Road to RSR10 in EZO → Sunrise Day 4

My stay in Shizuoka was way too short, because it was pretty much time to head back to Tokyo as soon as we got up. We headed towards Shizuoka City, and I bought a ticket for the Shinkansen. We had a little bit of time to kill, so we decided to go visit the giant Gundam statue that I had seen last year in Tokyo with the moped kids, which was now located in Shizuoka. Kengo hadn't seen it before, but when we finally found it and stood in line to see it up close, I was running dangerously short on time before my train left. So we raced back to the station and I just barely made it in time. This visit was way too short... Kengo is one of my closest friends, and I love hanging out in Shizuoka, but with Miwako in the picture, I had to sacrifice Honshuu time for Hokkaido. If I hadn't completely forgotten that a brand new airport had opened in Shizuoka last year, I could have flown directly to Sapporo instead of having to go back to Tokyo, but I guess that's what happens when you spend very little time planning out your travels.



The Shinkansen was disappointing because (a) I didn't get a window seat, and (b) the guy by the window was asleep with the shade drawn the whole time. Oh well, I still got a pretty neat view of Mr. Fuji racing by. In tokyo, I made my way across the city to Haneda Airport, where I remembered that the monorail gives some pretty spectacular views of the city only after I had already sat down in an inconvenient place.



Originally when I was (sort of) planning this trip, I was going to stay in Tokyo for another day or two, but Miwako convinced me to come to Sapporo on Saturday. Then she found out that she had to go to Tokyo for some sort of work training on Friday. Her flight back to Sapporo was about 40 minutes after mine, and it was only like 3 gates over. It was a weird feeling knowing that she was probably in the same building as me, but we both decided that meeting up in Tokyo at the airport just wouldn't feel right. Also, she was with a coworker and we thought it would be awkward to meet for the first time in 6 months in front of her. So I boarded my plane and flew to Hokkaido. I could see at least 10 different fireworks shows going on in various parts of Tokyo and beyond, which was pretty badass since I'd never seen that before. Then I made it to Sapporo and waited for Miwa to show up and then she did and then I introduced her to my good friend Cheburashka. THE END.



2010.08.07

Road to RSR10 in EZO → Sunrise Day 3

A fun thing about Tokyo in summer is that even if you didn't drink the night before, sleeping in an un-air-conditioned room with no fan can sometimes cause you to wake up feeling like you have a hangover. That was the case whenever I stayed at house of TAKMIZ, and that was the case after staying at Akazou's. After waking up drenched in sweat, taking a shower doesn't seem to help because the second you step out of the shower and start drying off, you're covered with sweat again. Or at least, I'm covered with sweat again. Gross. After packing up my things, I headed out for Musashiseki to see the new TAKMIZ house and to hang out with Mizue. She still hadn't fully recovered from the stroke, so I nearly headed out really far from where they actually live until Takkun called me and gave me proper directions. When I saw her in winter, we didn't really have all that much time to talk, so it was fun catching up. Her Japanese is about at the same level as mine, which was kind of funny, but also a little comforting. She showed me her various study materials, and although her reading and writing are probably a little better than mine was when I lived in Otaru and still tried to read and write, she felt the need to apologize for how difficult of a language it can be to learn, since she can now sympathize with every student of Japanese ever. So we hung out and had lunch, played with Tsukuru, and I got to spend some quality time with my old friend, TanTan the cat. GiGi, whom I helped rescue three years earlier when he was an abandoned kitten, didn't seem to remember me, but I guess being an abandoned kitten makes you scared of everything.



Eventually I made my way to Ueno so I could [barely] get on a bus headed towards Shizuoka. I can't go to Japan in summer without going to visit Kengo! This was my 6th summer adventure to Japan, and the 6th time I'd gone to Shizuoka (and the 5th time I forgot how to get to where Kengo lives). Traffic on the highways was super crazy due to whatever holiday was going on, so the bus took an extra hour to get to Shizuoka. Finally I arrived, and Kengo and I went and gorged ourselves on some pretty fantastic yakiniku. The food in Shizuoka never disappoints. It was disappointing, however, that ever since the police started cracking down on drinking and driving, people play it way too safe. So while I enjoyed delicious beer, Kengo had a non-alcoholic beer.



After eating, we met up with Chiaki and headed out to the ocean to play with fireworks. Just like last year, she was the designated driver so that Kengo and I could drink (including inside the car, which happened twice during this trip... another weird Japanese drinking cultural thing to add to my list). Good times. After that, it was back to Kengo's house to drink and/or relax, because Shizuoka is good for those sorts of things.



2010.08.06

Road to RSR10 in EZO → Sunrise Day 2

DAY 2
Mopeds in Tokyo! Again! I didn't really have plans for today, and sora and Tsucchee! were both free, so I borrowed one of Akazou's mopeds so we could go riding around. Then it broke down several blocks from his house. So I got to ride Tsucchee's moped back to Akazou's house to borrow his other moped. Then we went on a short ride to find lunch, where we met up with sora. The three of us rode around for a bit until we found Hana Yashiki a weird tiny amusement park buried in the middle of Tokyo, where we were met by Tok. The place kind of reminded me of that weird tiny amusement park in Portland. The best part was when you first get on the tiny roller coaster which was CLEARLY meant for children. There's a diagram showing you not to drop things on the ride, including your camera, money, and cigarettes. Like, they made it really obvious that you shouldn't drop your cigarettes while riding the roller coaster meant for children.











Aaaanyway.... after being amused for a while, we rode around some more and ended up in one of my favorite places in Tokyo that I hadn't been to in many years, Kappa Bashi. Besides the fact that walking down the street makes you feel like you NEED to open your own restaurant as soon as possible, there are a couple of shops featuring the best thing in the world, plastic samples of food. I swear that someday I will buy an ￥8000 bowl of fake ramen and display it proudly in my front window.



After that, we headed back to Akazou's place to park mopeds, and my moped experience #2 in Tokyo was complete. We walked to a nearby Chinese restaurant, and met up with Sako, another one of the moped kids that I got to hang out with (and get drunk with) last summer. The food, of which there was a ton of, was awesome. Akazou kept insisting that I drink some sort of Chinese alcoholic beverage. It was strong and pretty easy to drink, but somehow it tasted very Chinese. After eating, of course, we went to karaoke. By this point, it was just Akazou and sora and I, but Tokyo Mopedder's president, Billy, made a cameo appearance. The three of us boys pretty much just sang Unicorn all night, and apparently the only song that sora sang I missed because you had to take an elevator to a far away place just to use the restroom. Oh well, I'll just assume she was a badass.



Also, HERE is Tsucchee!'s account of the day. Notice (or not since you probably don't read Japanese) that he didn't refer to me by name... he called me the American from Seattle. Weird.

2010.08.05

Road to RSR10 in EZO → Sunrise Day 1

DAY 1
As I am prone to do every summer, I had Josh Smurr drive me to the aerospaceport so I could lose a day of my life in order to travel to China or Japan or whatever. Honestly, I didn't even really want to go. I hate that place.

SIKE!

When I made my first winter return trip to YARPON earlier this year, I told my friends that I was going to come back this summer and do the usual "travel around and see everyone" thing, because that trip was mostly all about spending time with Miwako. Well... I lied. Sorry, frieands. Or at least, frieands who aren't Miwako. So anyway, after a billion hours on a plane, I arrived at Narita Airport, only to meet Antique◇Cube (the coolest nickname ever) holding one of Los Dorados' shop rags! I sort of told sora (who came to visit Seattle for our moped rally a month earlier) that I was going to be in around 5, but I was planning on just taking a bus to the city like I usually do and figuring things out from there. Instead, she managed to use that information to figure out exactly what flight I was on. That's pretty damn impressive, because I didn't fly directly from Seattle, I had a layover in Portland. Also, my flight showed up 40 minutes early. Also, I didn't bother checking luggage (for the first time ever, actually), so I wasted no time getting through Customs because I had no idea what I was going to do that first night. But there was Cube, waiting to drive me around in his chariot. Wow! The moped kids also worked together to find a place for me to stay, since I hadn't really figured that out, either. So Cube took me to Akazou's ("Red Elephant") place. I took a desperately needed shower and we ate some korokke before Cube drove me to my next destination, Yukotopia. I didn't think I would have a chance to see Dachambo this time around unless I went to Kyoto, something I didn't really have the time or money to pull off. But then I found out they were doing a show my first night in Tokyo, so I couldn't miss it. I could have sworn Yukotopia was in Yokohama, so I was all confused when the address was in some place called Adachi-ku. Good thing Cube gave me a ride, I probably would have gotten lost trying to figure out how to get there by train. After a while it became apparent that I was thinking of Grass Roots, and that I actually had been to Yukotopia before. Five years previously, it was where I saw and met Dachambo for the first time. With that mystery solved... sorry about the boring story.



