Thursday in Hokkaido

This is more of what I originally typed on the train as we were returning from Hokkaido:

The day after we arrived in Sapporo, we decided to take the short train ride to a town on the ocean called Otaru. Otaru is very famous for fresh, excellent quality sushi. After buying some sunscreen at the dollar store so I wouldn't get burnt, we walked down to the area near the seafront, stopping at various places to read signs that give the history of the town. In this area also, there was a lot of development during the Meiji era, so much of the architecture has strong western influences. Many areas in Hokkaido seem to have been strongly influenced by German culture, especially everything related to beer. We had a "snack" at one of the many German-styled restaurants that we either just saw or where we actually ate.

After that, we explored the town a bit more; there is a very famous canal that is now lined with restaurants and shops that were converted from old brick warehouses. We looked in a couple of craft shops (I'm using the word "craft" very loosely- the glass shop we looked in had pieces that were definitely fine art). Next we went to sushi (restaurant) street--yes, that's REALLY what it's called! We walked up and down both sides and inspected the outside of most of the restaurants. We had no idea how to choose a restaurant, so we finally just chose one of the first places we had seen when we got to the area.

It was mid-afternoon--for most people, too late for lunch, and too early for dinner--so we had the restaurant (and the attention of about four employees!) to ourselves. Tim ordered a set plate, and I just started asking for individual pieces. Since "uni" (sea urchin) is famous there, I decided to try it, even though many people say it has a strange taste if you just get the standard grade from an inexpensive restaurant or a supermarket. I had read descriptions before that if you get good quality uni, it has a taste almost like eating a pat of butter as it melts in your mouth. This was apparently very good quality uni, because that's very similar to what it tasted and felt like in my mouth. So good quality uni is pretty tasty, and maybe I'll skip trying the so-so quality. I also had maguro (tuna) and my very favorite: salmon. It was, quite literally, the best salmon sushi I have ever had in my life. The taste was fresh and wonderful-completely salmon-ish, but without any of the bad aspects of a fishy taste. The texture was fantastic; I think I had four pieces.

While we were sitting and slowly enjoying the experience, the chef asked us where we were from and tried to talk to me a bit in Japanese, occasionally using a couple of English words. Sometimes there was just too much vocabulary that I didn't understand, but I was able to communicate basic ideas. I wanted to tell him that the sushi was the best I had ever had, and couldn't think of anyway to communicate that, so finally I called Shinya and asked him to tell me how to say it (thanks for being my "on-call translation service", Shinya!!!) I think I made the chef happy. So that was a fantastic experience, but the bill certainly reflected the quality of the sushi.

We returned from Otaru to Sapporo, and decided to take the short bus trip to the mall/restaurant complex that was converted from the former Sapporo Beer Factory buildings. At the bus stop, the driver of one of the buses told me which bus stop to board at. We looked at the signs at the stop, and it looked like the correct place, so we boarded a bus. The trip was supposed to take about 15 minutes, so when it was getting close to 20 minutes after we'd boarded, I decided I had better ask the driver. At a traffic signal I showed him the brochure with the picture of our intended destination and asked if we were going there. He got a surprised look on his face and said "chigau" (wrong or different) and then a concerned look on his face and said "doshio..." ("What should I do ...") Then he said "Chotto mate, kudasai" ("Please wait a minute") and used his radio to start making calls. It turns out we were out in a residential area of Sapporo, not even close to where we were trying to go. After about five minutes, one of the last passengers on the bus talked to the driver. The passenger spoke English very well, and told us the driver was going to show us where to get on a train that would take us back to the main station. After the last passenger got off the bus, the driver turned off the fare board, took off his hat, and drove us directly to a local train station. Then he escorted us into the station, and explained the situation to the station manager in the little neighborhood station. He didn't leave until he was convinced that we understood what to do and where to go. Amazing! So it was another "transportation adventure" that I wasn't counting on, but it was definitely an interesting cultural experience, especially, I think, for Tim. The train ride back to the main station took about 30 minutes, and after that we decided that was enough adventures for the day and went back to the hotel.

If It's Wednesday . . .

I'm typing this on the train returning from Sapporo-Tim is letting me borrow his laptop, so that's a new experience for me, to be able to blog while I'm still on the train (I'll post this later and add more details, because there's no Internet access on the train, of course.) I will make a separate post later with some of the pictures I took.

On Wednesday, we continued our sightseeing in Hakodate. We visited the Goryokaku Koen. As always, check the link if you want more detailed information, but basically it's a star-shaped fort that was built in the middle of the 1800s during a period in history when that design was commonly used all over the world, especially in Europe. I believe it was the first western style fort built in Japan. It has been interesting for me to get to know the history of Japan more as I've lived here; I'm probably typical in that I received the usual history lessons of American students: some basic classical history, European history, American history, and just a sampling of Asian history, with very few details, and mostly just how older Asian history related to events in Europe and America. The reason that I'm mentioning this is that Hakodate has lots of significance in the history of Japan, and the fort we visited is one of those connections, specifically events related to the transition from the Edo period to the Meiji period.
Next to the fort, there is an observation tower that we went up. It gives you an overhead view of the remains of the fort, and it is one of the only ways to see the true size and shape of the remains. However, searching on the Internet, I did find one other amazing way to see the shape of the fort; the picture in this post is a picture from space that was taken from the International Space Station. You can clearly see the star shape near the center of the city. Click on the picture for a larger view. So overall, the whole time in Hakodate was a very wonderful experience learning about culture, history, and just seeing a beautiful place.

