Day 2 - Furano Ice Skiing Resort

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The day began with a bus ride from Chitose to Furano. Slightly before lunch time, we reached our destination - Prince Grand Resort Furano.

Weeeeeeeeeeee! Snow everywhere! ^_^

Gigantic snowman outside the lobby. I felt like giving it a BIG BEAR HUG, but after 2nd thoughts, I decided to "leave it alone", I scared the head would roll off lah..

After briefing the usual (morning wake up call, dinner/ bf venue etc), we were dispersed since it was a free& easy day for us. We can choose from a varieties of snow activities such as snowmobile rides, snow rafting, snow banana etc. Best of all, they were included in the package, free & unlimited usage!

We quickly checked into our rooms and were welcomed by a little token (the little snowman) and a note from the hotel management. Nice touch =)

Okie, time to explore the place before it turned dark! As it was winter period, it would turn dark pretty early, at about 4 - 5pm, so actually we only had half a day to use the snow activities.

If you want to try skiing, you probably need to stay here for at least 2D1N. Otherwise, by the time you pick up the basics, it will have turned dark. Night skiing is only for the experts wor. As for the pricing, it was not included as part of the free package, but I remembered the price was quite alright to rent the ski equipment and attire.

We dint go for the ski, since we dun really have much time. Personally, I tried skiing before in US. The gliding down the slope was shiok, but it took "hard work" to climb to the top of the gentle slope. Hey, it was not so easy with the bulky ski on your feet lor.. But it sure was a good experience. I will wanna try it again! =p

Nice scenery right? It looked just like a painting, with everything looking so white & pure. Even the trees looked good here. I love good scenery, it makes photography effortlessly good.. Keke

Cold drinks anyone? Hahaha.. bet it will be damn chilled since the vending machines were buried in the snow literally.

Cute little cottages selling handmade souvenirs etc. They open at night, so it was rather quiet during daytime.

We passed by this staff who was making sculpture out from the snow! Wow, how cool was that?

It was lunch time by then, so we went for a quick lunch while waiting for the snow activities to resume. Lunch was simply settled at the cafeteria in the hotel.

A little joke to share. I couldnt read Japanese and somehow I ordered a kid meal, which was the ebi curry rice. That explained the smaller portion. Oh well, that was the only set with prawn mah! *pouting*

Time for snow activities!

Things we tried:

Snowmobile - We were not allowed to operate the machine on our own, so we just get a ride on the snowmobile as pillion riders. Not so fun lah, since we cant drive the thing ourselves. If you want to, just need to pay extra. We neow (aka stingy) mah..

Snow Rafting - This was just a raft attached to the snowmobile. Slightly more bumpy and we were "attacked" by snow flakes slapping on our faces. Ouch! Be well covered, especially your face & eyes if you are going for this.

Snow Banana - Again, this was a banana boat attached to the snowmobile. This was more fun as it was faster & more exciting. I guess because it was lighter compared to the raft, so you can really feel the speed. The staff would purposely make some corner turns, and you can feel yourself throwing off the banana boat. Hee.

We also tried this, which I dun remember what it was called. You will just sit on this red tray and glide yourself down the slide made out from snow & down the slope..

Besides the point, dun you think Japanese kids are such adorable? I feel like pitching the rosy cheeks...

Wheezeeeeeee......... Down the slope!!!

Well, how far you can go will depend on your weight and skill. There were people falling out of the red tray pretty fast. But I can glide very farrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... I'm good at this! =p

And dun be afraid of falling! Com'on, you will just land yourself on powdery snow, what's there to be afraid of?

After the activities, we went for ice-cream!

I love eating ice cream in cold weather ~ hey, no risk of your ice cream melting at all! Nice..

The ice-cream was priced at about Yen 300 or 350 ~ Vanilla and caramel flavour. Vanilla was good, milk in Hokkaido is best! Caramel was a tad too sweet for my liking.

*******

Okay, back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. Tonight, we were having buffet, which included practically everything you can think of. Sashimi, sushi, curry, salad, noodles, fried stuff, soups etc.

Our table of food...Quite a spread huh? =)

I like amaebi aka sweet prawns, but they are quite expensive in Singapore. Since there was free flow of amaebi, I whacked so many that I may have eaten the whole clan of a family of the sweet prawn.. Woo hoo!

And how can we forget about desserts? I adored the strawberry cakes, crepe cakes and yuzu ice-cream! My favourite!

After dinner, we decided to brave the snowing weather to visit the Furano Kan Kan Mura.

It was snowing quite badly, and that explained the poor quality of my photos. I dun have a waterproof cover for my camera. It was difficult to try to protect the lens from getting wet while "combating" with the cold and still take decent photos!

Lesson learnt : I should get a waterproof cover for my camera next time. I welcome people to donate to me as well. Keke

Nothing much in the Kan Kan Mura, mainly just snow sculptures. And guess what, our merlion was there too! Say cheeze!

We tried snow tubing there as well. Dint took photo of that though. It was similar to the red tray gliding down slope I mentioned earlier, just that the red tray was now replaced with big rubber tyres and you probably glide faster and further down. It was fun but tiring to drag the tyre up the slope lor.

We also went to take a look at the cottages, which were lit up at night. Quite pretty hor? Like cottages in fairy tale stories.

No pictures allowed inside the cottages, so I can only snapped at the exteriors.. Aiya... aga aga can liao lah. If you like, come visit yourself!

Finally, we ended up at the ice pub to enjoy warm wine. Surprisingly, it was quite cozy despite the fact that the pub itself is made up of ice/snow, whatever you call it!

You been to eskimo bar? Hey, that is nothing. The ice pub here is real ice & snow okay? I win. =p

We ordered the green apple wine, which was sweet in taste. I like! From my picture, it was the third bottle starting from the left, the one with the green lid.

The day ended with onsen aka hotspring in the hotel.

No pictures of coz since we were not allowed to wear anything inside the pool. Not even towel in the pool to prevent contamination of the hotspring water. In case you are thinking of sth notti, females and guys are in separate pools.. =_=

Dun be shy when you are here since everyone else will be doing the same thing. Nobody will bother to look at you, or rather you will see so many naked bodies until you dun feel like looking liao lor.. Hahahha

It's an experience and you will definitely have a good night rest after the onsen. I especially like the outdoor onsen, coz while the body was immersed in the hot water, the face was gently stroked by the cool air. Felt really good. Indoor onsen was abit too hot to stay long, in fact if you stay too long, you probably feel dizzy.

Okay, I shall end off Furano with some more scenery photos.. Watch out for the next entry at Asahikawa!