Weather: Hot in Hakodate and Tomakomai
… but not too humid
MP3 track of the day: beautiful neighborhood - Space
My train to Tomakomai
didn't leave Hakodate until midday therefore, there was no real need
to get up too early. I had to vacate my room by 10am therefore, I was
up in time to allow for me to get some breakfast, before returning to
my hotel to hand in my room key and await my train. I decided to fill
the time by reading my book and upgrading my PC to Windows 10 (see
how that goes).
At
11:30am Windows had finished updating and it was time for I to head
to the local convenience store – to grab some snacks for the
journey – and make my way to the train station.
Of
course I arrived early however luckily, so to did the train. I
therefore got to sit in my reserved window seat and await the off. A
husband, wife and their child boarded soon after me and they must
have booked their tickets late as, the man was suppose to sit next to
me with his wife in the row behind (however, the seat next to her
didn’t fill for another six stops therefore, the man went back and
forth from his seat to the one behind after every stop). I
suppose that I could have given them my seat however, I had a window
seat and I was jolly well going to hang onto it. As we pulled out of
the station two of my senses were hit at the same time. Due to the
weather, the views were amazing out of the window. The second sense
to be hit was my nose because boy, something smelt good.
As
the husband reappeared to take his seat next to mine, he seemed to
have a `lucky Perriot` carrier bag with a hamburger inside. Though I
wished I'd done the same, there was little I could do about it now. I
decided to just sit back in my seat and try not to look at this
delicious, meaty, fresh burger just to the right of me. This wasn't
actually as hard as you might think; at the same time as he revealed
his lunch, we were passing though the national park I visited two
days ago. Out of the window I could see a twin-peaked volcano, which
is why this national park is famous. From the islands in the
wetlands, these twin peaks can be seen making an excellent backdrop.
I didn't mention them two days ago because the little cloud that had
been around, had hidden them from view. Today though, they were out
in full glory however, it would appear that no one else on the train
seemed interested. Sometimes I despair at the human race. Here I was,
peering out of the window taking in the mountains, lakes and
vegetation of this beautiful place whereas most others were either
asleep or eating. Some, believe it or not, had pulled their curtain
so the sun's glare wouldn't prevent them from seeing photos, of the
place we were currently travelling through, on their phone! Though it
hurt a tad, my head never changed direction and I was constantly
glued to the window.
At
halfway through the journey I decided to eat my snacks and drink my
drink. The mystery man – who was in the seat behind me thus
splitting the couple – eventually boarded and kindly took the seat
next to me allowing the couple to sit together. I continued looking
out onto the world loving every minute of it. Soon we passed places
that, once I had my car, I would come back and visit and I was
itching to visit them now. I sat back down trying not to show my
frustration.
When
I arrived in Tomakomai, the question which should have been asked
wasn't `where am I?` but, `when am I?`. I would guess at some point
in the 1950's but an actual year was hard to pin down. Though
Hakodate had looked a little like a dump in places; it was at least a
welcoming dump. This was just a dump pure and simple. Every building
looked as though it should have been torn down by now (some looked
as though they would fall down soon enough). I made my way though
1950's suburbia heading for my hotel which, on the Google map I'd
printed off, looked as though it was very close to the train station
indeed.
I'm
not sure at what scale I printed my map off however, I guess a
similar scaled map would have made `Paris to Berlin` look like a days
hike. It took me half an hour to reach my hotel which, though I was
certain this wasn't a conservation area, blended into the 1950's
run-down look very well indeed. This turned out not to matter because
as soon as I walked in, I was met by a very nice lady who told me all
I needed to know, plus where the closest book store was. I thanked
her and went up to my room (which has it's own bathroom, but lacks
air-conditioning) to take a shower and change my clothes. I was
soon off out again.
You
know it's never a good omen when your first jobs are all related to
how you are going to leave the city you had just arrived in however,
that was my lot. First of all I went to the local book store to buy a road map for when I got my car. Before leaving the train station, to
find my hotel, I had inquired into when the first train left
Tomakomai for Otaru tomorrow (8:12am therefore, another early
morning) and finally, I went to the rental car place to make sure
all was well there. Things were good so I took a few photos of the
city and went to find somewhere to eat …. which turned out to be a
fast food restaurant selling bowls of rice with meat and vegetables
in them.
Once
consumed I left the restaurant and headed to a convenience store,
close to my hotel, to get myself something sweet for dessert and a
huge bottle of drink for my three-night stay. As I mentioned above,
tomorrow will see me getting up at 6:20am so that I can catch the
8:12am train to Otaru. I will get into Otaru at 10am and, hopefully,
I'll spend a couple of hours there before getting to Sapporo around
2pm. I hope to have three to four hours in Sapporo before coming back
to Tomakomai. I am very much looking forward to tomorrow; though
trying to see two cities in one day is a large ask, these two cities
are no strangers to me. This will be the third time I have visited
these cities though, the last two times were in winter when they were
covered in snow. I am therefore really looking forward to seeing the
change.
Right
that's it from me for today. I am off to get a lovely shower (well
when I say lovely. The shower head fires the water at you with the
sole purpose of removing all of your skin) before hitting 'the
sack' while watching a little TV. Sapporo and Otaru here I come!
Toodle
Pip!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment