GW Day 2: Sapporo

At about noon on Monday, we got on a train to Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido (Japan's northernmost island). We checked out some of the sights there, saw some interesting things and buildings. Then we had dinner and did karaoke in a group, and Matt finally joined us. Me, Matt, and Brian went searching for the "Gaijin Bar" (Literally "Foreigner Bar") but it ended up being closed that night.






Been awhile since I've played this game.



Now this was an interesting ride.



This was descriptively called the "Old Government Building"



And it had a really nice park next to it.









I still found some snow - even in May.



Pink Taxis are the only way to travel.



We found a big plaza with some cool fountains.






There was this sketchy guy who looked like he just robbed a bank.



But he was just a mime. Is that scarier?



I guess it is everywhere you want to be.



I think these girls were selling jet-packs powered by some kind of shampoo or lotion. Interesting.



Hardcore.



But not as hardcore as me and Martin.



But this little guy might have us beat.



Yes.



Oh baby.



The 8 of us at dinner.



Adam breaks it down to Andrea and Priscilla at karaoke.



If Brian's singing, it's most likely in Japanese. He's an aspiring J-Pop star, you know.



Our duet. If you look close, you can see the lyrics, haha.

Brian, Matt and I found some interesting places as we roamed the city.


Like this club. Yeah, an interesting facade on the front.



What do you think goes on in this place?



Don't you agree that Natural Selection is indeed lovely?



Taxis completely line the streets late at night.

After we got some ramen, we actually took one back to the youth hostel. I had the "Baataa Koonuu" or Butter Corn ramen, which was pretty good I'd say. Though not having just descended a mountain, not quite as good as the night before.

That night was pretty interesting, since all 9 of us were actually all in one big dorm style room. There were 6 bunk beds, but Matt was too tall, and didn't fit into his. It's pretty funny with so many people in one room trying to go to sleep or turn the lights off since some people are tired, some people want to stay up, etc. Perhaps you can see some foreshadowing.

Golden Week Day 1: Hakodate

The week beforehand, the original group of maybe 2 or 3 people expanded into 9 people which was pretty exciting. We spent about 4 hours one day planning our general itinerary and I figured out all the trains we would need to take for the 7 days. We ended up buying like 13 train tickets, but it was all for a flat rate since we all bought week long JR Rail passes for about $275 which allows for UNLIMITED travel throughout Japan including the Bullet Train.



Me and Brian doing some hardcore planning the week before.

We began our epic journey across Japan early on Sunday morning. We left Kyoto at about 9am, and we arrived in Hakodate - on Japan's northern-most island of Hokkaido - at about 7pm. We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to the top of Japan's main island of Honshu. Then, to get to Hokkaido, the train goes underground, beneath the ocean. Unfortunately that train was pretty slow, and took us about the same time to travel about a third of the distance we had already gone.



From the back, left to right: Brian, Nathan, Nate. And in the front: Adam, Martin, me , Priscilla, and Andrea. Matt isn't there because he's meeting us the next day.



Outside the Shinkansen or Bullet Train.



Nathan and Martin inside.



More people in their seats.

As soon as we arrive in Hakodate, we head for Mount Hakodate. At the bottom of the island, the mountain overlooks an isthmus of land, and is one of the best nightviews in Japan. We walk around bewildered for awhile, debating where we are and how to best get to the mountain. We thought of walking, but then I saw a bus terminal and a bus about to leave. I ask the driver if the bus goes to the mountain, he says yes, so I tell everyone to jump on and we do. In my guidebook, it says there's a bus that takes you to the base of the mountain and one that takes you to the top. I wanted to climb up, so I thought our bus would take us to the base. So when it looks like we're approaching the base of the mountain, I ask the lady in charge of taking tickets:

Me: "Ano sumimasen, koko wa, yama desu ka?"

Her: "Mada desu."

I was trying to ask her if this was the stop for the base of the mountain. But apparently this bus only went to the top of the mountain. If I were to translate the previous conversation, it would go something like this.

Me: "Excuse me, is this the mountain?"

Her: "No, not yet."

Maybe you had to be there, but it pretty silly of me to ask if we were on the mountain yet, whe clearly, we weren't there yet. But hey, I was trying to ask something else, it just came out wrong.

We eventually got to the top of the mountain, and I was tempted to ask the lady if this was the mountain, but I didn't. Unfortunately, once we get to the peak there is this thick fog that only lets you see maybe 30 feet in front of you. It was impossible to see the famous nightview from the top!



Us through the fog, the guy who took the picture was only standing like 8 feet away! Note the headlamp on my forehead.

So after shopping in the gift shop and looking around some, I knew I had to find a way to take some good pictures. I had packed my mini-tripod to tote all around Japan, just for that one picture, and I was determined to take it. Naturally, I started hiking down the mountain until I broke the fog. And I took the entire group with me. Yes, all 8 of us. We hiked down on the road, staying to the right side, opposite traffic in Japan, in the pitch dark, no street lamps, through the fog, with cars meandering their way around the tight curves of the mountain path. Luckily I brought my camping LED headlamp, so I led the way to be sure I'd be the first to die in any kind of accident.



It was an adventure.

Finally, after maybe 45 minutes or so, we broke the fog and found a nice place to take some pictures!



My decision to bring my tripod was validated ^_^









Mmmm, this was some of the best ramen I've had, and no, I don't think it had anything to do with being tired from a whole day of traveling and then climbing down a mountain.

We had a few more escapades that night looking for a place to stay. See, part of the "plan" was to not actually make any hotel reservations whatsoever. We talked to a cab driver who drove us from the mountain base to the ramen shop, and he directed us to a small little inn. It was so small it took us maybe an hour in the rain to find it. In my guidebook, I'll always remember why the Hakodate Map page is all wrinkled from the rain that night, haha. But we finally found it, and it was a cozy little place owned by an old Japanese woman who treated us kind of like a host mother, so it was cool.

The next morning, we woke up to check out the famous morning market that they have.









Fruits are expensive in a country with such little land for farming. Thus, this tiny slice of cantaloupe costs 100 yen, roughly equal to a dollar.



Crabs are my friends. What's funny is that when I showed this picture to my host sister, she said, "Mmm, that looks delicious." It's part of the Japanese obsession with food - and it might be rubbing off on me. Even at aqauriums, they see the big fish and all it really looks like to them is a huge swimming slab of sushi.



Oh man this stuff was soo good. It's kind of like a mini waffle with red bean paste inside.



The 3 of us with the shopkeeper that sold us those little snacks.

The actually call Hakodate the "San Francisco of Japan," which I could see. It's nowhere near as big, but it's a port town, you can smell the sea air, feel the strong wind, and look, boats!






Me and Andrea.

For some reason the Vienna Teng song, Harbor, kept playing through my head then.



Not quite California, but it was pretty funny.



Here's the Fried Scallop Burger I had for lunch! It was good, too!

Now, prepare yourselves for the most impressive sight I've seen so far in Japan, and possibly in my entire life.



Oh yes, it's coming. Which way will we go?



I heard your jaw drop. Yes, that is truly the First Concrete Electricty Pole in Japan.



Haha, how desparate must they be to come up with tourist sights like this?



Tastes like.. well it wasn't quite as good as the Scallop burger.



We also visited a glass blowing factory.



Oooh, pretty!



The group outside the ryokan (Japanese inn) before we leave for Sapporo.

See all the pictures from Hakodate.
http://www.darwinsphotos.com/hakodate/
So far a great start to the trip. Yeah, a few snags and low points on the mountain and in the rain, but hey that just makes things more memorable, right?