Japan 2012 Day 10

Today I was aimed for Lake Toya which is about an hour on the train beyond Noboribetsu.  Like Toya it requires a bus ride to get to anywhere useful from the train station but I was not worried on that even though Japan-Guide suggests it is an area much better done with a rental car if at all.  I got up early and was out the door before 7am and into the train station as quickly as I could get there. The first thing I did was get a ticket on the next train which departed at 7:30am then quickly rushed to the Mister Donut for a to go coffee and couple of donuts. I headed straight for the platform from there and it was only a couple minutes until the train arrived.  Once seated in my green car seat I munched down my donuts and drank my coffee. I had my traditional chocolate coconut and a donut that appeared to be a glazed pumpkin-pie spiced item. It was a bit dense but very tasty so I am glad I tried it having no idea what it was.  The train ride was uneventful. I had intended to sleep a little but I didn't really bother. The weather was a curiosity to me during the ride. It looked like it might rain but maybe not. It got very foggy and then got sunny and then foggy again. It was obviously foggy over the ocean which the train runs along the coastline for a sizable portion of the ride there. So basically the sun god failed today but not in the way I would rather have failed. It never rained during the course of the day but the thick overcast kept the heat and humidity locked to the ground layer in a death grip that made it much more miserable than either the sunny days or the if it rained. I would have paid $20 for it to rain at the very minimum instead of what I got.

Why this matters is of course that I was expecting to hike the entire day which is basically what I did. I had thoughts of Mount Usu on my way out the door but that turned out to be something I couldn't do because either I misread the Japan-Guide information or more accurately they misrepresented some of the facts in that the best way to get to Usu is by getting off at Toya station from the Hokuto and taking a local train to Usu station which is one stop away.  Of course I didn't know that until I was already through the bus ride from Toya Station to the Toya Onsen area.  This bus ride brings you over a mountain and into the main lake front property where the spa and a few touristy things are located, including a couple different boating type excursions you can take on the lake. I first walked the waterfront and then circled back around to one of the hiking areas I intended to use as soon as I figured out my mistake. The buses are not frequent enough for me to consider turning around and trying for Usu as I thought it would be a waste of time. I found one trail that led around to a beautiful small crater lake/pond that has an eerie greenish color I am not sure if the dim day pictures will do justice. I am sure it is because of the minerals in the water from the eruptions. Oh, I didn't mention, Usu is an active volcano. It erupted in 1978 and 2000. The area I was in was not Usu but was apparently a back vent from the eruption and thus also was deeply affected by it. I think it was not as violent here but it was still very destructive.  Along this trail I was able to climb up to the crater and then around over the crest where I found a destroyed building or two then down into a parking area which set up another couple sites.

I bought a Pocari Sweat and a water at a gift shop and immediately downed the Pocari Sweat. It was seriously unpleasant out and I was a sweat factory from the moment I got out of the bus. I am glad I was wearing one of my running tech shirts or I would have still been soaked through by the time I got back to the hotel.  First thing I did was climb another kilometer uphill to a scenic overlook. There was a wonderful old woman up there that didn't speak a word of English but gave me a cold glass of water and bunch of tissues to mop my brow from all the sweat. The overlook was 1000 yen and of course I payed it. She explained to me what she would to every customer I am sure and I listened mainly noting the hand gestures because I think otherwise she said 3 words I know, please, thank you and there.  I walked up and around the overlook and there were indeed some great pictures to be had but I am not really sure it was worth thirteen bucks. All the same I am on vacation and these expenditures happen.  Plus the woman was really nice so I can't complain that much.  In contrast though, when I got back down from there I crossed the street and found the  Mount Nishiyama volcano park (I guess, the pamphlet is entirely in Japanese).  I know the main course I took to get there was the Nishiyama walking course and this was the actual volcano destruction exhibit.  As I mentioned the main eruptions were by Usu but Nishiyama vented some of the activity as well. There are obvious signs of total destruction such as the roads being torn up and the buildings that were somewhat there being completely unusable. The activity was something that took a period of time to cause the changes. Fortunately everyone was safely evacuated from the area before the destruction took place but the ground shifted and swelled and apparently a lot of ash came out on both occasions. Near the town they have a series of dams that are there to prevent ash/mudslides from destroying the city in heavy rains. I believe they had a couple occasions where they were struck by slides prior to building the dams.  The destruction is actually also visible close to the city as well though perhaps it isn't as obvious. Some of the areas are what I assume a post-apocalyptic world would look like. The evacuated kindergarten shows the fact that nature can reclaim a lot of things if it wants by the trees growing inside the building.  

After I finished the volcano walk I had to trek backwards to what I had already done which I was already expecting so no surprises. One thing I will say, if you like butterflies and moths Hokkaido is the place for you. I am not good with the patience to try to take pictures of them when I am amid trek but I am sure I saw at least a dozen and probably more varieties. There was even one whose wingspan was probably about 6 inches across. I did get turned off course for one moment because I didn't remember a don't go there type horse I must have passed but when I got to the big you don't belong here signs I turned around and went the correct way after all.  By the time I got back to the town it was already past 2:15 so I had been out for at least 4 and a half hours with basically no sitting at all though some small slow downs or stops for taking pictures.  I decided I would take one of the Lake Toya sightseeing boat rides to rest up a bit before I tried to get home. There are apparently 2 boats, one that looks like a castle and the normal looking one I took. If I had to guess I would say the castle one departs on the hour and the other one on the bottom of the hour.  I was fine with the normal boat for the timing.  The ride was very bland and just basically a loop to a location on an island where you could get off (if I had known earlier I might have tried that instead) and then right back to the dock where we started from. I think it took about 45 minutes or so.  Maybe a bit longer but it was less than an hour.

As soon as I got off the boat I moved straight for the bus terminal. I asked the lady there when the next bus to the train station was and she said fifty minutes. I can deal with that. Fortunately she meant 15 minutes which turned out to be even better.  I heard the announcement for the station and jumped on the bus as fast as I could. The buses are not frequent to and from the station (at least according to Japan-Guide) so better to not miss it.  The ride back was uneventful and I went up to the ticket counter and was able to reserve a green car seat for the next train back which would be at 4:52.  This would get me back to Sapporo Station at 6:35 which was reasonable to me.  The train ride was also not really all that exciting but I could tell how rancid I was after all the hiking and sweating that most of it was spent with internal dialogue as to whether I should go back to the room and clean up then get dinner or if I should get something quick then just head back to the room.  I was still undecided when I got to the station but I started my journey back to the room nonetheless.  Along the way I found a Matsuya ticket restaurant like the one Marina and I ate at in Yokohama and it looked like it had some space so I chose to dive in there and get a meal rather than to go back and clean up then head back out in search of food.  Most people that eat at these places are singles rather than parties so it was easy not to offend too badly I think. I bought a burger meal which was a ground beef patty smothered in tomato sauce with a poached egg on it, rice, a salad and a bowl of soup (I left the soup behind as normal as I am not a fan of soups still, anywhere, not just in Asia).  I also had the large Asahi beer as well. All this was 1000 yen.  Thankfully they serve the burger with a spoon even to the locals (as they do with their Japanese curries) and I was able to eat that with the spoon and the salad and rice with chopsticks. I ate quickly as I immediately recognized how hungry I was.  It was all very good actually and I wouldn't hesitate to eat something like that again though I would probably try something else on another visit in order to keep sampling.  

After dinner I headed back to the hotel but made a quick stop in a Lawson where I bought 2 beers. A Sapporo variety that had not enough English for me to identify. It was good though, and a Yebisu Premium Stout. I believe Yebisu is a premium Sapporo brand name.  The stout was also good but I wish I had started with the stout and then finished with the Sapporo beer for flavor profiles. I also bought a bag of almonds and cashews to munch on with the beer.  They were quite good too. I consumed those things while writing this.

Today's pictures can be found here.

Japan 2012 Day 9

My basic idea for today was to visit the Sapporo Beer Museum and more importantly the Sapporo Bier Garden.  That meant that I got up a touch later than usual at 6:30am and got ready in a reasonably normal and not rushed manor  When I was ready I headed to the JR station and decided to have breakfast at the Doutour which is a common place Ronni and I broke fast at during the last trip. I deciced to stick with what I know which was a cheese toast and an American coffee. The place was very crowded and I didn't hang onto my meal too long before heading out. I thought the next best destination would be the University of Hokkaido botanical gardens, but of course they would not be open on Monday and I had to decide my next best plan which was to head further south to Nakajima Park which did turn out to be open. Nakajima park was a fairly nice park with a few different features including a duck pond and a landscape garden  as well as a lucky find in a couple posing for wedding photographs in traditional Japanese gear.  Nakajima was quite nice and very peaceful and I took my time heading through it on my way south.  When I hit the southern most point of the park I transferred over to the river and worked my way further south. I realized at this point that I could walk to Mount Moiwa and decided it was the best course of action for me. Mount Moiwa was probably a stupid walk for anyone but me and a couple other people I know. I was quite fine with the distance especially because for the most part everythingwas staying level.  I do have to admit that I questioned myself a little bit because I knew I was going to be completely on the other side of the city from the bier garden when the time came but I chose to keep on it because, heck, this was vacation and you only live once and all that...  I made it to the location of a free shuttle to the mountain ropeway and figure this was a good place to stop walking.

