Day Nine: Kyoto (Architecture in Helsinki)

Due to the lack of a laptop charger, we have not been regularly blogging for a little while. I propose to gloss over this error by posting updates for all the days we missed and acting like it never happened. So even though this is actually the very early morning of Day 14 at the time of writing, please pretend it's Day 9 (Feb. 10) all over again.

To keep this remotely interesting, we have to skip over like half of this day. That's not an exaggeration. The first 12 hours of the day do not merit mentioning. We were on a train. Then we had breakfast. Then we got back onto another train. And then another.

I know I'm glad I didn't spend a lot of time reliving it, and all of you out there (those who have stuck with this silly enterprise thus far) are no doubt happy that I limited the whole experience to a single paragraph and half a dozen sentences. But fear not, because once we hit Kyoto things got more interesting.

After some searching, we found our hostel in the Gion (geisha) district of the city. It's a great little place called IchiEnSou run by a guy named Yashi. I highly recommend it if you're ever in that part of Japan. It's run by Yashi and a couple of his friends and they're great friendly people. Also, they make a mean breakfast.



Anyway, back on topic. We headed out from the hostel to the Fushimi Inari shrine, a sprawling series of small shrines scattered across a mountainside. The shrine is for the Japanese spirt of foxes, amongst other things, and statutes of the animals watch over many of the buildings within the complex. The paths are lined by dozens of red torii gates which guide you up the mountain to a rather spectacular view of the city. It was quite a trek but the view was well worth it.



We made our way back to the hostel and asked for recommendations on good places to eat. In some madcap series of events from there, we wound up at an izakaya with Yashi and two random Finns from Helsinki named Kare and Anise. They were great. Kare regaled us with tales of his travels, including the time he got shot in South Africa. That was a fun story. Anise spoke less English, but was still a great guy to hang out with.

Kare payed for the meal, ostensibly on the basis that we'd but him a drink at a bar across the street because it was his birthday in a couple of hours. I say "ostensibly" becuase once we were there he insisted on buying all the drinks anyway. We were dead tired after a day of near-constant train travel and mountain-shrine climbing, so we weren't the best company to party with. It was okay though: when we left, Kare was already making friends with an American (who thought I was an American as well, or at least imitating one. I have no idea why) and a couple of random Japanese guys.

That's February 10 out of the way. Feb 11 coming soon. Watch this space.

Day Eight: Sapporo (Going South)

Due to the lack of a laptop charger, we have not been regularly blogging for a little while. I propose to gloss over this error by posting updates for all the days we missed and acting like it never happened. So even though this is actually the very early morning of Day 14 at the time of writing, please pretend it's Day 8 (Feb. 9) all over again.

The last day in Sapporo was a slow one. We checked out sometime mid-morning. That wasn't, however, to say that we actually left the hostel. We would, in fact, spend most of the day there until our train at 10pm using their internet and toilet and vending machines to our heart's content. Whether they were happy about this we couldn't tell. But given the temperature outside, unless they physically dragged us out of there, we were going to stay.



That's not to say that we did nothing though. We went to the Sapporo Beer Museum, housed in the building once occupied by Japan's first ever brewery. The museum itself was small, unguided and entirely in Japanese. But the experience was redeemed by the museum bar at the end of it, which made for good times.



As you have no doubt gathered by now, sometime between returning to the hostel and departing for the train station, we used the laptop, eventually leaving the charger behind. Not a high point for us, but it all worked out in the end.

The train ride back to Tokyo (and then on to Kyoto) was always going to be a challenge. The rough ride we took to get into Sapporo gave us some indication that it wouldn't be all fun and games, but the return journey was always going to truly test our manliness. One train left Sapporo at 10pm, arriving in Aomori at 5:39am. 12 minutes later, the next train left Aomori, arriving in Hachinoche at 6:48am. Seven minutes after that, a final train left for Tokyo. Once there, we got on a 3-hour train to Kyoto with relative ease. But it's fair to say that we didn't sleep well at any point along the way.


See, that wasn't so difficult, was it? I bet it felt like February 9 all over again, and I bet you were glad to be there. For one thing, it meant that you were a few days younger. And if you were one of my sisters, it would mean that it was your birthday again! Yay! Check back in like 15 minutes for coverage of Day 9 (Feb 10). It's a blast from the past!

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