GARGANTUAN steps

Friday, June 04, 2010

land of the rising sun

My fourth year of my university life went by in a flash, and I'm once again back in the land of intense heat, sunlight and mosquitoes. Barely was I back for three days before I was whisked to a country which is as close to a perfect one as can be, just that they have a few infuriating habits, as well as the fact that they do not speak English. But, I can be adaptable, and I look forward to going back to Japan one day, and visit more places! Hokkaido, or 北海道, is the northern island of Japan and it provides nothing of the business of Tokyo (which I've yet to go), but the scenery, and the multitude of flowers, is astounding. Unfortunately (for me), the tour was organized in Mandarin, my so called Mother Tongue, though I am embarrassed to say that I can barely string grammatically correct sentences together, nor understand fifty percent of the words being said by our tour guide Helen. But it was still bearable. I will probably have to go there myself again in future! As usual, let the journey and the pictures begin!

Day 1 - Narita: Change of Plans

We had to catch an early morning flight to Narita International Airport, so we arrived at Changi at around six in the morning. There were some changes to the plans about catching the connecting flight from Narita (near Tokyo) to Sapporo in Hokkaido - we were initially suppose to fly that same day, with a short transit. However, the night before, my dad received the list of hotels that we were staying in Japan, and the first night stated that we were going to stay in Narita. Hence, my dad wasn't too please about it, insisting with the tour guide that there was nothing much to do in Narita, and the hotel should have housed us in Tokyo instead! However, I guessed there was nothing much she could do about it. A few things to note about this tour organized by Hong Thai Travel Services - the tours to Japan are in Mandarin; the food they arranged for us was excellent (or maybe just the Japanese food in general was top notched); we didn't have a local Japanese tour guide, which was both good and bad; our Singaporean tour guide studied in Japan for three years about twenty years back, and was previously employed by the Japanese Tourism Board.

Nothing else interesting happened for the rest of the day with the horrendously long 7 hour journey to Narita. I had barely got back from London via Dubai, and I had to endure another long flight. Japan Airline planes don't exactly cater for tall people, and worse still was the small screen in front of you! I slept most of the way there, occasionally indulging in a Sudoku puzzle. Arriving at Narita airport and on our way to the hotel, Helen assured us all that there was food available near our hotel and it wouldn't be difficult to find, and there was even a 7-11 directly opposite our hotel! Think she was rightly embarrassed to find our hotel situated on a hill with nothing surrounding it except lots of trees. Thankfully, she arranged for a bus to bring us to a nearby shopping centre to have dinner, which was the first of many ramen meals that we had, though this had only a miserable slice of meat to accompany the noodles.

A few things that I noticed about Japan - it is an extremely clean country; they have an amazing service culture; their products are of extremely high quality; all their rubbish bins have separate compartments for conservation and recycling; and their toilets are top notched, with an electronic bidet that is really interesting! You'll have to try that one out for yourself, but I've put some pictures for you to get an idea of it! 



Electronic controls for the bidet



Bidet in action
(You need to press on the seat for it to function, hence my toes)
Day 2 - Shiraoi and Shikotsu-Toya National Park: Porotakotan Ainu Village and Hell's Valley

The next morning, we caught our connecting flight to Sapporo, Hokkaido, where we adjourned to have our barbecue lunch. We then started our tour proper with a visit to the Shiraoi Ainu Village, which was also known as Porotakotan. The Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido, though they were previously ostracized and subjected to racial segregation by the Japanese once the Japanese came from the south. They were not allowed to marry outside of their race, and had their land taken away from them. However, that has all ceased now, including their many other practices, including men requiring to grow facial hair and long beards once they were adults, and women requiring to be tattooed as well when they were adults, and that includes tattooing around their mouth! They also had a penchant for hunting bears, and many other animals, to eat, but that practice has stopped also. Now they live just like any other Japanese, and those in the tourism industry and songs for tourists to show their culture and practices.


Shiraoi Porotokotan



Dad and Mom and the first of many Cherry Blossom trees


Salmon-skin boots made by the Ainu



Painting of a female Ainu


Instrumental Ainu performer



Ainu dance video

We then adjourned to Hell's Valley, or Jigokudani, located in Shikotsu-Toya National Park. This was basically a valley with sulphurous fumes spewing from small ponds. The water wasn't boiling though, just at a temperature of around 60 degrees Celsius. We ended our day by staying in a hotel which used tatami mats as beds! It was an interesting experience, though I think my parents found it tough getting up from such a low position. They even offered a spa in water from the hot springs, which I duly declined. Maybe next time! There was a show of fireworks by the Lake Toya, which was where the hotel was located, and this lake was really beautiful and scenic!


Hell's Valley



Me and mom



Hotel room in Kohantei

Day 3 - Hakodate: Mount Showa, Mount Uzu, Fort Goryokaku and Mount Hakodate

This is also the day of two cable car rides. We started the day by visiting a newly formed volcano, Showa Shinzan, 昭和新山, which sprung from the ground in 1943, and has erupted nearly every quarter of the century, the last time being in 2000. We then went up, via cable car, Mount Uzu, to have a better view of this newly formed volcano, as well as having a much better view of Lake Toya! Next, we visited a seaweed factory which screened a video in an omni-theatre to show how they collected seaweed. This video had an emetic effect and worse still, it was in Japanese. The seaweed was really good though!

We then made our way towards the city of Hakodate where we visited a five-star fort, Goryokaku, (which is a European design), though none of the structures of the fort were present, and this had been converted into a park with thousands of cherry blossom trees planted, though the flowers had all been shed, sadly, or else it would have been a sight to behold! The Japanese make it their past-time to see cherry blossoms, and this reminds them of the fragility of life. The flowers bloom only for about two weeks out of the entire year, and it is a reminder to them that life is short. Apparently, the Samurais were the ones who used to plant them throughout the country, though whether I can trust this information from my tour guide remains to be seen! We then made our way up Mount Hakodate after dinner to view the splendid night view of the city! Hakodate is situated at the south-western most end of Hokkaido, and the city is placed at an hour-glass part of the island! The views were beautiful, but the crowd at the top was such a turn off! It would be a nice place to bring a date there if there weren't so many people!



Lake Toya



Dad, Mom and me by Lake Toya



The entire tour group - twenty-one of us!



Showa Shinzan and the surroundings



Konbukan seaweed production factory



Goryokaku



Hakodate night view

Day 4 - Sapporo: Shikotsu-ko, Hokkaido Shindo Shrine, Ramen Republic and JR Tower

We made our journey back to the capital of Hokkaido, Sapporo, the next morning. We stopped at a restaurant serving seafood, and I finally managed to get the taste of fresh fish in the form of the tuna-belly sashimi! It was ridiculously priced, with 200g of tuna belly sashimi costing 5000 yen, which is equivalent to nearly $75! But it was really good! I could probably eat that every day, together with the Japanese rice! But there was more good food to come with the rest of the trip. We then visited Lake Shikotsu where the boat had an under-water viewing gallery where you could look out into the bottom of the lake, as well as see the fish in it. The lake had previously formed from a volcanic eruption.

We then adjourned to the Shindo Shrine in Hokkaido which is their place of worship in the city. People even drove their new cars in to get them blessed by the priest! We stopped by Odori Park for a while with an underground shopping street built beneath it, and then proceeded to have our dinner at the Ramen Republic in Hokkaido! This was located on the tenth-floor near Daimuru shopping centre, though I have my doubts about the authenticity of this place once again, cause I wonder why they would situate the best ramen stores in a shopping centre! But anyway, there were around eight ramen shops located on this floor, supposedly serving the best ramen in Hokkaido, and my dad finally had his ramen-craving fulfilled. At least this was much better then the ramen we had on our first night! We then made our way up JR tower, which is the tallest building in Sapporo, though a miserly 38 floors only! One could see the city laid out in a grid-like fashion, just like how it is like in the States, as well as in Barcelona (and probably countless of other places).



