15/6/25 Sun: Potato drove us out at 8.45am to the neighbouring Lake Hill Farm cafe. They had a breakfast cafe, as well as an ice-cream cafe next to each other. There were also animals out in the huge green pastures behind the building. The lavender field and decorations were quite pretty too.
FIL ordered breakfast for our family, and we shared pizza, egg pudding, cappuccino and milk custard. The pizza was not bad, and I enjoyed their egg and milk pudding too. The milk crepe was very sweet and crispy. *oooh the pizza Dexter and LL ate had five kinds of cheese on it omg~*
Spent some time walking around outside before we went over to their gelato cafe. There were so many tempting flavours around! *too bad I was on my menses haiz~* FIL ordered the mugwort with corn flavour-ed ones, while MIL ate the pumpkin and blue salt flavour-ed ones. Left the cafe at 10.15am and drove over to Usuzan Ropeway in 15 minutes. *parking was 500 yen* Spent three hours there. Here you can see Mt Showa, a volcanic lava dome created from the geological activities of Mt Usu's eruption in 1943-1945.We queued for the 1,370m ropeway (tickets at 2,000 yen per pax round-trip) and it was a 7-min ride up to Mt Usu. Lush greenery all around in summer! From the top, we could see Lake Toya from the viewing platform and though it was a bit foggy, the scenery was still good in the late morning. Except for LL, the rest of us walked to the Usu crater basin viewing platform, and there were 130 steps and slopes, so I was a bit worried about MIL's knees, but she's a tough woman and she did it! One could see Ginnuma Crater, the largest crater created by the 1977 eruption, and the volcano bay. Oh and stratovolcano Mt Usu erupted four times in 1910, 1944-1945, 1977-1978 and 2000 in the 20th century. FIL, MIL and Dexter stopped there while Potato and I proceed to Usu outer rim observation platform, which was said to take 50 minutes. I totally didn't expect it but there were a lot of steps up and down and I'm in my sandals alamak lol. Saw cotton along the way too. *Don't know how true it is when they say there's only 600 steps lol...*We passed by a few other tourists on the way there, and at this point above, because I was very tired by the hot sun, Potato offered to go further alone to see how long more we have to walk. Not long after we sort of parted, PotaTOHs heard an uneasy siren that lasted about 10 seconds. 
I looked afar, and for a second I thought “oh no we’re hiking, please not a disaster now…”. *It doesn't help that rumours were flying regarding deadly quake and tsunami in Japan in July.* Interestingly, only two of us heard that au noon and not the others when we check with them later. All of us heard that siren again at 7pm or so, with no announcement that followed. It was only at night when I found out from a socials that it’s a siren in some cities in Hokkaido to remind people to eat their lunch and dinner. It was very scary la!One can still see some steam rising from Ginnuma crater, but at that point of time, I was in no mood to stay there for more than 10 minutes because PotaTOHs both felt uneasy after hearing the siren. We left the place quickly but still met some other tourists coming over. Completed the climbing up and down the stairs in 1+ hour. Was the view worth it? Not really imo lol, but I have my greatest companion for trekking, so cannot complain! *Potato eagle eyes spotted Dexter's ropeway tix on the ground on our way back... if not that boy cannot take the cable car back!*
Queued for an hour for lunch at Soup Curry Mog Mog, traditional Hokkaido soup curry, and our lunch was from 2.30 to 3pm!My big Potato playing with rubiks cube before lunch~ anyway, my level 2 spiciness pork belly and okra set (1,680 yen) was good! He ate level 1 spiciness hamburg steak set (1,680 yen). All in all, FIL paid 6,720 yen for our lunch. It's worth it.We split up after lunch to go shopping, and I definitely spent a bit at the pharmacies for the beauty products haha (7,162 yen). Walked along Lake Toya in the afternoon and saw people feeding those huge salmons I believe...At 4pm, PotaTOHs saw a public feet soak and I went in. Potato hesitated after testing out the 42, 43 degrees celcius water lol~ but he still soaked his feet in the end. *timely soak to relieve my achy feet and legs~* I had a blister on the fourth right toe since yesterday, which became worse after the hike. FIL and MIL joined us soon after when we met up. By 4.45pm, we walked around to look for dinner places and I don't know if it's a Sunday, many places were not opened. We bought apple (591 yen) and beer (162 yen) at Seicomart... fruits very expensive in Japan lol.
At 6.15pm, we finally decided on dinner at湖湖. Went in quickly because we were one of the earlier ones and they sell Hokkaido's Genghis Khan special.
We had two Genghis Khan set meal (4,600 yen) and the羊骚味was obvious on its own, but with the dipping sauce, it was quite nice. In-laws had hot soba.
After that, we bought two mentaiko pasta (859 yen) at Seicomart at 7pm for our breakfast tomorrow morning. Back to the hotel at 7.30pm and tried the berries beer~
Also used the forest-flavoured bath soak (220 yen) we bought at usuzan ropeway's souvenir shop but the smell was only okay la~ still it was nice to see the fireworks at Lake Toya from our bath!
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