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Hokkaido here we come
  • Shingen Shingen
  • Shingen Shingen

Hokkaido here we come

A 20-day adventure by Shingen Read more
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  • Trip start
    September 4, 2016
  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler

    Shin Chitose Airport

    September 5, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Jeff and I arrived at Shin Chitose Airport this morning. Very tired from our long trip from Canberra. We nearly didnt make the JAL flight from Tokyo to Shin Chitose as Qantas flight to Tokyo was delayed. We went to the big public bath house in the airport complex while we waited for our hotel room to become ready. Also had some nice Balinese massage at the bath house.Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler

    Susukino Area Sapporo

    September 6, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Susukino Area in Sapporo. Jeff and I are staying here for three nights. Jeff is still unwell but feels better than the first day in Hokkaido. I ate katsudon for dinner. Haven't done this for a long time.　

    We went to Odori Park this morning. Only managed one picture from the park, which was being prepared for a big Autumn Festival starting on Friday.
    Another pic from the train station. The pic shows some of the ways in which you could get injured while being on an elevator.    Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler

    Upstream Toyohira River

    September 8, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    I have been noticing at breakfast buffet that everyone serve rice into the rice bowl the same way; an empty rice bowl in one hand, rice scoop thing on the other hand, serve rice in two (or three) scoops. This made me think that someone in their early lives showed them how to do this.I imagine that some of these fellow breakfast eaters might have had less than happy childhood. Rice serving memes are like a symbol on their body. Not an exotic one like the ones in primitive societies that are shown on documentaries, but nevertheless sort of symbols are passed down the generation. Someone told me when I was a child that we service rice in two scoops for the living, serve rice in one scoop for the dead. Just one instance of a young person becoming embodied by the group, and the group embodying the person.Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler

    Another night in Sapporo

    September 9, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    No trains to Wakanai because of heavy rain. Typhoon approaching from the Southern side of Japan, it's about Sendai now. We cancelled our hotels in Wakkanai and Rishiri Island. Booked Toyako onset (in the south) instead. Today, we are staying in Sapporo one more night. We are not doing much. Just enjoying hanging around the hotel room. We have a nice big hotel room on the top floor. This room is about twice as big as a standard hotel room with a separate sitting area.

    The first pic shows a drain from the near by zen temple. Our new house will have a deck almost at level with the ground. I want to implement a drain/ditch that looks like this in the picture with a metal grid as cover to ensure that the house won't get flooded when it rains heavily.

    The second pic is from Starbucks. Our snack.    Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler
    1

    Lake Toyako, Hokkaido

    September 10, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Arrived at Lake Toyako today on a bus from Sapporo. It's very nice here. Our room looks over the lake. Some pics later. This is an old style Japanese hotel. A little bit shabby but I would say this is shabby chic.

    1st pic is from the hotel room, 2nd pic just outside the hotel, the third one is from the hotel foyer. The fourth one is our lunch before we left Sapporo Station. I have been eating lots of slimy food e.g. natto, okra, seaweed etc. I love them.    Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler
    1

    Still at Lake Toyako

    September 12, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    This is our third day in Lake Toyayo. We had breakfast, and sat meditation, and is now about 10am. We have been eating buffet style breakfast here (and elsewhere). We managed to get some nice French stick from a Belgium bread shop while cycling and smuggled that in for breakfast! I guarded my french stick at the toaster so no one ate them.
    Now going back to the rental cycle shop to hire bicycles for a few hours again.

    First pic is of a retro looking room we have been staying in.

    Pics #2-6 are from our bike ride around the lake 43kms in two hours and a bit. We saw some trees blown dowm by the wild wind that went through here recently. My lunch was a delicious plate of vegetables and salads. One of my favorute scenary from Japan is of rice paddies. Saw many of them all with rice ready for harvesting.    Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler
    1

    Toyako onsen

    September 13, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Today we went up Mt Usu. It was pretty wild up on the mountain. At the museum located at the top of Mt Usu, we saw how the whole Toyako onsen town came to be, how it came out of a series of erruptions over many years. The lake is a v big crater which resulted from a massive explosion thousands of years ago. The mountain exploded again at some later point and islands in the middle emerged. There has been two more explosions in the last seventy years, the most recent one taking place in 2000.

    I sense that people in this town had collectively made a decision to live with a volcano (a living but resting one) by organising their lives around tourism and careful evacuation plans and evacuation training.

    Its very beautiful here. I like it here a lot.
    We are leaving this place this morning for Otaru, a historicsl port located north from here, on the Japan sea side.    Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler

    Otaru

    September 14, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    We travelled from Lake Toyako to Otaru today. We found this place called Otaru Asari Classe Hotel, which is located in the hills about 30 mins bus ride from Otaru Station on a bus. This place must be pretty busy in winter for skiing.
    Otaru is a port city and feels very different to Lake Toyako.

    Some pics from Otaru. I liked what someone did with the climber plants.

    Received an email about a job interview today.

    This place where we are staying at has an outside bath. I had a bath outside in the soft rain. So very nice. For dinner Jeff and I ate delicious sushi. I ate sea urchin for the first time ever. It was nice but I still don't understand why it's such a big deal. Jeff had nice sake.

    Day 2 in Otaru. Today we had a 'home day'. We did some laundry, went to a stretch class at the hotel (which was pretty weird), spent some time at the gym, bath and at a restaurant in the hotel. Spent a lazy but a nice day. We both read quite a bit today.    Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler

    Asahikawa

    September 18, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Asahikawa feels like the Wild West of Sapporo. There are unusual looking people including an old woman with dyed pink hair with matching pink outfit.

    Found a small Nepalese restaurant near the hotel and had dinner there last night. It's much cooler here than Toyako, Sapporo or Otaru. Was 13 degrees last night.

    Going to hire bicycles and cycle along one of the rivers that run through the city. It's Sunday today and the middle day of a long weekend.

    This hotel room is very small. Took some getting used to but now my expectations are calibrated 👍    Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler

    Asahikawa Museum

    September 18, 2016 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    Rented bicycles and visited Asahikawa Museum. There were some photos from old times showing lives in this place that gets v cold. Lives of children were very different then. The museum had lots of interesting information about Ainu people (indigenous people) and their culture.Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler
    1

    Chubetsu River

    September 18, 2016 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    We cycled along Chubetsu River. The cycle parh goes for a really long distance. We stopped along the way and chatted. Saw this young father with two children. Made me think of the children in the pics from tge museum.

    Jeff had a go at jogging.    Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler

    Back in Sapporo

    September 20, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We came back to Sapporo today. We are staying at Mercure Hotel. Its a compact hotel but very nice. We went for a stroll down a shopping area this afternoon and rested at the hotel after that.

    Jeff helped me with interview preparation. It always feels so bad to practice. But am grateful to Jeff's contribution. Interview is tomorroe at 1:30 Japanese time. I plan to go jogging afterwards to relax.

    Tonight, on Tue night, we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner

    On the second night back in Sapporo, on Wed night, we went to sit zazen at a Rinzai temple bear where we are ataying at. Then went out to Spanish dinner. V good.    Read more

  • Shingen ShingenHokkaido here we comeTraveler

    Sapporo station

    September 23, 2016 in Japan ⋅ 🌫 16 °C

    Last day. Had lunch at Sapporo station. Soft rain outside.

    Pics from Tanuki Koji (or Racoon Path shopping arcade) area where we ate dinner last night and the view from the JR Tower (38 floors tall) we visited on the last day.Read more

    Trip end
    September 23, 2016
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