We're Back! (Does anyone remember that movie? It was awesome)

I know the last few days have been hard on all of you out there in our vast and diverse fanbase. I realise that you've probably been coming back here three, four, five times I day hoping - nay, praying - for some kind of news or update. I know, and I understand. That's why I'm very happy to announce that we are back on the air! The laptop charger arrived from Sapporo (sans adaptor, thanks a lot Sapporo International Youth Hostel!) and as a result we are reporting all the news all the time or at least when we get free WiFi.

Check back sometime tomorrow for a full update on all our goings-on. We'll be in Osaka, having been through Sapporo and Kyoto in the blackout period. We also took a brief trip out to Nara. Check Daniel's Flickr for some pretty cool photos in the interim - with more to come tomorrow.

So there you have it - a relatively short update on a pretty packed series of days. I hope it's been worth the wait, but let's face it: most of you probably didn't realise we stopped updating, and those that did are probably a bit disappointed with the new content. To that I say, "It's late and apparently I'm not allowed to go to bed until I finish this."

-Nik

Blackout!

Just writing to let anybody who reads this know that, due to our (my) stupidity, the charger for the laptop was left in Sapporo. We got into contact with the hostel, and they are going to send it to Kyoto, but it won't get here 'til Friday. As there is only 10% battery life left at the moment there will probably be no posts until then - by then we will have racked up a backlog of 5 days, so expect an epic one (unless we make one from a net cafe, or find a charger to borrow)

- Dan

Day Seven: Sapporo (Winter Blunderland, Or: In the Court of the Ramen King)

This is going to be a relatively short post; we didn't really get up to much due to some pretty intense snow. It's ironic that our enjoyment of this wintery city, during a time period known as the "Snow Festival," would be so marred by the very thing we came here to enjoy (that being snow). Maybe it's not irony, actually, but I'm not changing that sentence.


So the snow kept us more or less penned into the hostel for most of the day. We only ventured out to get lunch, and that simply involved us taking the subway to an underground food court and shopping centre. Winter hit us full-on the face though when we headed out to try and find some bookshop that I wanted to visit. It was totally worth it, though, because they had The Economist! In English and everything! (Do not ask me what I paid for it.)


The evening was a bit more eventful. We braved the snow once more to head back to Ramen Alley. The weather was cold, and the reception we got was chilly (see what I did there?). A couple of places refused to seat us, for reasons we weren't entirely sure of. Were they closing? Did they not like Westerners? Did that lady who kept giving us the stink-eye on the train call ahead and tell them to turn us away? If it was the latter, someone didn't get the memo because eventually we found a tiny 8-seat place run by this great old guy who was very friendly. He didn't speak any English, but we managed to chat a bit and ask him for a photo. It was one of a few positive encounters that we had entirely in Japanese without the local having to resort to broken English.

We took photos of the ice sculptures afterwards. Daniel was in full "professional" mode, making Ali hold an umbrella over him to protect his precious camera from the elements. The snow died down then and we headed back to the Odori site for pictures of the snow sculptures at night. Then it started snowing again. We ran back as fast as we could.

One note - I owe an apology to Mr. Donut. I think I mocked him in an earlier post. His donuts are alright.

We're now into our final day in Sapporo - we do the nightmare journey in reverse this time, taking three trains overnight back to Tokyo before heading on to Kyoto. Hopefully it's an easier trip heading back the other way, but I'm not prepared to bet on it.

-Nik

Day Six: Sapporo (A wild Articuno appears!)

As Daniel alluded to, our arrival in Sapporo was bracing to say the least. It seems odd that a train station which accepted so many overnight passengers was wholly unable to accommodate them in any way. So we sat in that godforsaken unheated terminal until some chain cafe opened at 7am.* We stayed in there for three hours, subsisting on their breakfast menu which seemed to largely consist of ham and cheese sandwiches and hot dogs. Before our eyes, Sapporo transformed from some darkened, snowed-in hellhole into a sleek, modern and quite beautiful city (literally – that cafe had a pretty good view).


