Frozen Beauty and Everlasting Life

Wow, sorry about the silence, my final week in Japan was packed and I managed to get a little behind on working on my photos. But they’re done now and I’ll warn you up front that this is going to be a very long and picture-heavy post.

So let’s pick up where we left off: Abashiri on Friday morning. It was a beautiful morning, bright and sunny after the storm yesterday and I got up early and made my way to the docks to catch the first drift ice boat. Of course, I get there and they tell me that there’s no ice, it’s too early in the season. The boat was still going out but would be doing a sightseeing tour instead. Since I didn’t have any other plans for the morning and it would be cool to see some of the coast I signed up and got on board with all the Japanese tourists. We headed out and I went up on the top deck to watch the scenery and take some pictures (the windows down below were really dirty). The boat was underway for about ten minutes when we saw drift ice on the horizon! The storm the night before had blown it in and we changed course. It was really cool to see the ship cutting through the white mass, leaving a trail of blue water in its wake. The ice itself was in fairly small chunks but was like no ice I’ve seen before. Its long exposure to the ocean had left it smooth and opaque.

I managed to stay up on deck for the whole duration of the cruise but I was pretty much a walking icicle by the end of it. It wasn’t exactly a warm day to start with and the wind out on the water was brutal. So when we disembarked I hung out in the port building to warm up while I finished my breakfast. Then it was off to see the swans at a lake just outside the city.

Took me a little while to find the lake since it was a good ten-minute walk from the train station where I got off and things weren’t marked real well but I found it eventually had fun watching the swans and the seagulls (some of the biggest seagulls I’ve ever seen, they were huge!). Of course, me being me, I managed to lose track of time while taking pictures and ended up running to try to catch the train since if I missed it I was going to be stuck there till the next one came three hours later. I made thankfully and managed not to slip and hurt myself on the skating rink sidewalks as I made my headlong dash for the station. Safely on the train I put my camera away and focused on warming up a little before I headed off for an afternoon of museum exploration.

First stop was the Abashiri Prison Museum. From what I gathered (the English signage was fairly limited), Abashiri Prison was something like the Japanese Alcatraz; one of the worst places you could be imprisoned. The museum is actually all of the original buildings that were simply relocated when they built the new prison complex. It was quite interesting despite the lack of signage. Perhaps the weirdest part was the wax figures that they used to demonstrate prison life. They were creepy. Especially when you turned the corner in a dim room and there was suddenly a guard right next to you.

Next stop was Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples. Very, very cool building but the museum itself was not really what I expected. I was expecting it to be mostly focused on the Ainu, the native people of Hokkaido but it turned out be a little overview of northern cultures from around the world with a fairly heavy emphasis on the Alaskan Indians. It was still interesting and it was neat to look at the displays of clothing and crafts where they had laid all the different cultures out side by side. The majority of the signage was in Japanese, which was a little disappointing, so it took me much less time than I thought it would and I was able to fit in the third museum that I wanted to see but hadn’t planned on making it to.

The Abashiri Drift Ice museum is located on an overlook that commands a spectacular view of Abashiri and the surrounding area. The museum itself was fairly small but housed a collection of drift ice in a refrigerated room that you could actually walk through and touch the ice. The pieces they had were huge and in some fairly cool formations and it was pretty nifty to be able to get up close and really see the effects of the ocean on the ice. The rest of the museum was fairly boring but I spent a good deal of time in the rooftop observatory taking pictures and watching the sunset (sunsets in Hokkaido are spectacular when it’s clear enough to see them).

The next morning was an early start as I caught the first train to Kawayu Onsen, a little hot spring resort town between two caldera lakes. My guidebook and the brochures I picked up in Sapporo all made it seem like Kawayu was a fairly touristy place so my plan was to drop my luggage off in a locker at the station and explore the two lakes and have a good soak in a hot spring. Or not. The train station was a little, unmanned hut with a few chairs and a map. From what I could gather from the map I was going to want to attempt to take a bus to the bus station and use that as my starting point. Luckily the bus that pulled up first was going to the station and I got on, figuring that there would probably be lockers I could use in the bus station (I had no desire to haul all my luggage around all day). And I proved to be wrong again. The bus station was only a little bit bigger than the train station and again lacked lockers. There was someone working there though; a very nice man who spoke absolutely no English and seemed very confused about why I was there. After about 40 minutes of me trying to explain what I wanted to do and him trying to explain the bus schedule to me I ended up getting on a bus, paying for what I assumed was a day pass for the buses (aka, one flat fee to use any of the buses in the area for the day) and heading off to one of the lakes. Turns out that I had managed to sign myself up for a sightseeing tour.