Next we headed north towards Sapporo. We had a plan to stop off at Onuma Quasi National Park which is on the line, and then continue on to Sapporo. When we arrived at the park in the afternoon we noticed that the next express train left only an hour later, and then after that there were only local trains. In many areas, the express trains aren't THAT much faster than the local trains, so I didn't think it would make too much of a difference. We decided to spend about three hours in the park.

We rented bicycles and rode around the larger of the two lakes there. I'm very glad we decided to stop in the park; it is an absolutely beautiful place! The temperature was perfect for biking and the humidity was very low. Parts of the ride reminded me of biking in Portland or Eugene, Oregon during the summer, but it also reminded me of several other places I've visited--I have a faint memory of a family trip to the Wallowa Mountains when I was quite young. I think that's one of the places that I was remembering as I rode around the lake. It was about a one-hour bike ride through lush, green forest with frequent stops along the way to take pictures and just enjoy the scenery. The area is a typical resort town; most of the village closes up right at 5:00 p.m. I was starting the get concerned that we could find anyplace to eat, but we finally found a little restaurant. When I communicated to the waitress that I couldn't read the menu in Japanese, she went back to the kitchen and got what I assume was the cook. He spoke English very well (so well that I think maybe he had lived abroad) and Tim and I both ordered the local yakisoba that he recommended. It came in three sizes and we both ordered medium. When the bowls arrived we were both surprised; it was more the American definition of medium than what you usually see in Japan--very large! I couldn't finish all of mine.

After dinner, we headed back to the train station and waited for the next train to Sapporo. When I showed my ticket to the station attendant, he looked confused and asked me (in Japanese, so my understanding was very limited) if we were returning to Hakodate to transfer to the express train. I said that the local train was fine. He then gave an explanation of which I understood almost nothing. I said that I didn't understand well, and that the local train was fine. That turned out to be a big mistake. The train arrived a few minutes later. I'm using the word "train", but streetcar would describe what it looked like better. It was truly a VERY local train. We didn't really know what else to do at that point, so we got on the train/trolley and hoped for the best. It was traveling VERY slow, but I thought it would speed up after we got further along the tracks away from the closely spaced stations. No. That didn't happen. It was something like traveling on a San Francisco cable car for several miles between little towns out in the middle of the countryside. The one very fun thing that we were able to do on the slow local train was try out my new "Ticket To Ride" card game that Tim & Elaine gave me as a gift when he arrived. It's a great game! (So anybody that likes to play card games... let's play!) I thought it would be funny to play a train-themed game while riding on a train, so I got my chance.

When I realized that we weren't going to be getting to Sapporo anytime soon, I finally asked the conductor when the train would arrive in Sapporo. He looked a little bit surprised, and then explained that the train (street car, trolley, cable car, hamster and rubber band powered wagon, ...) didn't even go all the way there. He was EXTREMELY kind and helpful; he checked in the train table book, and then explained that the next station was his last stop, and at that station we could transfer back to an express train. By this time it was about 8:00 p.m. and the express train wouldn't arrive for another 45 minutes after we got there. And it was still a two-hour ride from there to Sapporo. I alternated between laughing out loud at how silly the situation was, and feeling a little concerned that the hotel might not hold our reservation if we arrived too late. I called Eriya on my cell phone, and he called the hotel for me and explained that we would be late. (Thanks, Eriya!)

We finally arrived in Sapporo around 11:00 p.m. I showed the hotel address to a station employee and he gave us a map and directions. Unfortunately, we realized later that the website had printed the wrong address on our reservation form. You can probably guess what happened next... After asking a taxi driver and a convenience store employee where the hotel was, we finally got there over 45 minutes later. If we had walked there directly, it would actually have been about a five-minute walk. The next day the train experience and the hotel mistake were very funny, but that night, after finally finding the hotel we were wiped out and quickly went to sleep.

Tomorrow is Tim's last full day here, and we're going to spend most of it in Tokyo, so I'll be taking another break from blog entries, but I'll try to continue after I return on Wednesday.

More later...

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Hakodate

Tuesday morning we left for our Hokkaido adventure! The train trip (first part on shinkansen, second part on express train) was comfortable and went by faster than I had expected. We rode from Utsunomiya to Sendai on shinkansen, and then transferred to another shinkansen that's slightly faster that travels to a town called Hachinohe. From there, we traveled by express train to Hakodate. At some points of the trip, we could see the ocean, and the look of the coast along with the general feel and appearance of the landscape started to remind me a little of Oregon.

One of the interesting parts of the train trip was traveling through the Seikan Tunnel that connects Honshu to Hokkaido. Even though it's just a trip through a long tunnel (darkness with lights rushing by along the side of the train as you look out the window), the thought of where we actually were was quite strange. Check the link above to Seikan Tunnel if you want more details, but in brief, it's currently the longest traffic tunnel in the world, and passes under the ocean. The total length of the tunnel is 54 kilometers (33 1/2 miles). It also has the only undersea train station in the world. (The station is infrequently used for passengers-you only stop there if you take a special tour of the facility-but I think it is regularly used for employees.) It was rather strange thinking, "we're traveling on a train under the ocean".

We arrived in Hakodate in the afternoon and checked into our hotel (after a short conversation with a "colorful local character": there was a funny older gentleman riding around on his bicycle talking to people as they left the train station. He asked us where we were going, and he didn't seem to know exactly where our hotel was. He rode away, probably to have a similar conversation with other tourists.) Hakodate is a very beautiful city. Just walking around the historical area and reading the information signs was interesting. There is an area on a hill that overlooks the city and the ocean where there are several historic churches. When I get home, I will add pictures of that area. There is also an aerial tram that goes up to a much higher part of the small mountain, but it was so foggy both of the days that we were there, that we didn't try it. We had a great dinner at another microbrewery, and a good night's sleep.

I'll continue in the next post...