Monsters, Inc.

Day 5 of our vacation ~ I felt a tinge of sadness when we reached a familiar crossroad in Sapporo.  Just 3 days ago, we took a right turn heading towards Tomita's lavender farm in Furano City.  But today is the second last day of our trip and we take a left turn towards Noboribetsu city instead.  The first sight that greeted us was a huge red monster that was the mascot which welcomed us to the city! (FYI, the photo is more blue than red because it was taken in the tour bus...)

In fact, Noboribetsu is well known as Hokkaido's most famous hot spring resort as it is home to numerous sulphurous volcanic pits and geysers.  Thus earning its Japanese name of "jigokudani", translated to English as "hell valley".

We walked down a long path deep into hell valley to witness a baby geyser.  Here you can see the vigorously bubbling pit.  They really stink!!

There may be many volcanic pits here, but no worries its very safe!  Technology for detecting earthquakes is highly advanced.  For a country raked with natural disasters, few Japanese actually die from such incidents, as their scientists are able to detect and make pretty accurate predictions.

What's a hell valley without monsters right?  That's why monsters play a large part in the daily life of Noboribetsu city.  Check out the cute monstrous toilet signs!

  

Most of us Chinese fear the seventh month (i.e. hungry ghost festival) and view it as a highly inauspicious season.  So it was surprising to learn that the Japanese dance, sing and make merry during their hungry ghost celebrations.  Through their song and dance they wish to convey to their ancestors that they are living well and that their ancestors do not have to worry for them.  Honestly, I prefer the Japanese version of the afterlife!  Don't you?

When in Japan, do what the Japanese do.  We ended off the night in Noboribetsu with much laughter and fun with the monsters! (>_<)

Land of Durians

Although we have the Esplanade (i.e. the durian-shaped architecture), the freshest and tastiest durians are still from Malaysia.  As such, we joined a one-day tour to Johor for a taste of those yummy durians!  The tour started at 6.30am to avoid the morning rush at the Causeway, since yesterday was the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's birthday, which is a public holiday celebrated by Malaysians.  As such, we had our breakfast at a small coffeeshop that was about 10 minutes drive away from the Malaysian Causeway.

After breakfast, we headed to YoYo shop for a short toilet break and also to top up on our snacks and goodies such as crispy seaweed fish crackers, lemon lime honey drink and Chinese tea egg.

The first stop on our itinerary was Zenxin Organic Park.  We had a one-hour tour of the place where we saw many plants and animals.  It felt like a science school trip all over again, but I definitely learnt a lot during that one-hour with our pretty and bubbly tour guide.

Did you know?  Dragon fruit trees can live for almost 27 years.  But as the trees aged, the number of fruits they bear decrease rapidly.  As such, by the trees will be uprooted after 14 years and new seedlings will be planted.

Insects are attracted to bright colours.  Hence the bright yellow sticky pads in the background below are used to trap insects.  As for mushrooms grown in dark places, spiders tend to weave their webs in such areas.  The farmers will allow the spiders to live because their webs catch flies and other undesirable insects.

Most plants grown in the organic park have medicinal properties, such as the Aloe Vera, Passion fruit trees and Maize plantation seen below.  However, we also saw the Money plant which does not have any useful properties but emits toxic gases at night.  Hence if one is superstitious and wish to keep such plants, it is better to have the money plant placed outside of the house.

The park also had an animal section where they kept geese, rabbits and chickens.  It was surprising to find out that the park had 2 rabbits when it started and due to their rapid multiplication now they have a total of 150 rabbits!

Before leaving the park, we tried the highly recommended dragon fruit ice lolly.  Mmm, delicious!  And filled with awesome childhood memories!

Lunchtime we came to the highlight of our programme, the durian buffet!  The durian uncle corrected my misconception that durians only fall at night.  The truth is that they may fall anytime of the day, but there are usually specific days during which the durians fall from the trees, hence the chance of being hit by a falling durian can be equated to the chance of striking toto in a lottery!  

The uncles opened durian after durian with lightning speed.  It was truly a feast, but unfortunately this was just the start of the durian season hence they did not taste as good.  Our guide told us that if we wanted to eat the best durians then we have to visit Penang during end july or early august when the durian season is at its peak!  For those who didn't eat much durians (like me...), we were also given curry bee hoon prepared by the kind and thoughtful aunties.  Check out the cute little boy in the photo, such a countryside feel!

On the way to our next destination in the itinerary, we chanced upon a rare sighting!  A herd of cows were crossing the road by themselves, led by possibly the head cow of the herd!  Sorry the photo wasn't very clear because I was seated at the back of the bus haha.  Anyway, our tour bus stopped to let the herd cross before continuing on our journey.

Our next stop was the Aeon shopping complex where we window shopped to our heart's content!  There were just so many things to see in the megamall!!  Plus, we also satisfied our durian puff cravings!! 

To end off the day, we had dinner at "Jin Yu Man Tang" restaurant.  The Chinese dinner wasn't too bad, although honestly I have enjoyed better Chinese dinners elsewhere (Perhaps my tastebuds have been spoiled by the Japanese trip which left me with higher expectations...).

Thankfully it was smooth traffic back to the Causeway after dinner and we reached home earlier than expected, having thoroughly enjoyed our one-day trip!  This trip is a must-try for all durian lovers!