The drive to the first lake was pretty until the fog set in and made it hard to see much of anything beyond the bus windows. But the fog did lend a neat atmosphere to our first stop to see the swans at Lake Kussharo and it cleared up pretty soon after we started driving again so we were able to see the whole lake from the bus. It was a little disappointing that we didn’t really get to spend any time at the lake or get to go to the Ainu village on the southern shore but the drive (a little over an hour) was spectacular. Once the fog lifted it was crystal clear winter day and you could tell that it had snowed recently; everything was covered with a pristine coat of fluffy white powder.

We switched buses at Mashu (a few stations down from Kawayu and where I should have gotten off this morning) and head up to the second lake. This time we had an actual guide (the previous bus had been like a typical city bus, this one was a more typical sightseeing bus) who gave a very energetic spiel about the history of the lakes complete with colourful pictures. And of course the entire thing was in Japanese but she was nice enough to let me flip through the pictures after she was finished and I managed to gather a rough idea of what she’d said. The drive was as pretty as the last one and about as long but there was no fog this time. The lake was jaw-droppingly beautiful; sapphire blue water surrounded by a snow-capped crater ridge. Luckily we had a fair amount of time to wander around here and I happily spent the entire time taking pictures of the lake and the views of the areas around the two volcanoes.

Took the bus back to the train station to kill time until my train so I had lunch (ramen, mmm) and hung out at the station since I was still hauling my luggage and there wasn’t a whole lot in the vicinity. And the place is packed with children. Like, over a hundred kids and their families, all hanging out at the train station. It took me a long time to figure out what they were all doing there but it turns out that there is a steam train that runs a couple times a year through Akan National Park and these families were all here to ride the train. The train was a beautiful example of a steam engine and the steampunk in me got all giddy at getting to see a real working steam engine. Sadly I didn’t get a chance to ride it, by the time I figured out what the deal was the tickets were all sold out. So I watched it pull out and speed off into the wilderness, puffing smoke and whistling.

My train took me to Kushiro, passing through one of the wetland parks on the way. There were deer everywhere and they seemed completely unphased by the train except when the conductor sounded a whistle that was specifically designed to scare them so that they’d get off the tracks before they got hit. My adventure with the buses had meant that I ended up catching a much earlier train than I had planned and I got into Kushiro with time to wander around and explore. My wandering led me down the river to watch the sunset and see the four statues on the bridge over the river. The statues were done by a famous local artist and are representations of the four seasons as women. They’re quite beautiful but not particularly Japanese in flavor, they seemed like they’d be more at home on a bridge in France. They were however, not the oddest thing that I encountered. MOO and its companion building EGG still confuse me. In my city guide it describes MOO as a market and shopping area. Well, there was a market and a little shopping but it was all spread out through what reminded me heavily of an abandoned warehouse, with some parts being fairly well-lit and finished right next to dark walkways of unfinished concrete and exposed ducts. There was no order to anything; with a staircase that ended in a wall and an elevator that you could get on and go up but with no place to get off other than where you got on. And the random plastic display of human fetal development just hanging on a wall. And the greenhouse full of tropical plants in the auxiliary building EGG. Odd was the understatement f the year.

By the next morning I had recovered from the mind-frag that was MOO and stuck my luggage in a locker before catching a bus out to the Akan Crane Reserve to see Tanto, the Japanese red-crested cranes. In the 1960’s it was believed that the birds, which are the symbol for long-life in Japan, were extinct. But there were a handful left and a farmer started feeding them in the winter when they migrated to the area. Slowly their numbers grew and now they are doing quite well and still migrate to the same areas in the winter. The Crane Reserve is one of them and they still feed them twice a day in the winter to supplement what little they can scavenge through the snow.

I wandered through their little museum, which was interesting and gave a general overview of the history of the area and the life-cycle of the cranes, before heading out to the viewing area. I was hoping to see at least a couple cranes, snap some pictures and hop a bus back to Kushiro. I was not expecting the field covered with cranes and swans, doing everything from eating to sleeping to dancing (Japanese cranes are known for their ‘dancing’). So I pulled out my camera (which felt decidedly small and wimpy compared to the other photographers’ gear; some of their lenses were easily twice the size of mine and all mounted on big, heavy tripods) and started to shoot. I ended up being there for about four hours and was glad I got there early and grabbed my spot. There was a feeding at two o’clock and the viewing area was packed with photographers, assistants and gear.

The feeding itself was really nifty because some visitors showed up for the party. There were two red foxes that darted in and out trying to steal fish without getting pecked and a whole contingent of sea eagles and falcons circling above. Watching the eagles dive and steal fish was amazing and the show went on for a good forty-five minutes with cameras snapping the whole time. I definitely had serious lens envy for most of the time but the rather hefty walk back to the bus stop carrying the gear that I do have reminded me that there is no way I’d ever want to carry something that big while I was traveling; I thought my shoulders hated me now…they’d probably stage a revolt if I made them carry anything that big.

Monday was my day in Sapporo and I ended up spending most of it on wrong buses and walking to and from places that were closed. The snow festival was the next week and the city was in full-blown prep mode so a lot of things were closed. I did get to see the beginnings of some of the ice and snow sculptures, which was really cool (they’re huge!). Anyway, the day started out a little later than planned since I slept through my alarm (I was exhausted after my week of early mornings) but I made my way to the Sapporo fish market to explore and acquire breakfast. I was expecting something like Tsukiji in Tokyo but what I found was more akin to a supermarket than a fish market. Everything was neatly wrapped and displayed in pristine cases with wide walkways instead of the barely controlled chaos of Tsukiji. And the two restaurants I found were so far out of my price range it wasn’t even funny. So I ended up grabbing donuts and making my way to the park blocks in the center of the city for a stroll. The park was closed for festival preparations so I figured I’d go to one of the museums nearby. The museum was also closed; apparently it’s only open in the summer because it’s in the botanic gardens.

Next attempted activity: the Sapporo Beer Museum. I had directions on the back of the brochure so I felt pretty confident that I could get myself there, just take the number three bus and get off at the Sapporo Beer Museum stop. So I get on the bus and off we go. After about twenty minutes I start to get a little nervous, the ride was only supposed to be fifteen. A few minutes later the bus arrives at a terminal and everyone gets off. I asked the driver if this was the bus to the museum and he laughed at me. Turns out there are two number 3 buses that leave from the stop I started at and I had managed to get on the wrong one. Great. Now, to compound all this was the fact that I was on a pretty tight time schedule, my train back to Tokyo left at 1:19 and I had to be on it. By the time I caught the bus from the terminal I ended up at and got to the beer museum it was 12:30 and the next bus back to the train station was at 12:50. So I ducked into the museum, glanced around, bought a bottle of beer for later and headed back to the bus stop. I spent the entire 12-minute ride back glancing at my watch and wishing the bus would go faster. I pretty much ran through the station, grabbed my luggage and headed to the platform, thankfully having enough time to grab some pork buns and donuts on my way past. I made my train with a minute to spare.

Tokyo was delightfully warm compared to Hokkaido and while I still usually brought my coat with me, it remained in my backpack for the rest of my stay in Japan. I took advantage of the beautiful weather to spend a day out on Odaiba, the man-made island in Tokyo Bay. My first stop there was the Tokyo Big Sight, one of Tokyo’s biggest conventions centers and a rather interesting piece of architecture. There was actually a convention going on in one of the wings so I was able to go inside and look around a little bit which was pretty neat, the inside is about as odd as the outside. There are a lot of strange random little side buildings and stairs leading up to roofs and down to little seating areas and I managed to spend an hour just wandering around and thankfully managed not to get myself horribly lost.

Next stop was Venus Fort, a three-story shopping center themed like Ancient Rome. I felt like I was in Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas; there was even a gambling area. The shops were the typical totally random mix of things loosely organized into three levels. Top floor was outlet stores, middle floor was normal stores and the bottom level was primarily children’s clothes and pet accessories. Outside the main building is a Toyota show room and one of the world’s largest Ferris Wheels. I didn’t go on the Ferris Wheel simply because I couldn’t find the entrance (there was a fair amount of construction going on in the area so a lot of the walkways were closed), so instead I walked across the “dream bridge” that crosses the center of the island.