Feeling a bit better about the place, we ventured forth to our hostel, which is actually really nice. It’s a lot like the city around it: well-organised, clean and relatively new. Our room is 8 tatami mats big, and we use traditional Japanese bedding and furniture. When we first arrived, it was very nice: serene, quaint and clean. Now it looks like this:

First order of business was obvious. We headed to Odori Park, a series of block-sized green spaces in the centre of the city, to catch a glimpse of the major sculptures of the 60th Annual Sapporo Snow Festival. Some had recently copped a fresh snowfall and were looking a little the worse for wear, but others were just spectacular. Monuments to Tokyo’s 2016 Olympic bid, recreations of castles and temples, a whole heap of Disney characters; there was so much going on that it was just nuts. And we made it through the whole thing without stacking it, so that was a plus.

After regrouping at the hostel, we headed out for dinner. Our goal was to seek out “ramen alley” which is exactly what it sounds like: a tiny laneway packed on either side by small noodle joints. The fact that it was snowing heavily didn’t help matters, which was unfortunate because the area was also exhibiting ice sculptures as part of the festival. Hopefully we’ll get some better pics tomorrow.


We’re in Sapporo for (effectively) two more days before we hop a train to Kyoto via Tokyo. Hopefully the journey is easier to do in reverse. In the meantime, though, this is a nice place to spend some time. The hostel is great, there’s wacky snow sculptures everywhere, fresh snow daily and some excellent food options. All is well.

-Nik

*My dad asked if the cappuccinos were up to scratch. To answer your question, I would not know. Coffee culture in Japan leaves something to be desired. It seems to be left largely in the hands of chains like Starbucks and something called Mr. Donut. I walked past one outlet in Tokyo where a sign proudly announced the arrival of their “new” latte coffee. Since then, I have been too terrified to order anything that resembles an espresso from a menu, especially when I can’t see the relevant machinery anywhere behind the counter.

Still Alive

Despite the best efforts of Hokkaido’s bitter winter and the lack of heating in Sapporo station, we managed to survive long enough to take shelter in a cafe. We then proceeded to stay in said cafe for a good 3 hours, occasionally buying stuff from the incredibly friendly staff (who simultaneously said “Arigato Gozaimas!” when anything was purchased). We are now in the lobby of the Youth Hostel, buying strange drinks from the vending machine and uploading photos, whilst Nik meticulously plans our days here in Sapporo.

Just a quick note: the reason why these posts are coming in clumps is because we are writing them as documents and then scavenging for unsecured wireless networks so we may post them.

- Dan

Day Four/Five: Tokyo/Transit (Narrow Road to the Deep North)

This post is being written from Car One of a Shinkansen train. Shinkansen is a Japanese word that means “fast and comfortable train”. I have already looked over the followers list and have determined that none of you can prove me wrong quickly, so just take my word for it. Where this will ultimately be published from is another matter altogether. We’re bound for Sapporo, a city on the north island of Hokkaido famous for its snow festival, noodles and beer. It may be famous for other things, but they don’t concern us.

The journey involves taking three trains over a 12-hour period. We’re on the first of these now. We should arrive by 6am, just in time for it to still be incredibly freaking cold. I’m looking forward to it. If you’re reading this on the blog, we made it safe and sound. If you’re reading this from data fragments recovered from a frozen laptop hard drive, something else happened. Here’s hoping its the former.

So as we while away this long night, allow me to share with you some of what we got up to on our last couple of days in Tokyo.

IT WAS LIKE HAVING ZARAH WITH ME, BUT NOT IN A GOOD WAY

On Wednesday we got off to a late start. This was despite the fact that our roommate got off to quite an early one. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t nice. From there we headed into Shimo-Kitozawa, a weird series of small streets packed with clothes shops and tiny restaurants. It was fun, even if we did visit just about every shoe store with the Nike tick out front (hence the title). But it had a good feel about it, and it was a nice place to hang out for a while. Daniel and Ali bought sushi bento boxes for lunch, and we sat on a small wall near a rail line crossing as they ate them. The sight of the two white guys eating sushi was funny enough for a few of the locals to remark about it; they seemed quite amused. Daniel really got into it, ordering a box meant for two people and wolfing it down, proclaiming vigorously how good it was. He would later complain of nausea.

