Today was all about a breathtaking mountain — Yōtei-san.  We awoke to mist and fog from our rooms at the Nanokaze Resort but by breakfast time we were treated to a clear blue sky and lake and a majestic snow-covered Fuji-lookalike towering over us all.

Our bus took us first to a vantage point above the lake for views of Yōtei on one side and Tōyako on the other.

About a half hour further on, the bus driver located a prime spot by a river that suited our artists perfectly for some graphite paintings of Yōtei-san.

Plenty of wonderful views of this mountain that kept bringing sighs of amazement from our group.

No doubting whose tour this was:

Yōtei-san is very close to Niseko, the big ski resort of Hokkaidō that attracts hundreds of Australian snow boarders every year.  We saw the slopes, still with ample snow in May, but decided instead to push on to Yoichi for a brief stop at the 7/11 for obtentō lunch boxes to eat on the bus.

Our afternoon was spent with some retail therapy in Otaru township, a quite delightful city of canals and glassware shops.  And soft cream too — milk, lavender, black sesame, green tea and melon flavours.

Then to our hotel — the quaintly named Neu Schloss Hotel, perched on a mountain some kilometres out of town, and looking as if it will slide down into the Sea of Japan at the slightest tremor.  Russia is just across the water and I was authoratively informed that we are closer here to Vladivostok than to Tokyo.

All our rooms look out over the ocean and have private onsen baths with sea views.  A French inspired degustation menu in the hotel restaurant tonight was accompanied by a wine list many pages long covering everything from Portugal to Australia.

The view from our bath as the sun set over the sea:

Coming up to the end of our first week.  Much more to come.

Forgot to mention yesterday that our hotel here at Lake Tōya is the Lake View Tōya Nanokaze Resort.  Quite a mouthful but worth every syllable.  Wonderful big rooms (unlike the ones in Hakodate, we can actually put suitcases on the floor and still have room to dance).  All with views from a balcony across to Nakajima Island in the middle of the lake.

And the food is equally magnificent — buffet dinners and breakfasts with enough variety to satisfy the pickiest of tastes.  But the real indulgence is a self-serve soft cream machine — as much as you want, even at breakfast!

This was the location for today’s painting — the opposite side of the lake from our hotel with everything an artist could desire: cherry blossoms, a little pagoda, mountains, the lake and grassy parkland where our group could set up their stools and easels and paint some inspiring scenery.

Lunch was pre-arranged at a charming little coffee shop where all 18 of us filled every chair and sofa.

More painting after lunch by which time the sun was providing some warmth from the cool wind and the clear blue sky amplified the scenery.

Back to the hotel for a soak in the onsen before posing for a group photo all dressed in our finest yukata.

What a handsome group!  More fireworks after supper and before bedtime. Here’s a photo from last night taken by Ev on her whizz bang Samsung phone, which puts my you-beaut Sony SLR (set to “fireworks” mode) to shame (reference last night’s final photo on the Day Four blog).

So not to be totally outdone, I took a few more this evening using just a regular setting and here’s one of them.  Not too shabby, but not as good as Ev’s.

And they do this every night for 20 minutes.  Extraordinary.

A change of location tomorrow — off to Otaru.

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.

Hakodate (函館) was the first Japanese city to be opened to foreign trade in 1854 after Commodore Perry of the U.S. Navy concluded the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Tokugawa Shogunate.

As a result, the city hosted a number of foreign consulates and an international community whose influence can be clearly seen today in the architecture of the Motomachi district on the hillside of Mount Hakodate.

This was the site for this morning’s art exercise in the grounds of a Buddhist temple with views over the steeples of Motomachi’s three main churches — Russian Orthodox, Anglican (Nippon Seikōkai) and Roman Catholic.

                                             The Russian Orthodox Church 

However, since the morning was freezing cold again (8 deg), Ev began with a demo in the hotel lobby before the troops ventured outside to paint.

                       Painting in Motomachi (the Anglican Church in background)

Meanwhile, some of the non-painters (including me) ventured further afield, taking the ropeway to the top of Mount Hakodate for a view of the city and its busy fishing port.  The harbour is also a popular destination for cruise ships, including our favourite Silversea.

After lunch, the group spent several hours painting in the old red brick warehouse district (金森赤レンガ倉庫) before a show and tell session in the hotel lobby.  And then bath time in the onsen before dinner — our last night in chilly Hakodate before we head north to Lake Tōya tomorrow morning.

                                        Awaiting Ev’s instructions.

                                           Velda attracts a crowd.

                                               Show and tell time.

One word springs to mind about Hakodate today.  And it’s not spring!  “Cold” would be the operational word for the day even if we are in May.

Officially, it was 11 deg at lunch time.  It felt like 1 deg.  But I’m being picky because I was the only one not sufficiently weather-proofed.  Our intrepid painters were equipped for the Arctic — although I did notice a few shivers and I don’t think that was paint turning hands blue.

Today was our first full day of painting on the Hokkaido Horizons tour and we were bused from our hotel to Goryōkaku Park for a five-hour session, broken for a quick sandwich lunch, bought in advance from the 7/11 near our hotel.

Ev provided guidance with a demo from a spot overlooking the lovely old Japanese house (actually the former Hakodate Magistrate’s Office) surrounded by pine trees and the remains of the cherry blossoms.

The pic above is of a glorious weeping cherry tree, bursting with blossoms, but sadly most of the other trees we’d admired on Sunday had shed their pink spendour.

Back to the hotel in the afternoon for a well earned soak in a very hot tub in the roof-top rotemburo (open air bath).

Day one over.  Did I mention it was cold?

We’re all set!  The group has assembled at the La Vista Hakodate Bay Hotel after journeying to Hokkaidō from various points in Australia via Tokyo.

There are still blossoms on the cherry trees around town and the double ones (yaezakura) — see below — are beginning to bloom, so we should be in luck for tomorrow’s first day of painting in the Goryōkaku Park.

After a relaxing soak in the roof top onsen (hot spring bath), we enjoyed a welcome to Hokkaidō Horizons group dinner at the hotel and are now all ready to attack the serious task of watercolour painting tomorrow.

But not before an obligatory soft cream cone (ubiquitous in Hokkaidō, home to Japan’s dairy industry).

おやすみなさい😴 Good night.

We are currently completing arrangements for our 16-day painting tour of Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island and largest prefecture.

The tour begins in Hakodate on May 7 and ends in Kushiro on May 22, 2018.  In between, we will visit Lake Tōya, Otaru, Yoichi, Sapporo and Sōunkyō.

I’ll be blogging daily so standby for the first posts in early May.

January 2018