pakdoktergolfblog

Tour of Niseko (1) - The Mushroom Village

Sunday was a cloudy and rainy day. So instead of another round of golf which was initially in the plan, pakdokter was taken on a drive towards Niseko which is in the north-easterly direction from Tomakomai. It was mostly drizzling lightly along the road and the temperature was in the low teens. Along the way we stopped at a village specialising in all kinds of mushrrom. We helped ourselves to a bowl of hot mushroom soup and light snacks. Local produce were also on the shelves at this highway stop.

Hokkaido Beef

After the game of golf at Tarumae Golf and Country Club - our host entertained us to dinner to intriduce to us the delicious Hokkaido beef. Lightly grilled to your liking, the beef was so tender and melted to one's bite. It was so tasty by itself and for some flavour one could dip the beef in some light soya sauce.

Hokkaido is a largely agricultural country and this beef is certainly as good as the well-known Kobe beef.

A Round of Golf at The Tarumae Golf and Country Club

Pakdokter was hosted by the developer of the Pacific View Project - Dato Takahashi - to a round of golf at the Tarumae GCC located just a short drive away from the Pacific View. It is a lovely 27-hole golf course. The weather was superb for the round of golf.

Flowers in the Garden at Pacific View Villa

Pacific View is a project in progress. There will be about 40 to 50 villas in this phase of the project and some of the villa lots have already been sold awaiting for the villas to be constructed in the near future.

The show villa was built to show-case the finish and quality of the project and the villa garden is adorned with a variety of local flowers

Asahikawa Forest Golf and Country Club

After touring the Tomita Farm and Showroom and sampling the soft cream and cheese-cake, Tomitasan had arranged for pakdokter, TokWan and Morisan to play a round of golf at his golf club - The Asahikawa Golf and Country Club.

It was a challenging golf course, narrow fairways wit forests and valleys that punish wayward shots.

Morisan - Pacific View Project Executive plays in the Japan Pro-Tour.

Learnt some golf tips from him through the game.

A Visit to Tomita Rock Melon Farm

The next morning pakdokter's itinerary was a visit to Tomita Rock Melon Farm in Furano. It was an almost 1 hour drive or so to Furano. Mr Tomita ( Tomitasan) - the farmer who runs the farm is someone pakdokter had met at Royal Selangor Golf Club when he came to play golf there earlier in the year. Tomitasan usually spends his winter in Phuket and return to tend his farm in spring through autumn.

Tomita Farms produce the best rock-melons in Hokkaido. It is exported to South East Asia and the Middle East. The farm also produces and sells delicious rock-melon soft-cream>

Tomita Farms also produce sweet corns and makes delicious corn cheesecake.

corn cheese-cake

rock-melon soft cream

Early Autumn in Hokkaido

Late summer/early autumn 2014, pakdokter was invited by a friend to visit Hokkaido where his company is developing a holiday villa project in Tomakomai on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. Pakdokter took a JAL flight from KL to Narita and changed on to a Jetstar flight to New Chitose in Sapporo. From there pakdokter was met by the host who drove us ( pakdokter's partner who had been in Tokyo for the past few weeks also flew in to Sapporo that morning) to the Pacific View Villa sitein Tomakomai.

We were put up at the show villa on site - a double storey 2-room timber villa - one of many designs that were on offer to prospective buyers.

wet and rainy morning in Tokyo

the Pacific Ocean seen from the Pacific View project

We settled down to our villa, then went to have lunch at a Ramen Bar after which we stopped at a mall to buy some groceries for the kitchen. In the evening we spent an hour or so at a nearby onsen.