Next we went to Harajuku. It wasn’t Sunday so the weird parade-thing wasn’t happening, but we found plenty to amuse ourselves with. Steph met us near the station and we headed into the shrine and gardens established in memory of Emperor Meiji, the monarch who oversaw Japan’s industrialisation and integration into the wider world. We walked through the park, visited the shrine itself and made our way to the treasure museum. It was closed, but the view was pretty. The rest of Harajuku was pretty unremarkable; much the same collection of shops and chain restaurants that dotted a lot of other upscale districts we had visited. We did find another awesome toy store though, which was nice.

That night we decided to go western for dinner. We found out that there was a Hard Rock Cafe in Roppongi, but we were unenthused at the prospect of a long train ride. Luckily for us, there was another one two stops away! Located inside the train station! Score!

THE MUSEUM OF WIND

The next day (in story terms) or today (in writing terms) or yesterday (in publishing terms) or the day in question (at the inquiry into the recovery of frozen laptop) was my last in Tokyo (Daniel and Ali head back towards the end of their trip), so we used it to cross a few things off our list. That meant getting up at 5am to make our way to the famous Tsujiki fish markets, a bizarre and chaotic daily grind as people descend on a warehouse to buy fresh seafood of every variety imaginable. Huge tunas, fresh octopus, a wide variety of things I didn’t know you could eat. It’s hard to describe accurately. Pictures don’t catch the mad crush of tiny vehicles moving through the crowded aisles, and I’m not nearly a good enough writer to capture the smells and sounds of the place. I will say, though, that I have respect for these people: they do this every day, and get it done despite the fact that Western tourists seem to make it as difficult as possible for that to happen.

After that, we checked out and looked for a way to wind down the 7 hours between then and our train. To that end, we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. I suggested the Tokyo National Museum, but Daniel assured me that he heard that the Edo-Tokyo Museum was the best in the city. Since we never made it to the Tokyo National, I can claim that he is wrong even though the museum was pretty cool. A series of exhibits chart the course of Tokyo from a fishing village to the seat of feudal military power under the Tokugawa Shogunate to a modern metropolis and capital. Lots of cool stuff. The Edo-Tokyo Museum also housed Tokyo’s largest collection of wind, it seems. It was like standing on the top of a mountain as we waited for the escalator into the building. Yet another strike against Daniel’s judgment. The remainder of the day was spent wandering around a park in Ueno, where we checked out some of the shrines that dot the place and watched some street performers. And that’s it. Now we’re on the train. Soon we will transfer to a one hour train and then again to a seven hour one. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Post-Journey Update: We transferred to two other trains, a Tsugaru and a Hamansu which are apparently Japanese for "slow and not-so-comfortable trains". We made it nonetheless. First thoughts on Sapporo: it's freaking cold.

-Nik

The Ancient Japanese Art

As I mentioned in the earlier post, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Karaoke in Tokyo was a once in a lifetime experience (especially given the price we paid for it), and featured many a cringe-worthy moment whenever one of us took to the mic.


Ali's "Highlights"
1. 'Love Will Tear Us Apart" Joy Division
2. 'Changes' David Bowie
3. 'Paint It Black' The Rolling Stones

Daniel's "Highlights"
1. 'London Calling' The Clash
2. 'Love Will Tear Us Apart Again" Joy Division
3. 'My Generation' The Who

Nik's Highlights
1. 'I Would Do Anything For Love' Meat Loaf
2. 'Welcome to the Black Parade' My Chemical Romance
3. 'Tonight Tonight' The Smashing Pumpkins

A thoroughly shameful evening, especially given the high standards set by the rest of our group. But our unique mix of classic rock and not much else at all provided plenty of lol-worthy moments. I like to think that my raspy tribute to MCR that rounded out the night (my voice was well and truly gone by that point) was a fitting end to the evening. In the end, it cost us an arm and a leg for the two hours we spent in that 7th storey booth in Shibuya, but it was worth every yen.

-Nik