Girls' Weekend - Day 1

Good morning from beautiful Rusutsu! Jason is under a tight deadline with an upcoming proposal, so Fiona and I decided to get out of town for the weekend and entertain ourselves while he works nonstop to make some progress. I had initially focused on Lake Toya for our weekend getaway, but the more I read about it, the more I knew it was a destination Jason wouldn't want to miss out on. So, pretty much by accident, I stumbled on Rusutsu Resort. It's primarily known as a ski resort, but in the summer the surrounding mountains and river offer all kinds of great opportunities for warm weather fun. Beyond the resort's website, I couldn't find much more information on the area, so I was a little hesitant about whether I should book it, but then I realized it was going to be HOT this weekend, the resort is air conditioned, they offered a free shuttle from Sapporo, and the 4-star luxurious rooms were only $120/night. Too good a deal to not give it a try!

So Friday morning (yesterday) we boarded our 8AM bus bound for the Westin Rusutsu!

The entire drive here was beautiful - almost wholly through winding mountain roads. About an hour into the drive, we stopped at Nakayama Pass for a short pit stop. While it was pretty much just a roadside rest area, we were very excited that from there we got our first glimpse of Mt. Yotei - a looming inactive volcano that is also known as Ezo Fuji ("Ezo" being an old name for the island of Hokkaido) because of the mountain's strong resemblance to Mt. Fuji. It's eruptive history has left a huge crater at the summit of the mountain that it is possible to hike to. I'm dying to try this hike, but not by ourselves. Hopefully we can find a guided tour that we can join before we leave Hokkaido!

Back on the bus, it was a short 30 minutes more and we arrived at the resort. Just enough time for an episode of this oldie, but goodie.

The shuttle dropped us off at around 10AM. The hotel's stated check-in time was 3PM, so my plan was to ask the front desk to store our bags until check-in, but, we were pleasantly surprised when they told us our room was ready and checked us in early. I have rarely received the kind of service that this hotel provides. At reception, there were three or four bell hops ready and waiting to take guests to their rooms. On the way up to the room, we were given a tour of the resort's amenities with careful explanations of each and discussion of opening hours.

Once we got into our room, it too was incredibly impressive. Spread out over two floors, there is a bedroom on the entry level and then down one flight of stairs is a living room, kitchenette, shower room, and toilet room. Everything is so modern and clean and beautiful and there are windows everywhere with views out on to the mountains. The Westin Rusutsu is part of the larger Rusutsu Resort, most of which is located across the highway from the Westin, but connected by monorail. The Rusutsu Resort complex is huge:

There is a large amusement park and wave pool with a two-story water slide in addition to all sorts of activities. Room rates for the Rusutsu Resort itself were significantly more than the Westin, I suppose because of the proximity to many of the activities, but I decided the short monorail ride or a ten minute walk wouldn't be a big deal and booked the still towering, but much less sprawling Westin Rusutsu across the street.

Here we still get free access to all the resort's amenities. And, after spending some time wandering around, I also discovered that while the Westin has all been updated with a very luxurious style, the Rusutsu Resort is a little run down. All that to say we couldn't be happier!

The view from our room looks out over Mt. Shiribetsu. At 3,631 ft, it's a prominent feature to the horizon. We found a hotel brochure in our room that described the hike to the summit as taking 2-2.5 hours from the trailhead around the back of the mountain and about 5 miles from the resort. A good hike had been on our list of things to do while we were here, so we decided to give it a try.

First we hopped on the monorail to go grab a quick lunch at the resort.

So excited to have the front seat!

With our stomachs full, we asked reception to call us a taxi and headed for the trailhead. When the taxi dropped us off, I couldn't stop laughing when I realized where we were. All of the Westin staff speak English very well, but it doesn't seem to be as prominent among the Rusutsu staff. So when I asked the woman staffing the front desk to call me a taxi, I just pointed on the brochure where I wanted to go and left it at that. When the taxi driver arrived, she communicated to him where we'd asked to be taken and they both laughed a little, looked at us like they were really perplexed and then shrugged their shoulders. Well, looking back at the picture of the amusement park from our room...

...if you zoom in, can you see the gondola going up from the amusement park and the communications towers on the peak (Mt. West) above the amusement park? Turns out that the trail head starts about a 5-10 minute walk from there. So, we could have just taken the gondola up from the resort and started the hike there, but nobody could communicate that to us, so they just did what we asked them to do (what the brochure described) and drove us all the way around the back of the mountain and up a dirt road providing access to the gondola.

In any case, we made it to the trailhead around noon and started our hike. The picture below illustrates the trail pretty well. Basically, we hiked the entire ridge line of the portion of the mountain that's in the foreground. We walked it from left to right, so the hike started out being pretty forested, before popping out on the lower peak - front, right - where we walked a ridge that was thickly forested to our left, and open to views of the valley to our right. At the end of the ridge (front, right) the trail dipped down into a small valley before beginning a very steep climb to the peak (center, back) of Mt. Shiribetsu.

