30/04/18 Goodbye Tokyo, a day full of transportation today to get to Sapporo. My second trip on the Shinkansen, to cross half the country in about 8h. As Tokyo station is a terminal, I could watch the train seats turning in the right direction before being ready for us to board. Cool!
I arrived at the hotel around 5.30, it is nice, industrial look and probably the most comfy mattress I had so far in a dorm. It is a mixed dorm this time, I hope the boys won’t snore… ?
I spotted melon flavoured pockys in here… (They are like ‘mikados’ we have in Belgium – biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate – I have been buying a lot of those recently for some reason – probably to keep my choc level high, and this one is good chocolate!) I hesitate to buy the melon one for my brother, who hates it, just the smell makes him sick ?! But that would be a waste so I only buy the raspberry one for myself, which I see for the first time here too. I also spotted melon jelly, it seems like melon is a local specialty. Vivi can I get you some? ?
Also Sapporo is awesome, it encourages you to take the stairs at the subway station by telling you how many calories you burn at every step ?. Well that might help burning all the pockys…
Nicole if you read this, the ducks on my previous post are just for you ??
01/05/18 The alarm rang too early, my eyes look so tired today! But it is probably the last sunny day before I leave so I am sticking to the plan – 4h train to Hakodate to see the Goryokaku park (a fort located on a star shaped field) to see my last cherry trees. I am lucky the park is not too busy, but I have to leave early as I wanted to watch the sunset and night view from Mt Hakodate. I walk passed a famous Japanese burger chain Lucky Pierrot (their logo is an ugly clown you can’t miss it) but didn’t have the time to stop as there was a big queue and could not miss the bus to the ropeway. Then a 3 min ascending trip on the cable car takes me to the highest scenery of Hakodate. I arrived around 5.15, just on time to save my spot at the front for the pictures without tourists, yoohoo! Despite a girl who insisted and kept her hand on the ramp in front of me like if I would give away my spot. Now I just had to wait 2h for the sun to go down, by 10 degrees. Well it didn’t get down fast enough for me to catch the dark night view (the last train was at 7.53!!) but the view was still awesome when the lights started to shine just before 7.
Then a shuttle bus to another 4h train back to Sapporo to get back to the hostel, around midnight. Long day!
02/05/18 It was supposed to rain today, but the sky looked like a Belgian sky so I went to Mt Moiwa, famous for its unbeatable night view, one of the 3 best of Japan. On the way, I stopped by the Nakajima park, which has a few cherry trees. A beautiful stop as the park also has gardens, water, and museum. And a magnificent cherry tree which has its branches falling like a weeping willow (saule pleureur). If I have the chance, I want to have one in my garden one day, it is beautiful!
To get to Mt Moiwa, you take a ropeway to the first level, then a cable car to the summit. Of course every level has a different price. They have a restaurant with a view up there and a stars observatory (for an additional price too). It was pretty quiet when I got there around 5.30 but once the sun went down, a constant flow of people kept coming with every cable car. It was freezing up there that night (about 5 degrees) and super windy (when you get up so high) and it was drizzling too. But at least I got to shoot the city in the dark, not at sunset like yesterday.
03/05/18 As it was supposed to rain all day, I thought I would explore Sapporo’s underground, as there are many shopping galleries. After checkout, I went straight to my last hostel, located 10min walk from the station I will use tomorrow to leave Sapporo, then I went window shopping. Later, I bought some groceries for the long travel day tomorrow. Back at the hostel, I went to the bar as they offered me a free drink. I had a chance to socialise with the staff and a good looking traveller from Chile who offered to go out for a beer. He has been travelling for 2.5 years, sleeping in a tent most of the time, carrying a 27L bag, including the tent. I seriously need to reconsider what is necessary… He also lived in Australia for a year, it looks like everyone has done it! The staff lady (Japanese) is married to an Australian guy from Adelaide, who lived in the US. I thought I left Australia but Australia is everywhere ?. The hostel owner has 2 hostels and plans to open a 3d one in Mexico in a few months. I like the idea of having a place to stay in multiple countries, when you own a hotel you don’t need to pay for the room or service!
04/05/18 Departure at 5.30 am, to catch 3 high speed trains to get to the airport, as I am off to Belgium today. Well this will give me a chance to sleep a little, as 2 guys snore all night, of course the snore master was in the bunk bed under mine! I didn’t close my eyes for one second… I will never book a mixed dorm ever again…
Goodbye Japan, I miss you already.
