So where was I, oh yeah, Hokkaido! In my previous post I actually forgot to mention I ran into some shrines near my hotel, which had some cool statues, and I actually found “the sweeper” (read Discworld if you have now idea what I’m talking about).

Anyway, once I visited the university, it was time for some more Hokkaido culture and visit the original Sapporo beer factory. Sapporo beer has brewed for over a hundred years now, and the first factory has, of course, been turned into a museum. Here you find the history of Sapporo beer, all clearly explained in Japanese…

It was fun to see that, since the founder of Sapporo beer got into beer making after a visit to Germany, all Sapporo beer bottles have German written on them since the beginning of the brand.

Also, apparently Sapporo beer is made my small elves/angels or something…

Having witnessed this miraculous process, it was of course time to taste the final product, so I sat down in the empty beer hall and had myself a nice cold Sapporo classic (only available in Hokkaido…).

After visiting the factory, it was time to do some studying again, so I found myself a nice place to study until it was time to get some dinner. After dinner I went to one of the bars mentioned in my lonely planet, Hall Stairs Espresso Bar, which was a very dark, atmospheric, interesting, but mostly empty bar. I clearly picked the wrong night to go to this place, so I left the place after a few drinks, ready to go back to my hotel early.

On my way back to the hotel, I walked past another bar mentioned in my guide, so I decided to just give it a go and check it out. Blues Alley is a large bar, divided into several areas, which gives a homely feel to the place. As I was alone I got a spot at the bar and there I quickly started a conversation with the bartenders, Yuki-san and Makoto-san (I think… kinda lost their business cards, gomen ne!).

As they couldn’t speak a word of English, all our conversations were in Japanese only. Needless to say, this helped improve my Japanese a lot, and it was very very fun to talk to these guys. They told me were the best onsen were, and where I could eat the best Jingus Kahn, fried lamb meat. I told them about Holland and we spoke about lots of other stuff as well. I left the place around three in the morning, drunk as hell and very happy, thanks guys!

The next day it was finally time to visit an onsen area. Time to chill in the hot springs! I went to Jozankei Onsen, about an hours drive by bus from Sapporo. When I arrived there, I was immediately treated with an excellent view of the Jozankei area.

Snowy peaks, hotels and the river running between them, quite impressive. I walked around town a bit, following the map around to find locations of interest, while deciding which onsen to visit here. I ran into many interesting things, like eggs being boiled (I think) in the hot water and the god of the river.

While walking around, I reached the river edge where I located a bridge in the distance, which I just hád to go and check out.

Once I reached the bridge, I found the snowy hill on the other side quite interesting, so I decided to climb it to see what was up there. Climbing it proved a bit of a challenge, since the snow was quite deep, so I kept on sinking away in it. Even in the footsteps created before me, I sank deeper. Obviously a bit heavier than the average Japanese person. Still, it was very fun to do, and once I got to the top, I finally found an onsen! So it was finally relaxation time…

I spent about two hours soaking in the various baths found inside, until it was time to head back to Sapporo. I dozed all the way back to the city, so I arrived quite relaxed back at the city. There I quickly located the Jingus Kahn restaurant, recommended by Yuki and went in for the tabehoudai/nomihoudai, or all you can eat and drink! For about 25 Euro, I got to stuff my face with a shitload of lamb meat, vegetables, rice and of course some beers.

After dinner, I was so stuffed, I couldn’t do anything but go home and sleep the night away. On my last day, I decided to visit Hokkaido Jingu, Hokkaido’s first Shinto Shrine. It is situated inside a forest/park on the edge of town, and once you’re there, you immediately forgot you’re really still in an urban area. All you find, is the peace and serenity of the shrine and nature around it.

As is normal with shrines, at the entrance was the place where you wash your hands and can drink some of the water as well. However, this was the first time I could understand the sign above it, so I have to share that with you of course. The sign says (loosely translated): Since a lot of people use these ladles, please don’t use your mouth directly to drink the water.

At night I visited the Blues Alley again, to thank the bartenders and have a final nice night out in Sapporo. The next day, I started my long train ride back to Tokyo around 12:30 and arrived back home around 11 at night. Along the way I did come across this 1337 wagon though… (for geeks only)

Hokkaido, it was a blast!

It’s about time I continued telling about Hokkaido isn’t it? After my wonderful experiences in Morioka, I was very excited to continue with my journey to Sapporo in the Hokkaido region. Traveling to Sapporo, my destructive lifestyle of the couple of days before finally kicked in, so I pretty much slept all the way. Therefore, when I got to Sapporo I was nice and rested and fit to start looking for a hotel. The hotel I found was called Marks Inn, conveniently located near the city center and walking distance from several restaurants, bars, clubs and of course the metro. The staff was nice and the price included free breakfast, which I managed to be in time for twice .

