Weather: Great. Not too hot however the
skies were blue with picturesque white clouds.
MP3 track of the day: Twenty-four hours
– Athlete
Due to having an early
night, I found myself wide awake at around 6:45am. This was good. My
alarm had been scheduled to go off at seven anyway therefore, I
turned it off and got up. The extra fifteen minutes allowed me to
take a little longer getting ready. Once I'd showered, I had a shave
before going on the internet for a short while. I found myself ready
to leave my hotel at around 8am however, I wasn't ready to leave
Asahikawa just yet. After checking out – and receiving yet another
small present of food – I asked the owner if it was okay if I could
leave my car within his car park for another hour and a half while I
walk around Hokkaido's second largest city and took photos. He said
that this wouldn't be a problem and so that is exactly what I did.
Though this is Hokkaido's
second largest city, Hokkaido isn't famed for it's large metropolitan
areas therefore, it didn't take me long to walk down Asahikawa's main
pedestrianised street ending up at the stunning new train station.
Though Asahikawa won't win any 'beauty awards', the local council has
tried hard to make the best out of a pretty glum place; street art is
everywhere from fancy lights to a pair of hands coming out a pond. My
favourite piece had to be a sculpture of a man sitting on a bench
entertaining a cat with his saxophone. It was through taking these
photos that I remembered that I hadn't yet bought a photo book. Not
holding out much hope, I went into Asahikawa's train station and into
the mighty AEON shopping centre. I went into the only book shop there
and, surprise surprise, no photo books. There was a magazine, which
had limited Japanese and huge amount of photos of everywhere I'd been
on my holiday, for sale. Guessing that this was probably as good as
it was going to get, I bought the magazine and headed back to my car.
The time was 9:46am and I was ready to go; photographed Asahikawa –
check; had breakfast – check; car full with fuel – check. I
planned my route and off I went.
Due to Hokkaido being
full of mountains, finding a road which I hadn't used before – but
still went in the general direction I wanted to go – proved
difficult. I settled for a brand new beginning to my trip which saw
me leave Asahikawa in a westerly direction. I would then join the
'452' and fly south through 'speed camera death' village before
heading south-west to Tomakomai. I knew I had plenty of time
therefore, I decided that I would stop off whenever I fancied. As I
was leaving Asahikawa it gave me a parting gift of a beautiful,
European monastery-looking building, perched on top of a hill. I
didn't stop to take a photo however, it wouldn't be long before I did
stop.
About forty minutes out
of Asahikawa I found myself driving through rolling hills of
farmland. I had seen a signed 'photo stop' and proceeded to follow
it. I stopped my car and took a couple of photos however, the sight
didn't captivate me for long.
Pressing on I eventually
joined the '452' heading south. Though I had been on this road
before, I didn't really care as it has become one of my favourite
roads in Hokkaido due to being located in a beautiful valley and it
having no traffic lights (plus you could count the number of
vehicles on the road using one hand). My speed had fallen
drastically and, though I had to avoid many stupid foxes, I was just
enjoying the view of the mountains, the river and the vegetation
which seemed as though it would consume me at any second.
As I got close to 'speed
camera death' village I stopped at a, marginally interesting dam, to
take a phew photos, remove a dead hornet from my windscreen wiper and
to prepare myself for the reduction of speed. As I drove from the
dam, through a tunnel, I hit the breaks and my speed dropped to 56kms
(34mph) where every kilometre
felt like an 'age of this world'. Though there were no 'do gooders'
out on the streets, there were plenty of speed signs and it would
appear that every driver currently within this area was taking them
seriously.
Finally,
heroically I made it out of the village and allowed my speed to
increase a little. I found myself within a large patchwork area of
fertile farm land. The sky was blue and so I decided to decrease my
speed once more – much to the annoyance of the train of vehicles
behind me – and enjoy the view. Tears were forming in my eyes as I
knew, soon enough, that all of this would come to an end.
I
made it into Tomakomai at around 1:30pm. Even with stops and driving
slowly, I didn't think that I would be arriving this early. I pulled
over to get a little more cash and to eat my final dinner. Whilst in
a restaurant I text my Japanese friend and explained my predicament
(three hours until my car was due back; five hours until my
train was due and I was stuck in Tomakomai). In
a flash my phone indicated that I had a message and, once read, I had
directions to a lake within fifteen minutes of where I currently was.
I ate my dinner quickly and headed off to the final tourist site my
car and I would travel together to.
During
this holiday, I had seen something like fourteen lakes however, this
one still captivated me for the hour I had to kill. Probably due to
the blue skies but, this lake – though not famous or big – did
look very pretty indeed. I followed a nature trail around part of the
lake and took quite a few photos. While visiting the information
centre, I discovered that this small area of water was actually very
important for migrating birds which travel from eastern Russia down
to Australia and back every year. I spend a few minutes looking at
all of the different species which use this natural resource before
checking my watch and realising that it was time to give my car back.
As I headed out into the car park there was my car; Charles. Like a
faithful dog it was ready to do as I asked.
Though
the drive back to the car rental place couldn't have been more than
twenty minutes, it was quite an emotional time. Though this cheap,
slow - and sometimes annoying - thing I found myself in is just a
car, it is also solely responsible for the fantastic time I have had
in Hokkaido. No mountain, no matter how steep, stopped this little
thing from getting me to where I wanted to go. When I finally handed
back the keys we had covered over 3,600km together in just 10 days.
