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Published: December 10th 2008
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Rice for Breakfast
Rice triangles, miso soup and green tea. No pics of Squid Dogs I'm afraid I ate them to quick! Travelling by bullet train (shinkansen) was a fast, efficient and comfortable experience, which began with us forming an orderly queue by our carriage number which was clearly marked on the platform where the train pulled in precisely to the mark and we boarded in an almost leisurely manner with everybody waiting patiently for their turn to get on and the train pulled gently away exactly on time. So far so not China! Refreshments were served by pretty Japanese girls wearing smart uniforms who bowed as they entered and exited each carriage - bowing is something else to get used to in Japan. Everyone bows ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ and it is quite infectious - you soon find yourself doing it involuntarily! The scenery whooshed by in a blur and we wondered how long the Trans-Sib would take if it went at Japanese speed and not Russian speed! Tokyo arrived after a couple of hours and we picked up some bento boxes (so much better than a British Rail sandwich and a packet of ready salted!) and switched trains for the second Shinkansen, This one seemed even faster and in no time at all we arrived to pick up train number three. This
Claire on the Local Biei train
a very busy route as you can see! was a slower local train and consequently we managed to actually see some of the beautiful countryside to our next destination, where we had about 2 minutes to dash to our next train. Needless to say as we sped closer we got more nervous about dashing across platforms - we needn’t have worried though, as it turned out we were already on the right train it just changed direction (the front of the train became the rear) so everyone just got out of their seats and swiveled their seats around so they were facing the right way!!
The scenery was beautiful as we traveled through Northern Honshu - lush green fields and distant mountains with small towns of wide streets and quirky buildings narrowing and rising as we approached Hokkaido and our first view of the Pacific Ocean, before we disappeared into the longest underwater tunnel to reappear on the northern island…..
After a stopover in Sapporo for the night, where we sampled a few Sapporo beers and another rice based meal, we took a little local train to Biei the following morning. Biei is a small town set amongst rolling hills full of vegetable crops and flowers
Dan Rocks
Around the ragged rocks Dan the rascal ran, well, hobbled carefully but you know what I mean! in central Hokkaido, around half an hour from Sapporo. It’s a strange little place, with quirky prefab buildings that look almost Scandinavian in design, broad streets and a toy town feel. It is most famous for being an inspiration for a Japanese landscape artistic in the 50s and has been a draw for those of an artistic bent ever since.
After visiting the Tourist Information office we found a nice little guesthouse and set about exploring the town. It only took about half an hour to walk the length and breadth of the place, so we searched for a bar to while away some time. After a lot of searching, we finally found a Japanese pub, where we had a couple of cold Sapporo which (to our surprise) were served with some slices of raw octopus! An unusual alternative to a packet of peanuts, but very tasty indeed!
The following day we hired bicycles and spent the day cycling around the hills taking in the local sights which mainly included groups of trees that have appeared on TV programmes or adverts, which to us were quite unremarkable but to the busloads of Japanese tourists we encountered at every
stop they presented yet another exciting photo opportunity greeted with gasps of excitement and much posing for the camera. ‘Exciting’ trees aside the countryside was spectacular, if a little English (a lot of the flora and fauna were identical to the UK) which just made us want to get out and see more of England on our return (Brian and Paul, you could well be seeing much more of us on our return!)
Beautiful as it was, as we had seen most of the sights in a single day we cut our Biei sourjon short and headed up to Asahidake for open-air hot springs and a walk up an active volcano.
After a breakfast of Squid Dogs (that’s a hot dog with a squid tube filled with some kind of squid sauce instead of a sausage mmmmm… lovely!) we arrived by bus from Asahikawa mid afternoon with the mountain enveloped in cloud and a chill in the air so we found some advice on climbing the 2290m peak the following morning and set about some of the nature trails around the base. It was nice to walk around in the countryside whilst actually walking on the countryside and
not on a concrete path with steps like in China and we arrived back at the absolutely stunning youth hostel, a little muddy and tired, for an absolutely stunning meal (included in the room price) and a dip in the open air onsen (hot spring). No view of the mountain as it was cloudy (and dark!) but the natural hot spring water was fantastic and the locals seemed to enjoy us turning lobster pink and singing Beatles songs for us.
We picked up our bear warning bells early the next morning (apparently there really are wild bears there, we didn’t see any though so I guess the bells worked!) and eschewing the cable car that takes most people up to the start of the summit, we set off through the dense forest surrounded by dragonflies and started our ascent. We reached the tree line and the top of the cable car an hour and a half later to be greeted by sulphurous vents spewing steam and the rocky pathway to the cloud-enshrined rim of the volcano. After a hour and twenty minutes scramble to the top we reached the summit and as we sat getting our breath back and chatting with some people we met on the climb, the clouds gently parted allowing us a spectacular view of the surrounding peaks and valleys - well worth the effort. Our rice ball packed lunch later (provided by the hostel) and we were on the descent, which proved far more arduous than the ascent as Dan’s dodgy knees combined with the shingly surface meant “gravel-surfing” was the order of the day. We arrived in one piece (just) and had enough time to enjoy another relaxing onsen before the return bus to Asahikawa for an overnight stop, leaving the natural beauty and open spaces of Hokkaido behind to catch the early train to Tokyo.
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