On August 10th Ken and I made a radical decision to get off the beaten path.
We'd had our fill of large amounts of tourists swarming around all the popular tourist attractions. It was time to find roads less traveled and do our own thing. It didn't take along before we realized that we had made the right decision. The roads were empty and sometimes we were the only ones on the road except for the odd farm tractor.It was like we had a special chunk of Hokkaido all to ourselves.

Off the beaten path

We discovered a real pearl in the country side called Ikeda. There we found spectacular scenery that looks like the Hokkaido we know from picturesque postcards.

Picturesque Ikeda

Ikeda is a very quiet place known for its wine, cheese, and sheep-farms, the perfect venue for relaxing.
We found a charming cafe to have our lunches.

Moon Face Gallery & Cafe

It's called the moon-face gallery and they served up an incredible Pizza toast, Chai and some tasty scones. Of course there's always room for ice-cream so we checked out Happiness Dairy and pigged out on the best and unique Double-mixed scoops of heavenly ice-cream.We also made it over to the Wine castle where some of Tokachi's finest wine is sold. We saw lots of interesting exhibits all about wine.Unfortunately I couldn't drink because I was the designated driver, but Ken indulged himself in the wine-tasting corner.
All these activities were great, but for me the best of all was the sheep-dog show at the Boya farm. It was so impressive the way Farmer Anzai-san, his sheepdogs and the sheep could work together as a team.

Sheepdog doing his job

This show is not to be missed and the good news is that Anzai, his dogs and sheep can be seen in Japan this coming Sunday night at 8:00 p.m on the TV program called Doubutsu Kisotengai. Please tune in if you live in Japan and for my In-touch Cafe friends who live abroad I'll be soon including some pics until you can make it over to Japan.

８月１０日。行き当たりばったりの旅の途中。今回は大きく路線を変えてみた。
脱線。
普段、観光客があまり行かないような所へ、またまた自然を求めて車を走らせる

急に決まった行き先は、十勝地方の池田。帯広から車で３０〜４０分の所。

池田はとっても良い所だった
北海道の人にとっては普通の風景かもしれないが、私たち他所からこうやって来てる人にとっては、
「わ〜北海道だ。」と改めて思う風景が、この町には広がっている。
静かな所で、チーズやワイン、最近では羊が有名みたい。
のんびり過ごすにはぴったりの所

池田の小さな町には、「画廊喫茶ムーンフェイス」という、可愛らしいカフェがある。
私たちが行った時には、ジブリの音楽がいい感じのBGMとして流れていた。
ここのスコーンはとっても美味しかった
おすすめだよ！

そして「ハッピネスデイリー」というアイスクリーム屋さん。ここは普段私たちがあまり口にしない味のアイスクリームが食べられるし、美味しい！私は玄米アイスクリームと、かぼちゃアイスクリームをペロっとあっとゆう間に食べちゃった。

ワイン城という所も行って、私は車なので飲めなかったけど、kenは試飲コーナーでワインを美味しそうにここぞというばかりに飲んでいた

池田で一番良かったのはやっぱりシープ＆ドックショー！
Boya Farmの安西さん達のショーに行ってきました。
牧羊犬の素晴らしさというか、人と牧羊犬のチームワークと信頼関係の凄さを体感したよ
８月１７日（日曜日）の夜８時から始まるTV、どうぶつ奇想天外に安西さんとわんちゃん達が出るので皆さん良かったら観てね