This surprised the manager of the rental place immensely and, as I
told him where we had been together, memories came flooding back. I
gave the car one final check and a final 'thank you'. I walked away
not looking back.
It
would appear that, over the last ten days, I have bought quite a lot
of souvenirs. I don't remember my bag being this heavy when I started
this holiday however, luckily, It was only a five minute walk to the
station. Once there I walked straight through and into the attached
1950's shopping centre where I found a bench to sit, look through my
photos and write part of this blog.
All
to soon it was time to get my train. I packed up my stuff and went to
the appropriate platform. Once boarded, I noticed that the carriage
was hardly full therefore, I sat down with no one next to me hoping
that my next train journey would be the same. Due to it being pitch
black outside I got out my book and continued to read.
I am
enjoying the 'Girl with the dragoon tattoo' however, the chapters
aren't half long. It was only a fifty minute train ride however, I
stopped reading after a chapter in fear of having to stop midway
through another. Once I'd finished reading, it wasn't long before
Sapporo came into view. I got my stuff ready as I had one final
'tourist thing' I wanted to do before heading home and, I only had
two hours to do it in.
As
soon as the doors opened I was off the train like a shot. I found a
locker to store all of my stuff, bar my camera and tri-pod, and off I
went into the night. This was my fourth visit to Sapporo therefore,
it's streets were no stranger to me. I made it to Sapporo's central
parks and noticed that it had only taken ten minutes to walk here. I
therefore calculated that I had a maximum of forty minutes around
Sapporo's parks (photographing at will), giving me ten minutes
to get back to the station with a further hour to get my bags, do a
bit of last minute shopping and find my train which would take me
home. I therefore slowed down a little, took in the night air and
allowed my camera to work.
Sapporo's
TV tower was lit up beautifully; after taking many photos of it, some
beer gardens and four posh – but rather noisy – super cars I
walked as quickly as I could to the other end of Sapporo's central
parks. You see; when I was here ten days ago (has it really been
that long?) I photographed a beautiful old building - with some
beautiful gardens in front of it – to death. I could only imagine
what it would look like at night therefore, I raced there only to
find disappointment. The building wasn't lit up at all; worst still,
the hike had cost me my remaining time therefore, I headed back to
the train station glad I'd made the effort to see Sapporo at night
however, I found myself less than 'bowled-over' by it due to the lack
of things illuminated.
I
reached the train station five minutes later than I'd planned. It
mattered not; I bought myself some 'Royce' chocolate before
getting my bags out of the locker. Once on the platform, it wasn't
long before my night train arrived to whisk me away from this
beautiful island and back to the harsh reality of trying to teach
Japanese children a second language. As I boarded the train I took
one last look at Sapporo's 'platform 4'.
This
being the holiday season the whole train was packed. When the guy –
who had reserved the seat next to mine - finally arrived, it seemed
as though he realised that spending the whole day worshipping the god
Imhotep - and giving sacrifice - so that there would be no passenger
sat beside him had been for nothing. I wasn't particularly happy
about the situation either and yet, he couldn't have looked more
disgusted. This young looking, glass wearing, sandal walking Japanese
bloke sat next to me and we said a total of zero words to each other.
I didn't care; I ate a few of my new chocolates before placing an eye
mask over my face with the aim of trying to fall asleep.
*******
For
those 'one otter around the world' hard-core fans, you will of course
remember the excruciating pain I received the last time I took the
night train back home from Sapporo (Snow festival 2013). Though
this train was from the same era as the other one, there seemed to be
more leg room therefore, when I opened my eyes at 5:30am, I noticed
that I'd managed to get a good five hours of sleep … off and on.
With only forty-five minutes until the train arrived at it's terminus
I gazed out into the morning light and noticed, every-so-often, that
groups of Japanese men had gathered to take photos of the train I was
travelling on. Now, not for one second did I mock them however, I did
wonder why. Was the train I was on special? Was this it's last run? I
had no idea what the answers to these questions where; all I knew is
that I must have seen at least twelve groups of between two and eight
people on my way to Aomori's train station.
Once
at Aomori's train station I noticed that guys were still taking
photos. I had no time to ponder the above questions as I had to, not
only change trains, but I also had to change stations as well. You
see, this train brought me too Aomori's central station whereas, I
wanted it's Shinkansen station. As you would expect the transfer was
faultless and I boarded my Shinkansen train in less than twelve
minutes. Once on board I opened my book as nothing new could be seen
from the window however, I did raise an eye when Morioka – my old
main city where I have spent a lot of time – came into view.
Once
past Morioka it wasn't long before my train was heading into Sendai
station. I alighted, happy to find that the sweltering heat had
disappeared and a reasonable temperature had taken it's place. I
proceeded down isles and through ticket barriers I last went through
sixteen days ago (I could hardly believe it) until
I reached my usual platform. Having used this 'Tagajo train' a
billion times there was nothing much to report. All I will say is
that, once I had alighted in Tagajo, it dawned on me that this ugly
grey town will never feel like home. You see; previously I lived in
Miyako, Iwate and there was a 'homely' feeling to it. I can't explain
it but, after one of my many previous holidays there was a feeling -
when I entered my old apartment in Miyako - which I did not feel
entering my apartment in Tagajo. It was all rather mundane as I did a
quick sweep for bugs - who'd squatted here over the last sixteen days
- unpacked and filled up my fridge. The rain was pouring down outside
and I was glad; Tagajo maybe sad to see me but, in truth, I was sad
to see it too.
Next time: September … Japanese F1!
Toodle Pip!
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