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Published: March 2nd 2009
Hello again from the Land of the Rising Sun. It’s been two weeks since we sent out our last blog, and we’ve visited two major places since our departure from Tokyo - Sapporo and Osaka.
Ever hear of Sapporo beer? Well, this was the hometown of the famous Asian brew, among many other things this northern Japanese city had to offer. Of course, snow being one of them - we were delayed for seven hours in Narita airport due to heavy snow on the runway in Sapporo. It almost felt like we were heading home already to the cold of Canada (and I highlight the word “almost” - Canada doesn’t have butter corn Ramen like Hokkaido does!)
In Sapporo, the sun was wavering around a balmy zero degrees (sometimes lower… okay, often times lower), and never did the snow melt to below a foot on the ground. You think Canada gets snow? The island of Hokkaido gets waaaay more than anywhere in Alberta by a longshot. However, this didn’t stop us from visiting some of the best sights Sapporo has to offer, including the breathtaking city view on top of snowy Mt. Moiwa, the Sapporo Beer Museum and world-reknown artist
Isamu Noguchi’s Moerenuma Park. Additionally, we also visited the port city of Otaru, a small (by Japanese standards) city on the northwest coast of Hokkaido that was practically blowing ice in our faces, but had some of the best sushi Hokkaido had to offer. This little town was COLD…. Bone chilling. But… beautiful nonetheless.
We should mention that our hostel was run by a laid-back but well travelled local by the name of Jin. He recently opened his “Time Peace Apartment” hostel last fall, and it was by far the most welcoming place we’ve ever stayed at abroad. It was more of a house with guests than it was a hostel, and well worth the visit. Jin was keen to have three Canadians stay at his place, and often times we would just sit downstairs into the wee morning hours with the other house guests and exchange similarities and differences between our Canada and everywhere else. We were representing well, I can tell you! We were even giving them that Canadian hospitality - the snow was so deep and slippery one night, we spent a good 20 minutes pushing random Japanese drivers out of the snow when they lost
control and hit the curb (you should see the size of Japanese cars; they're about as big as a John Deere lawnmower and have absolutely no grip on their tires). It's not a common thing for people to do that sort of thing, but the one guy we managed to push out successfully was very appreciative. Good times!
Our departure from Sapporo was also an interesting one. Once again, Hokkaido was hit by a nasty snowstorm, so most flights out of the island from New Chitose Airport were delayed a good two hours. For a small airport such as the one Chitose is, it was packed to the brim worse than a Tokyo subway. The mood was lightened somewhat when a group of girls from Osaka that we ran into on Mt. Moiwa coincidentally were on the same flight. They started screaming like little school girls when they saw us and shoved a camera in Phil’s face to show that we had taken a picture with them on the mountain. After a good 10 seconds of chaos, we realized what was going on and had a good laugh. Although for some reason they kept asking us if we knew
about the Backstreet Boys (or maybe they assumed we were them, it’s still up in the air).
After arriving in Osaka tired and late, our two friends from Australia, Mel and Lauren greeted us with a warm welcome and a great “Welcome to Osaka” sign just as they were heading back home (another coincidence). We also exchanged emails with our Sapporo fan club of girls, and headed to our new abode deep in the heart of Osaka City. Truthfully, this was less of a hostel and more of a barebones hotel . We think the rooms were converted apartments, and for the first few days at least felt like a small jail or at least subsidized housing. Nevertheless, it became home and was actually located in a great spot in Osaka, which gave us easy access to the Osaka Castle (major history here), Umeda Station and the entertainment district of Dotondori. We also visited the Kuchu Teien Tenbodai floating observatory (bascially a City view much like Mori Tower was), the Osaka Aquarium and Americamura, a small area of shops dedicated to everything a Yank would be proud of (although we found some damn good Takoyaki there, small dumpling-like octopus
balls that are a taste sensation!) One of the more odd places we visited was the “Café of Many Cats,” a place where for about $10 you can go have a coffee and pet cats all day. We just paid to pet the cats, albeit much to the chagrin of Phil. Today, we also so a grown man casually walking down the street in a schoolgirl uniform with curly pigtails. You have to understand, this kind of stuff is normal… you just don’t ask questions!
Japan really is a place where visuals are important, so we can only say so much in a blog, Pictures are always helpful, but to understand the sheer madness (brilliance) of this urban-sprawling country, you really have to see it to believe it. However, yesterday we arrived in Okinawa, a much less urban and much more tropical place than the main island of Honshu is. This is a small chain of islands between mainland Japan and Taiwan that harbours much of what Japan is all about but also it’s own unique charm. We’re looking forward to some sun and humid weather, and if there’s anywhere in Japan in the middle of February to find
it, this is the place. And it doesn’t get much more remote than this for the Japanese experience. Last night was our first night here, and the sleep was terrible. There were cats fighting each other all night, amidst meows and screeches and hissing all the way through. Finally, some guy came by and threw a garbage can at them and the feline gang fight ended, thank God. If this keeps up, it may rival Calgary's gang problem. Hopefully the cats don't come back the very next night.
Please keep sending us your emails and your comments! We always love hearing from friends and family at home (and those that we have made on the way). We hear it’s cold as hell back in Calgary so we’re not missing that part too much, although I will admit we have been watching every Flames game we can (the internet is a wonderful tool).
Hope you enjoyed the read, and hope you enjoy the pictures! We’ll post another blog upon our return to mainland Japan. I’m sure we’ll have much to tell about Okinawa and beyond.
Cheers,
Andrew and Michael
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Dad
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I Wish I Were There
Just a short note to say all is well and we too are looking forward to warmer weather in Canada. When I was in Japan in the 70's, I made it to Osaka, but not up to Sapporo or down to Okinawa. I remember well those beautiful cherry blossums in early March, and the warmth of the wonderful cozy little restaurants where you could escape the chill. Boy, those pancakes looked good! Back in Calgary, our house went up for sale today so we should have an interesting few months coming up. Cheers. Dad.