The shuttle showed up a few minutes later and drove us up a hill I am glad I chose not to walk up to the base of the ropeway which meant getting up to the 4th floor of the building where  I was able to buy tickets to the top. Yes, for those of you keeping score this meant cable car number 2 in 2 days. The round trip ticket was 1700 yen which basically translates to $20USD (thanks bam bam) and involved two rides. The first was my friend the cable car which brought us to the halfway point. Not too scary as it was crammed full of people and about the size of the car I took up Zugspitze in Bavaria which means very large. From there the next stage was something like a cog railway ride (they call it a ropeway which meant it was a train pulled up by cables on a track as best as I can explain it).  This ride was also quick.  At the top you have a good view of the city of Sapporo from the mountain but it is a brief visit at best because there is really only one direction of views to see. I was fortunate enough to ride up with a car full of mentally handicapped kids so it was even more so a fast visit for me then back onto my way down.  At the base I again started on foot back to the center of town (This time avoiding the shuttle van when I realized how little distance it actually covered, free or not.)

I headed back to the JR station where I knew I would turn directly for the Sappor Beer Museum. Since I knew a basic path I did not stray from it at all. The idea that a shortcut is the longest distance between points A and B was fully ingrained in my head so why mess with what I knew. I headed back towards Nakajima and then back to the JR station where I turned eastward based on the map I had. I will admit I got a little bit worried on my path based on the inconsistency of my direction and the suggested route but somehow I did manage to find the Sapporo Beer Museum after all.  I would say it was probably about 15 minutes east of Sapporo Station which meant I probably walked about an hour and a half from Mount Moiwa to the beer museum.  When I got there I found they had a tasting room and first tried a Sapporo Classic before taking a quick run through the free museum. Unfortunately the museum was not all that exciting, kind of like the Guiness museum but at least it was basically free. The first sample cost 200 yen and when I was done with the museum I tried the 3 beer sampler for 500 yen.  The best beer on that list was still the Sappporo classic.  I then headed to the Sapporo Bier Garden where I was seated and ordered a lamb butt with vegetables meal to be cooked by me on the Mongolian grill. The beer and the food came surprisingly fast and the waitress gave me a quick rundown of how to do things before I was on my own grilling lamb. This was sort of fun for the fact I didn't want it overcooked but I think I did quite well if I do say so myself.  While the food was cooking and being eaten I had a couple beers (all Sapporo classic) and drank 2 liters of beer in the beer garden plus probably another liter in the sample hall before that when I was finished and on my way. When I was done at Sapporo I headed back to the room where I relaxed and wrote this for a few minutes before intending to head back out. It was already past 5pm when I got back to the room.  I meant to take a small breather but apparently I fell asleep until almost 9pm and decided that would be the end of my day for certain.

The pictures for today are found here.

Japan 2012 Day 8

Today I headed southwest to the small town of Noboribetsu. The main claim to fame here is a large onsen as well as a bunch of smaller ones as well. The reason they have these onsens is because they are on a large sulfur vent and have a series of natural hot springs in the area. I did not go to visit the onsen today as much as it probably would have been a good idea. Instead also in the neighborhood is the edge of a national park and a location called Jigokudani.  Much like O-Jigoku in the Hakone region the park is a series of sulfur vents and hot springs with a couple geysers to boot. Apparently the geysers aren't too predictable so they sort of recommend you don't go near them but still it not really all that cordoned off as it would be in the US.

To get there I got up early as is my wont and headed to the train station for about 7:15. There I again partook of donuts and coffee from Mister Donut (why mess with a good thing) and then reserved a ticket to Noboribetsu.  The train I took was a Hakuto Super Express which only makes a couple stops along the way and carried me to my destination in about an hour and 5 minutes.  Once at the station in Noboribetsu it was obvious I recognized something in town. There is apparently a "Marine Park" which I think means water park though it may be an aquarium or both that has a replica of a Danish castle called the Castle Nixe as a center point to its grounds. You really couldn't mistake it from the train or the station at all. I remember a long time ago seeing that it existed through a webpage I found but I don't think I ever thought I was going to see it in person. So I quickly took a snapshot but I knew I was headed for the park so I didn't decide to investigate the building yet.  I wish I could remember off the top of my head which castle it is mimicking though.

In order to get to Jigokudani you need to take a bus to the Noboribetsu Onsen. They seem to have a couple buses every hour or so and I didn't have to wait long for the one I needed to arrive. I think the bus ride was probably about 15 minutes including a couple stops for the locals aboard.  At the bus station I quickly spoke to the tourist information person who said to just head uphill and I would find Jigokudani.  Going up hill I ended up in the main street of the town and found another tourist info location and the girl here spoke English better so I was able to get more information from her. She said the park was about 5 minutes walk from her office and it would take about an hour and 10 minutes to walk the entire circuit.  That sounded fine by me.  Getting in I immediately could see the sulfur vents and some of the hot spring waters flowing in the main area of the park. Jigokudani means Hell Valley in Japanese by the way.  Hell because of the hot and sulfur of course. This is what hell is like I am sure.  The one thing to point out is that hot sulfur vents and the like make an already hot day even hotter and there were a few times along the day I may have considered regretting my choice except that I really enjoyed myself during the course of the day.  There is a wood plank walkway that carries you out to a "geyser" that you are able to stand pretty much right on top of. It is a geyser in the sense that it vents on a repetitious basis however the venting is more of a bubbling than a geysering action. It is sort of like a boiling cauldron. I am sure it still counts.

From there I worked my way uphill  and further into the park. I found the signs that suggested they led to Oyunuma which is a hot spring lake that is about 130C at its bottom and about 90C at its top in temperatures. I liked the walk through shaded areas but I got bitten by a couple of fly-like critters along the way which did result in some cursing.  The hot spring lake was fairly impressive except maybe for the giant parking lot right on it.  All the same you could feel the heat from it even in the summer weather and it really did look beautiful.

After that I worked my way up the road a bit until I found the turn in for another path. This path led downhill and eventually along a stream that bled off another possible geyser named Taisho Jigoku. This was the geyser with the unpredictability warnings. It appears that most people ignore fact they could be scalded by near boiling water and just moved the protective barriers away. In any event I didn't hang out there too long because I was sure it wouldn't bother shooting for me so I worked my way further down the path. This is where I figured I should be headed to the natural foot bath area. The stream basically rolls over a couple of waterfalls to the base area at the ground before it meets up with a different cold stream. The park has set up an area where you can take off your shoes and soak your feet in the near boiling waters of the hot springs.  There was no way I was going to miss this. As soon as I got down there I took of my shoes and socks and dunked my feet right in. The water was fricken hot!. Still it was very pleasant and I think I was in soaking for over 15 minutes because it felt so good. I can think of a couple people I know who would be jealous for this experience. There were quite a few other people also dipping their toes while I was there including a German mother and son team (it appeared). The mother spoke some stuttering English and we exchanged pleasantries before they headed on their way.  When I was done soaking it was on to the path again and then I found myself on a road and headed back into town.  From town I was able to work my way back into the park where I took another quick stop at the main park building and had an ice cream and a Pocari Sweat from vending machines.  Then I took the one central mountain trail that I had not yet taken by this point. I think all in all this was probably about three to three and a half hours of hiking (and soaking, which was the only real pause I took otherwise). The mountain trail had a few monuments to some poets that had written about the area. Unfortunately the translated signs did not translate the poetry. I would have enjoyed that.

When I returned to town I again visited the tourist information area. There is a crater lake named Lake Kuttara that is not very far from Jigokudani. Unfortunately it is really best visited by car, which I did not have. The girl said it would be about a 2 hour walk there and back. It basically already being around deeply past 1pm I new that would be a bad idea. Even assuming I walk faster than the average person I knew that was too long a trip. She instead suggested I visit the Bear Park where they have an observatory which allows you to see the entire lake. It is not the same as being there but she is probably right that the pictures are better from the distance.

