Hokkaido II Day 3: Toyako Visitor Center & Volcano Science Museum

We woke up at 7am and headed to the onsen for our morning wash up.

The view of the mountain from our room window in the morning

Toya Kohantei Hotel provided the most comprehensive amenities, which included lotion, hair oil and even shaving liquid!

View of Lake Toya from the indoor onsen
Photo credit: Toya Kohantei Hotel

View of Lake Toya and Mount Yotei from the outdoor onsen
Photo credit: Toya Kohantei Hotel

The view of Lake Toya from the onsen was super amazing! While we were soaking in the outdoor onsen, it started snowing! 😆🥹 I was so happy that I could share the moment with my girls this time, unlike my last visit to Hokkaido! 😍🩷 It was an experience I'm sure we'd treasure for years to come! ☺️

After washing up, we had breakfast at the restaurant. With the sun up in the sky, we got a good view of Lake Toya and Nakajima Island from the restaurant as well!

The highlight of breakfast every morning was the waffles!

Enjoying our daily breakfast
(Hokkaido milk and butter is a must!)

At the end of our breakfast, we could not see Nakajima Island when we looked out of the window as it was snowing very heavily! 

Heavy snow!

Trying and failing to capture the beautiful snowfall outside

We managed to capture a photo with Lake Toya and Nakajima Island when it stopped snowing!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Madeline Heng (@madpsychmum)

We decided to take it slow today and not visit Mount Usu as planned because we were exhausted from the commute to Toya. We decided instead to explore the neighbourhood and give the kids more time to play with the snow! By now, the temperature has dipped to -2°C! 😁🤩❄️

Having fun in the carpark just opposite our hotel

My family loves the cold! 😁

The Illumination Tunnel from the night before looked very different in the day!

Walking along the street and popping into shops that caught our fancy

The Boy bought this toy from one of the souvenir shops along the street

Toyako is really beautiful in winter and we took our time to enjoy the scenery as we walked down the street to Ideyu Bridge.

Canal filled with snow

Me and my only son

After walking for about 15-20 minutes, we arrived at the Toyako Visitor Center & Volcano Science Museum where we wanted to learn about the history and information about the area. 

Look out for this sign on rocks for the entrance to the Toyako Visitor Center

Beautiful gardens surrounding the main building

Toyako Visitor Center & Volcano Science Museum 
(opening hours: 9am to 5pm)

We paid ¥600 per adult and ¥300 per child (6-14 years old) to visit the Volcano Science Museum. It wasn't expensive but the museum was really small and could be completed in less than an hour.

Entrance to the Volcano Science Museum

If you like volcanoes, this museum was very informative and we learnt about how Mount Usu and Lake Toya were formed.

I personally liked the 3D map of Toyako which gave us perspective of where we were

Simulation box of the eruption of Mount Usu

Mount Usu is one of the most active volcanoes in Japan. The last eruption was on 31 Mar 2000, almost 25 years ago! It's predicted that the next eruption would be between 22 and 50 years, which meant that it could erupt anytime that we were in Toya! 😬

We headed to the theatre for a very informative but slightly slow and boring show about the history of Mount Usu and its eruptions. The show was in Japanese but the museum provided us with headsets for the English translation. 

The museum's small theatre

If volcanoes are not your thing, you can consider visiting the Toyako Visitor Center for FREE. You'd still get to learn a lot of valuable information about Toyako and the living things that grow there!

The Visitor Center has 2 floors

Learning about the flora and fauna of the land

Interesting information about Lake Toya and other similar lakes in Japan

Taxidermied native animals

View from the 2nd floor was captivating

Beautiful view of the mountain

We had a great time and recommend stopping by if you're visiting Toya! 👍🏻

The kids love to play in the snow every chance they get!

We walked back to our hotel and stopped for lunch at Horaiken Ramen along the way.

Horaiken Ramen

Menu with many languages for ease of ordering

Our yummy ramen and gyoza

The Japanese staff were so amused that the biggest bowl of ramen we ordered went to my Boy! He really loves his ramen! 😅

After a satisfying lunch, we continued our exploration of the neighbourhood until we were too tired to walk!

With the Lake Toya signboard

Taking pictures with Lake Toya brought me back to 12 years ago when the Hubby and I first visited!

Even though it was still early, we decided to return to the hotel to rest. Since we didn't have much to do, I decided to visit the onsen with the Littlest.