Near the trailhead is where the resort does it paragliding lessons, so we got to watch lots of pretty parachutes gliding across the sky as we hiked.

The trail started off passing through thickly growing bamboo:

Eventually we climbed high enough to make out our hotel way down in the valley below.

Then we passed through a more thickly forested area:

Before finally reaching the ridges line I described above which was densely forested on one side and open to amazing views on the other.

Views on our way up into the valley and at the very far right of the picture, the gondola down to the resort.

The resort got tinier and tinier as we hiked:

As we walked along the ridge line, we rounded a corner and saw just how much further we had to climb!

We were also rewarded with more great views of Mt. Yotei.

No vending machines and benches on this hike! We just had to plop down in the middle of the trail when we needed a rest.

After making our way up some very steep makeshift stairs...

 ...the going really started to get tough.

It was not long after this point that Fiona announced that her legs were burning and she was too hot and she felt gross and sweaty and she absolutely could not go one step further. And this all occurred in front of a sign notifying us that we were 200 meters from the summit. That was a tough mom moment for me. I will absolutely give her that it was HOT and that climb was HARD. I didn't what to push her too hard if her little body had really had enough, but at the same time, being so close to the summit I really wanted that achievement for both of us! In the end I weighted the facts that (1) I had lots of reward snacks in my backpack and (2) I knew that she'd climbed much longer (ambiet not as intense) trails, so I encouraged her on with the promise of food and the motivation of "Call me Maybe" (her request) playing from my phone.

And...we made it!! The views were beyond anything I could have imagined. Here's a picture from the summit looking back on our entire hike. That white dot on the distant mountain at the center of the picture is roughly the location of the trailhead where we started. And just beyond it is the gondola that would take us back to the resort. And even further off in the distance, above and to the left of the white dot marking the start of the trail head, you can just make out the destination that we can't wait to visit with Jason - Lake Toya.

I'd by lying if I said I wasn't teriffied that after all the drama on the way up, we'd never make it off that mountain, but as I've relearned a million times in parenthood, a good tummy refill can do amazing things. The entire hike down went something like this:

Made it back to the trail head where the taxi dropped us off:

Then, no joke, it was at most a 10 minute walk further up this road the taxi had driven us up to the gondola.

When we made it to the gondola, you can imagine our excitement when we found out that we had arrived five minutes before the ice cream shop closed for the day! (And 35 minutes before the last gondola down!!) Sorry, no pictures of our celebratory ice cream, we were too busy wolfing it down.

After we had sat and caught our breath a bit, we walked around and enjoyed the views a bit more. I know I've already said it more times than I can count, but Hokkaido is so stunningly beautiful. I love this picture which captures the mountain we already conquered on the right and the one I hope to conquer some day soon on the left.

Fittingly, Fiona got to ring the 'Happiness Bell' upon the completion of our hike. Apparently, Mt. West (the mountain the gondola is atop) is said to be a Chinese Feng Shui "power spot." According to the resort brochure, "it is believed that by standing in this area it is possible to harness positive energy and dramatically improve your fortune."

More views:

I was just so proud of the fact that she didn't give up on this hike. All told, it was actually only around four miles round trip, but it was very steep. I am sore today from it. She, of course, is as good as new. But to put into perspective exactly what she achieved, she walked from the spot where we are standing for the picture below to that peak above her head, and back.

Just before 4:30PM when the gondola closes for the day, we hopped on and took a quick ride back to the resort. And let me tell you something - that gondola flies! Fiona was thrilled with the speed; I could have done with a little less. By the way - can you see how filthy dirty she is? We were caked in bug repellant, sweat, dirt, and dust.

It was BAD! I guess Fiona had a point when she said she felt gross...

Our post- hike plan was for dinner at the hotel restaurant followed by a trip to the wave pool and water slide. I could have called it a night after dinner, but the pool was one of many mid-hike bribes, so I had to suck it up - she did earn it after all. I will say that I felt much better after a nice shower. I don't think I've felt so clean since we left the US. I can't tell you how good it felt to take a long, leisurely shower in a spotlessly clean, fresh smelling shower. Ahhhh...

After dinner, we made it to the pool and had it to ourselves for nearly an hour. A few more people joined us later, and Fiona swam for a little while longer until I finally had to call it a day. All in all she put in another hour and a half swimming after our hike and STILL she was skipping the entire way back to the room. What I wouldn't give for half a six-year-old's energy!

That pretty much sums up day one of girls weekend away. We're keeping so busy it's hard to keep up. Coming soon I cover our trip to the "naked pool" and our first rafting trip, but for now I need to get to bed because tomorrow morning bright and early we head out for kayaking. Good night all!