So I headed to the Bear Park which was just down the street but then up a lot of stairs.  That was fine. Then I realized that the actual way to the park was through my old arch-nemesis, the cable car.  I was a bit dejected but all the same I had to do it.  I had managed spending almost no money at this point but the entry to the park including the round trip ticket on the cable car was about $25. I can live with that but still I had managed a very cheap day after all to this point. So I got my ticket and clambered into a car. The very helpful man at the car entry popped a vent in the top of the car which helped the air flow very nicely (I wish this had been done on the way down).  When the car started out it was rocking left and right like crazy but fortunately it calmed down after one or two of the posts it had to crawl over.  This is the second cable car I have taken solo and I will state that I did not panic at all during it even with the swinging. Perhaps I am getting slightly better with heights over time.  I doubt I am skydiving tomorrow but maybe there is improvement after all.  At the top is the Bear Park which is not really all that big. The island of Hokkaido boasts a population of brown bears and the park has a bunch of them captive in a zoo-like situation. Honestly this whole ordeal made me sad. The park sells treats you can give to the bears and the bears have learned that if they pose that people are more likely to thrown them the treats than other bears. It is really not something I wanted to see as cool as the bears looked. It made me sad to think their lives had come to this instead of what they really should be doing in the wild.  I guess they weren't in danger of being poached by the Chinese for some minuscule portion of their anatomy to be used in "medicine" but all the same they should be out free rather than performing for treats.  That of course is just my opinion. I would at least rather see them in a preserve type situation rather than this. Also included in the park was the observatory which did have some really nice views including the crater lake and even a reasonably good distance picture of the Danish style castle, and also a small Ainu village which probably would have had more people working it on days that aren't Sunday (or maybe anyway).  The Ainu are the indigenous population of Hokkaido (I think the name Hokkaido is actually an Ainu word though I cannot recall right now what it means.  


When I was done with the Bear Park I rode the cable car back down and then it was on to the bus station where I rode back to the train station. I decided to take a quick detour to see if I could get any good pictures of the Danish castle but they had the views well protected by the park and the entry fee was over $21 which was far more than I was willing to commit for a couple of pictures that would only amuse George and myself.  So I looped around the park and headed back to the train station. I reserved a seat on the next train which was unfortunately about an hour off but it was actually the best I could have done. Even if I didn't walk around the marine park I was still too late for the prior train by about 30 minutes. I guess the trains are not too frequent later in the day.  I waited as patiently around the trains station for the 4:23 Limited Express Hakuto even though I was mostly starving. I didn't see anyplace to really get something to eat in all my journeys except for a restaurant in the Bear Park which was closed.  So when the train came in I had to sit in a reserved seat in the ghetto cars because the green car was booked full and rode to the first stop out when a couple of women were going to have to sit one in front of the other and asked me to move seats which I did so they could sit next to each other. One of the girls gave me some gum as a peace offering. It was some sort of fruit flavor but the flavor didn't last that long unfortunately.  The ride back was again about an hour and five minutes or so and I was deposited back in Sapporo Station.


I had seen the Italian style restaurant La Pausa on my other passes back and forth from the station and decide tonight would be my one take on Italian food on this trip in Japan. I didn't want to put a ton of thought into things as I was starving and it was right there. To be fair I couldn't put in too much thought because though they had a picture menu the descriptions were all in Japanese, not even the names of the dishes were there in English. All good by me.  I probably should have picked a pizza but instead went for a pasta which turned out to be a pesto style with red peppers, olives and some small amount of chicken meat. It was actually quite good and the pasta cooked correctly. I accompanied the main meal with 2 Suntory beers.  After the pasta was done I had an ice cream sundae like dessert that unfortunately had Special-K as a base underneath it. Not that I don't like the cereal but it made it really tough to get at the ice cream without everything shifting around and I lost probably about a third of the cereal on the table as it all fell about.  In any event it was good, just messy and difficult.


Once done I headed back to the hotel with a brief stop at a Lawson to buy some beer and a snack. At the hotel I did some tub laundry and wrote this while winding down for the night.


The pictures from today are here.

Japan 2012 Day 7

Sapporo is pretty much in the center of Hokkaido so to get to the coast you have to travel a little bit. I did that by going to Otaru today.  The selling point for Otaru is that it was a formerly important area probably because it is a sea port and it has a canal not too far from the waterfront. Ok, so it wasn't much to go on but honestly it turned out to be a great day.  I got up early as is usual and was on my way out the door by 7:00 or so I think.  I walked straight to Sapporo station with only a small stop to buy a can of cold black coffee and a couple pauses to take pictures of some statues and the like.  It was overcast in the early morning and it was sort of cool out which was different but that all changed rather rapidly. In Sapporo Station I discovered a Mister Donut and decided I could get my breakfast there. That consisted of a couple chocolate coconut donuts and a cup of hot black coffee.  I wasn't particularly in a rush so I took my time and then was in the JR station and on a train bound for Otaru by 7:45.  The train I took was a local which meant it stopped at every stop along the way to Otaru. Again I wasn't in a rush so I was ok with that.  It took probaby about 45 minutes to get there and I did get to see some nice areas along the way even if I couldn't take pictures in a moving train with dusty-dirty windows.

On arriving in Otaru it was still only about 8:30 and the tourism office was not officially open but I was able to get inside and find some English maps to take with me (along with some Japanese ones for the keepsake). I realized also that I left the sunblock behind and quickly chose to purchase some at a small store at the station then dousing myself with it immediately. From there I immediately started touring the town by walking down the main street to the canal and following the canal along. There were some cool buildings to be seen and the canal was very nice. After reaching the end of the canal I turned outward to the piers and saw a real lot of people fishing along the way. As I neared back to the center of the pier area I noticed that there was some form of carnival starting up.  this sort of took my attention for a bit as there was a stage with a bunch of elderly woman on it and they were obviously disorganized but preparing to do some singing so I waited it out and they did sing a couple of songs. Then after they finished they brought up some new woman and kids and removed some of the ones that were on there already and added a guy that played the keyboards and sang and the rest of them performed a couple of songs in sign language. I guess they were a sign language school or club or the like. In any event it was sort of neat to watch. When they finished their couple of songs I think a series of cheers with very young school girls (less than 8) was up next but I left to start exploring all the booths. Again I was a curiosity there and many of the people in the booths greeted me and I definitely had a lot of staring at me going on.  I did a few loops of the carnival area. There were booths for games and for selling things and of course for food. They had all sorts of stuff going on including many little beer gardens. I wanted to try one of them but I thought it was too early by that point at only 10:30 so I decided to do a little bit more wandering around the city.

I looped around a little bit and found a gift shop and looked in there for a little bit then on my way I found a sign that suggested there was an Otaru Beer Brewery and Pub only 160 meters away. How could I turn something like that down? It was past 11am so I was not totally being an alcoholic, I think. The pub was set up to look like a German beer garden and also displayed some of the brewery itself.  I ordered a dunkel which is not really a dark beer but an amber which had a hoppy flavor with a citrus aftertaste that was served cellar temperature and really very enjoyable. The menu was basically German food so I opted for the sausages and sauerkraut along with a Hokkaido potato, bacon and cheese bake.  All of it was honestly very good food and I liked the sausage a lot. The bacon from the potatoes really felt more like a thinly sliced non-cured piece of pork but it was still very good anyway.  I suppose I could have just gotten the German potatoes but I am glad I got what I got all the same. After a second half liter of beer and finishing my food I thought I would have dessert by trying their seasonal schwarz which was to have an espresso flavor. It was indeed almost a stout with a nice coffee flavor that actually made it perfect for dessert.  After I settled up I went back to the carnival area and bought a "soda" flavored soft serve ice cream. It was a mutant blue color like you'll never find in food and had a fruity flavor that may have been citrus or berry or maybe just generic sugar. In any event I did enjoy it while I walked around some more. The stage at this point had what I will call a Japanese lounge singer. I am not sure if he was someone truly famous here or not but all the older women wanted to come down and shake his hand when he came out of the stage to do so with the audience.  He wasn't bad but certainly it was not the type of music I wanted to listen to.