Late afternoon at Toyako

Littlest was excited to go to the onsen

Sneaked a picture of our favourite outdoor onsen when there wasn't anyone.
The view of the lake was so soothing to my soul! 😍 

With nothing to do until dinner at 5.30pm, our family hung out in our room together. Sometimes, it's just nice to slow down and enjoy our fellowship together! ☺️

Yummy dinner at the hotel's restaurant

We were given special desserts as reward for staying more than 1 night 😁

The family went to the onsen after dinner and so did I 🤭😅 It was my first time going to the onsen three times in one day and admittedly it was too much! 😵 

All in all, still a very good day! 💖😊 

Continue to >> Hokkaido II Day 4: Mount Usu
<< Back to Hokkaido II Day 2: Train to Toya Kohantei Hotel

~~~~~~

Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on 

Hokkaido, Japan as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!

Hokkaido II Day 2: Train to Toya Kohantei Hotel

We woke up at 7.30am to clear skies this beautiful morning! 🌅 

Our view from the window in the morning

We had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant at Level 2. It's a must to have the renown Hokkaido milk every single day! 😁

The buffet spread

Mix of Western and Japanese breakfast food

It was nice that they had a good selection for my foodie kids

My breakfast 😋 

After breakfast, we packed up and checked out of Chitose Station Hotel at around 10am.

We intended to rent a car as it was more convenient and we could visit inaccessible places. We made a reservation of a Jeep Commander via MID Rent-a-Car, after shortlisting a few companies. The company also acceded to our special request for pickup at Chitose Station. 

MID Rent-a-Car's booth conveniently located at our hotel's lobby

However, the sign on the table (see picture above) indicated that no one was working at the booth that day. We tried calling the number on the sign but no one picked up. Not knowing what to do, we eventually decided to leave the 2 older kids at the hotel and headed to their main office by taxi (cost us ¥1100). On arrival, a staff informed us that our car was already at Chitose Station! 😒😑 

MID Rent-a-Car's main office

We waited for the staff to return with the car we had reserved and then found out to our horror that our Singaporean license was not valid and that we had to apply for an International Driving Licence! 😱😫😧 The application online would take at least a week to process, which meant that we had to forego car rental and revert to our original plan of taking public transport! 😭😮‍💨😞

Everyone was so disappointed, but life must go on! The car rental staff was super helpful and brought us back to Chitose Station Hotel in their company shuttle bus.

The company's shuttle service

When we had returned to Chitose Station Hotel, we left our luggage at the concierge and walked to AEON next door for shopping (to cheer ourselves up! 😅). We bought a lot of snacks from the supermarket and stuff for the kids, especially winter essentials like gloves, hats and shoes! There was a wide selection of products and very affordable! The Eldest managed to buy her beauty products while the Boy bought his favourite Kirby! 🛍️

The Boy was so happy with the large Kirby selection found nowhere else in the world except in Japan!

After shopping for 2 hours (which wasn't enough! 😅), we had a late lunch at the Food Court.

Super cute donuts!! 🤤

Ramen and a pikachu donut for the kids

We decided to join the long queue at Gindaco to try their taiyaki and takoyaki

Yummy takoyaki!

It was getting late so we had to quickly return to our hotel, collect our luggage and buy train tickets from the Chitose Station ticketing counter.

I was advised by the staff to take the limited express train (Hokuto 18) to Toya Station. It cost us ¥2860 (ticket) + ¥2360 (reserved seating) per adult and ¥1430 (ticket) + ¥1180 (reserved seating) per child. Apparently all seats on the train were reserved (and everyone supposedly had to pay for reserved seats) but the notices on the train seats indicated that it was possible to buy tickets without reserving seats. However, this meant that if you sat on someone else's reserved seat, you had to move when that person arrives. 

As our train would only arrive at 4.10pm, we had to wait for about 45 minutes at the station! On hindsight, we should've bought our tickets before going to AEON so that we could've planned better and spent more time shopping! 😮‍💨 

We headed to the platform and were surprised that the train was late (Japanese trains were rarely late)! We were fretting as we had only 10 minutes at the next station to transfer to the next train! 😟

At the platform waiting to board the train
(Spot our hotel, Chitose Station Hotel, in the background)

