Winter ice River

This Syokotsu River is the largest river in Mombetsu.

Snow has covered on ice surface of river now.

Salmon come up this river from Okhotsk Sea in autumn evey year.

Local people say a brown bear lives in the heart of the mountains.

But a bear is deep sleeping in winter, I think.

My Heart Will Go On ♪

Left seal boy behaved like a baby on seal girl.

" I love you!　Trust me! "

Seal girl also patted boy on the head gently.

" Me too!  Trust you!"

♪ My Heart Will Go On  ♪   CELINE DION

A fairy tale at the Seal Center.

To be continued ?

White illumination

In winter, the center of town is illuminated.

Here is the shopping center in front of  the Bus Terminal.

This is "white illumination",  becouse of  snow.

It was so beautiful and fantasy !

I used a soft filter lens on my camera for this picture.

You can buy various local souvenir at this shop.

Santa seal and girls on Christmas !

The Seal Center held Christmas Event.

Visiter could be taken own picture with Santa seal.

Staff girls also wore a red hat or antlers.

They had obviously a lot of fun!

They smiled at new visiters through my camera,

 " We'll be waiting for you! ”

Gift from a early morning walk

I often take a early morning walk.

It is to keep my helth and my weight.

As I was going through the Forest Park,

I met a beautiful purple pink scene before just sunrise today.

This beautiful color sight was reflexing on surface of pond too.

What amazing!

After that,  sunrise began gradually.

Yellow Leaves Tunnel (Sapporo City)

Do you know the Yellow Leaves Tunnel ?

It is famus colored leaves spot in Hokkaido University in Sapporo city.

I went there to take pictures of  it.

Trees are ginkgo.

From bottom to top ,whole the road was covered with Yellow Leaves.

I looked this scean first time.

So  I really moved.  What a beautiful !

One was taking a walk whith her dog.

Anotherone was taking pictures of colored leaves.

Everyone enjyoed this moment through their way.

Red and yellow leaves 2014

What a wonderful color !

 

Leaves at park in Mombetsu are turning red and yellow. 

 

I took these pictures at Okhotsk park where is behind shrine.

 

It is one of the beautiful autumn colors spot in Mombetsu.

 

This small park is not made by nature but by art.

 



 

Come back Salmon !

 

Mombetsu have some rivers which salmon comes back.

 

A lot salmon come back from sea.

 

They  were borned in their river few years ago.

 



I took these pictures on the small bridge over the river.

It is in 2km from sea.

A salmon was fighting against other salmon.

To get a female salmon.

It is autumn event to see the kind of these seanes.

Beautiful life was the end.

There is a ban on the fishing salmon at river in Hokkaido.

To protect the cycle system of salmon in nature.

Sunset at Lake Komuke

When I want to watch the sunset, I go to Lake Komuke.

So I went to there. Love is over ... No.no!

I was feeling that this summer is over, and autum is coming around corner.

Blowing wind is getting cooler step by step.

Lake Komuke is the best sunset spot in Mombetsu.

Okhotsk Fire work Festival 2014

today, the Fire Works Festival held at Mombetsu port.

wether condition was so good that they were beautiful.

they were about 2,000 works.

we enjoyed them.

this event is one of the famous summer scene in Mombetsu.

Surfer Seal

at Seal Center in Mombetsu.

the seal guy was kissing to pritty girls !

he dressed up as surfer !

they put on Hawaiian leis around their neck !

it was Marine Day (a national holiday) event.

wisteria

I went to Maruseppu (in Engaru town) to take a wisteria on 7th June.

It took 50min from Mombetsu by driving car.

A wisteria was in full bloom.

Light purple flowers were very beautiful.

Here is one of the famus flower spot in okhotsk area.

These pictures were taken near Kouseiji (Kousei temple).

There is a wisteria trellis from this temple to the top of mountain.

It's about one km.

At wisteria's best in Maruseppu usually come around the biginning of June.

We can enjoy them for about one week.

the season of flesh green

 

Forest Park is at the base of the Mt.Ooyama in Mombetsu.

it is a place of recreation and relaxation.

there was the fresh green leaves of the trees in this park now.

I went out here for a my morning walk.

dawn in the park likes the jungle

I heard lots of twitters of wild birds.

it was a wonderful sight.

this park has a pond about 400m around.

I could see some wild ducks in the pond.

one duck flapped its wings in silence.

scene of dawn blue color was very beautiful !

surface of pond was as mirror !!

cherry blossoms at their best

5th May

cherry blossoms started to come out in a residential area.

cherry blossoms are a symbol of Japanese.

we feel so good as spring really has come.

11th May

cherry blossoms are at their best at the top of Mt.Mombetsu(Mt.Ooyama:334m).

a white tower is Sky Tower.  you can see the whole city from here.

a lady was taking some pictures by her cell phone.

a wooden house is a cafe which opened in January.

