Weather: Only around twenty-five
degrees in Sapporo, with sporadic light showers and a good gust of
wind.
MP3 track of the day: Built this city on rock and roll - Starship
Remarkably, without
air-conditioning I had managed to sleep rather well and yet, though I
had gotten almost eight hours sleep, I still felt sleepy. Still,
after getting ready I was soon feeling full of energy. I left the
hotel just gone 7am and before I reached the train station, I picked
up a 'snack breakfast' at a local convenience store. I had made such
good time that, once I was at the train station, I managed to
purchase my tickets and board and earlier train. This
was great as it got me into Sapporo just in time to change onto a
train heading out to Otaru. When I boarded, the train was packed with
people however I feared not; looking at most people, I thought that
they were local and, given that Otaru was a small place in the middle
of nowhere, I wrongly assumed that most people would alight early,
within the satellite towns around Sapporo leaving me free to sit down
for 75% of the journey. I was so confident that, when a seat became
vacant after only the first stop, I offered it to someone else.
Of
course no other seat became vacant until two stops before I was due
to get off. I couldn't believe it; it was a work day and most people
on the train were heading to a pokey little town on the northern-edge
of Hokkaido. The important thing was that I reached Otaru at 9:30am,
giving me two or three hours to quickly look around before heading to
Sapporo but first, I deemed that 9:30am was close enough to
'elevenses' that I was allowed to enter a local Mr Donuts for a donut
or two.
Once
my donuts had been consumed, I headed out of the restaurant and
towards Otaru's coastline. Today I had been put under pressure by
mother nature and man. Man because some things I wanted to see closed
at 4:30pm (Sapporo's botanical gardens)
and mother nature because my day light would run out around 6:30pm
and, more urgently than that, big black clouds seemed to have been
strategically positioned over Otaru. Last nights weather forecast
predicted that it should have been raining by now therefore, I felt
as though I was on borrowed time. I rushed to the coast to take as
many photos as mother nature allowed.
It's
amazing just how much difference seasons can make. I have been to
Otaru twice before however, both times were in the thick of winter.
Without the snow Otaru was a lot greener and much easier to move
around. The footpath running beside the canal (which is
very close to the coastline) was
a lot wider than I remembered and, a small alleyway used during the
snow festival, turned out to be part of a disused railway! I
continued onwards, taking photos of Otaru's canal and the old brick
warehouses on the other side (which is what makes this area
so picturesque). Once the canal
had been successfully photographed, I headed inland to a street I
love. It's on this street that, during the snow festival, all of the
shops are open with there lights on and staff outside shouting about
their products for sale … most of which were cakes (I
soooo wanted to buy a local cheesecake however, the queue was to
long). During winter, this road
reminded me of a scene from some Charles Dickens' novel however,
during summer, this road had lost a bit of it's charm and became
rather, mundane. I went along and took quite a few photos pretty
shocked to see just how low the pavement is - when there isn't inches
of compact ice on it - before turning around and heading to the last
attraction within Otaru; it's old bank.
Built
in 1912, the bank has been turned into a museum which was free to
enter. Not really in a 'museum mood', I entered anyway just to get a
look at the décor. Once past an 80 year old security guard, I looked
up at the magnificent roof; the main room of the building was so vast
and yet, no central pillars were needed to support the roof. The
roofs design was intriguing and, all-in-all, I spent longer gazing at
the roof compared to looking at the exhibits about the history of
Japan's money... much to the annoyance of the security guard.
Once
outside I glanced at my watch and realised that I had been in Otaru
way over two hours. I headed back to the train station leaving this
'European colonial looking outpost' behind me. I do hope to go to the
Snow Festival again next year so, maybe, I'll be back here in six
months. Once at the station a train was waiting for me and so I
jumped on and headed all the way back to Sapporo. Being around
midday, there was hardly anyone else on the thing.
Once
back in Sapporo, my first port of call was to find something for
lunch. I was in a 'foreign food' mood however … not another
hamburger. I Headed out of Sapporo's train station and out into the
city. This lasted all of ten minutes due to a sudden, but not
unexpected, downpour. I found myself diving for Sapporo's underground
walkway (which I used so much during the snow festival to
avoid icy pavements). This
became a blessing as, once in the underground walkway, I found a
'Subway sandwich' restaurant. Sadly, in Japan, you can't order a 12”
sub therefore, I ate the 6” and had a packet of chips to go with
it.
Once
I'd consumed my sub I headed once more for open ground and was
delighted to find that the rain had stopped. I therefore pushed onto
Sapporo's central parks where I was amazed. Sapporo is a city
designed on the American's useful – but bland – block system. In
the centre of Sapporo lies ten 'blocks' (running east to
west) all of which were parks
and, it is these, that were used to hold the Snow festival. As I
looked around I couldn't believe it; the amount of colour coming from
the trees and flower beds were in stark contrast to the sheer white
of the snow festival. I circled all ten parks trying to work out
which snow sculpture went where. Businessmen and women were eating
their lunch, on benches, whereas children were using the playground
facilities which, I couldn't even remember being there back in
February. Each 'block' had a unique feature and, usually, it was a
fountain of some sort. These had probably been drained and removed
for the snow festival so it was great to see them active. Once I had
reached the final 'block' I stood there amazed. Way in the distance
was a beautiful big 1900's European style building. In front of it
was a rectangular shaped garden with an inner, and outer, oval. A
small stream ran through the centre with a fountain in the middle. At
both ends of the ovals lay a sculpture and, in between the ovals
themselves, were hundreds of flowers. I spent my time walking around
this park loving every second; my camera hasn't been so busy.
