Jaunted

Japan Travel / Lake Toya / 2008 G8 Summit / → All Tags

Japan's Lake Toya Entices Politicians

World leaders have it pretty good when it comes to travel, we reckon. And next July they'll no doubt enjoy the location for the 2008 G8 Summit: the Lake Toya spa resort in Hokkaido, northern Japan.

Apart from the excitement of being near an active volcano -- Mount Usu erupted as recently as 2000 -- Lake Toya is as picturesque as volcanic lakes come. Almost perfectly round, it's surrounded by sculptures and you can cruise across it to various lookout points. The really flash bit is dipping into the natural hot spring back at the resort after a long day of, well, whatever the pollies really do when they're at a G8 Summit. Almost makes it tempting to become a world leader, doesn't it.

Related Stories:
· Hokkaido's Lake Toya Chosen for G8 Summit [Japan Times]
· G8 Santas in Saint Petersburg [Jaunted]
· Hokkaido Hotels [HotelChatter]

Beer / → All Tags

The New Beer Is Milk

Beer travel should be the next brochure title, whether it's a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest or to China for the Qingdao Beer Festival. Or maybe you'll want to hop over to Hokkaido, Japan's main northern island, to try out the latest in beer innovation.

Bilk. It's what happens when there's an oversupply of milk and and oversupply of thinking time. Locals in Hokkaido have invented Bilk: a combination of beer and milk. The word is that "apart from a slight milky scent," it "looks and tastes like ordinary beer," although considering it consists of no less than 30% milk, we find this a little hard to believe. It does contain hops, and the production process is said to be very similar to regular beer, but ... Bilk? Cheers!

[Photo: my dog sighs]

Related Stories:
· Got Milk? Got Beer! [Reuters]
· Qingdao Beer Festival [Jaunted]

Sightseeing / Japan / Nature / → All Tags

Catch the Northern Lights (Without Going North)

The Japanese are the experts at recreating the world within their own borders--after all, they often don't have time to leave. There's their recreation of the Netherlands at Huis Ten Bosch near Nagasaki, little Denmark in the Tivoli park at Kurashiki, and even their own copy of the Eiffel Tower in Tokyo.

You'd think that natural phenomena would be exempt from this copy-cat syndrome, but in the northern island of Hokkaido, this is definitely not the case. If you've ever wanted to see the Aurora or Northern Lights but had bad timing or bad weather when you traveled north, then head to Shiretoko, Hokkaido instead. This year from February 5 to March 21, seeing the Aurora is guaranteed: there's a laser imitation of it running every evening from 8 p.m. The wonders of all the world in just one country: what a great idea for saving on emissions.

[Photo: Eva&Kjartan]