It was a good show. Dachambo's very own AO (who had cut off his beautiful dreadlocks due to having a child now and Japan being "dangerous") warned me that Dachambo's shows were getting more and more awesome. He wasn't kidding... they totally rocked out. This is good news, because it should make attempting to get them back to the States easier than promoting them as a "jam band". After the show, I hung out and got drunk with the band and other Dachambo Villagers (including a friend from Sapporo, which was random) for a while. They didn't have someone to drive their bus to the event in Kyoto on Friday, and knowing that I had my International Driver's License, they asked if I wanted to do it. Driving a tour bus, a free ticket to a wicked awesome show, a place to stay, and a chance to meet up with my old friend Brian before he comes back to The Americraine? HELL YEAH I'll do it! Later I realized that it was kind of a terrible idea. Between jet lag and never having had driven in Japan (on the left side of the road and everything), I would have felt really bad when I fell asleep behind the wheel during a 6-hour drive and killed my favorite band. Miwako would have been pissed about that, too.

Yeah, so yeah. If I'm ever going to get through this adventure recap, I need to stop typing so much. I barely made the last train(s) back to Akazou's house, where Cube and Tsuchee! (also of Blood Drive 7 fame) and Akazou were waiting for me so we could continue drinking until I basically passed out due to exhaustion. Welcomed back to Tokyo, it was!



2010.08.04

Blood Drive 7 Moped Rally in Seattle, WA presented by Mosquito Fleet

DAY 1



2010.07.13

DAY 2



2010.07.14

DAY 3



2010.07.15

DAY 4



2010.07.16

DAY 5



2010.07.17

DAY 6



2010.07.18

DAY 7



2010.07.19

DAY 8

2010.07.20

Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri 2010 in EZO

2010.02.04 ~ 02.16
半年前に日本行ってきました。来週はまた日本行きます。やっと写真アップしました。
Six months after my last Japan and one week before my next trip, I've finally uploaded the pictures from my winter expedition to EZO.

Swimming at Greenlake

2010.07.08

4 Years

On July 6th, 2006, I first set foot in Seattle. In the four years since then I have become slightly more educated, joined a moped gang and have ridden bikes that are older than myself tens of thousands of miles all over the country (at about 30 mph), made a lot of great friends and bitter enemies (well... not really. just the one.), made slight progress on my own music, and I finally tricked my favorite person in the world into being my first legitimate girlfriend in a ridiculously long time.

But still, ever since I first left Japan 7 years ago, I've always said that I'll live there again someday. I've even gone back to visit 6 times since then. The whole reason I ended up in Seattle in the first place was so I could work towards that goal. So for a while now I've been saying that want to make it happen in the summer of 2011. Now I've decided to pick a date... July 6th. Seattle: please help me enjoy the hell out of my 5th and final year in this amazing city. Everyone else: come visit me in Seattle before I leave forever!

2010.07.09

Song of the Month 2010.04 - Portuguese Man o' Space

Song of the Month 2010 #4



Song title: Portuguese Man o' Space
Audio files: http://kurtasbestos.com/ongaks/Panda_Left-Portuguese_Man_o_Space_(Gastrozoid).mp3 (plus version)
http://kurtasbestos.com/ongaks/Panda_Left-Portuguese_Man_o_Space_(Pneumophore).mp3 (original version)
Date Recorded: 2010.04.30 (plus version) 2009.09.22ish (original version)
Equipment: KORG DS-10 Plus (plus version), KORG DS-10 (original version), KORG D888


Concept: Two songs this month! Sort of. Not really. The day after I got my first KORG DS-10 in the mail, Tagen and I drove down to Portland to meet up with our friends for Brendan's birfday weekend. I played around with it in the car, sort of creating sounds that I could play along with whatever we were listening to at the time. Since the DS-10 was still so new to me, I kept experimenting with random sounds and trying new things, creating completely different synth sounds in every pattern. Eventually I realized that I could keep all the madness and turn it into an actual song, so my first full DS-10 song was completed in this way. Nearly a year after I started the first song, I got the updated KORG DS-10 Plus in the mail. You can't use all of its features (including the ability to double the total number of sounds you can use by loading two songs at once) unless you have a Nintendo DSi. So I pre-ordered a DSi XL, and as soon as it showed up I decided that my first DS-10 Plus song should be an updated version of my first ever DS-10 song. Hence, this month I'm presenting both versions so you can hear the difference for yourself.

Process: Like I said above, the original version came together as I was playing around with as many different sounds as possible until I eventually found a way to cobble the various patterns I had created together into a song. Creating the DS-10 Plus version was a more logical process, since I was mostly using the added instruments to create transitions that would help tie the random-sounding random sounds together into some kind of a coherent song. Along the way, I discovered a lot of the strengths and weaknesses of the DS-10 Plus over the previous version. In particular, the song mode which was previously next to useless is now EXTREMELY helpful (especially when it comes to things like muting multiple tracks at once). It almost feels like cheating to use it, since it makes it much easier to program in a song to do some things that are hard to do on the fly, while still giving the user a huge amount of freedom to improvise. Too bad they didn't increase the maximum song length.. It was hard to squeeze this song into 200 measures.

Comments: Here's another "hard techno"-ish song... not quite the kind of music that I WANT to make, but I had a lot of fun doing it. My songs seem to follow a pattern... they build up the excitement to a quiet section, which is immediately followed by a loud section (or the other way around), then it sort of reprises the first part of the song before working towards an exciting conclusion. I need to work on not doing that every time.

Song of the Month 2010.03 - 別れ霜

Song of the Month 2010 #3



Song title: 別れ霜 ("wakarejimo")
Audio file: http://kurtasbestos.com/ongaks/Panda_Left-wakarejimo.mp3
Date Recorded: 2010.03.31
Equipment: KORG DS-10, KORG D888

Concept: I'm not really sure when I started this one, but I think it was just something I randomly started one day on the walk to work when whatever song I was working on was starting to get frustrating. It has a decidedly more "heavy" sound than the songs I usually make, and at some point I decided that I kind of liked it, so I started working towards completing it.

Process: One of the first things I experimented with on this song were sounds that span multiple loops. I got about as far as the first "breakdown" thing, and it wasn't until I realized the potential of that one drum sound that lasts several loops that I decided what direction I wanted to take the song. The rest came together pretty easily after that, and I was actually surprised to find that I was doing a good job of conserving patterns up until the end. I finished this song before the end of March, but having very little time left towards the end, the final transition and last section could definitely use some work. Oh yeah, and I haven't done anything about stereo effects and placement. Overall, though, I'm pretty happy with how quickly I was able to whip this song together.

Comments: Another month, another DS-10 song. As I mentioned previously, my DS-10 family has motivated me to spend more time working on music. My main hope was that besides working on these songs, it would encourage me to work on my much fancier songs that utilize my Electribe and Triton at home. The song of the month for March was supposed to be one of those songs, but the first half of the month was spent re-learning how to play that song, and after that I had a hard time continuing it. I think with the DS-10's songs only having 16 patterns, filling them up is a clear goal to work towards, and I don't have that with my other songs. Oh well... this screws up my plans for the next few songs of the month(s?), but hopefully I'll either finish two songs in one month, or finish March's song for April and go from there.

Song of the Month 2010.02 - ezo09

Song of the Month 2010 #2



Song title: ezo09 ("ezonine")
Audio file: http://kurtasbestos.com/ongaks/Panda_Left-ezo09.mp3
Date Recorded: 2010.02.28
Equipment: KORG DS-10, KORG D888
Instruments: broken jaw harp

Concept: I started this song last summer during the 5-hour wait in line to get inside Rising Sun 2010. I continued working on it occasionally when I had time to kill (the train to Nayoro and the bus to Shizuoka), and on the plane back home at the end of the trip. Because February marks the halfway point between Rising Sun 2010 and 2011, I decided that would be the best time to release it.

Process: I actually finished this song pretty shortly after coming back to the States, but something wasn't quite right. The DS-10 only allows you 16 patterns per song, and I had already filled them all up, but I didn't have a good transition to lead into the ending. At the "quiet" part at 3:20, I also had a quieter pattern. Unfortunately, you can't set a separate tempo for each pattern, which is sort of what I wanted there (so the tempo would speed back up slowly during the transition into the end), so I ended up getting rid of that pattern entirely in order to make room for the transition at 4:30. I'm pretty happy with that decision. The jaw harp was pretty spontaneous... I thought about adding one about 2 days before I started practicing for the recording. Unfortunately, the only jaw harp I had in the right key is broken, which made it hard to play. Otherwise... some other things I tried in this song were messing with effects (as they fade in and out) and messing with the swing setting, which does... that. Swing. Actually, messing with that was the first thing I did with this song, so it ended up being pretty integral to the whole thing.

Comments: I had this recording done before the end of February, and even posted it up on my diary on Mixi, but I didn't want to post it here until I finished my traveblog. It was a lot easier to record than January's song, but still, I could have used more practice. There are a couple of fade-outs that end too quickly, and one cymbol that I didn't mute fast enough, but otherwise it turned out more or less like I wanted it to.

Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 11

I guess there's not really much to say about my last day, other than it sucking. After getting up and getting ready, Miwako and I ate breakfast at about quarter after 5 in the morning. I wasn't very hungry, but it was my last meal with her until summer, so I ate.



Mom came downstairs shortly thereafter, and we went to the train station around 6. We were actually pretty early, but with my terrible luck I wasn't taking any chances. We were on a local train (meaning it stops at every little stop along the way, though there aren't as many between Zenibako and Sapporo as there are between Zenibako and Otaru), but it turned into a rapid train in Sapparo. Still, it took over an hour to get to the airport. We attempted to stay awake, but the awkward silence of the train and our absolute exhaustion made that impossible.

The first time I ever left Japan after my year-long exchange program, Mizue saw me off at the very same airport. We were both crying, but she wanted to stay with me until the last possible minute. That turned out to be when they called my name over the speakers. Oops. The next summer, when she and I weren't officially dating anymore, but also weren't really sure of our status, she saw me off again, and this time, they sent a person out into the main terminal to find me. Miwako and I had a little time to say goodbye, but not wanting to repeat the past, at some point I said "well... I guess I should probably go". We were okay up to that point, but when we made the walk towards the security area, that's when we were suddenly both on the verge of tears. Then I heard the final call for my flight. Oops.

It was probably better that way... we didn't have a long, drawn-out goodbye, and instead of crying, we were laughing. I booked it to my gate, and though there were people sitting around and the boarding supposedly started 15 minutes earlier, there was no one to be seen at the gate itself. Eventually someone showed up, and they started actually boarding. Jeez. Then my flight left, and I sadly said goodbye to Hokkaido for the 8th time in my life.



In Tokyo, I immediately took the highway bus from one airport to the next, and had enough time before my next flight to call Miwako and talk for a while. For some reason I didn't have a window seat on my flight home (I ALWAYS have a window seat), but the aisle was extra wide, so that wasn't bad. I mostly slept, but I decided to watch this ridiculous (yet entertaining) movie. Miwako had also prepared a sandwich and an onigiri for me, which was nice. After leaving Miwako's house at 6am on Monday, I arrived in Seattle at 6:30am on Monday. Huh? I spent the only Americrainian money I had on a ticket for the Link Light Rail, only to discover that you can't use those tickets to transfer to the Metro bus (even though you can transfer the other way). Damnit. So then I had to wander around downtown Seattle carrying all my luggage all grossly early in the morning trying to find an ATM and then somewhere that was actually open in order to find change. Damnit. Eventually I did and I got on the bus. Finally, at about 9:30am I returned to my normal life when I reached my destination... my office.

Man, talk about a disappointing end to an awesome adventure.

2010.02.15

Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 10

After checking out of SUPER HOTEL SUPER EARLY in the morning, we once again headed towards the train station to drop our stuff off in a coin locker. We then headed to the Morning Market to search for food. We agreed that uncooked seafood was in order, and found a restaurant that served a bowl of rice covered with raw things, only you got to select the raw things. I opted for squid, ikura, salmon, and tuna. Miwako basically had the same thing, except scallops instead of tuna. I had seen all kinds of touristy seafood places like this in Otaru a million times before, and being sleep-deprived, I misinterpreted the menu to mean it would be really expensive. It wasn't, and it was tasty. Walking around the maze of streets filled with seafood and souvenir vendors, we couldn't help but wonder how people living that lifestyle manage to survive when it looks like everyone else is selling the exact same things within a very small radius. Weird.

After breakfast, we took the street car thing past good ol' SUPER HOTEL towards the actual factual downtown-like area of Hakodate (which I had assumed was around the train station until we saw the city from above), and to Goryokaku Fort, which is (or was, really) not only one of the very few castles in Hokkaido, but also shaped like a star for some reason. We went to the top of the air traffic controller-like tower first to get a view of the park first, which has a fantastic view of not only the park/fort/star, but all of Hakodate. Off to the south east where the onsen we stayed at was was mostly clear, and there was a clear view across the water to Aomori. The area around Hakodate Station and Mt. Hakodate was visible at first, but then was devoured by a giant series of clouds that dumped snow on the city, while the mountains to the north of the city kept disappearing and reappearing in the clouds. It was neat. The fort itself looked HUGE when seen from space, and there were a million billion sakura trees, which probably means there are a million billion people there in spring.



We then headed down into the park itself. Unfortunately, certain parts were blocked off, possibly because of some kind of winter festival, so we ended up getting trapped in a corner of the park near the winter festival of some kind. We were able to climb over a wall, and then down to the inside of the outermost moat, but at some point we hit a dead end and had to turn back. We really only made it about 2/5ths of the way around, but it was still pretty.



We took a break in a cafe at the base of the giant tower for some coffee and to exchange Valentine's Day presents before making our way back to Hakodate Station. We weren't at all looking forward to a 5-hour ride on the uncomfortabus back to hang out with Miwako's mom on our last night together, but the walk to the street car thing was awesome... the combination of ridiculously slippery sidewalks, lack of sleep, and our best inside jokes from the past few days probably made us look like complete idiots to people around us. I'm okay with that. When we got on the bus back to Sapporo, we lucked out and were placed all the way in the back where the seats are actually next to each other (seat-seat-seat-seat instead of seat-aisle-seat-aisle-seat). We alternated between enjoying the beautiful scenery and falling asleep until it was too dark to see anything outside, when we made our best attempt at napping. Stupid unfomfortabus.

Many hours later, we made it back to Zenibako, where Mom was patiently waiting for us with a steaming hot vat of nikujaga (literally "MEAT POTATO"). Although we didn't exactly want to spend our last night together with Miwako's mom, I do have to give her mad props for watching The Lost World: Jurassic Park. I didn't even notice until we were eating and all of a sudden I realized the sounds coming from the TV behind me were incredibly familiar. Man. Japanese voices dubbed over anything are so fake-sounding. Anyway, Mom of course hung out with us for a while, and when we realized that in order to make my flight in the morning, we would have to take the absolute earliest train possible, she offered to drive us to the airport. I straight up told her no, that was NOT going to happen. F'real, yo. Eventually she wandered off to bed, so Miwako and I had like... 2 hours together before it was time to wake up.