Once
I'd photographed this park to death, it was time to move onto
Hokkaido's old government building which too, was a 1900's European
building. Just like the parks, I'd visited this building in February
however, with all of the flowers and trees in full bloom, the
government building looked more beautiful than I'd ever seen it. I
stopped at a point where the building's garden was between me and the
building itself. I then let my camera go allowing it to take in all
of the colour.
The
time was 2:30pm and I still had 'Sapporo's most famous tourist
destination' to visit; or so my guidebook stated. Lucky, Sapporo's
botanical gardens were only a five minute walk from where I currently
was. I had been really looking forward to the botanical gardens
because, out of very thing I've seen today, this was my first brand
new destination due to the fact that, in winter, it's closed. The
botanical gardens belong to the University and it did have a very
'educational' feel to it. First off all every plant, within it's vast
grounds, was labelled in Japanese and in English. Secondly walking
routes had been designed to allow visitors to see either everything,
or a 'taster' in the form of a 'short path'. I was shocked to see
that the short route took an estimated hour to complete whereas, the
longer route pushed onto ninety minutes. Looking at my watch I was
getting short on time. Being me I decided that I wanted to get my
'monies worth' therefore, I went for the longer route and picked up
the pace.
At
first I thought the timings were spot on. It had taken me ten minutes
to get from point '1' to point '3' on the map however, this was due
to a few greenhouses being placed in between (with quite a
few rare plants inside). The
cacti were interesting however, I really loved the carnivorous
plants; inside that particular greenhouse the Venus fly-traps were
strewn all over the place and, with no one there checking up on me, I
could get really close and take so great photos. After this the
gardens went down hill rapidly; so much so that I completed both the
mini-walk, and the longer walk, in less than thirty minutes. I
suppose the best way to sum up the gardens is that, if you know your
stuff, it could be one of the most fascinating places to walk around.
Like I said before, all of the plants were labelled and a lot of them
were well organised in rows … but I wasn't a 'plant nut'. As long
as the garden is beautiful, I don't really care what plants are in
it! There was an interesting part where there were loads of plants in
a 'grid format'; a board close-by told you which plant was used by
the 'ancient people of this island' and for what reason however, most
of the information wasn't in English. As I walked into the gardens
final attraction - a museum about the ancient people of this island –
I was wondering why my guidebook had given this place such a good
write up. Sadly the museum followed suit and didn't hold my attention
for long. The model house was pretty good but all of the clothes I'd
seen already in Hakodate and, if I hear one more person describe
ancient tribes as 'really advanced' one more time I am going to
scream. Did they invent air-conditioning? Did they invent the coffee
machine? No. Then how 'advanced' can they seriously have been.
With
a bit of a 'cheesed off' look on my face, I left the botanical
gardens thirty-five minutes after I'd entered (according to
the leaflet, I should have been there for a minimum of 3 hours) and
headed back to Sapporo's train station due to light rain falling once
more.
I
made it back to Sapporo's train station at 3:45pm … and hour
earlier than I thought I would. I paused for a while wondering if I
should go back into the city as this would be my only proper visit.
In the end I decided against it; the clouds were darkening and I had
seen what I wanted to see. To perk myself up, I found the same cake
shop that was in Otaru and ordered a slice of cheesecake to take with
me on the train. I went through the ticket gate and waited for my
train to arrive, which didn't take long. Once sat down I ate my
cheesecake and drank a bottle of water, which I'd also purchased. The
cake was divine; it was so smooth and silky and yet, not too over
powering … I loved it so much that I could have eaten another slice
however, the train started to pull out of the station and into a
total downpour of rain.
The
train going back was packed; so much so that its usually very rare to
see anyone standing up on this type of train and yet, one teenager
was stood near to where her mother was sitting. She didn't need to
stand as the last remaining unoccupied seat was next to me however,
she declined. Other Japanese people had declined it to and this
wasn't the first time (I smelt quite good today too). The
typical Japanese person's fear of foreigners is not only stupid, but
in my eyes can be seen as being quite rude. Still I had plenty of
room and enjoyed the fact all the way back to Tomakomai.
I am
now back in my hotel however, they have moved me to another room.
Today, at 10:30am, I received a strange call from the hotel to which
I just said 'yes' too. As it turned out that 'yes' meant that I had
agreed to move rooms to one which has an internet connection. Bless
the people in the hotel but yesterday, they must have seen me go down
to reception, computer in hand, to use the internet as the signal
wouldn't reach to my old room. While I was away they had moved
everything of mine into this new room and had placed it carefully.
They had also placed the wifi box within my room so that I could get
an ace signal however …. it is different to the wifi system used
downstairs therefore, it requires a different user name and password
... both of which I do not know. This puts me in the awkward position
of being back downstairs using their internet when they think that I
have a connection in my room. Still … bless them for trying.
Tomorrow,
I am off to another national park and this time … I am going by
car!
Toodle
Pip!
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