After another short while I decided I would head back towards the train station but I got sidetracked by some more bits of carnival booths (these mostly selling glass items) and then followed that road along for a while until I was climbing a big hill into what I figured to be the middle of nowhere. Instead I heard very loud music a street over and decided to investigate. This same music had been playing over and over in the beer garden. Two songs randomly repeated.  I was curious why that would be. I have no idea what the songs were about at all.  It turns out that I had stumbled upon a parade. I think I was fairly close to the beginning when I got there.  The parade was a series of local groups, often wearing kimonos dancing to the two songs and marching through the parade. I managed to find a reasonably shady spot and dug in to watch it (I was thinking until it was over. There were all sorts of groups which were obviously sponsored by businesses. I suspect some people worked for some of the businesses others may have been patrons, well who knows. I am sure that I saw over 30 different groups march by each performing their own variation of very similar dances to the two songs that kept on repeating randomly (the same song may have played 3 times in a row before switching or may have been played only the one time.  Being a novelty there I was acknowledged by many of the participants and I know I made more than a couple of the woman blush when they realized I was looking at them.  All of the sponsors made fans for their various teams and I managed to get a couple of those as well as on two occasions I was given some small cans of Sapporo beer by people marching through. Being a gracious guest I of course accepted and drank them readily (though they did sort of weigh down my cargo pockets a bit as Japan does not have garbage cans.  I can say that I saw 3 gainjin participating in the parade, all were women. One was caucasian and was really trying just a bit too hard on the movements so that it looked forced. The second was at best a Japanese and European mix though I think she was probably Chinese.  The last was also caucasian and appeared to be eastern European. She had little issues with the dances but her team was really bad anyway so I am not sure it was noticeable.  I am certain I watched the parade for at least 3 hours and probably closer to 4. When they really seemed to be stalled for some reason (which turned out to be traffic lights where they were crossing still active streets) I decided it was a good idea to try to follow it to the end and found out that the staging area was not terribly far away from where I had been hanging out but that were still new teams forming up to get in the queue.  I figured enough was enough and it had gotten fairly redundant (especially with the music) and I was done. I started walking back in towards the train station but took a couple detours for interesting looking areas. It was past 5pm and I was thinking maybe I could find something to eat before heading into Sapporo.

Unfortunately my detours didn't provide places to eat so I got back to the station and boarded the first train for Sapporo which left just a couple minutes after I boarded. It was not a local but a semi rapid which ultimately meant that it skipped 3 stops on the way to Sapporo so it might as well have been a local. That all didn't really bother me and I was back in town around 6pm. I felt kind of grimy and chose to head back to the hotel and freshen up before getting dinner and settled in for a few minutes and dropped off some of the stuff I bought before getting back out and going around the corner to a place I had noticed the night before on my return from the Indian restaurant. I have no idea what it is called but it sells grilled food on sticks and seemed right up my alley.  When I got in there was a short wait but it wasn't really that bad. When I was seated I ordered a beer which was a Yebisu draft and for my first round I had cheese wrapped in beef, asparagus wrapped in pork, chicken thighs with leek sauce and minced chicken. All were very good especially the beef-wrapped cheese.  I finished the first beer and ordered a second and then ordered ox tongue, kimchi wrapped in pork and another of the beef-wrapped cheese.  The tongue was honestly very good and served a touch rare which made it even more enjoyable. The kimchi wrapped in pork was ok but not what I was hoping for. There was no spice to the kimchi at all (Thinking about it this was the second cabbage thing I had done today).  After I finished those I settled up and headed back towards the hotel where I made a pit stop in the Family Mart in the 1st floor of the hotel and bought some corn bugles and a large Suntory The Royal Bitter to have while preparing this.  The bugles were ok but there was something oddly sweet about them and the beer was just like the one I had in Tokyo.

The pictures from today can be found here. I might have to figure out something for posting the myriad videos I have taken over my last few trips including today at some point.

Japan 2012 Day 6

I woke up early figuring as usual that the best course of action is to be everywhere I need to be early so I am not racing across the world to get to places I need to go.  After getting cleaned up and finishing packing I checked out of the hotel at about 6:30 (I almost forgot a shirt but noticed it before I left fortunately).  One really fortunate thing for my trip to Sapporo is that I was going to fly through Haneda airport. Without realizing it the trip to Haneda is easiest taken by Haneda Express monorail which starts at Hamamatsucho station.  I did need to figure out where to get to the monorail station but once I did I was able to use my JR pass and didn't even have to pay.  The train that arrived just as I got to the platform was even the Haneda Express itself so I didn't have to wait for another one to arrive and was able to just board right away. The train was very crowded and made worse so by all the suitcases but I did manage to find someplace to sit and the 20 minute ride was fairly easy. I needed to exit at Terminal 1 which was the second stop after the international terminal.  Along the way I drank a Sapporo black coffee that I bought from a vending machine before getting on the monorail. I took a picture of the can at the airport.

At the airport I needed a couple minutes to get my bearings before I found the check-in line and honestly though the line was sort of big it moved very fast and I was checked in with no issues.  They didn't seem to need to charge me for my bag either which was nice.  The security lines looked undisciplined which is common for Japan but I must have picked the righ one because it moved well in front of me and I was quickly through (however they did scan my bag with the x-ray machine a second time).  They didn't give me any more trouble than that. I was of course very early for my 9:30 flight so I did a lot of wandering around the gate area looking for things to buy but unfortunately since this was a domestic terminal it was all basically packaged candies and cookies (and other Japanese oddities) that one is expected to bring as a gift when visiting someone.  I did manage to find a news stand type place and bought what I would end up eating as breakfast which was a bottle of Fanta grape soda and a small container of cheesy potato straws made by Calbee.  I actually quite liked the straws they were tasty and very crunchy.  From there it was basically necessary to just sit and wait until the plane began to board which was more than an hour away.  I killed some of the time by writing this portion on the laptop then basically just sat and waited.

The flight was on time. The line up concept was a bit different than the US. I have to admit I was curious to see a domestic flight in Japan as I had the feeling it would turn out to be different than something at home. The plane was a 777-200 which I thought was huge for a less than 2 hour flight but they filled it completely up. It was run by JAL by the way.  Maybe it is because they fly once per hour instead of half an hour they can fill up larger planes? Not sure really. In any event they called all premier and first class customers and then really quickly called general boarding. I got on fairly quickly but to tell the truth even with such a large plane it loaded up fast.  I think two things occurred. One, the airline really doesn't let people bring on more than they are supposed to for carry on baggage (maybe it helps that they don't charge for checked luggage?) so that there was no mad fight to get overhead space that is typical in the US. I believe honestly that if the airlines in the US would hold customers to their rules things would be a lot easier. I would like to see assigned overhead compartment space that does not allow people to over use the compartments without caring who else they screw over. The second was the fact that people really did get out of the aisle when handling their stuff for the overhead instead of spending ten minutes sorting things out and holding up the rest of the people from getting in. So with less than 20 minutes the entire 777 was boarded and ready to go.  Another thing that was different than the US was a lack of safety presentation. Not really a big deal to me but it was just odd. I guess the Japanese flying patrons aren't as dumb as the ones in the US and don't need to be told the same thing over and over and over every time they fly so the airline can save itself from getting sued. In comparison. The flight was barely at altitude and hit a few bumps and they still turned off the seat belt sign whereas my flight from DFW to Narita never turned off the seatbelt sign for over 12 hours.  Go figure...  They had a couple cameras on the outside of the plane and they used them during taxi, take off and landing which was kind of neat. I am sure I remember that from another flight before. Maybe my LAN flight to Lima when I went to Machu Picchu?  Not sure, but it was still neat.  In any event the flight was quiet and quick and with just a cup of iced coffee from the cart we were down and landed with no issues.  Exiting seemed to be as quick as boarding. My bag managed to come off the carousel quickly and then it was on to the JR station at the airport. I missed the nearest time train but had to wait only 15 minutes for the next one where I used my pass to get a reserved seat in the only reserved car.  The train ride was about 35 minutes to Sapporo Station where I quickly found the tourist office and got a map of the city and figured out where my hotel was. I could take a subway to near the hotel sort of but it would be a 20 minute walk otherwise the woman said. I chose to walk it to take in a little bit of the city and 20 minutes doesn't bother me anyway.  I misjudged my turns a little bit and overshot the hotel but was able to figure it out with the help of a friendly local who asked if I was lost. It turns I just needed to head backwards two blocks so to speak and then I was at the hotel.