Steamboat lunch with our tuna belly sashimi located top left



Mom and a stuffed-bear



Shikotsu-ko



Dad and Mom at the Shindo Temple



Priest blessing the new cars



Ramen Republic



Men's toilet on the 38th floor together with spectacular views

Day 5 - Furano and Biei: Scenic drive, Cheese Factory, Farm Tomita and the Ice Pavilion

The morning's drive from Sapporo to Furano via route 452 was the most scenic of the trip! There was so much green to see, and the mountains made such beautiful landscapes together with the trees of different colours! Due to the abnormally cool summer thus far, the trees had shades of autumn in them, hence the reddish-leaves still present. The drive had Joe Hisaishi's music going through my head, 'A Summer's Day', and I felt as if I was in a Hayao Miyazaki film. We made our way to a cheese factory, and they made really nice cheese-cakes! I think I had no qualms about putting any food in my mouth whilst I was in Japan, considering how I can be quite a fussy eater.



Scenery on route 452



Helen Lim our tour guide


Seaweed-coated cheese (left); Plain cheese (right)
After lunch, we made our way to a flower-farm, and though they were still planting certain crops and not all the plants were in full bloom, what they have was still beautiful! From Furano, we then made our way to see Biei with its famous fields and hills that were used as a backdrop for many commercials. Also, there were a few famous trees that featured in commercials, though it was a pity we 'couldn't get their autographs', to quote our tour guide. Helen was a good and helpful tour guide, though she could be really quite a nagger and kept repeating her story endlessly till I could tell what she was going to say next!

We ended our day by visiting the Ice Pavilion which was a building which kept the interior at a temperature of -23 degree Celsius! There weren't many ice structures inside, though they had a room which was suppose to be at -41 degree Celsius, to simulate the coldest temperature ever experienced in Hokkaido. However, this consisted of only a fan blowing at you at -23 degree Celsius, though it was really really cold! I didn't wear enough as expected, though I wonder whether I would have fared better with my favourite fireman-jacket from London! We spent the night at Asahikawa where my dad finally managed to eat some KFC too! That was one of the worst KFC he has ever eaten, according to him!



Farm Tomita



Ken and Mary Tree in Biei
Famous for being the Nissan Skyline advertisement in the 70s


Dad and Mom in the Ice Pavilion



Self-cooked ramen dinner



McDonald's in Japanese



Dad and KFC (肯德基)

Day 6 - Otaru: Asahi Beer Factory, Shiroi Kobito Park and Otaru

Our final day of touring began with a visit to the Asahi Beer Factory, and this time, we had a video in Mandarin explaining how they made their beer, and how they were heavily involved in environmental conservation. They ended off by giving us beer (which wasn't too bad, but I'm not a beer-person). We then had our lunch, and this was the second treat of the trip, with 200g of Kobe beef! It was excellent and literally mouth-watering! I would hard pressed to select between eating my tuna belly and the Kobe beef if I had to choose between the two.



Asahi Beer Factory



Dad and the Kobe beef

We made our way to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory after lunch, and if anything, those chocolate biscuits were really excellent! I should have bought more and distributed for people to eat! The owner did up the factory in some sort of a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style, to lure the kids with a fantasy-sort of park. The factory coupled as a museum as well, show-casing the owner's collections of different things, ranging from toys to gramophones. We then did some shopping at Otaru, where they had a shop serving really delicious and cheap custard puffs together with free coffee (only 70 yen!). This thus ended our holiday in Hokkaido, with catching our flight back to Singapore the next day being all that was left.


Ishiya Chocolate Factory


Factory workers



Microbiological testing of chocolates


Dad, Mom and me at Otaru Canal

Day 7 - Narita and home sweet home

The final day consisted of us being transported to Sapporo New Chitose Airport to catch our flight to Tokyo and from Tokyo, we still had to take a one hour bus ride from Haneda International Airport to Narita Airport to catch our flight back to Singapore!



Rubbish bins in Japan

It's been quite a pleasant and rather relaxing trip this time round, pleasing to the eye, and easy on the mind, besides the fact that I had to try and understand things said in language I wasn't too comfortable with! I look forward to coming back to Japan again, this time, to visit both Tokyo and Kyoto as well, though I wouldn't mind a trip back to Hokkaido to travel on my favourite route 452 again! This time, I'll drive and stop to take pictures! I wonder where my next trip will be too! Have a few options in mind, but I shall now relax back home in Singapore, with my last long proper break for the next two years.

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posted by Gabriel Yan at 4:20 PM

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