Music: Sea of Love- Cat Power
The trip to Hokkaido was obviously fantastic. What vacation isn’t? It was my last vacation in Japan and I went to a place I’d never been before. I’m really happy I’ve been able to see so much of Japan. After all that I have seen, Hokkaido was no disapointment. It felt larger than the rest of the areas of Japan because of its large green or flowered fields, small towns with low populations and many beautiful national parks with lakes and breathtaking mountains.
After my sleep in Shinjuku, I made my way to Ueno station to walk around Tokyo for a bit. What a great and amazing place. Yes, Great and Amazing. (I added the capitals so you would know just how serious I am on the matter). Whenever I’m in Tokyo, I’m blown away by all the people this city holds. Everywhere you look there are thousands of people right there before you. The trains will take you anywhere you want to go, and every where you choose to go holds just as many, if not more people than the last place. Tokyo is big and bustling, thriving and full of energy. It’s like everyone in the world is in Tokyo and they are all dressed to impress. I can fully understand why 33 million people choose to live there. I’d be a fool not to go back.
I had to leave though. I got my tickets for Oarai, the town where I would later catch the ferry and hopped on the next train out. I met a man while on the train who reminded me how refreshing it is to have a good conversation with a stranger. When he first approached me I was a little uneasy. These situations can go one of two ways: the approacher could be terrible at English but once he/she has spotted you, sees this as the perfect opportunity to use you to practice this terrible English and keep you trapped in this awkward conversation where you have to use precious brain cells to talk so slowly and use the right hand gestures and explain unknown words, all so that they can look cool in front of the other Japanese people and probably have a story to tell their family at the dinner table. Speaking laconically for long periods can be more difficult and wearisome than one would think. Especially with a perfect stranger that I will never see again and is only good for taking up the time I could be spending reading a book.
The second option is much more rewarding and time well spent. These approachers are actually fluent in the English language and have a certain way that you can tell they are being more sincere than the previously mentioned approachers. Even if its just for a bit, they want to have a conversation with someone different, someone with something new to say, someone who isn’t Japanese, someone whom they can tell of their own experiences abroad, or understand the problems you may be having in this country.
The man that I talked to on the train was thankfully the latter. He’d lived in the UK for ten years so he had a funny little accent. He had kind eyes and was an interesting person. The train ride was long though and he didn’t stay on as long as me.
Once I got to the port town, I met Ashleigh and Kyle with open arms. We were on our way! It felt adventurous and exciting to be travelling around with a backpack and a tent, heading towards a ship that would take us to a new unknown place.
The time on the ship went by faster than one would think 19 hours on the sea would. We met the good kind of approacher. Her name was Hiroko and we all fell in love with her. She helped us work out some dinner tickets that we couldn’t read and came over afterwards to chat us up. We were instant friends and spent the night drinking, watching olympics and playing scattegories.
After leaving Hiroko at the port in Hokkaido, we took three buses to Shikotsuko. By the time we reached our first destination and camping spot, things were closing up. We managed to get some information on how to get to the campsite.
Unfortunately we were informed that the place we wanted to settle was about a 40 minute walk. After a few wrong paths and the darkness had started to set in, we got picked up by a friendly young man who GPS’d where we had to go, and got us their much faster than our little legs could take us.
The place we stayed was a beautiful national park, with the campsite right on the water. It was packed full of tents already and the campers were drinking, talking, playing games and roasting up delicious smelling things over campfires and mini bbqs. We met a couple school teachers that had a bunch of students with them on a school trip and a telescope to look at the stars and the three moons of saturn… at least I think it was Saturn, I can’t remember which planet for sure anymore…
Our time in Shikotsuko was well spent. We climbed and saw (or rather didn’t see, because of the clouds that got in the way) a volcano and spent some time in a gorgeous onsen. We met nice people who picked us up when we were hitchiking and enjoyed a brief and cold swim in a lake.
The trip doesn’t end here though. After camping at one of the biggest lakes in Japan, we craved a change and packed up to move on on the third day.
Onsens and beer tents here we come!
