The predicted snowfall for the latter part of Friday didn’t materialize until Saturday morning. I awoke to the sound of a snow blower around the corner and the guys over at Nissan shoveling snow with the big plastic scoop. In deep winter there would be the front-end loader rumbling up and down the street. In a light flurry of giant conglomerated snowflakes, we headed over to the JR Sapporo-eki to catch a bus up to Sounkyo-onsen. It wasn’t immediately clear which stop was the correct one, but we were told to wait inside instead of a the platforms. Eventually, some uniformed attendants with signage appeared and set us up with seating assignments and got us queued up for the buses. It was Saturday, so there were enough people for 1.5 buses. Occasionally, a heavy flurry of large, round conglomerated snow would beat down then stop.
The bus headed out East for a surprising amount of time before finally getting on the expressway. Even on the expressway, it seemed like the direction was pretty much East, until finally turning slowly Northward. The round snow continued to fall until the the bus pulled off the expressway for a somewhat long rest break at the large tourist trap stop aftre Sunagawa. After rejoining the expressway for a bit, the bus got off before Kamuikotan and proceeded on a circuitous route along the surface roads around the back of Asahikawa before making another rest stop at “Lavender-something” before eventually getting on the National Highway Northbound. Even with the greater number of snow days up here toward the center of Hokkaido, Kamui and the other gelandes around Asahikawa that we passes didn’t look like they had enough of a base to open any time soon.
Turning off the highway, the bus entered the backside of Daisetsuzan National Park. There were a few camping grounds and a lot of gravel yards before the walls of the gorge closed in and the road reached the onsen-mura. Ours was the second hotel in, so all the touristy stuff like the waterfall and ropeway were much further up the valley – further than our arrival time or tomorrow’s departure time would allow to see. I was a little curious to see the waterfall, partially so I could say that I’d been to yet another place shown on the Lucky Star anime live-action omake segments. Outwardly, the Choyo Resort Hotel was an uninspired rectangle in need of a cleaning, but not as ramshackle and rusty as the neighboring Hotel Soun. This of course was no different from any onsen hotel enclave in Hokkaido, no less the rest of Japan. Inside, the main lobby was very eighties, but the rooms had been recently redone and were very nice and modern. I guess this is where the hotel group spends the money, since I remember something rather similar at another property of the same owner in Kita-Yuzawa-onsen.
The basement onsen baths were very ordinary. The right side had two rock rotenburo, and the left side two tiny hinoki rotenburo. In the evening, the right side was the men’s side and the left the women’s. This order was reversed some time during the night. The wood baths were shallow and only large enough for two or three strangers each, altough the design of the headrests would lead one to believe that the intent was for over twice that. More than two and there would be personal contact. More than three and there would be a tangle of legs and lower torso bits. Generally, there were one each of full “gensen” unadulterated 41-42C spring water, and 38-40C diluted water both inside and outside. The cooler water was justabove body temperature, so one could easily sit in those for extended periods of time. If I wasn’t careful, I could have fallen asleep in the cooler outside hinoki tub. There were saunas also, but I always ignore them anyway.
Food was above average. The viking dinner looked good, but we had booked the special full course dinner set as an online special. The starter was butter-garlic tsubu-gai, not unlike firm escargot. The second course was a mushroom quiche with cooked root vegetables on the side. The soup was a chicken and vegetable base with a cheese crouton floated in it. The seafood course was a cream stew with crab, spiny lobster, some kind of white fish, and scallop. The poultry course was duck breast with demiglace and apple wedges. The meat course was beef with a potato gratin. Dessert was a Mont Blanc set atop a roll cake slice and surrounded by fruit and strawberry compote. All in all, the appearance of the food was very good. The ingredient quality was also good. Some of the command decisions were a little flawed though, in particular, other than the kiwifruit and strawberries, the flavor of the fruits clashed with the flavor of the Mont Blanc (the mango was frighteningly sour), and the duck was a little bloody/gamey in flavor.
After a crowded morning bath and good viking breakfast (the only hitch was having the shiso dressing from my salad flow into the jelly for my bread – mmm), we boarded the return bus to Sapporo. I guess I’ll have to come back some Autumn and see “all those things I didn’t see in Sounkyo”. The return route was more direct and familiar, with a stop in Asahikawa ekimae, then retracing the route around the back then onto the tollway. There was a lunch break at the highway stop. The restaurants were on the expensive side for what you got, so quickie takoyaki, nikuman, a rice burger, and a beer were in order. Like the rest stop at Nakayama-touge there were also those steaming hot potatoes, but I didn’t get one. We got into Sapporo in daylight, so had enough time to wander around shopping for a bit before getting a snack at the Munich Christmas market at Oodori, then heading to dinner.
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