Brother Annie

Because there is no bridge or land mass which connects Honshu, Japan’s main island, to Hokkaido, we took a four hour long ferry ride to our frigid destination. From Aomori we rode to Hakodate, at the southern most tip of Hokkaido. The ferry ride was really fun, and we had a lot of room to ourselves.

Upon arriving in Hakodate, we were a bit at a loss at where to go next. We knew that in a few hours we would be taking a long bus ride to Sapporo, however, at the time we were nowhere near civilization, it seemed. The port was a very drab, industrializing looking place. We went to the office nearby and told them our plan. We kept asking them where the bus stop was, but this seemed to confuse the staff, and we waited as they discussed things to each other in Japanese to figure out what to do with the crazy gaijin. Little did they know how much Japanese I could actually understand, and before they came to talk to us, I was able to inform my companions that we needn’t worry, because we’re getting a lift to the bus station. We were used to this kind of thing by now anyways.

At the bus station we grabbed some food at a coffee shop nearby, and then we were off. The bus ride was beautiful, riding through the snowy countryside as it got darker and darker. At last we arrived at Sapporo station, where we managed to navigate ourselves via subway to the stop near the best hostel (and living accommodation period, for me) of our entire trip. It’s called Ino’s Place.

It’s run by the nicest couple in Japan, both probably in their late thirties, and speak fluent English. It really felt like we were living at a friends house, and not at all a hostel. Downstairs in the lounge were couches, computers, free coffee and tea, movies (Japanese and Non-Japanese) and a communal kitchen. The wife (Miwa) was incredibly friendly and informative. She spoke to me in Japanese the whole time and taught me some Hokkaido-ben (dialect) too. Her husband, Eiji, to our surprise, was a juggling master. In fact during our stay they were in the middle of building shelves in the front of the lobby, because they wanted to open up a juggling shop right there. Eiji’s been juggling for around 10 years now, and Jace was able to learn a few tricks from him. Paul and I also had fun trying to spin plates and such. You can find pictures of us on Ino’s Place’s blog. Scroll down, there are two pictures of us (one under “enjoy juggling” and one under “Annie&Friends”–although they got Jace and Pauls’ nationality wrong.)

While in Sapporo, we knew we had to visit the Sapporo beer factory museum. It had lots of information about the history of Sapporo beer and how it’s made. Most of the information was in Japanese, but it was still interesting.

The museum tour empties out in a small bar, where you can sample the various beers offered by Sapporo. How clever of them. Paul, Jace and I decided to go for the triple sample one, where you get to try three difference kinds for only 400 yen. We didn’t realize how amazing a deal this was until we found out that what they meant by “sample” was really “a whole glass”.

I mentioned earlier how Western Hokkaido and Northern Japan looked. Near Sapporo was something called “Historical Village”. It is technically a museum, but it’s not just one building. It’s exactly as it’s called: a village, recreated in the style of architecture when people were moving to Hokkaido. It sounds like Hokkaido wasn’t really included (or discovered?) in Japan until much later in its history, as seen in the heavy Western influence on the architecture. Of course, it wasn’t completely un-Japanese.

Sapporo was also the first place we ate sushi during our trip. Luckily there was one nearby our hostel, and was quite good. It was similar to the one I went to with my host family, where you can either order your food, or just grab it from the passing cha-cha line of sushi next to your table.

Mt. Moiwa is another sight to see. Or rather, a place to see a great sight. There’s a rope way that goes up the mountain, and then shuttle buses which drive people to the top where there’s a fantastic view of Sapporo. If there’s anything I’ve learned about going up to high places to sight see, its that its always better at night. This place also took the cake on being the coldest place I’ve ever been in my life. Subfreezing temperatures + high altitudes + wind chill + snow = Annie’s feet fall off.

Yes, it was devastatingly frigid in Hokkaido. However, perhaps its because of this that the hot springs, or onsen (温泉) are so popular. I don’t have photos of inside bath that we went to, of course, but you still wouldn’t be able to understand the feeling of the contrast between the stiff frozen air and snow to the hot bath water. We went to an outdoors hot spring, called a rotenburo (露天風呂), which sounds intimidating when you think about walking around butt-naked in the middle of winter in Hokkaido. But I’ve been to hot springs when it’s hot outside, and believe me, it’s much better when it’s cold.

After bathing, we ate dinner at the restaurant attached to the onsen, where I had a famous meal called “jingisukan”–Genghis Khan. You take slices of lamb and cook them on this round grill. Around the edges you cook various vegetables in a brother, and the juices from the lamb drips down as they cook. Definitely one of the best meals I’ve had in Japan.

Now, with all this snow and mountains around, I probably don’t need to elaborate too much on what else we did.

Skiing was about the last big thing we did in Hokkaido. To this day, I still miss Ino’s Place. Sapporo was one of, if not my favorite, place we visited. It’s really a beautiful city. But after a week, it was time to head back south to our last destination before home. It would take us 11 hours of traveling to get to Nagano.