Month: August 2007

The last stop on my whirlwind tour of Hokkaido was Hakodate, a port city on the southern end of the island that’s famous for it’s night view of all the little sparkly lights and historical foreign settlements. And for their squid and sushi too!! Oh, and for micro-brewed beer!

I took a later train from Sapporo since I had a late start and was trying to recover from lack of sleep and beer beer beer the night before. I was actually really sad to leave Sapporo; I had such a good time there and really regretted that I met my new good friends (Miki & Horifuji) so late during my stay in Japan. And that they lived so far north. It was a relaxing train ride, a lot of it right next to the sea side.

After I arrived, I checked into the hotel which I was extremely excited to see I had my own tiny private room!! The staff wasn’t friendly in any way but I didn’t really care at that point. They did, however, have a really handy map of the area with some restaurants listed. I ventured out to the nearest sushi bar and was very pleased to see a small menu with pictures (point & order!!). It was the most delicious sushi I’ve ever had……….and I’ve had a lot! I tried uni (sea urchin) and ikura (salmon roe) and wasn’t particularly pleased with the taste sensations. It was just something about having your mouth completely full of something that didn’t necessarily taste very good but felt really weird. Yah. Anyway. The other sushi was super tasty and the feeling and ambiance of the place was great!

After dinner I went for a stroll around the areas that have the historical buildings. In the 1800s, Hakodate was opened up to foreigners due to an agreement reached with Commodore Perry. And of course the westerners brought their religion with them so there are a lot of really old churches sprinkled around.

Apparently the Russian Orthodox one was the only one that I found interesting since I didn’t take pictures of any of the others!! Hahah. But there were all different types, really near to each other. If you arrive before 5pm (I didn’t) I think you can go inside too….. But next it was off the the cable car to go to the top of Hakodate Yama (mount hakodate) to check out this night view that everybody talks about. Unfortunately, I was there on a Sunday. So it was PACKED!! Almost more fun to watch the hordes of people with digital cameras aglow (of which I was one) than it was to try to squeeze in and see the lights below.

I walked around a bit the next day. Had intended to go to an Ainu/Northern Peoples Museum but it was closed!! Don’t know why as it didn’t list Monday as a regular closed day, but whatever. Walked around the port area. Got a little bit of a sunburn. :-) And eventually took the train back to Tomakomai to catch the ferry back to Nagoya.

The ferry trip was pretty uneventful…not nearly as many people on the boat. Had a slightly nicer bed this time around. Instead of just a curtain it had a slide down shade that you could lock yourself into if you wanted. More claustrophobic too!

This was my last day on Rebun. I walked to the ferry and got “sent off” by the youth hostel staff. The weather was really clear but it was incredibly windy.

And here’s a really short video of the youth hostel singing and clapping me goodbye as the ferry left. Momoiwaso YH Send Off You have to download it to your computer to watch it..

And more photos of Rebun Island and the 8 hour hiking course:

So after the ferry trip on friday morning i took the same train trip back to sapporo and went back to the same lovely youth hostel. I didn’t arrive in Sapporo until somewhere after 7pm and was quite tired so I just picked up some miscellaneous dinner from a nearby supermarket, took a shower, did some laundry and a little bit of reading and then completely knocked out for the night.

Of course I woke up nice and early the next day – why?? i don’t know…. I guess I was getting used to it by that point. I didn’t have any plans until later in the afternoon so I took the subway and headed towards Tanuki-koji Street which is Sapporo’s covered street shopping mall. Seems like every city has one… Anyways. It was rather boring and uninspired. Did nothing to help with killing my time! I continued on and strolled around Odori area which looked just like every other downtown shopping area in Japan with big department stores and interesting fashions. But I did find some nice graffiti towards the east end of the area!

After wandering aimlessly for about two hours it was time for me to head over to my tattoo appointment!!! Yay! Before I moved to Japan I had spent a long time on the internet trying to find an incredible Japanese tattoo artist…and of course I found one that was just amazing – Horifuji! I spent quite a long time on his website looking at the detail, the precision, and salivating over the thought of possessing one of his works of art for myself!! And then after I arrived in Japan I finally understood enough of the kanji of his working address to know that he lives in Sapporo. Seeing as how I live in Nagoya, going to Sapporo just for a tattoo was not financially possible. But since I was there at this point………..

Anyway. So my appointment was at 1pm. I had a little trouble finding the place since I got turned around coming out of the subway but made it there just a couple minutes after 1. They were just opening up but he was running a little late. I made myself at home and started flipping through their massive collection of tattoo magazines. I ended up having enough time to get a snack from Circle K too. He showed up around 2pm. But seeing as how I had been looking forward to this for over a year already the extra hour made absolutely no difference to me! We chatted for a bit before starting; had fun playing the japanese-english communication game.

The tattoo took about three and a half hours to complete!! Ouchie!!!! But SO worth it…… I hung around for a while after he had finished so that my head could come back to earth and he ended up inviting me out for some drinks later that night with him and his girlfriend! Yay!!! I went and ate some dinner and came back around 9ish.. We went to two different bars and then to Nakajima park for beers and snacks on a bench (lakeside). I have to say that that night was probably my favorite experience in Japan. Horifuji and Miki are the two most down-to-earth, friendliest, generous, open people that I have met while I was here. And it turns out that Horifuji’s my long lost twin – we have the same exact birthday! Hahahahah!!!!!

I actually ended up going to sleep on their sofa at 5am!! Miki was incredibly nice and woke up at 9am to walk me to the train station as I had no idea where it was and had to check out of the hostel and move along with my trip.

Did I mention that he’s an amazing tattoo artist??