Check in to the Sunroute New Sapporo was a bit worrisome for a second or two because I thought they were going to tell me that they didn't have any non-smoking rooms but fortunately he was able to get me the key to a room on the 10th floor, which is the top floor of the building, that was already finished being cleaned. I sorted my stuff out quickly and then headed straight out to find lunch. It was past 2pm by this point. I sort of screwed myself over because I recognized a Mosburger right away and being very hungry I chose to have another double Mos cheeseburger then. If I had held out I would have realized that Odori park is filled with beer gardens and I could have eaten at any one of them.  I was disappointed in myself for this but live and learn. Being my first day here I will have plenty of chances to eat at the beer gardens (though I have to make a special trip to the Sapporo Beer Garden and Beer Museum during the stay). I walked through Odori park and found a place to have an ice cream cone. It was again stinking hot here. Even though I am much farther north than I was in Tokyo and people told me to expect it to be cool it was definitely around 88F or so and humid and sunny.  The map I got had a little write up that said to expect it to be 10C cooler than Tokyo. Oh how I wish...  Another thing is that being a total caucasian gaijin here in Sapporo I am much more of a curiosity than I am in Tokyo. I had a lot of folks staring at me and even a few wave to me. The locals working in the park tried to get my attention rather than ignoring me as is likely in Tokyo. So I can say that makes things a bit more interesting. I think even Kyoto was not like this though a bit friendlier than Tokyo. I suspect that the northerners get a lot less gaijin here as a rule.  In any event, working my way down I found the Sapporo TV tower and figured that would be a fun few minutes. It is of course much shorter than the Tokyo Tower coming in at only 90 meters but still it does present a great view of the city. Sapporo is kind of a neat little city at least around the center area where Odori is and on up to Sapporo Station.  While up there it was obvious that one of the "women" walking around was really a guy, or at least she had the deepest voice I have ever heard on a Japanese woman.  A little odd but nothing too scary.  After doing the circuit and riding the elevator back down I then opted to head to the Clock Tower, which was built in 1878 in the style of American midwestern farmhouses. It was orginally named the drill house as they were supposed to do military drills there but changed over to the Clock Tower when they added the clock a couple years later. This building is steeped in Massachusetts history. The building was to be used as part of the first agricultural college in Japan and they hired an American from the Massachusetts Agricultural College to be the first vice-president to the Sapporo Agricultural College as it was called.  The clock that they added to the building was also made in Boston by the E. Howard Watch and Clock Co. and was added in 1881.  I really didn't think I'd find Boston history in Sapporo but I did.

From the clock tower I made my way to the Old Hokkaido Government Building which is now basically a museum which is open to the public and free. It has a small garden grounds around it. It is a red brick building which I think they are proud of for being of red brick. Inside are a small series of exhibits that highlight different ideas like the history of Hokkaido, Hokkaido products and so on.  Overall it was fairly nice for a free visit and took a fair amount of time to go through. I should point out that very little of the writing was in English but that doesn't bother me.  When I was done with the government building I decided that I would head back to the hotel at least for a while to relax. It was basically 5pm I was still sort of full from lunch and the ice cream and the heat was not helping my appetite at all. I figured I could head in and cold-soak my feet again. This had the major benefit of really cooling me down a lot while the AC in this hotel is not as good as the Villa Fontaine.  After I was done the soak I used some time to get this part written while I decided if my appetite was going to build up a bit.

After a short while I did indeed decide to walk outside and headed towards the beer gardens of course. Unfortunately they were all mobbed to the end and a single gaijin was going to have a hard time doing anything there. I should have gone earlier before it got too crowded. But for my late lunch I would have. I chose to tool around a bit and see what I could find. I happened upon a shopping arcade and the menu for an Indian restaurant named Jyoti looked very good so I decided I would have Indian food tonight. I know, first night in Sapporo and I still haven't had anything Japanese.  Anyway, I ordered the mutton curry, plain rice and garlic naan.  This was way too much food but I wasn't really thinking. I also had a couple Sapporo Classics along the way. The chef made the naan fresh. I could see him doing it in the kitchen as I was waiting. The food was honestly excellent. I ordered the curry very hot which was the highest you could get without paying extra and it was indeed very spicy though I could see room for improvement where the pay options would be.  I wonder if they charge extra because the spices cost a lot or to dissuade people from ordering things they probably wouldn't eat?  When I was getting ready to go they said they had a free dessert which I really didn't have room for but had to try. It was a very cool looking dessert having a white yogurt type base I think with orange lettering spelling out Jyoti on it. It was tangy and citrusy and cool so I did really enjoy it even if I was stuffed solid.  After settling up I headed back to the room to call it a night because I was full and exhausted as the day of transit took a fair bit out of me.

The pictures for today are located here.

Japan 2012 Day 5

My intentions were to get to Inuyama today. Inuyama has the last of the 4 national treasure castles in Japan that I am aware of. In order I had seen Himeji (which is by far the best of them), Matsumoto (second best), Hikone and now Inuyama. I probably visited them in correct order because Hikone with the sakura made up for the lackings of the castle.  To get to Inuyama I needed to take a JR shinkansen to Nagoya then switch off to a Meitetsu Line train that would take about 25 minutes to Inuyama from Nagoya.  I got to breakfast at 7am and was finished my toast and 2 cups of coffee by 7:15 and on to Hamamatsucho Station for around 7:30. I got on the Yamanote line to Tokyo Station figuring it would be easiest because I was not sure which stations otherwise would have stops. It turns out that I could have gone to Shinagawa which I vaguely remembered after the fact. It probably added 10 minutes to my commute time except that I might have ended up on the same train anyway.  The ride to Nagoya was pleasant if a bit sunny which made a small strain on the air conditioners in the train still it was a limited express so there were only a few stops before I go there.

At Nagoya I had to exit the JR station and head across the street to the Meitetsu line. It was pretty easy to buy a ticket for 540 yen and then get on the correct line which stopped at Inuyama along its path to Shin-Unuma.  In theory I could have stayed on the JR Shinkansen by taking another train to Gifu and then swapping again to Unuma.  But that would have added over an hour to the trip and it didn't really make any sense to me to do that.  I chose the more expensive but less time consuming route because it would also be easier I thought.  The ride to the city was painless if not as cushy as the green car seats from the shinkansen.

At Inuyama Station I quickly exited the train and found the Tourist Information location inside the station. I could tell that this town was not a haven for gaijin right away. Almost nothing was in English at all. Not many people spoke English either.  Not a big deal to me at all. I was able to get English maps and they explained quickly how to get to the castle which was very easy. A couple blocks out of the station and then turn right.  I did so with a short detour down a street that looked more interesting being loaded with local residences.  When I got to the base of the entry to the castle grounds there was another tourist information location and this one had a bunch of young Japanese girls in kimonos doing some sort of performance. There was a sign that I obviously couldn't read that I am sure explained what it was about. I watched them until they finished and even took a couple videos.  I have no idea what they were saying or singing but it was obviously meant to be cute and amusing and it was cute and the people who could understand did appear to be amused so I guess it worked.  Just in front of the castle was a temple that I quickly poked through on my way up.  The castle is on the top of a hill (as most of them are) and unfortunately is surrounded by a lot of trees which made finding good pictures of it a bit of a process.  Even on the grounds it was a bit of a hunt and seek to get good locations for pictures of it.  I do think I managed a few good locations to take pictures from even if the pictures aren't so good due to my photography skills.

It was again around 90F and all sun so this was a brutally hot day. Fortunately when I got inside the castle it was a bit cooler. I believe they are designed to be so. The stay shaded rather than sunny and are generally painted white to reflect the sun and also have shuttered windows that draw in a cross breeze.  It helped a lot. Of course, like all Japanese castles it is a requirement to take off your shoes and carry them around in a plastic bag. Also Inuyama Castle had very steep steps which were worn out with use so very slippery when in socked feet just like all the other Japanese Castles. I am sure Scott would have groaned at the process.  The castle is not very big but larger than Hikone Castle.  Maybe a little bit smaller than Matsumoto. It had 4 above ground floors and apparently 2 below ground floors that you cannot go into. I would have liked to see those whatever they were supposed to have in them. Too bad they mentioned them but wouldn't let you go in.  It would have been better not to know they were there under the circumstances.  The floors were all properly preserved and some had a few museum pieces of the castle that were replaced with a restoration.  There were also 4 sets of samurai armor on one floor as well as a series of pictures of the many castles in Japan on another floor. The very top floor is small but boasts a small external walkway that worked its way around the entire turret. The walk was made completely of wood as all castles in Japan are made of wood above the stone foundations. The wood was obviously old and honestly at some points it felt like the planks were going to give way. The walk was surrounded by a very low railing. Less than knee high. There were of course warning signs but it was nice to see that they didn't damage the castle's integrity to put up 10 foot fences to prevent people from falling. Most of the floor planks had a small slope down to the railing so it was definitely a test of my fear of heights to walk around it.  I did manage the entire loop around it.  What was really nice was the breeze up there made it much cooler than it was on the ground. Sort of like a natural air conditioning.  All in all it was obvious this was an original castle that had been restored a bit. It was definitely also nice because there was almost no one there at all. I am not sure if it is the remote location or a lack of advertising or just that the city hasn't worked too hard to be touristy which makes it less visited than other castles.  Maybe in sakura season it is very busy? I am not sure.  Still I liked that it was not overly crowded and also that basically there weren't many gaijin around.

