Teshikaga, Hokkaido

I spent a week visiting and helping my friend Kazushi Kimura at his property in Hokkaido. He is building a cabin and guest house on some land he owns in Teshikaga, which is about an hour and a half drive north of Kushiro. I flew into Kushiro airport and Kazushi picked me up in his truck.

It was an amazing experience spending the week with him. We didn't get to do as much work as we wanted because it rained quite a bit. However, that meant we got to do some sightseeing. We first went to his place and got settled. I slept in a great tent we put up. It was very comfortable and the weather was cool. He has already done quite a bit of building but a lot of it is temporary while he builds the main house and storage. One of the first things he built was the bath, or onsen. His property sits on top of a natural hot spring so he gets all the scalding hot water he wants. The water is so hot it actually has to cool down before you can use it. Below is the onsen hut and bathroom.
This is inside the onsen hut. You basically wash up outside of the tub and then have a good soak. It was a great nightly ritual.
Our daily life was a little like camping. We didn't have a proper kitchen and did most of our cooking over a fire from a little grill. All of our vegetable for salads and meals came directly from local gardens. We didn't need to buy many groceries! Here is Kazushi roasting fresh coffee beans.
We did manage to set some foundation pilings for one of his buildings and also create some storage for some of his doors and windows that will be used on the main house. We also doubled the size of his garden, did some concrete work and moved a bunch of heavy beams in preparation for construction. We did some traveling too. We drove over the mountains to his parent's house in Ashoro. On the way, we stopped at an Ainu village. The Ainu people inhabited Hokkaido before the Japanese arrived.


This is a picture from Teshikaga. I liked that the town was full of folk art. This town hosts large flocks of whooping cranes, called tsuru. I actually got to see a live one in a field! (I also saw a fox, eagle and lots of deer.)
We also visited some of his friends. One of them built this "eco-friendly" house. It was very big and quite beautiful. Everything was built by hand. It even has grass growing on the roof!
Everyone has a garden. Another friend of his has a large garden full of fruits and vegetables. Here is a shot of some lettuce and basil. Everything there was so delicious that I might have a chance of becoming a vegetarian if I lived there. (OK, not likely if someone brings around some bacon....)
Wherever we went there were breathtaking views. The camera doesn't do it justice since you can't breath the fresh air and feel the cool breezes.



We stopped at an ice cream shop by the side of the road.
Not far from Kazushi's house is an area where the hot water is bubbling up at the surface.
There was someone there steaming eggs in one of the hot vents. I bought some and they were good!


Another place not too far from his place is a beautiful lake that stays warm from the hot springs.
If you dig in the sand, the water that fills the hole is warm! There were families enjoying the warm sand and water.
It was a great trip. I hope I can go next year and will definitely take Vanessa and Madeleine once the house is completed. Oh, by the way, everywhere I went I ran into Leonardo DiCaprio. He is advertising tires and all the gas stations had his picture. I thought it was kind of funny.