北海道旅行第二日

We left Taisetsu hotel and headed to Farm Tomita (located in a place Furano 富良野, central Hokkaido) to look at beautiful Lavender fields and many different types of flowers...
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803ATaisetsuHotel
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803BFarmTomita

Next we went to Four Seasons Hill (四季彩の丘), which was kinda more pretty because the hills were totally filled with flowers, and they stretched on and on into the distance, giving a very relaxing and back-to-nature feeling.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803CShikisaiNoOka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgJGtL6K55w

Following which, we went to the Ainu village. The Ainu people are the native tribes in Hokkaido, living their lives off the land and worshiping Nature. The Ainu people only have a spoken language (no written words), and in modern times, they have intermarried and blended into Japanese society. We watched a couple of Ainu performances, included a few dances and a recital of their native musical instrument. Then we toured the replicas of their houses, the lake (complete with canoes), a Ainu museum, and a bear cage in the grounds.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803DAinuVillage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJzSm-Q9n7c

We stayed at Noboribetsu (登別) Hotel for the night. Noboribetsu is the name of the hill/hot spring town, and there is a valley called the Hell Valley (地獄谷) where the sulphuric water from the hot spring originates. Hell Valley was named after plants failed to grow along the valley.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803ENoboribetsuHotel

There was a small fireworks display going on, so we hiked up the Jigokudani (地獄谷) nearby to watch the performance.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803FJigokudani
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSZqEjopZT4