Thanks to a very kind professor at Hokkaido University (Hokudai), I had one week of free time from June 7 to June 13 before I hit the books, while he was off doing fantastic things on a volcano. I still do not know which volcano he was actually collecting data on, but I hope it was not near the places I went to at the time I was there. I have picked up a new nickname, "Ame Onna," which is a play on the mythological "Yuki Onna," a snow woman who brings blizzards and kills people by helping them fall asleep in the cold. However, I brought rain where ever I ventured during this week, thus I am "Rain Woman" instead of "Snow Woman." You will see a re-occurring theme of rain-spattered train windows, through which I captured many of my images.
Taking full advantage of having an official "tourist" visa, I was able to buy a 5-day Japan Railroad pass for a little over $200. Seeing how the first day's trip would have been a $100-ticket in itself, I am quite pleased with my usage of this glorious pass.
The first day of my whirlwind adventure started in Sapporo (indicated by the Green Dot), and ended in Shari (the Dark Red Dot). The Purple Dots label the locations I stopped for a varied amount of time, and the Yellow Dot is especially...special - To Be Explained Later. Apologies for the French and small dots. This was the map containing most of the names I wanted to exhibit. Before drawing the dots, I had also used this map to draw a brief sketch of my goals for the first 3 days of my tour, hence the random legend and boxes.
To start, I missed my planned train (the Limited Express Okhotsk 3) at 9:41am, which was the fastest train to get me across Hokkaido all the way to Abashiri, just one short local train away from the town harboring my planned hostel. As I have discovered in Japan, I spend hours and days making a beautiful, perfect plan, and then blow it to bits, going off on a completely different tangent at last minute.
So I hopped onto the next train, the Limited Express Super Kamui 11 at 10am, which terminated at Asahikawa, less than half the distance I needed to accomplish by the day's end.
Here's a picture of the inside of the Ltd. Exp. Super Kamui 11:
A view of the walkway, right outside the doors of Asahikawa station.
These two trees were my half-protection against the dribbling rain, when I laid down for an hour, waiting for my next train.
Here is an image for my father and stepmother, taken from the station entrance.
This next image is for my boi, 'cause I thought he would love to look at all the bonsai. I believe it was some sort of competition, held in the lobby of the Asahikawa train station.
This is a shot of the inside of the local train, which I took from Asahikawa to Kamikawa.
Pointing out Asahikawa for reference:
Rice fields!
Curing wood?
Apparently they just use one set of tracks at this stop..
For my fellow Bleach fans, I had to do several double-takes on this sign, because I SWORE it said "Aizen!"
As I headed north, I saw more wet rice fields replaced with fields of plowed soil.
In the images above and below there was an interesting glacial landform, which I couldn't help but think that it looked like a land sperm whale. Anyone have an idea how it formed? In the image below, you can see a metal wall, which keeps snow from blowing up onto the elevated road in the winter (I think).
Once again, for reference, this is where the weird landform is located (just outside of Toun), in case anyone wants to look it up on GoogleEarth.
After the train dropped me off at Kamikawa (it returned to Asahikawa), I conferred with the train worker at the station, the man at the bus center, and the lady at the touring center to figure out if there was a way for me to go to Shirataki by bus and then onward to Shari in time to check in that evening at my hostel. After several phone calls and multiple sheets of timetables, we decided the only way I could get to Shari that night would be to take the next train out of Kamikawa for Shari. Thus I had about an hour to wander around Kamikawa and get back to the train station. The touring center lady was kind enough to point me to a place to eat, which was sadly closed.
Kamikawa was a rather quiet town, but one with several wonderful features. One such feature was the fantastic view of the mountains just down the road.
I couldn't decide which restaurant/store sounded more fun to go to: Tomochan (I thought of you, Tomoko-chan), Subaru (yumyum cars..), or BONZ (Yay One Piece!).
Aaaand across the street....well, Japan, good job keeping me on my toes.
Since literally nothing was open, I went to the default conbini (convenient store) and bought heated-up onigiri (a first) and this delicious ice cream! It was sooo good! The strawberry flavor was wonderful!
This was a shallow stream with a sitting area along the path next to the conbini, where I sat and enjoyed my fantastic Japanese fast food! I loved the little fishies (even though they were painted)!
These were rrreally cool bells, up high on a nearby hill. I thought Dad would appreciate them, and I even found a map with the name of the bells (so that I or whoever is interested could look up more information about them later)! I also managed to get a rough video recording of the bells ringing before heading back to the train station! I was lucky my camera had such a good zoom, or I would not have managed to get such a clear shot (the bells were pretty far away ^^")
The skies were absolutely gorgeous as I headed back to the train station.
Goodbye Kamikawa! Until next time! Thank you for the beautiful mountains, bells, and good people!
I continued on my journey, and below are pictures of the reason for my entire adventure across Hokkaido - Shirataki. After much searching, I had stumbled across the name "Shirataki" in some interviews and writings of aikido's original uchi-deshi. Anyone with a basic knowledge of the aikido founder's biography knows that he traveled up to Hokkaido with a group from his hometown on Honshu, and established a town somewhere in Hokkaido. Ten years ago, reform swept through Japan, in which smaller villages were added together under the umbrella of a common, neighboring town. Because of that, Morihei Ueshiba-sensei's village went under the radar, and is now a part of Engaru. However, his community still goes by the name of "Shirataki" and I was fortunate enough to pass through it. Given more time, I would have spent more than just a few blissful minutes at the train station, with one foot off the train, snapping images and gazing around in bliss. However, there were no hostels or hotels listed online, and public transportation to the area were also severe limiting factors. Please enjoy the following images of Shirataki, and important stepping stone in the development of aikido.
(I think O'sensei would be proud to know his train station is positively glamorous in modern times)
And on to Engaru.
By this time, the light was starting to fade. However, I managed to get a shot of the SOLAR PANELS just after departing Engaru station. Listen up you people who say solar panels are a waste if there's snow for a part of the year: This is Hokkaido. They have an International Snow FESTIVAL every year, and yet they have solar panels ALL OVER THE PLACE! You will see a solar panel trend over the next several posts, but in those instances, I will simply (for now..) post where I took the picture of the solar panels.
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