Explore Hokkaido -Explore Ishikari Coast & Sweden Hill - Day 9

Ohayo gozaimasu Day 9 it was an unfinished business to be completed for our exploration of Ishikari coast and Sweden Hills as recommended by Hokkaido Cycling Tourism.

From Sky Apartment we headed to Sapporo Train Station to get a connection to Ainosato Keon Station where we last visited for Moerenuma Park but this time we are heading northward for Ishikari coast.

Passing by the Odori Park as we moved towards the station.

Catching our train for another day of adventure.

Sapporo - Ainosato Keon train tickets.

Finally we arrived at Ainosato Keon Station, weather was good and we shall take the challenge for the day.

We do not have any idea as what we will expecting to encounter or see, we just proceed and hope for the best. The mountain and sea of Ishikari were part of our initial scenery.

Taking time off to capture anything that excite us and kept of ourselves busy with of photo shooting.

It was relatively a flat terrain at the vicinity of Ishikari.

One of the several bicycle paths we came across but not as many if we were to compare with South Korea.

Nothing busy on the road, there weren't many bicycles seen too except one or two seen along our ride. Yes we were heading to the beach of Ishikari.

As we entered Oyafune we saw this pinkish and white tiny flowery patch at the road side which seem to be seated on a private property.

So this is known as the Hayashi Grandma Pink moss Garden as I found out later in the internet.

We started to see more houses and cars as we approached closer to the coast, judging by it there should be something attractive ahead.

I could sense that the sea side was already nearby.

The Japanese spending quality time with their family by the sea side camping and having barbecue.

Ishikari Beach is a treasure trove of some of the best beach plants. You can also overlook the Sea of ​​Japan. This is part of Hamanasunooka Park. 

The wooden boardwalk is meant for watching the beach plants and flowers with the iconic lighthouse of Ishikari.

Taking a nice rest and refreshment at Hamanasu Hill Park Visitor Center at a lovely viewing deck.

Outside the visitor centre where I was enjoying the lovely sea breeze and its prefect weather. 

As we were coming out of Oyafune we could see this distinguish bridge over Ishikari River and we will be crossing it later in our ride.

The houses at the farm land with steep pitch roof which doesn't look anything like Japanese.

Slowly but steady cruising our way on the flat land of the farm where we were targeting to see Sweden Hills.

Always ensuring that our course of direction is contained as we could only see similar scenery.

It was always nice to see attractive spots like this beautiful flowering bed by the road side.

The beginning of the climbing and this was the first ascend and the most severe climb of the day.

Sweden Hills Golf Club looking nice and lovely surrounded with houses of Sweden design.

The style of the houses are Falu red wooden houses. A Swedish ambassador visited the nearby town center of Tobetsu and thought that the climate was quite similar to the Swedish climate. The development of this village started in 1984. Tobetsu Town's sister city is Leksand in Dalarna County, Sweden.

A Sweden flag in front of the building as we passed by it. Going clockwise in this loop was a right choice as we only encountered one severe climb and downhill all the way back to the flat land.

Stopped by at this park for a toilet break known as Aioi Park. 

A visit to Royce Ainosato Park Shop for its delicacies. It was a pity we missed the ice cream the queue for it was too long. 

We completed the loop and were back at Ainosato Keon Station, took a train and headed back to Sapporo City.

Visited the Former Hokkaido Government Office before we decided to go back to Sky Apartment.

Yeah we managed to complete the loop covering Ishikari Coast and coming back via Sweden Hills for a distance of 44km.

Explore Hokkaido - Taking the River Side of Toyohira to Moerenuma Park - Day 7

We left Almaz Place early in the morning heading our way towards the River of Toyohira for a river side ride. Our plan was to finally reach Moerenuma Park to catch some early sakura.

Sukiya fast food chain is another of our favourite place for meal, the food is tasty and prices are relatively cheaper. 

We found the river where we started tagging along Toyohira River from Mizuho Bridge, a bicycle lane was found by the side of the river.

The weather started good and was pleasant to cycle. We saw a couple of cyclists using the bicycle lane too.

There are many bridges crossing Toyohira River as we headed towards north to Moerenuma Park.

A couple of irrigation structures were seen along the way such as this one.

As we got further northward it was quiet and hardly anyone cycling on the path except a few bulldozers busy levelling some muddy earth at the river side.

The serenity continued without any soul seen at the place, we just could not resist to take picture of this row of concrete water breakers.

Then it started to drizzle as we approach Moerunuma Park where we took shelter several times at different locations and finally the sky was clear and good to cycle. Moerenuma Park (モエレ沼公園, Moerenuma Kōen) is a large park in the outskirts of Sapporo. Surrounded by a marsh, the park has a circumference of about four kilometers. 

We went exploring the park taking lot of pictures of cherry blossom.

Suddenly Jo realised that she has a flat tyre and it was a tiny staple that resulted the puncture.

The grounds are covered with attractive green space with massive and dramatic features that make the park a very unique public space.

Crossing a railway line on our return journey where we were looking for the nearest train station so that we can commute back to the city centre instead of cycling.

We found Ainosato Keon Station which is a small station without any people manning it, you can get the train ticket from the vending machine.

We met these young friendly students trying their best to communicate and guide us as to which side of the station we should be waiting for our train to Sapporo. They were really adorable and fun.

Here comes the train and we will be heading back to the city of Sapporo.

It's back to the city and we headed straight to Almaz Place after another day of visiting places with our bicycles.

Our route of the day covering a distance of 34km. Till then we shall explore more of Sapporo tomorrow.