōya.

After a quick lunch in town, we boarded a second bus (the explanation for this is too complicated but has something to do with drivers needing to get back to their futons) and headed about 5 km around the lake to a preselected spot (from last year’s shitami) for an afternoon of painting.

While the group painted, John and I wandered a few kilometres around the lakeside to see more cherry trees and a real live active volcano — well it wasn’t doing its Hawaiian number, but it was belching steam, which we thought was pretty impressive.

Back to the hotel for a soak in the rooftop rotemburo, with views over the lake to mystic Yōtei-san, before a generous buffet dinner and the evening display of fireworks turned on every night from April to October for the enjoyment of hotel guests at Lake Tōya.  Incredible.  Not the best photo, but hopefully you can get the gist.

And so to bed.