When the snow is gone...

Asahikawa is a city whose people are neatly divided between those that love the snow and can't get enough, and those that hate the white plague which tests their snow shoveling endurance for a solid 5 months of the year. As far as Asahikawa's reputation goes, this year was not a bumper snow year by any stretch of the imagination, but the relief on the faces of those praying to the sun Gods since last November is very noticeable. 

For the snow junkies however, its not quite over. Asahidake and Kurodake are both still options for giving the deck or skiis some end of season punishment, albeit in slushy uncomfortable conditions, only tempered by the freedom to get up and down in a t-shirt without freezing. 

In the last three days the mercury has hit 24 degrees and while the Massive Units mentioned above are still chasing their last runs of the year, the more conservative are getting an early start to the B.B.Q season. Asahikawa has a few great B.B.Q locations close to the city, none better than Kaguraoka Park, a beautiful large park about 10 minutes drive from the city. Last Sunday was the first B.B.Q of the season, for us anyway, and already the prematurely warm temperature had the park filled with people enjoying basketball, Frisbee golf, soccer, baseball and of course generous amounts of food and beer.

Winter tourism has a very good reputation in and around Asahikawa, primarily due to the fantastic snow conditions over the course of the season as well as the adventure inherent in high altitude snow activities. It would therefore surprise many to learn that summer tourism to Asahikawa and the Taisetsuzan National Park far exceeds its winter counterpart, and by a large factor. 

The reason for this is that essentially there is much more to see and do here in the summer. Hiking, climbing, mountain biking, camping, fishing, golf, and park golf are just some of the many activities on the menu here in summer. 

More on these in a later post, ...gotta get back to work!

The pic below is the Grand Opening of the B.B.Q season at Kaguraoka Park.

Cheers to all that participated, especially to Mark for the great steak, A-Rod for that super-addictive game that had us all thoroughly entertained (also another post on this to come), and to all the crew that helped to clean up.

See you all next week.

Greg