On the other side of the bridge was another themed shopping area named Decks, this once designed to look like and old-fashioned Californian boardwalk and it offered a spectacular view of the Tokyo skyline across the bay. The shops were pretty benign but I made my way to the food court for lunch and found myself in a miniature Hong Kong, complete with neon signs and recorded street sounds playing over the speakers. Most of the food was Chinese in keeping with the theme and I ate at a conveyor belt dumpling place (same idea as conveyor belt sushi). It was an experience even though the food wasn’t very good.

The next floor down from Hong Kong was Muscle Park, an amusement park devoted to the insanity that is Japanese game shows. Participants were put through activities pulled from popular game shows, everything from trivia to puzzle solving to obstacle courses. It was pretty funny to watch but I chose not to participate, my amusement park money was being saved for Sega’s Joypolis digital playground.

My wanderings took me out of Decks near sunset and down to the hyper-modern structure which is home to Fuji TV. I’ve nicknamed the place Space Station Earth, because, well, it looks like a space station; all steel and glass scaffolding topped with a 12,000-ton steel ball. Definitely one of the coolest buildings I’ve seen and the sunset light was amazing, warm and bright with great clouds.  Then the moon came out and the space station feeling got even cooler.

Before the sun totally set I made my way back over to Decks to take some pictures of the sunset over Tokyo. It was one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve seen; amazing clouds and colours over my favorite city in the world. I wanted the sun to never set so the moment could go on forever.

But finally the sun set and after marveling at the Tokyo skyline lit up at night I went back inside Decks to experience Sega’s Joypolis. Now, I’m a fan of virtual reality rides and I’ve been on a fair number of them. I have never seen anything like this. The racing simulator puts you in a real car complete with manual transmission and you feel like you’re really driving because the screen fills the entire windshield and moves with the car. The futuristic bobsled race features ride vehicles that actually do 360’s when you manage to do on within the simulation (I managed to do four singles and one double, it was badass). Even the group simulators were amazing; the screens went almost all the way around you and on the white water rafting one you actually got wet! Did one called “The Room of Living Dolls” that scared the living daylights out of me. You walk down this pitch black hallway to a room lined with shelves holding porcelain dolls in various states of decay and sit down at this low table and put of a pair of headphones. Then everything goes dark and you hear voices in the headphones, very realistic voices with some of the best surround sound I’ve heard. I couldn’t understand what they were saying but I got the gist and there came a point where I took the headphones off because I was so freaked out. One of those attractions that I can appreciate the level of skill that went into it but there is no way on earth that I would do it again.

There were also a couple of non-VR rides that were pretty awesome as well. One was the Spinbullet, an indoor rollercoaster where the cars spun freely. It was fun but I was by myself so the weight balance was a little off, it was really designed to have two people of similar weight in each car (most of the rides were designed for two people; it’s a very popular places for dates). And there was the Halfpipe Canyon, a snowboarding ride where you stand on a giant snowboard (the safety restraints are like a hang coaster but you are still putting weight on your feet) and you have to rock your feet back and forth at the appropriate times to get the board to go further up the sides of the pipes and to do tricks to get points. It was a blast! I rode it three times and got pretty good (based on my points I was a pro boarder, please ignore the fact that I’ve never been on a real snowboard).

It was almost 11 o’clock by the time I left and I was exhausted but very, very happy. Dinner was a quick stop at a 7-11 on the way home and I barely managed to eat before I passed out. So if you like VR rides and you’re in Tokyo I highly recommend taking a day trip out to Odaiba and doing Joypolis, it’s mind-blowing (and if you go after 5 pm its 1000 yen cheaper for unlimited rides).

The rest of my time in Tokyo was spent just wandering around the city, soaking up the feel of everything. Saw Akihabara, the electronics/anime district, which was quite the sensory overload and a grand testament to the Japanese obsession with technology. It’s also the main area for Maid Cafes, which are themed restaurants where the waitresses are dressed to suit the theme (it started out with just maids but now the themes range from cat girls to gothic to J-rock). The sidewalks are packed with girls handing out flyers to passer-bys and it was neat to just see the variety of their outfits.

I also revisited some of my favorite places like Harajuku and Shibuya to have crepes and Starbucks and people-watch. Seriously, I could spend all day sitting in a café and people-watching in this city. But sadly it was about time for me to leave. I ran a few last errands, packed some boxes with my winter clothes to get shipped back to the states, and said ‘see you later’ to Tokyo.

Next stop: Thailand.