After I visited the castle proper I walked around the town in different directions to find out if there were other angles I could take pictures of the castle from. In one direction I found a park and that led me to a terrace where I was able to get a few good shots if you don't mind the barbed wire.  From there I walked to the other side of the castle and down the hill next to what I assume was at some point a moat that fed into the river and eventually on the way down to the river I found a cool area that pretty much got down off the road and onto the river bank itself. From various points along that trek I was able to find a couple other good locations for pictures. The waterfall at the end of the moat was also sort of neat.  I am glad I went down that way.  When I was done with this I was starving and I decided I would go in search of food. This basically meant heading back to the train station as there was basically nothing near the castle.  Honestly I had to go into the train station to find something I could identify. I am sure I passed a ton of restaurants on the way but I had no idea what they served. They were all local shops with no English at all.  In the train station the one place that wasn't a coffee shop was a Lotteria which you may remember is another Japanese burger joint. They seem to specialize in burgers that have eggs on them.  I didn't disappoint in ordering this time and got a burger with bacon and an egg on it along with fries and a melon soda.  Apparently what I ordered isn't common because it took them a few extra minutes to get it to me. The girls that worked there spoke no English at all. Still we were able to get things sorted out and I managed to eat without issue. The burger was actually quite good. The bacon was a thick kind like I remember from the UK and tasted very good.

When I was done eating I really didn't have much else to do in the town so I basically just got back into the station and rode back to Nagoya where I swapped to the JR shinkansen and took an express to Shinagawa. I ordered a Tokyo ticket to make it less confusing to the guy at the desk and figured it would stop at Shinagawa. It did. So I swapped off there for the Yamanote line and saved myself probably about 15 or 20 minutes getting back to the hotel. By the time I got back it was around 5:30pm. Along the ride I had some peanuts and a Kirin beer.

Unfortunately my internet connection was not working (wired only here) but I was able to get this written while I was preparing to head out for dinner. Still I needed to find some information about getting to the airport for my flight to Sapporo so I needed it fixed.  I told the hotel desk and then headed out to dinner. I decided I needed to visit Tengu because I've always liked them and I had not done so yet.  It was still moderately early for the salarymen to have their dinner which was probably for the best because I was stealing a whole table for myself and also the smokers hadn't yet arrived.  I ordered some beef bits, gyoza and asparagus wrapped in pork and had a couple Sapporo (finally) drafts to go along. This was actually quite a lot of food so I didn't order anything else except a Cafe Jelly which is a coffee gelatin with ice cream and caramel over it. It is basically a dessert designed exactly for me and it was very enjoyable.  All of that basically cost me about $21.  Not bad at all.

After settling up I headed back to the hotel and the internet connection was indeed fixed so I was able to get all this done and research what I needed to do to get to the airport. Fortunately the location of this hotel is prime for getting to Haneda Airport via monorail which is covered by my JR pass and supposedly only takes about 20 minutes. I do have to lug my suitcase up a giant set of stairs but I can live with that.  The sane thing to do was to get my stuff prepared for the flight and have an early night of it. Which is what I did in preparation for an early day to get going.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Japan 2012 Day 4

Today was a bit of an odd start. Marina and I had made plans to go to Nikko but apparently after I went to bed she realized it was going to rain in Nikko and messaged me that.  In the long run we got a little crossed up but decided to go to Yokohama instead (fortunately neither of us went to Nikko).  This being my third trip to Japan and staying in Tokyo I was happy to finally get to see Yokohama so I agreed it would be a good idea.  Originally I had the intention of getting back early and heading out to Fuji to climb it today but when I got to Yokohama I could feel my calves were still far too tight. I didn't want to injure myself on the climb so I decided before Marina and I met up that I would not do the Fuji climb today but would instead do it on my return day from Sapporo.  I realize that it makes it a tad more difficult to make sure I do it but all the same I would rather not cripple myself in the process and not be able to enjoy the rest of the trip.

We both got to Yokohama by our own separate ways as it was easier for each of us and met at the station, eventually at the west exit.  From there we took a short subway ride out to the Gaijin Cemetery. The cemetery was used to bury foreign soldiers from WWII that had died in Japan.  There is a memorial to the fact that Admiral Perry was there.  We then walked out to the waterfront of that area and then started a circuit of all the foreign style houses that decorate the region even stopping in a couple of them. They all used to be owned by gaijin but eventually they have turned into restaurants or museums.  We worked our way down into the town where we finally made it to the famous Chinatown region of Yokohama.  In Chinatown we ate at the Kafuku Chinese Restaurant which basically serves everything in smaller portions. You pay 1980 yen and get up to 128 dishes.  Only serious eaters could make it through 128 dishes I am sure. It was basically a non-buffet way of serving a buffet. We had a lot of different types of food from preserved duck eggs to dumplings to chicken with cashews.  To list them all would definitely take some time. The food overall was very good. I had a couple beers to go along with it all.  After lunch we walked a bit more then chose to have coffee. I had mine iced (they do that here) as it was so incredibly hot out. It was around 90F for certain and very humid too.  After the coffee we walked to Yamashita Park and saw the Hikawa Maru which was a 1930s passenger liner that had been converted to a medical ship by the Japanese during the war then turned into a transport by the allies after it was over.  Eventually it again became a passenger ship before  it was moored where it is today and has stayed since the 1960s. With both of us having leg troubles we really didn't rush to get anywhere though so we sort of hung out at the park for a while then eventually made our way to Osanbashi Pier where we again took it a bit easy and basically waited for it to get dark to see the city in the night time.

Around sunset we made our way outside and began to take pictures of Minatomirai and the other various portions of the city that you can see from the pier.  Minatomirai is the "New City" of Yokohama and has a very large ferris wheel that was at one time the largest in the world (not anymore).  The wheel lights up in may patterns and colors when it gets dark out.  You can also see the rainbow bridge from the pier so I have seen that from both sides.  When we had exhausted our need to take pictures we decided it was time to start heading back and to find something to eat on the way back.  We sort of took the long way around to Kannai Station which is further out than Yokohama Station from home but it appeared to be where we needed to go. On the way we found a Matsuya restaurant which basically is a ticket restaurant.  We both got a Korean beef over rice dish and I had a beer to go along with it.  Matsuya is a chain restaurant but the place was spotless clean and the food was actually quite good. Ticket restaurants are basically the Japanese answer to fast food. Buy a ticket for the meal item you want and they get you the food very quickly.  After dinner we made it the rest of the way to Kannai Station. Marina rode to Yokohama Station and then hopped off to connect to her train back to Shibuya. I just stayed on and waited until I reached Hamamatsucho.  I think in the long run she had a shorter ride than I did.  I made it back by 10:30 and then spent a few minutes soaking my legs again in hopes it would help them get better. It felt good anyway. They had turned off the AC in my room while I was out so I had to crank that up for a few minutes but the cold water helped cool me off. Even though it was dark out by the time I got back it was still very very hot outside.

The pictures from today are located here.

Japan 2012 Day 3

After the quick breakfast downstairs which again consisted of coffee and toast and was mainly for the coffee I headed back to Hamamatsucho Station where I rode the Yamanote line to Tokyo Station. There I exited the station with the intention of heading east to Nihombashi but got turned around by the local area map signs a bit before I found my way to where I wanted to go. The Nihombashi Bridge is a central bridge to the ancient city of Edo. I saw the bridge in a movie I watched on the flight to Peru and decided I should visit it this trip. It has a couple statues of kirin and dragons on it.  Admittedly it was not a long visit but it was cool to see and well worth it.

I then headed north to Asakusa (or at least tried before I had to give up and get on a subway train and get to Asakusa that way.  Again I let the signs with their tiny compasses for north turn me around so I basically ended up in a circle. A full city map would probably have helped me greatly since I seemed not to be able to rely on the local area maps as infrequent as they were.  In any event, I did make it to Asakusa and wandered around there for a couple hours. That meant of course visiting the Sensoji Temple aside from the basic temple area shops. I didn't buy anything except one of the deep fried bean paste filled cookies we found before. To me it is a must to have one. This time I tried the special bean paste filled on. It was a yellow filling and sweet but very tasty. I was happy with the choice.  In keeping with tradition I also decided I may as well get my fortune from the numbered stick game. This time I got a "small fortune." It sounded bad at the name but basically it said if I was good that I would get what I want.  Thank you Santa Claus.  In any event it is better than my initial run of "The lowest fortune" I am certain.  I spun around the area a couple times and found a couple things I would buy on the return trip to Asakusa after I get back from Sapporo. No sense in having to carry extra back and forth there.  In spinning around the area I found another larger temple that almost no one was visiting called Honganji Temple. In looking it up it is famous for a statue I failed to see when I was there.  I also found a couple smaller temples that I couldn't get the names of while I was looking around.  When I had exhausted my stay at Asakusa I did much better walking back to Ueno Station basically getting in the right direction and not getting lost this time now that I better understood the maps.  At Ueno Station I rode back to Hamamatsucho and walked over the the Mosburger for lunch. By this point it was past 1pm and I was fairly hungry but also fully drained by the heat and dehydrated. My various purchases had exhausted my small change so I couldn't buy drinks from a vending machine and I didn't think the various convenience stores were going to break the large bills on such a small purchase so I waited until I bought lunch to get a drink which was too long.  I got a melon soda for a drink and a double Mos cheeseburger with fries. The burger was really good but the special sauces they put on it all shot out of it at basically the first bite.  I will have to learn how to eat them properly in the future so this doesn't happen.  In any event it was quite good and I would much rather we had a Mosburger in the US than what we do have there for burger joints.

