You know, sometimes as I type those subjects (especially the clichés) I realise that I will probably end up reusing the title someday. Kinda disappointing, eh? To be so unoriginal...
Anywho, we got Ash's Japan Rail Pass sorted out and dropped off all their bags in a locker for the time being and set off to wander the station. As her mum sought out the post office, we wandered through some shops; rejoining her mum, we found some small, cute, cheap gifts for some of our friends back home, and there was much rejoicing.
Now, as this post has just started, you have no real sense of the hour, but let me assure you that, by this time, we were quite hungry. Our search began in the vicinity and took quite a meandering route, though perhaps for the best as we found an Italian restaurant. In Sapporo, Japan. I believe "Italian" food is reasonably popular in Japan, but I've got to say that the experience of eating that food must be akin to the Japanese eating "Chinese" food in the US--they've had something notably different called exactly the same thing...
After lunch it was time to head to the tracks, so we headed toward their train after picking up some snackish pastries from a patisserie of sorts. I won't bore you all with the details, but I will say that I was quite sad to see them go: I've had a lovely time with Ashley here and started missing her the moment she walked away from me.
I lingered for a bit, spying on them as they walked off down the hall, but as the crowd hid them from view I decided it time to move on into the city. Glancing at a map just long enough to have a general idea of a few sites worth seeing and how to get to at least one of them without getting horribly lost, I strode past the somewhat odd white statue at the end of the hall and past the necessarily attractive exterior of the station on my quest.
I always thought the idea of giant TVs on the side of buildings was a little strange, and never had I imagined that they would actually have sound, but immediately out of the station this was the first site to behold. Alright, not so much of a "site" as an obnoxious form of street advertising, but it was something different anyway. (Is this how those TV/sign things in New York are, too? ::has never been to NYC:: )
An older man walking in front of me dropped some piece of paper that I picked up and returned to him with a smile. There was a clear lack of foreigners in the streets, which I suppose shouldn't be surprising, but having stayed in Australia Town (the Kutchan-Hirafu-Niseko area) for the past few weeks, their absence stood out. Ran across a sign that indicated a somewhat more interesting site to see than the old Hokkaido Government Building: the old Hokkaido College of Agriculture (Agricultural University? some other title?) drill hall / clock tower thing.
For about two bucks they let you into the building to wander the...lovely museum inside. The museum is on a par with similarly priced venues (about 2 USD for entry) insofar as there isn't too much that's terribly exciting in there. Perhaps my lack of Japanese fluency colors my opinion, but the highlights of the visit were: paint chips analysed to show you the past colors of the building; a segment of road representative of...something; a small model of the old campus; a fully visible example (model?) of the inner workings of the bell-tower's clock; and the gift shop.
This is the bit where I get to give you invaluable marketing advice. Are you ready for it? This is pretty big... If you ever have something that's a tough sell, people just aren't that interested in it, make a chibi-fied character that represents it, and business will improve. This, by the way, is exemplified by the Clock Tower's Tokke and the Terebi Tower's Terebi-Tousan (though he's apparently an unofficial mascot). [As an aside, the Tokke charm in the picture costs about 4 USD in the gift shop O.o]
At Terebi Tower (actually called the Sapporo TV tower, or some similarly boring name), I grabbed a melon-vanilla swirl ice cream cone before setting off to wander Odori Kouen. Unfortunately, I'm easily sidetracked by the sound of music playing and wandered off down another street. In so doing I stumbled across some sort of street festival involving children's games (activities?) and music. I even managed to get a picture of some random Japanese band playing music (maybe the closest I come to a pet Japanese boy as a gift for my sister?).
They finished their set shortly after my arrival, but I was not discouraged--ever the optimistic traveller, I headed back to Odori Park. Somewhat aimlessly I wandered the length of the park, stumbling upon the Sapporo Beer Festival in the process. As 'twas the middle of the afternoon and I hadn't much time, though, I did not partake.
Speaking of not having a lot of time, I shortly thereafter headed back toward the station at a diagonal (well, as diagonal as you can get walking city blocks) and managed to pass via ye olde gov't building and snap some photos on the way. [I should be posting some Japan photos soon, and you might even get all of them as I've not been quite so prolific in my photography this trip.] Made it to the station and bought my ticket (from an automated machine that I figured out in Japanese! ...and then verified in English), and I was on my way back to Kutchan.
Once here (about six in the evening at this point), I set about the wonderful task of walking back to Bouken Kazoku. Oh...did I forget to mention? I left my bike there and got a ride with Ash and her mum to Kutchan Eki (eki = station; learn some Japanese already!). I could've waited for the Niseko bus at 19 18, but I don't like standing around for hours and wanted to have a good wander anyway, so I took in as much of Kutchan as I could on my way back, even stopping in the "100 yen CD store" (as Ashley affectionately calls it) and, of course, MaxValu (where I bought an orange ice thing to keep my mind off the fact that I was walking so bloody far).
Anyway, an hour's walk after arriving back in Niseko (though an hour and twenty-six minutes time-wise, what with the stops and all), I arrived at Bouken just as that Niseko bus that I decided not to take passed me by. Apparently that walk only takes about 8 minutes by bus u.u
A brief "hello, good evening, how are you?, no, I haven't eaten" with Otousan later, my bike rolled out of the parking lot and back up hill, complete with Ash's bag of cra--stuff she so kindly left for me to bring back to the States for her (that I nearly forgot but didn't thanks to Sylph-san...or was it Kaka-san...?).
That's the story of my jaunt in Sapporo...
Work Resumes
Yeah, I seem to be getting lazy with the multilingualism in this journal--maybe if it weren't so pesky to click the language bar to switch input styles I'd do more of it. [I'm pretty sure that excuse is entirely invalid, because there's some keystroke that'll switch them right away, but I'm too lazy to figure out what that is. Go figure.]
The past three days have been alright, never working too hard (you know me ^.~), and even afforded me the time to compile some lists and bios and stuff to share with you guys this week--stuff about tasks I've done at SAS, the Nepali guys and other staff I've been hanging out with, and so forth.
Past...Present...Future?
So now that I'm reformed, I've started... PLANNING! Yup, planning. I know. Let me repeat that again, more explicitly: Dave has been (relatively) organised and planning ahead!
What the heck am I talking about? Isn't this all just crazy talk? Well, no, not entirely. If you'll recall, creating this summer experience in the first place did require it's fair share of planning and legwork on campus last year. I've decided to get a Japan Rail Pass myself and worked out the details so that I can go to Akan National Park (at the very least I've got to see the Ainu Museum and some marimo) and travel to a few other must-see parts of Japan. I've also discovered that hitchhiking is relatively safe and easy in Japan (by web research, not experience), that I may actually be able to visit North Korea sometime in the future, and that there is a WWOOF program in China now.
Also of note, I intend to climb a mountain tomorrow.
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(How's that for a cliffhanger?)
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