Rausu: 24th Feb 2015

This morning had a perfect sunny weather, imagine wispy clouds in a vibrant blue sky. That was in stark contrast as compared to the weather the day before! This morning, some of the participants will be going for a ride with the ponies together with the host of this farm to some very beautiful landscapes around the farm.

I was orginally planned to go as well, if not due to a fall on the icy ground with a huge bump on my hand :( Both hands are required to hold on to the pony as you ride along. In view of safety, I had no choice but to skip this opportunity. So the rest started to get prepared for their memorable pony ride..I was snapping away with my functional right hand haha

My friend with her "hubby"

One of the ponies getting ready for some action!

The instructor with the riders

Some warm up session

I took a quick picture with one of the ponies before they set off!

And off they went happily! I wished I was a Go-Pro camera tagged to one of them haha

It was interesting to see these ponies getting ready and the riders getting prepared! Having a Go-Pro camera bound to your helmet or shoulder would be ideal for the action to be captured while enjoying the ride. It was a 45min ride priced at 4500yen, no doubt expensive, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Unless you come to Kushiro very often haha

Fell in love with this scene

After the horse ride, we took some group photos around the farm with the lovely backdrop. It was really an awesome visit for us to discover this Tsurui Dosanko Farm. I hope to visit in the near future during autumn time...you could imagine the autumn foliage welcoming you while you ride ponies through the trail :)

So we set off, dragging luggage to the car where Takashi-san was patiently waiting for us haha..and we went to a nearby eating place to have some delicious and hot seafood ramen. 

Fresh oyster!!

There were some souvenir and seafood shops below the eating place..and we purchased some dried scallops for folks at home to cook some delicious porridge! I must emphasize here the cost price is so much lower than what you paid for in Singapore! 

We drove about 1.5hours to our next accomodation at Rausu Marumi Hotel. The sky had already darkened at 4pm. There was nothing much to do after check-in as weather was not great for shooting. 

So what should we do while waiting for dinner? It's time to check out the onsen! As I was craving for onsen after being in Hokkaido for past 6 days, I immediately prep myself and chiong for the onsen once we settled down. It was just....awesome! Having to "steam" myself in the hot water after so many days in the cold when I was suffering from some backache and an injured hand! I was hesitating whether to go for the onsen experience as I was afraid to slip again. But, with precautions taken, everything went fine and it probably helped in the healing haha :)

It was then R&R before our dinner time arrived and yes, we were greeted with huge variety of food during the buffet. I almost stuffed myself to max before we called it a day and enjoyed some icecream in the room before resting early. 

It's going to be early wakeup days for the upcoming 2 days as we will be going onboard the boat to catch some Stellar Eagles action on Drift Ice!