Thankfully, the train was only a few minutes late and we managed to catch the Hokuto 18 train at Minami-Chitose Station (albeit with no time to spare!).

Our comfortable seats on the Hokuto 18

Arrival at Toya Station

The journey to Toya Station only took 80 minutes and was super comfortable, hence I felt the expensive tickets were worth it! 😁

We saw 2 taxis waiting outside the station and took them to Toya Kohantei Hotel, our accommodation for the next 3 nights (alternatively, you can also pay for a direct bus service from Sapporo Station).

Toya Kohantei Hotel at night

It was almost 6pm when we finally checked in at the front desk. We were given breakfast and dinner coupons (included in our accommodation package) and informed that we had to collect them every day from the front desk. There were 2 dinner slots (5.30pm and 7pm) but as we had arrived late, we were given the latter. We were asked to take whatever amenities we needed from the shelves next to the front desk as these would not be available in the room.

Small bags, hair tie, yukatas and other things for hotel guests

We headed to our Japanese Room with Mountain View we had booked at ¥44,374 (S$416) per room per night. The room accommodated 3 adults and 2 children (below 12 years old) and included breakfast and dinner! Very value-for-money! 😃

We entered the room using a physical key instead of the usual key card! After using digital locks at home for almost a decade, I'd forgotten what it was like to use a physical key! 😅 The main door opened into a small foyer (where we placed our shoes), with the bathroom on the left and the door to the bedroom on the right. 

The bathroom and a tiny kitchenette just outside the bathroom

Left: Bedroom with tatami mats
Right: Complimentary snacks

TV corner with heater and small safe

Wardrobe corner with another heater

View of the street from our room

My family loves the cold so much that we hardly switched on the heaters, preferring to leave one window ajar to let air in! 🤭

We headed to the hotel's restaurant for dinner at 8pm.

Breakfast and dinner at the restaurant at Level 2

Spacious dining area with windows that faced Lake Toya

Kids utensils provided 😊

Beef steak at the chef's station and wide variety of drinks

DIY chicken with rice hot pot!

Piping hot and delicious! 😋

Food was surprisingly good, especially the beef! 👍🏻

Love the soft serve made with Hokkaido milk, the best milk in the world in my opinion! 😍 I love everything that's made with Hokkaido milk! 😄
(Thank God that I'm not lactose intolerant! 🤭)

After a very full dinner, the Hubby felt that we should take a walk around the neighbourhood, since the night was still young.

Photo booth at the lobby

It was only a 5-minute walk to The Illumination Tunnel, available only during the winter season.

The Illumation Tunnel at Toya

We wanted our own couple photo but the Littlest insisted to join in! 😅

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Madeline Heng (@madpsychmum)

Inside the illuminated dome

View of the dome and tunnel from the top

Only opened during winter

We walked towards Lake Toya and returned to our hotel.

The part of the hotel that faced Lake Toya

When we entered our room, we realised that the staff had already laid out our beds!

Cozy sleeping arrangements for our family, Japanese style!
The Boy still talks about this fondly till date 😊

We changed into our yukata and headed to the onsen. Ever since I overcame the awkwardness of my first onsen experience, I've been a big fan of the onsen! We were all super excited! 😆 

All dressed and ready to go!

Onsen was on the top floor of the hotel

Long corridor to the onsen

The girls were a bit apprehensive as it was the Eldest's first time as a teen and the Littlest's first time ever! 😄 However, they soon got accustomed to the experience and thoroughly enjoyed it!

View of Lake Toya in the day from the indoor onsen
Photo credit: Toya Kohantei Hotel

View of Lake Toya and Mount Yotei in the day from the outdoor onsen
Photo credit: Toya Kohantei Hotel

We all agreed that we love the outdoor onsen more than the indoor one as the feeling of cold air on your face while soaking in the hot tub was amazing! 😍

It was snowing very heavily when we looked out of our window that night! ❄️🌨️
It's the first time our family has ever experienced such a downpour of snow! 😄

The Hubby and I have always wanted to return to Toya since our last touch-and-go experience 12 years ago. We have finally made it happen! I couldn't be happier! 😁

It was midnight by the time we went to bed! Super long but fulfilling day! 🩷💤

Continue to >> Hokkaido II Day 3: Toyako Visitor Center & Volcano Science Museum
<< Back to Hokkaido II Day 1: Chitose Station Hotel 

~~~~~~

Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Hokkaido, Japan 

as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!