j1m0ne's blog

Outlining trip #4 to Japan.

Depressingly, mother nature wasn’t kind either this year – it rained for most of the duration of my 10-day stay but I always had an umbrella on hand so it wasn’t too bad to be honest. Like last year, I crashed at my brother’s flat in Futako-Tamagawa, which is about 10 minutes away from Shibuya on the Den-en-Toshi line. Things are most definitely easier when you have a home base and aren’t living out of a suitcase – you can actually cook and eat decent meals instead of surviving on bento.

The trip to Japan was pretty amusing by itself. Swine flu has definitely killed tourist arrivals in Japan somewhat – my incoming flight was at best 30% full and immigration at Narita Airport was ridiculously empty. It was crazy but definitely enjoyable – I certainly hate the long waits at the airport I had to endure on past trips, but I do fear that if this keeps up the route I normally travel on will get canceled. Fingers crossed it won’t.

Day 1-5: Hokkaido

Hokkaido was obviously the main meat of the whole trip, and it was overall a very pleasant one (discounting the weather) for me. Just three hours of sleep on the Friday night and I was off on a plane to Sapporo-Chitose Airport on the Saturday. Internal flights still look pretty lively, the Boeing 747 was definitely full to the max with the Tokyo crowd escaping for a weekend getaway.

Rain was the main feature of our stay in Sapporo, but it didn’t really put a halt to our plans which included a visit to the Sapporo Beer Museum (with beer tasting of course), wandering around the Susukino business/entertainment district and strolling through Odori Kouen, where the Lilac Festival was taking place.

We took a day trip to Otaru on Day 2, which is about half an hour west of Sapporo – it’s a sleep little tourist-oriented village that came highly recommended by a colleague who had visited a few weeks earlier. And indeed it was a smashing little place, perfect for a casual stroll taking in the sights while indulging in a little shopping. Especially so if you like browsing through trinket and souvenir shops peddling everything from the town’s famous music boxes (be prepared to hear a lot of them here), hand-crafted wooden toys, glassware and squeaky toy bananas.

Trishaws were a big feature in Otaru as well as in Hakodate, the final stop on the Hokkaido trip. I would say this was the least enjoyable leg of the tour, Hakodate is a pretty small city and we got through most of the famous landmarks in one day – the British Consulate, the churches and the Public Hall. Having said that, the night view from Mt. Ropeway (you take a cable car to get up there) was quite breathtaking, and I did savour two of the more memorable meals from my entire trip there.

First was dinner at Gotoken, which is apparently famous nationwide for its duck curry. I was boring and chose beef stew but it was really good, as was the steak and the gyutan is not bad too or so I’m told. The next day I had lunch at the kaitenzushi chain store Marukatsu Suisan, and that was quite spectacular too (though I’ve read that Kantarou should be the place to go instead). There’s a food log in the next post that’ll cover what I ate during the entire trip.

Hakodate shopping was decent but not incredible, the usual array of seafood products available at the Asaichi morning markets, plus the huge spread of omiyage at virtually every shop in the Bay area. After 4 days in Hokkaido, it was time to get back to Tokyo. I do hope to return at some point in the future, there’s places further east such as Furano, Noboribetsu, Asahikawa and Abashiri that remain unexplored.

Day 6-11: Tokyo
Back to sanity? Not really, I dislike crowded places intensely which is why I deliberately chose to avoid applying for a London-based university when I was deciding in my student days. Anyhow, I’m already quite used to Tokyo and its non-stop hustle-bustle, plus the trains/subways are always amazing… compared to the addled London underground of course.

I still didn’t get around to exploring Asakusa this time, preferring to return to the old haunts of Ueno’s Ameyoko district and downtown Shibuya (plus a side trip to Yoga) from Wednesday to Friday. For me, Tokyo is really all about the food and shopping since it’s not my first and definitely not my last time in the city. Which meant photos taken were at a minimum, I’d already seen Hachiko and the scramble crossing in Shibuya, rode in a shinkansen and done all the usual touristy stuff on earlier trips.

Saturday was reserved for Akiba and I spent 3 1/2 hours speed browsing and buying in Book-Off, Gamers, Toranoana, Animate, Sofmap and Yodobashi. Everywhere I went it was an ULTIMATE DIAMOND paradise with the many special Nana displays and stands. I wish I could’ve gotten better pictures of some of them (the Toranoana one in particular) but it was 1)raining 2)packed to the brim with people, so I wasn’t really keen on getting run over in the stampede.

K-ON! was also predictably a big feature at most of the anime stores, and my ears kept getting assaulted by Mikuru’s voice as well. Akiba was followed by a brief trip to Shinjuku, which predictably on a Saturday night was packed with people. Hanged around Takashimaya Times Square for a while, then headed for dinner in Shibuya before going home.

Sunday was all about planned trips that didn’t happen – first I intended to go to the Tanaka Rie event but crossed that out in favour of a trip to the Ghibli museum instead. However that didn’t happen either so we ended up making a trip to Kawasaki in nearby Kanagawa for more retail therapy at the Lazona Kawasaki Plaza (adjacent to the station) – I think I bought more clothes this time than I have in the last 5 years.

This being a part travel, part relaxation trip – I spent quite a bit of time sitting around at home reading and occasionally catching up with work(!). You’d probably think that it’s crazy to waste precious Tokyo time sitting around doing nothing, but I am returning in mid-August so I was never in any real hurry to see or do anything. Amusingly very little I planned to do got actually did get done apart from the shopping – a pattern that I predict will repeat itself in August. But I must go to Ghibli museum and Disneyland/Disneysea then. I must.

I always enjoy myself on holidays no matter where I am and what I do, and this was no exception. Lots of great memories, lots of great food, lots of reminders of my folly. Shopping tales in the next post!