I heard that dishes cooked from local stuffs.

I'll try to have a lunch someday.

cafe's name is " yAmA café "（https://www.facebook.com/yamacafe2014）.

" yAmA " means mountain.

a cherry blossom front has come

winter is over, it's spring now.

spring is late coming in this part of Japan.

many spring flowers have started to come out.

a cherry blossom front has come in Mombetsu.

many people realize the spring as most popular spring flower.

the time for flowering is later than Tokyo(the capital of Japan).

it's more than one month.

the cherry blossoms will be at their best in a few days.

the rising sun

the sun rised in sea of okhotsk.

there were some pieces of drift ice.

the drift ice arrived in 2014

mombetsu met with a blizzard from Sunday to Monday.

snowfall was more than 60cm on Monday morning.

i was very tired to shovel snow for about 6 hours.

the north wind of this low pressure contributed to move drift ice.

Monday, city hall announced the drift ice arrived to Mombetsu in 2014.

this picture was taken at mombetsu park hill today (Tuesday).

cloud and drift ice were same white,

but i coud see drift ice arrived to the coastline of mombetsu.

i met with a fox (Ezo red fox) at park by chance.

japanese name is Kitakitsune.

drift ice is getting closer

i went to mombetsu park hill in the afternoon.

i could see drift ice like thick white line on the horizon.

i thought it was getting closer than before.

yesterday, low pressure went through near mombetsu, and north wind blew.

that's why it was getting closer.

drift ice was about 5km from the coastline of mombetsu.

i could see Garinko-go boat was clusing into drift ice.

i think a lot of tourist  got a thrill of ice-breaking by drills with boat.

city hall hasn't announced that drift ice arrived yet.

becouse drift ice area of sea near mombetsu is not enough.

Garinko-go 2

this orange boat is Garinko-go 2 which is second ice breaking boat for tourist.

the drift ice crusing by this boat is famus as winter activity in Okhotsk.

it has two big silver color drills.

they are used to break thick ice as going into drift ice sea.

this action is the characteristics of this boat.

the reason it is called garinko-go,  because "gari-gari" means the sound of carving ice.

today,  drift ice is about 30km from coastline of mombetsu.

it's too far to reach drift ice zone by garinko-go.

i think a commercial clusing is within about 10km from it's port.

in this cace,  garinko-go cruse around port.

Mombetsu port is one of the big port in Hokkaido.


< General characteristics :Garinko-go 2 >

Maiden: 20  January 1997

Tonnage: 150 G/t

Length: 35.0m

Beam: 7.00m

Engine: Mercedes-Benz  Diesel

Power: 735kw

Speed: 11 knots

Capacity: 195 passengers

the first sight of drift ice in 2014

the mombetsu city hall announced that the first sight of drift ice from mombetsu in 2014.

it means the staff could watch drift ice first at Okhotsk Tower.

not Sky Tower !

Okhotsk Tower is on the sea.

Sky tower is on the top of Mt.Ooyama (Mt.Mombetsu,334m).

when i went to Mombetsu Park hill,  i took this picture.

i could see a white line near the horizon.

it's drift ice.

we are waiting for the drift ice arrive to the coastline in mombetsu !

Dream comes true

 

she is a rookie at Seal Center.

 

she has a good smile with a child seal.  this seal is two years old.

 

when she was a student of the animal school(she is still a final grade student),

 

she wanted to be a staff at the work which has relation to animals.

 

now,  her dream comes true !

 

she loves seals from the bottom of her heart.

 

drift ice coming season is between the end of january and the beggining of march.

 

so, a lot of tourist visit Mombetsu for this period.

 

and Seal Center is the busiest working season in a year.

 

it is the first experience for her.

 

keep smiling !

 

Good Luck !



seals on the sea ice

 

there is sea ice at the port of Garinkogou ( ice breaker red ship for tourist).

 

sea ice is gradually getting bigger  step by step.

 

becouse a temperture below freezing has been these days.

 

i can see some wild seals on the sea ice.

 

 

they are cute!

watch seals over lunch

this ramen shop "ramen Nishiya" is one of the popular shop in mombetsu.

of course, delicious tasty!

this shop is in the Garinkogou(ice breaker red ship) station.

the Garinkogou station is across from Seals Center.

that's why fans of seals also come in.

with luck, you'll watch seals through a window in front of you.

becouse wild seals appear in the Garinkogou port in winter.

seals appear

Happy new year!

Since the end of last year(2013),

seals have appeared in the port of Garinkogou.

Garinkogou is a icebraker ship for tourists.

Floating ice in the photo is not sea ice.

It's snow from shoveling snow.

But it seems to be drift ice.