Higashikawa Town

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Charles Hamel in Hokkaido, Japan, Life in Japan, Travel | 1 Comment

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The weather was so nice today, I couldn’t waste it by staying inside so it was time for a bike ride. My son and I set out around 12:30pm along the bike trails of the small village that we live in headed towards Higashikawa Town. The sky was blue the mountains were visible and the temperature was around 18c (64 F). Once we reached Higashikawa town we traveled to a nearby park behind the Michi no Eki 道の駅 (Roadside station).

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After a short rest and water break we continued our journey to Kitoushi Forest Park (キトウシ森林公園家族旅行村), which is a Park, Hotel and Onsen, and ski park. There is a castle type structure 3/4 of the way up the mountain that we decided to visit, so partially riding and walking we made the trek up. We were awarded some great views of Higashikawa town from the mountain top, but the journey was tough to get up there. But keeping in mind that it would be a fast and fun trip back down on bike.

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On the way back we stopped by a Buddhist temple and took some pictures of the beautiful architecture, and then took a drink break at a local sake shop. (No we didn’t drink sake ) Milk tea and ice cocoa. Continuing on our way we took backroads through farmlands until we arrived at another park in Higashikawa town near our house to use the facilities and to take another break.

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Making the final leg of our journey my son was hoping we would reach the 30km mark before we arrived home, and we did just that. The total trip was about 4 hours with a distance of a little over 30km. You can see our exact path and stats at our Walkmeter page.

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Walkmeter is a cool Iphone app I have been using recently that maps your path using the built in GPS function and speaks your time traveled and distance every kilometer. You can set it for Walking, Cycling, Running, or Snowboarding. Check it out if you are the active type. We had a great father and son outing today in Higashikawa Town as you can see from the pictures.