After lunch I hit the corner convenience store and bought some Pocari Sweat, water, a raspberry Kit Kat and some grape chewy things. I drained the Pocari Sweat on the walk to the hotel where I chose to relax in the AC and get some fluids in me for a little while before heading back out into the city.  I decided this time I would visit the Meiji Shrine which is out by Harajuku.  Again, Yamanote Line to Harajuku Station then basically it a quick u-turn and you are in the shrine's grounds. I remembered that from the last trip. I was quite happy that I did. After doing the quick circuit of the shrine which was in the process of closing down for the night after a little bit of time in there I chose to walk through Harajuku a bit. It looks (like a lot of Tokyo districts) to be a main shopping area. I believe it is one that the younger folk are currently hanging around in.  That of course changes every so often and I am not sure if those statements are current or not but that was something I read on the web anyway.  In any event I was tempted to into a few stores not for shopping but because you could feel the obvious AC pouring out of the doors. I do wonder if it was intentional to try to draw people in with the heat and humidity. I suspect it was.  Anyway, I didn't bother to go into any of them and instead turned again off the beaten path and wandered a bit until I ended up at Yoyogi Station which is also on the Yamanote Line. Along the way I found a rugby stadium, a baseball park and the 1964 Olympic Stadium.  I believe the home team for the baseball park was the Swallows.  Not totally sure though.  From Yoyogi Station I rode back to Hamamatsucho and went back to the hotel. I spent a few minutes soaking my legs because my calves had really tightened up. I also drank the Sapporo Premium I had bought the night before while I did this. It was pretty comfortable and felt nice even if it doesn't turn out to help my calves.

Honestly by the time I was done with that I still wasn't that hungry, probably because of all the heat so I chose to skip dinner and just stay in for the night and relax. It was after all my intention to climb Fuji on the next day and my legs could use the rest.

The pictures from today are posted here.

Japan 2012 Day 2

After getting a very needed good night's sleep I got going at about 6:45am (I love Japan for being early people like I am).  I had a very brief breakfast of toast and coffee at the hotel (same as first trip, didn't even bother to take a picture of it).  I was the only gaijin in the eating area. Surprisingly my shared table was not shunned. I expected it to be the table no one else would touch while I was there.

After breakfast about about 7:45am my first and most important course of action was to get my JR pass sorted out. I had to get a ride from Hamamatsucho Station to Tokyo Station then fumble my way around until I found the new office where they validate passes based on the voucher.  I know it was not in the same place as it was the other two trips. I would probably have a hard time remembering where it is in 2 years time.  Technically I should have gotten it done at the airport so I didn't have to pay for the trip to the hotel but I didn't want to lose another half hour getting that done. As it is I got to the hotel at 7:30pm without trying to.  The process of getting the pass was really painless though and the man at the desk was very pleasant and very polite even if he spoke little English.

After getting the pass I headed out of the station and towards the Imperial Palace grounds where I wandered for a little bit and took pictures of things I took pictures of before. I then made my way to Hibiya Park which is just on the corner of the grounds (was there before too). This time there were turtles including some huge snapper looking things in the pond in Hibiya Park so it was neat to see them and get some pictures.  From Hibiya Park I had to visit the Godzilla statue. Since I know where he is by heart these days I would have been a bad guest not to have stopped by and said hi, and of course taken his picture again.  I still find it amazing we had so much difficulty finding him on that first trip, I think it is 5 years ago... Man time flies.  After Godzilla I did a brief wander in Ginza then decided to walk back to the hotel following the train tracks so I could drop off the receipts and other bulky stuff I no longer needed from the rail pass.  On the way I had to stop in an electronics store because I forgot to bring my phone charger cable. Fortunately the one I found was only a couple bucks and has the special spring loaded roll cable thing going on so it stores in a small space.  I think I got back to the hotel by 11am and just basically dropped off the stuff I didn't want, plugged in the phone, put on some sunscreen and headed right back out the door.

I walked up the street to Zojo-ji Temple and visited for a few minutes. This time there was a small ritual of some sort going on involving what looked like a family or at least a series of people that elected to have a right performed on them. I do think it was a family though.  I stayed until the monks left the main hall and began chanting out back out of sight and it appeared the rite was over. The next obvious step was to go to Tokyo Tower where I bought a pass for the main observatory and not the special observatory (the sign said the special one was sold out). Honestly when I got there the day had decided to cloud over and I don't think there would have been much value in visiting the high point anyway.  I chose first to have lunch as it was basically that time. I went to the very first restaurant we ate at on the first trip to Japan and had the Katsudon set meal. This is fried pork over rice with a loosely fried egg poured over the top of it all.  The pork is breaded and cut into pieces. The egg gets mixed in with the rice. There was also some pickles and a bowl of cold soba noodles that would have been way too much food to eat.  I ate the pork and rice and drank the cup of cold tea they gave with that.  That was 900 yen.  It was very filling and tasted very good. I noticed that just about everyone that ate there got the same thing so it must be famous for it or something. No other gaijin came in there while I was there though there were quite a few at the tower.  The older woman who sat across from me must have approved of my ability with chopsticks because she smiled and nodded to me during the meal.  Or at least that I wasn't eating at the McDonald's.

After eating I rode up the elevator to the observatory and looked around for a little bit. As I said it had gotten overcast now for some reason and the views weren't too spectacular. I did make sure I got a picture of the Sky Tree from the Tower though as that is new to the skyline.  I also made sure I walked across the glass floor panels that panic people so much a couple time to see that I could still do it.  I noticed the first moment of hesitation I had all the same. I had done this before not just at Tokyo Tower but also at taller places and still I hesitated before I did it the first time. Kind of sad really.  In any event I got over it and even encouraged a couple other people to try it.  When I had my fill I headed back down and toured the shops quickly before heading back to Hamamatsucho Station. There I rode out to Shinjuku under the mistaken impression I might find a bridge that I had seen in a movie. I realized that I was in the wrong place when I found there was no river in that part of town.  In any event I just sort of wandered around Shinjuku which I had seen a few times before and enjoyed the sites. I sort of put the camera away a bit to just see without worrying about pictures for an experience.  I looped around the area and ended up back at the train station where I got back on and rode to Shinagawa. I chose to again wander Shinagawa a little bit before getting back on the main road and walking back to Hamamatsucho instead of taking the train. We had done this route when we went to see the Sengakuji Temple on the last trip (this is the temple of the 47 Ronin).  I did pass by it but because I wasn't sure of the time and I knew I had to meet Marina in Ebisu and I wanted to relax a little bit it seemed like the best plan. I can visit it again later on down the road.  By the time I made it back to the hotel it was 4pm and I caught up on a couple emails and verified timing with Marina before writing to this point and then relaxing a few minutes before heading back out.  Since it has been over 33C (and hideously humid) in town the AC in the room felt very nice.

At 5:30 I headed on my way out and found my way to Hamamatsucho Station where I took the Yamanote Line (it is the best line in Tokyo I am sure, at least for me) to Ebisu Station. This is where I was to meet Marina for conveyor belt sushi.  She had me wait in front of the flower shop and we both were there by 6:10 so not too bad. The walk to the restaurant was quick and before long we were sitting down and taking sushi off the conveyor. I ordered a beer which was again an Asahi basic which is not the most thrilling beer in the world and we had some green tea to go along with it all. The best of the lot I had was the chotoru which is fatty tuna. It melted in our mouth.  All of the sushi I took was basically nigiri so it had rice which meant I ate less than if I was to get sashimi.  Still it was very good and fresh for sure.  Being piecemeal selection I hope I didn't miss any of the dishes for pictures but I may have. It gets tough to remember to take more pictures in the act of already eating sometimes.  One thing I will say is the katsudon from lunch was very filling and I was not as hungry as I could have been even with all the walking I did during the day.  This also probably contributed to me getting less than I probably would have. In any event we finished up and paid on the way out. The figure the bill by counting your plates and what pattern they have on them determines the prices.  Really clever system when you get down to it.

