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!

Tags: Morioka, on the road, party

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.