Chapter 1: Mo' Rap Land
<< Chapter 0: Playing with Electricity
東京都 目黒区駒場 ヤニの家 Home, Komaba, Tokyo Mon 25 Sep 2000 23:30
Not on the road yet, but ready to go. I just completed the most difficult packing job of my travel career: I'm going on a multi-week trip to a cold region, lugging along all of the Four C's...
Camp: Dome tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, stove, gas
Camera: Olympus digicam, battery charger, monopod
Computer: Laptop w/ AC adapter, Glasstron, battery, charger
Communicator: Nokia mobile phone w/ charger, Palm Vx w/ charger
...and a few non-essentials like clothes, cosmetics, cold-weather gear and a red lobster finger puppet named Mustafa. My flight leaves at 06:55 so I need to be up at 04:30, I think I'd better catch a few winks now.
全日空５３便札幌まで Aboard ANA flight 53 to Sapporo Tue Sep 26 2000 07:18
I went to bed whistling at midnight, but at 4:30, when my mobile started to rattle along the table while emitting a hideous burst of cacophony I was forced to seriously reconsider the wisdom of this whole enterprise. But I dragged myself out of bed, rechecked everything once more, then headed out to the convinient Haneda aiport a mere hour away by train/monorail.
Alas, my devious plot to smuggle a can of Captain Stag brand camping gas was foiled by the ever-vigilant security team, which managed to spot the can from an X-ray at a time when I would have had difficulty focusing my eyes on the same spot. They could even have stored the offending item for me until I got back, but I'm not returning by plane and making a special trip to claim the 290 yen can would set me back 1560 yen in train fares...
After yet more fun with my steel-capped boots and X-ray machines I entered the second floor of the Boeing 747 "Pokemon Jet", decked out with Pikachu & company, even the welcome-on-board stewardess hugging an adorable pumpkin-sized lard-assed pokemonster. It's been years since I've last flown on a Jumbo, but in a country known for its bullet trains the Tokyo-Sapporo route is the most popular airline route (1:40 by plane vs. 11+ hours by train) and ANA alone flies 14 of these things back and forth every single day. During taxiing and takeoff, instead of the usual elevator music and scenes of flowery meadows, the in-flight TV system showed a live picture from two cameras mounted in the nose of the plane! My only gripe is that 14,000 for a one-way ticket (even if it is already half-price) doesn't appear to include any breakfast other than a glass of orange juice, my seatmate was smarter and brought a bento. But I wasn't quite in the mood for a 600 yen airport "mixed sandwich" either...
Reading the Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese) for the latest developments in the ongoing Chuutou Heiwa (中東平和) saga, feat. Baraku and Arafatto debating about Paresuchina and the status of Irusaremu, feels weird. Weather forecast says cloudy with showers for the next two days, then it should clear up. Maybe I'll splurge on a youth hostel tonight...
北海道 支笏湖 ラップランド Lapland, Morappu, Hokkaido Tue Sep 26 2000 14:53
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Hokkaido in late September reminds me very much of some parts of southern Sweden: chilly but not cold, hilly but not mountainous, more leafy trees than evergreens... quite a contrast to Tokyo and distinctly different from the rest of Japan. Almost all the tourists have gone, the only other guest at Lapland is Midori-san from Nagoya who's leaving tomorrow. The neighboring Morappu camping area is empty except for a few anglers, if the weather gets no worse (just wind and drizzles so far) I may give it a shot tomorrow and compensate today's Y8000 budget. At least the wind seems inescapable though, as a nearby mountain is called 風不死岳 (Fuppushidake: Wind-Never-Dies-Peak).
And now I have the trip's first onsen under my belt, even if 休？村支笏湖温泉 (no, I do not have any idea how to read that and the missing kanji is so non-常用 it's not even funny) wasn't quite the stuff my hot, wet onsen dreams are made of. I'll admit the water was wet, but hot? Pshaw! I like my onsen water to be barely tolerable when motionless and excruciating if you move. The search continues!
Today's useful onsen word:
つるつる [tsuru-tsuru] n. (onom.) the warm feeling of your cheeks after lolling about in hot water
北海道 支笏湖 モーラップキャンプ場 Morappu Campground, Hokkaido Wed 27 Sep 2000 18:16
After an amazing breakfast at Lapland (two thumbs up to the place, by the way) I spent the day being chaffeured around in Midori's (parents') swanky sports car, first checking out the truly impressive 苔の洞門 (Koke no Doumon/Moss Canyon), which is in fact two separate canyons, both hundreds of meters long, literally carpeted with soft fuzzy moss -- if Totoro lived in Petra's Siq he'd probably redecorate it to look like Koke no Doumon.
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But soon she had to leave to catch her ferry to Nagoya. The weather had improved a little -- cloudy with occasional sunshine -- so I headed to the neighboring camping ground, where I paid all of Y500 for a place to pitch a tent. Add in Y750 for a curry rice (which I could have avoided had I been able to smuggle that camping gas), and the day's total budget was Y1250. Not bad. And the obasan in the deserted noodle-and-curry joint near the camping ground gave me a stick of deep-fried sweet potatoes as a gift, which (along with a Y120 can of hot tea) will be tomorrow's breakfast. Evil person that I am, I'm typing this with power stolen from the camping ground's public phone, but it's already pitch-dark and there are a few too many insects lurking about. I think I'll go hide in my tent, listen to the waves crashing on the shores of Shikotsuko and catch a few Z's.
北海道 支笏湖 伊藤温泉 Itou Onsen, Shikotsuko, Hokkaido Thu Sep 28 2000 11:10
It was a cold, windy and rainy night... outside. I was quite comfy in my two-layered tent and amazing sleeping bag, which manages to be compact, light and warm at the same time (so a tip o' the hat to my parents for choosing it in the days of yore). I could imagine doing this even if it was a few degrees colder... but not too many.
Getting a ride out was slightly iffy, traffic was sparse and the little there was was mostly trucks (which, due to strictly obeyed company policies, are usually of little help in Japan). It took almost an hour for the first car to stop, it was headed for Chitose (exactly the wrong way) but was kind enough to drop me a few km off its route at Shikotsu Kohan, from where I was picked up by a retired couple with a lap dog who ferried me over to Itou Onsen, on the other side of the lake.
Unfortunately, Itou Onsen wasn't the onsen of my dreams either. While the little exhibitionist in me got some kicks out of being able to survey the entire panorama of Shikotsuko as a butt-nekkid but unobservable flyspeck when seen from the other shore, the water was only tepid and the rotenburo didn't even have any showers or other facilities -- not too great a deal for Y700. By the time I'd trekked the 3 km back to the main road I was sweatier than when I'd arrived...
北海道 札幌市 JR札幌駅 JR Sapporo station, Sapporo, Hokkaido Thu 28 Sep 2000 20:24
The only Japanese city I've ever liked is Tokyo, and Sapporo is no exception, although in many ways it certainly is exceptional for a Japanese city. It's the most painfully logically organized city I have ever seen: all addresses are in Cartesian coordinates ("North 4, East 7") with the imaginatively named Oo-Doori ("Big Road") dividing the North and South sides. Two subway lines, equally imaginatively called Namboku ("South-North") and Touzai ("East-West"), can be used to move about; a few years (and a few million inhabitants) ahead of the curve compared to Helsinki, just about everything is also connected underground so you don't have to venture out into (what will be) the cold winter air.
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