After dinner we waked around a bit to Yebisu Garden and the Westin Hotel (which is Marina's favorite hotel in Tokyo) where we located some quiet couches and talked for a while.  After that we moved on to get some coffee at the Exselsior and talk some more, this time sitting outside away from the smokers. Apparently the various cafes are all smoking inside and everyone fills them up with smoke. So thankfully it was much nicer outdoors.  After our coffees we made our way back to Ebisu Station where we parted ways as we were heading in different directions on the Yamanote line. When I got back to Hamamatsucho station I made  a quick stop into a Lawson store and bought a couple beers and a bag of potato chips. The chips were standard ridged variety without extra flavors but it tasted like they added some sugar to them as well as the salt. They went quite good with the beer.  The first one I tried was a Suntory The Royal Bitter, which touts itself as an all malt beer.  I think that means it is not made with rice.  In any event it was a bit more bitter than most Japanese beers and I quite liked it.  The second was a Sapporo Premium but I chose not to drink it yet as I finished writing this before the first beer was done.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Japan 2012 Day 1

The day started at 4am when I woke up to get ready and have at least that first cup of coffee before getting to the airport.  My first flight was to Dallas/Fort Worth at 7:40am.  This time I was taking American Airlines instead of United. Most typically you fly to Peru on American and Japan on United but I did it backwards this year.  The American line was a bit slow even though it was not that long. The woman at the counter took longer than most of them do to process me in. Not sure what was going on there.  Nonetheless getting checked in and through security was basically painless and actually fairly quick.  I wandered the terminal for a short time before buying a bottle of water and then waiting it out until flight time while playing a word search on my phone.  The flight boarded quickly and we took off on time.  There was nothing really exciting to report about the flight. It was 3 ½ hours long and wasn’t really bumpy.  We landed in DFW with me having 2 hours to get to my next boarding time for the flight to Japan. After exiting I had to take a tram to the correct terminal and then found the duty free shop to check for a product for Marina that they unfortunately did not have.  When that was done I found a Mexican restaurant and had 2 beef enchiladas with beans and rice and a Negra Modelo.  The food was a touch cold but tasty and even a little bit spicy (not spicy to me but spicy enough to notice they put something in it).  That really didn’t take very long at all so I basically just headed to the gate to wait out the remainder of the time till boarding.

We boarded on time and it was actually very smooth going though a bit strange.  The first 3 groups after the premier access basically no one got on the plane. I was group 4 and that was when the line filled up.  I was in the back row of the first section after business class in the center section but only 4 of the 5 seats got filled. It actually was a fairly decent seat and my neighbor was quite and kept to her own seat.  The plane did not take off until around a half an hour late because we apparently had a leaky water pipe for a coffee pot and they had to fix that then get the water tank refilled.  The plane was a 777 which had in seat entertainment which would be a good thing except it was different from other ones I have seen.  First off they were touch screens but they also had controllers on the arm of the chair. This is sort of typical except the controllers were on the top of the arm with nothing to cover them so every time I put my elbow on the arm I kept hitting the volume button which was annoying.  Secondly, you could obviously choose your movie but they were set up to run in waves instead of on demand so you either had to join one already started or wait up to 20 minutes for the next one to go.  It all worked I guess and the built in time killer of waiting for another movie to start was probably a good thing on as long a flight as it was. All in all the flight was not bad and they apparently made up a lot of time in the air so we weren’t really too late.  I watched The Pirates!: Band of Misfits as we were starting up and then I watched the Avengers cursorily as I was mostly sleeping through it a fair portion of the way.   I ate only the extras on the dinner tray but not the meal.  I managed to sleep probably about 5-7 hours of the 12+ hour flight.  DFW will never be a choice for the way to Japan again as they still went over Alaska to get there. So that had all the direction of O’Hare but longer.  Not a good way to go.  In any event I also tried to watch Battleship but I fell asleep on that and really saw less than 10 minutes of it. I really don’t think I was missing anything in that time. 

Getting into Japan the line for immigration was enormous and took about 50 minutes to an hour.   The hall was very hot for this whole wait.  My bag was obviously ready by the time I got through the line then it was on to customs which was a breeze. I found and fought with a bank machine for a few minutes until it gave me yen then bought a ticket for the Narita Express and barely got on it in time.  About an hour later I arrived at Tokyo Station where I switched lines to get to Hamamatsucho and then a short walk to the hotel where I did get twisted about (first day back, I expected it). I had been on Facebook with Marina a couple times and she was basically at the hotel when I arrived so I got checked in and cleaned up as quickly as I could.  This included a fast and cold shower because I was pouring sweat from the heat and humidity. In record pace I was back downstairs and we walked to an Izakaya named Wataminchi around the corner from the hotel. For those of you who don’t remember, an Izakaya is a bar that serves a lot of different types of foods to go along with your drinks. So items are ordered ala carte and people generally share the foods while they drink. I had a couple Asahi beers and Marina did all the food ordering. We had some vegetables and fried chicken along with yakitori and I even had some Tako (octopus sashimi). For the second round we got some cold soba noodles that were very good along with some pickled eggplant and fried chicken gizzards. The food was all really good and it was great to see Marina welcome me right back into Japan.  While we caught up we also made possible plans for the next couple days. By the time we got out of the restaurant it was already past 10pm.

From there I had to get back to the room and sort out all the unpacking that I had just tossed everywhere in my rush to not keep Marina waiting.

Overall the flights weren’t too bad though it was a very long day getting in.   I really wish I could have used my new Global Access to get into Japan as well as the US. The line for immigration was the worst part of the day. I really do not like lines…

The pictures from today can be found here.

Departing for Japan Tomorrow

My flights to Japan are tomorrow. I am departing Boston at 7:40am and heading to Dallas Fort Worth where I will then switch to the actual flight to Narita.  I will get to Japan at basically 5pm on Sunday.

Bushwacker Fender Flares

I installed with the help of David Waterman and my brother David a new set of Bushwacker flat fender flares to the Jeep. It took the better part of the day but with David Waterman's previous experience doing so it went very easy I think.

Here are the pictures of how the Jeep looks now.

Ishinomaki

Marina and I are making plans to visit Ishinomaki in the Miyagi prefecture during my trip to Japan. Ishinomaki is one of the cities very hard hit by the Earthquake and Tsunami of just over a year ago.  Do not worry it is quite a distance north of Fukushima.  They are still in recovery time but there was so much damage it appears it is very slow going. Here is a link on Japan-Guide that shows how the recovery is going.

It is not something I had initially thought of doing I'll admit. But will be outside the standard tourist concept.

Independence Day in Boston

Today I drove down to Boston and spent the day around the town with a couple of friends, Dee and Mike. For me it was like seeing Boston as a tourist.  We met at Dee's house as she lives in Charlestown and then headed to their office which is right on the waterfront. From that vantage point we were able to see the turning of the USS Constitution which happens once a year on the 4th of July.  We also got to see several flyovers by the Blue Angels as they made their way over the Charles River.  I had never seen the turning of the Constitution before so that was very cool to me. Also the flyovers were really directly overhead so that was a lot of fun. We had a small picnic lunch as all of this happened.

After the Constitution was back in place in her new position we headed down to the piers in Southie and saw the tall ships that were there for Sail Boston There were ships from Brazil, Ecuador, Columbia and Indonesia there. Dee and I went aboard the Indonesian one and found Mike being accosted by an old guy when we got back. I wanted to leave him hanging for a bit to suffer with the guy but we did instead save him. Dee's much nicer than I am.  By this point it was getting late and we decided to find something to eat but in the long run the area around the tall ships was overrun with people and we decided to take public transportation back to North Station where we ate at The Fours. I had the fish and chips and a couple of Harpoon IPAs. They were very good and the fish was tasty.

After that we headed back to Dee's place and chatted for a while. We were going to go watch the fireworks but there were thunderstorms in the area and we were told the fireworks were going to be delayed by an hour. Due to that we opted to call it a night and as I drove home I found out the delay was exaggerated a bit. Anyway it was late and I was tired and had to work on Thursday so it was probably for the best.

Around 220 touristy pictures of my own city can be found here.

Kodak Gallery is No More

I just need to mention that Kodak Gallery shut down on July 2. That means any links to my photos on their website are currently broken. Fortunately the last couple trips are posted to Shutterfly instead. Also my older pictures will also be moved over to Shutterfly at some point in the future after mid July.  Once I get notice that my galleries have been moved over I will go through the painstaking process of updating all the links.

Japan in 3 weeks

Typically I would try to post a 1 month warning but with all the recent other travel I've been doing this is sort of my first chance to mention it. I basically have to turn around and start preparing for the next trip barely having finished the last one. I hope I can get a bit more training in before I go. I am fairly sure I will be able to get to the top of Fuji without issue but I would rather make it with ease than struggling.  Being out of town for so long did set back my running a bit. I managed to get that restarted for now today at least.