2010.02.14

Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 9

On Saturday morning, we were sure to wake up at a decent hour so we could still enjoy the onsen before checkout. We made the tail end of breakfast in the dining hall, where I remembered that Japanese-style breakfast at places like this is always incredibly disappointing. I wish I could describe it better... it's always a collection of really weird Japanesey things that you don't see very often (a lot of mysterious slimy seaweed things), things that I wouldn't consider breakfast food (like one specific tofu dish I can't remember the name of which is good but would be way tastier as a side dish to a more substantial meal), or things that are just plain gross (remember when I told you about shiokara???). As a big fat Americrainian, I demand copious amounts of sugar first thing in the morning, and the closest thing I could find to something sweet was toast. Partway through eating, I started feeling kind of gross, and at first I thought it was just because of the disappointing breakfast selection, but then at some point I realized that I was incredibly dehydrated. Surprisingly, spending a lot of time in various bathtubs and drinking a lot of alcohol while drinking very little water will do that to you. I stocked up on fluids as best as I could (asbestos), because we wanted to relax in the tub in our room for a little while before it was time to check out.

After leaving the hotel, we had several hours to kill before we could check in to our next hotel, so we took a bus towards Hakodate Station. On the way, the combination of being dehydrated and the fact that the bus felt like it was a thousand degrees inside, I suddenly felt incredibly nauseous and we had to get off the bus. It turned out it wasn't a very long walk anyway. But that's when we discovered that even though there wasn't as much snow on the ground as there had been in Otaru and Sapporo, there was a thick covering of incredibly slippery ice on every surface in the city. We carefully made our way to the train station and stashed our stuff in a coin locker, then roamed around for a while checking out the town until I felt too gross to go on. We then found a cafe and looked at the guide book that Miwako had purchased and made a rough plan for the rest of our time in Hakodate.

By the way, at some point I took a picture of this alley because it was really neat looking. Then I realized what I was actually taking a picture of, and made sure to get a good shot of it. Can you guess what kind of meat the shop in the left side of this picture sells???



Don't worry, it's okay to hate the Japanese for the horrible things they do.

At some point in the afternoon, we were able to check in to our hotel, so we walked back in the direction from whence we came and checked into SUPER HOTEL. Considering it was incredibly cheap, it was actually really comfy, and had all kinds of good things going for it (like a wall of pillows in the lobby where you can select a pillow based on your personal preferences). The weird twin-sized bunkbed above our queen-sized bed was a little weird, though. After a much-needed nap, we headed back into the town. We took one of the street car things that prowl Hakodate and made our way to the red brick district. Like Otaru, there are a bunch of old brick warehouses that have been converted into shops and restaurants and such. Just like Otaru, most of the touristy shops were pretty ridiculous, but it was fun walking through the maze of buildings, and the night illumination was certainly pretty.

Miwako's guidebook had a number of recommendations for food, so we ended up settling on a place called "The Very Very Beast" (we both thought it was "Bistro", but boy were we in for a surprise when we got there. Miwako had omurice and I had hambagu, both of which were ridiculously tasty. Thanks, guide book! The restaurant itself had a weird 1950's America theme going on it, so I'm not sure what the "Beast" was all about.



After dinner we walked up a big hill with that was all lit up and had an awesome view of the waterfront, as well as being incredibly treacherous to walk on from all the ice, and made our way to the Hakodate Ropeway, which took us on a ride to the top of Mt. Hakodate. From here, we had an amazing (and cold) view of the entire city squished in between the ocean on both sides. Hakodate turned out to be a lot bigger than either of us expected. What was also interesting was seeing the lights of civilization spread along the coast for a very long way in either direction. It was also neat walking to the other side of the observatory and seeing the lights from Aomori across the ocean or channel or sea or whatever.



When it got too cold, we made our way back to SUPER HOTEL and relaxed, buying beer on the way (naturally). We even saw a little of the opening ceremony for the Olympics.

2010.02.13