After checking in, I went into town to find the famous Ramen alley, which is one of the most famous and best Ramen spots in Japan. I quickly found out why, it’s an immensely narrow ally, crammed with Ramen shops only, each shop boasting its own special kind of Ramen. I went into one at random and got served the best Miso Ramen I had in my life. Truly, Sapporo Ramen is one of a kind, which is kind of strange come to think of it, since it is basically just noodle soup…

I went to bed early, so I could wake up in time the next day to start doing the tourist thing. I grabbed my Lonely Planet and decided on which tourist spots I wanted to visit, picking only spots in town for my first day, so I could do everything on foot. I quickly located the television tower (called Terebi Tousan: Television daddy) but decided not to go up there, until after dusk because city views are usually better at night .

Leaving the TV tower for what it was, I bumped into the clock tower. This small wooden tower really stands out between the large building surrounding it, creating a nice contrast between the high tech concrete age we are living in now, versus the simpler, wooden habits of old (or something like that). Supposedly the clock never missed a beat for about 130 years now. Which is of course more than enough to merit a must see status in Japan.

After the clock tower I wanted to visit some museums and gardens, so I started of for those. After walking around for about an hour I found the garden I wanted to check out, only to find that it was closed until Spring. The only part of it that was open, was the greenhouse area next to it, featuring “100s of plants from all over the world.” As I was freezing by then (still snow in Sapporo!) and the entry was only 100 Yen (0,60 Euro) I decided to check out the greenhouse to see what the fuss was about.

I must say, being from Aalsmeer, Holland, where the primary source of income is growing plants in greenhouses, I wasn’t very impressed by this particular greenhouse. Sure they had a lot of different plants, but they were spread throughout the place in a haphazard way, and most of them showing signs of decay. Still it was warm, and I managed to take some nice shots anyway. So I can only conclude, 100 Yen well spent.

Having warmed up a bit at the greenhouse, I walked around some more looking for the museums mentioned in my travel guide. I found some of them, but unfortunately all were closed on Mondays. So though luck for me, I just had to settle for an outside view of the places. I did, however, run into the cutest police car ever.

Since I was very cold and done with walking for hours, I decided it was time to get some study on. So I went into the first coffee house I encountered and hit the books until it was time to get some dinner. I didn’t feel like going for anything fancy for dinner, so just had some curry, after which I made my way back to the TV tower, to get those much coveted nighttime shots of the city.

Although it was raining a bit, the view was still spectacular. You can even see the Olympic Ski jump looming on the mountainside in the distance… Well, ok, It’s just a gray dot in the distance, but still. Oh, apparently some of the buildings in Hokkaido aren’t as solid as they would seem, when seen from street level.

Since university roots never let you go, I went to check out Hokkaido University. And boy, I must say, quite the difference from my university back home (Vrije Universiteit). Instead of a dull gray campus, this university features a full on park, several traditional buildings and even a museum detailing the history and accomplishments of the university and its students since it was founded in 1876.

I even managed to find where they created Godzilla!

Oh and… How about this for a Faculty of Sciences. Although of course, all Universities look the same on the inside.

Being at the university, I simply had to do a “cross country cafeteria check” and see what the food’s like in a Japanese university. My only conclusion can be that the food at Hokkaido University is truly very good. For less than 2 Euro you can eat an excellent meal, which actually tastes like a true meal, instead of the warmed up leftovers taste they always seem to manage at the VU.

That’s it for now, I gotta prepare for a party in Ebisu. Tomorrow I’ll finish the story of my Hokkaido trip, barring any severe hangovers. Stay tuned for: Onsen, beer factories and awesome Japanese bartenders…

I’ve moved into my new guesthouse and it’s great! The first surprise came when the guy at the office explained how to get to the house: “just follow the river until you see the pink house, that’s the guesthouse.” And boy was he right, not very hard to miss it… This is about as pink as they get.

My room in the house is excellent. It’s about 12 m2, with more than enough storage space for all my stuff. I finally do not have to live out of my suitcase anymore! It doesn’t have a bed yet though, but they’ll bring that in tomorrow, no more futon, yaay. And yes, the door to my room is very pink as well.

Finally, the kitchen / living area of the house is nice, spacious and, most of all, clean! Did I hear anybody say poker?

I spoke with two of my new neighbors so far, one from America and one from… Holland! He’s in Tokyo for three months doing an internship at the Dutch embassy. So, if I want to get into contact with other Dutchies, all I need to do is ask him, he’s got the inside scoop.

After almost three months of study and working my ass off, it was time for a well deserved break from it all. Where to do that better than in Japans most Northern region, Hokkaido. I left for Hokkaido on a Saturday the 22nd and took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Morioka first. Morioka is a small city on route toward Hokkaido, and I decided to spend one night there, because I didn’t feel like doing the whole trip in one go.

Of course I had to go and party before I left, so on Friday me and Michel went clubbing in Shibuya. The evening was a bit weird, but enjoyable and we ended up at good old Atom again. We stayed until first (or was it second… third?) train, so I decided I wouldn’t go to sleep, but wait until it was time to catch my train, and sleep on my way to Morioka (a good 4 hours ride). However, getting this well needed rest proved to be a bit of a problem.

I was seated next to a nice elderly Japanese lady, who immediately started chattering away. As she was very nice, and it was of course a good chance to practice my Japanese, I had no choice but to stay awake and chat with her. We talked about Holland and Japan and I found out she was on her way to the wedding of her cousin. The wedding was at Sendai, so I knew then I couldn’t sleep for at least 3 hours .

After a while we kind of ran out of conversation material, so I started to doze off a little. Luckily (?), this was quickly remedied by the lady swapping places with her husband, who of course also liked to talk with this nice little gaijin. So there I sat again, chattering away with the husband. And you know what, although I was tired like crazy, it was very enjoyable and I had a great start of my journey.

When I arrived at Morioka around half past 1, I decided to look for a hotel first and catch up on some sleep. I found the towns plan in front of the station, and was trying to figure out which hotel to go to. Immediately a woman came up to me to help me find what I needed. I thanked her, but explained her that I was ok, since I had just found the place I wanted to go, with a name I just couldn’t refuse: R&B Hotel. I went into the hotel to book my room, only to find out I could only check in from four in the afternoon. So there I was, packed with my huge backpack, not able to get a room. I walked around town a bit, trying to figure out how to handle this and decided upon just hanging out on the square in front of the station.

Which was a bit… boring, but I was so tired by then, I didn’t care. Around 3 o’ clock I realized it would’ve been better if I had put my bag in a locker, and just went to sleep in a coffee house or something, but by then it was of course too late, so I just stayed and waited at the square until the precious hour had arrived. At 4 ‘o clock sharp I checked in and found… The best bed ever!

It was only then that I realized I really, really miss a normal bed. So glad my next room will have exactly that. I slept until about eight and then went out to get me something to eat, and find a bar mentioned in the Lonely Planet. It was called fukakusa and it looked like it was pretty close to the hotel, so I decided to walk there. About 20 minutes later I kind wished I hadn’t, although I got a nice view of the city walking to basically the other side of it.

After a while I found the television tower, where the bar should be near, but couldn’t really see anything that resembled a bar from a distance. I went to the location on the map anyway, only to find a very, very, very tiny bar. The sign confirmed that it was the place I was looking for, but it felt like walking into someone’s living room. However, inside I found one of the coziest atmospheres one could encounter. Only a couple of people there, but everybody was very nice and we spoke a lot about a lot of things, in Japanese!

The bar closed a bit before midnight and, since I was still very tired, I decided to go back to my hotel. Walking back again, I passed a small place, playing very loud house music. As I passed the place, a dude dancing inside beckoned me to come in and join the party. At first I walked on, and then I thought… What the heck, I’m leaving tomorrow anyway. So in I went, to find a nice little house party going on in the small bar.

There weren’t even 20 people inside I think, but again the atmosphere was very nice. I got received with a huge cheer and immediately felt very welcome. I ordered a drink, sat down and started enjoying the nice party going on here. After about half an hour the music suddenly stopped, and one of the girls present was called up front. Apparently it was her birthday, everybody congratulated her and she got a nice birthday cake.

After that fun break, the music started pumping again. I spoke with some of the guys inside and with the owner of the bar. A very nice young Japanese woman, who walked around the place all the time partying along with everybody. After a while the guy who beckoned me in started spinning the records and treated us with some very nice minimal techno music! It was a blast.

Around 2 at night I staggered out of the place, promising everybody I would return here, as soon as I could. I went back to my hotel and fell asleep very satisfied. The first day of my journey was a blast! Where in Tokyo people are a little bit fed up with foreigners (or so it seems sometimes), in Morioka everybody’s really excited when they meet you and wants to hear all about you. It was a really nice change of pace… Morioka, I want to visit you again!

As some of you might know, two weeks ago I didn’t pass my test to advance to the next level. I needed a 60% score to pass, but unfortunately got stuck at 59%. Today, however, school started again and I was allowed to take the test again. I studied quite a lot during my travel to Hokkaido, so this time I managed to pass the test (63%)! As of today I’m officially an “upper beginner” at Japanese.

*bows and waits for the applause to fade away*

My new class is very fun, with a much better male – female ratio than my previous class. In my previous class we had 2 girls and a lot of guys… In this class we are graced with the presence of (here goes): four Korean girls, one Taiwanese girl, one Swedish girl, an English girl and finally a Canadian girl. That being said, I also need to add that we are with just four guys (from Canada, Ukraine, Italy and finally me from Holland). I’m loving my new class already!