Spring in Taiwan 2017 - Itinerary and Public Transportation Navigation

Earlier this year in March, I went on a backpacking trip with my good friend, SWW. Two mothers leaving their families behind for 9 days for a break! LOL.

For this trip, it's going to be our first full public transport trip. Most travelers to Taiwan will arrange for day tour or get a private charter driver. But being just two of us, a private charter will be too expensive and day tours doesn't encompass exactly the things we wanted. So, it was all free and easy with trains and buses, and an occasional taxi if we missed the bus, of which we did, LOL.

I will be sharing how I arranged for my whole trip.

Taiwan is a country where public transportation is very affordable, and convenient. Most of the information is available online.

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Things to Eat and Drink in Hokkaido

Eating local food is always an integral part of all my travels. These are the things that I find, that I should try in Hokkaido, maybe you can try to tick off from this list too! I tried 10 out of 11 here.

1. Seafood of all sorts
2. Salmon and Ikuro
3. Soup Curry
4. Wagyu
5. Ramen
6. Soft Serve Ice cream /Sofuto
7. Melon
8. Fresh Milk and dairy products
9. Pastry
10. Special beers and beverages
11. Jingisukan

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Hokkaido Autumn Road Trip 2016 - Shopping And Souvenirs

Tax free shopping

Tourists love shopping in Hokkaido and GST rate is at 8%. But as tourists, we can get a refund and it's very convenient.
During my visit, to qualify for tax refund we need to purchase 5000yen for consumable goods and 5000yen for non consumable goods.
Read this website thoroughly to get an idea of how it works : http://tax-freeshop.jnto.go.jp/eng/index.php

Take note that:
1. The credit card owner must make the claim by him/herself if it's paid by credit card.
2. The package cannot be opened in the country.
3. The tax refund can be done on the same day, at the same location. For eg: If you shopped in Aeon Asahikawa, just head to Aeon's Tax Refund counter and get the refund in cash!
4. Not all consumables qualify for tax refund. Dairy products like cheese do not qualify for refunds.
5. Keep the receipts until you reach the airport. An officer will direct you to put the receipts into a box after going through the boarding gate.

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Hokkaido Autumn Road Trip 2016 - Hotels We Stayed

For this trip we stayed in a few hotels, mostly business hotels. In Japan, business hotels are fuss free hotels that offers a clean room at an affordable price.

We stayed in a few cities, Sapporo, Asahikawa, Abashiri, Kushiro and Obihiro. All the hotels we chose are right in the city center, within walking distance to dinner and breakfast locations. Our budget was around USD100/night for 2 persons. Generally, hotel rooms in Hokkaido are small, around 15m2. Older hotels could have bigger rooms. Twin rooms cost more than double rooms because twin rooms are bigger.

We didn't stay in ryokans or minsus, due to comfort, price (not cheap!) and convenience. We prefer beds over sleeping on the floor.

Basic bed information:

Semi Double bed : around 140cm wide, slightly smaller than a queen size bed in Malaysia 

Large double bed : 6ft, King size bed in Malaysia

Twin beds: 110cm each, Super Single size in Malaysia.

Hotels we stayed in Hokkaido accepted Malaysian credit card for payment. 

During check in, hotel staff will request for all staying guests' passports to photocopy.

Toiletries (some provide facial wash too), toothbrushes and pyjamas as provided.
Self service laundromats (coin laundry) are available at most business hotels.
If there are onsens in the hotels, even business hotels might have it, but guests with Tattoos could be prohibited from use.

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Hokkaido Autumn Road Trip 2016 (Part 9) - Sapporo again and Going Home

This post will be jumping a bit around the last 2 days.
We stayed in Sapporo on the last 2 nights of our road trip but made day trips to other places not too far away.

1.Kame Curry Udon 北海道咖喱饂飩 亀

Date: 15/9/2016

We came back from Ohibiro and hubby wasn't keen to have ramen. So I suggested curry udon of which he gladly said yes.

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Hokkaido Autumn Road Trip 2016 (Part 8) - Yoichi and Otaru

Date: 16/9/2016 (forgot to record today's weather)

We woke up, went over to Times Car Rental and collected our car for the day.
This time, we no longer got an upgrade. It was a subcompact, Mazda Demio. Car collection time was much shorter as the center knew we just returned a car the day before, and the briefing time was really brief, well, it's protocol, they still had to do it.

We went to Sapporo Curb Market to have breakfast. I will write about it in the next post.

After an unsatisfactory breakfast, we went on our way to Yoichi

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Hokkaido Autumn Road Trip 2016 (Part 7) - Obihiro and Tokachi Subprefecture

After the land of Seafood, here I come to the land of agriculture.

Tokachi is a subprefecture in Hokkaido and Obihiro is the city in this subprefecture. Tokachi has a large agriculture sector and the main crops produced are wheat, potatoes, beets, and beans, but there has also been progress in the production of nagaimo (Chinese yam), lily root and burdock. The amount of arable land in Tokachi is the highest in all of Hokkaido.

Animal husbandry is big business in Tokachi with a major dairy industry. Tokachi itself has 40% of beef and dairy cattle in all of Hokkaido. Tourists come to Tokachi to visit dairy farms and savour the dairy products. 十勝牛乳 is a common milk brand in Hokkaido and the name is translated as Tokachi Milk, produced by Yotsuba company.

Tokachi produces the largest amount of wheat in Japan. The headquarters of 3 nationally renowned pastry companies Rokkatei, Ryugetsu, and Cranberry are also located in Obihiro. There are many interesting pastry shops in Obihiro and I don't think it is possible to try all of them in one trip.

There are lots of restaurants in Obihiro. Really a lot! And I saw quite a number of them putting a sign infront of their shop that English Menu is available. The Tokachi Subprefectural Bureau is heavily promoting Tokachi as a tourist destination, but is often overlooked by foreign tourists. There are many websites providing up-to-date information for tourists, and they even have printable translating sheets (for pointing) for basic conversation needs. They do understand that tourists need to be understood and tourists hope to enjoy this area and not feeling lost.

Quiet streets at 8.30am

Obihiro's Shopping Street, but it was nothing interesting

Weather for the days when I was in Obihiro

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