Today we drove to the city of Asahikawa where we will base ourselves for the next 2 days. Along the way, we stopped at the Shirahige waterfall and saw the Blue River, as well as visiting in the Blue Pond in Biei. We tried to find an Ainu museum (Ainu people were Hokkaido’s first peoples), but unfortunately, we couldn’t find the museum and it was getting late so we had to give that a miss and check into our hotel.
Shirahige falls and the blue river, although not huge, were really interesting and quite beautiful. The waterfall stands around 30 metres tall and the water actually flows from ground water and comes out between gaps in the rocks. The colour appears blue because of the minerals in the ground water.
Then, just a short drive away we visited the Blue Pond. Unfortunately, it was still completely frozen over, however it was still pretty (I’ll put a photo from google so you can see what it looks like when it’s not frozen too).
Steve & Meegs 