I counted my clean shirts and looked at the days until I get somewhere I’m staying more than a day, and it wasn’t adding up. It was time to do laundry again. I decided to walk to a different coin laundry because the one at the Sapporo Capsule Hotel was kind of depressing.

The Aqua Coin Laundry was a mile down the road and I didn’t go last time because of the distance. it was nicer and had larger wash/dry machines. I figured those must work better than the small wash/dry machines in the hotel, plus there were big tumble dryers in the corner if I needed them. Three of these medium washers, two bigger washers, and three dryers.

And that was the extent of my plans. I didn’t bring enough shirts, and I found some holes in one of them, so I thought I should buy some more quick-drying shirts at Montbell. I didn’t make it very far because I saw a guy with a Calgary Rugby shirt and I bored him most of the day. He’s here doing support for Getty Images, and there are teams of photographers going to most of the Rugby World Cup matches. I showed him how to get to the Oktoberfest, found him some computer parts for an mSATA drive, and recommended the pork bowl place (where I went again).

Basically just hung around the hotel and train station but I had some sort of purpose. He really wanted to go to the beach and do some snorkeling but the season is over and they weren’t letting people into the water anyway.

Tomorrow I’m off to Aomori!

I got up this morning and was a little stuffed up. My sister suggested I take it easy, but that’s tomorrow, the day before a stupid long day on the train. Not the longest day on my trip, but 5 hours is enough. Hokkaido is a big place and getting around takes some time.

Today was the day I wanted to go to the Nikka Yoichi Distillery. The Miyagikyo Distillery was great, but Yoichi is the place the man, Taketsuru Masataka, started his own distillery. But first, I went around the corner to Cafe Ranban, a place my sister found on the intarwebs, to get a morning set. If my sister found it on the intarwebs, I figured the Chinese tourists can find it as well. I showed up just behind a group of eight. Fortunately, I got served first and had some toast and a hard-boiled egg.

This place is SERIOUS about coffee. They have a Panamanian and Sumatran that are ¥1800 per cup!

After this I walked about a mile through the underground path to Sapporo station. There weren’t shops the whole way, but it is covered and necessary when it snows here. Also probably nicer to use when it rains. I’m not sure why I didn’t try this earlier.

In any case, I took the first train I could to Otaru, and then took a bus to Yoichi. I could’ve waited for the train to Yoichi but the bus was pretty interesting and took me past a surfing spot. The bus stop is right across from the the distillery.

This place has a lot more history than the Miyagikyo Distillery. The grounds have the Taketsuru house, for example, and the buildings look older.

In fact, this is one of the few coal-fired distilling plants in the world.

However, I think I preferred the Miyagikyo tour. It was more explanatory, and it took you through the steps of making whiskey. I kept asking questions that annoyed the tour guide (I did the same at Miyagikyo but the guide there was much more pleasant). It felt like they were a lot more full of themselves here.

I had the three complimentary tastes, but the only one I finished was the Yoichi single malt. Nikka Black isn’t my thing, and the Apple Wine is really sweet.

After that it was back to the “Whiskey Museum” where the bar had tastes of Nikka’s finest. Yoichi has a much sharper taste than the Miyagikyo, and I’m not that impressed with it. It wins prizes, though and the 10 year Yoichi Single Malt was pretty good.

After that it was back on the bus to the port town of Otaru, and walking around the tourist attractions there. Most of what I saw was very touristy stuff, blown glass trinkets and music boxes. I wasn’t impressed. I did see Otaru Beer on a map and then headed down some alleyways to the restaurant after I had a rather touristy donut.

At one point I thought I was lost, which never really bothers me much. It’s not like I was too far from anything.

They’re really serious about beer here. They appear to follow the German Reinheitsgebot Beer laws and it’s pretty tasty. They also do two tours every hour through the parts of the restaurant where they make the beer.

I had a mozzarella cheese bread (and a beer) and waited for the tour.

I saw the brewer working, and I tried to get his attention by yelling “Bitte!” because I thought someone who made this German of a beer must be from Germany. When he didn’t ever turn around, I asked one of the staff if he was from Germany. Turns out he’s from Oklahoma. The president of the company sent him to Germany to study how to make beer “correctly” and company also owns the Bikkuri Donkey chain! If you’ve ever been (I’m a fan of Japanese takes on Americanish food like hamburger steaks) you’ve probably seen the unbranded beer they have. Otaru Beer provides all their beer. I had quite a long talk (and a second tour) from the brewer and I’d recommend stopping by and saying hello.

I got on the train on the way back and the only thing I remember is handing my ticket to the conductor to have it stamped and then closing my eyes. The next thing I remember we’re stopped at a station and the sign said Sapporo. Good thing I woke up because the train keeps going quite a ways beyond Sapporo! I guess those whiskeys and beers had an effect.

I walked back to the hotel, searched some restaurant ratings, and found a place with pork bowls a few steps across the shopping arcade. It sounded good and it tasted even better. It was in an odd food court and the stall itself only had seven seats. You could take the food out to the central area if necessary.

Oh, I forgot about the pre-dinner ice cream, and the post dinner zangi (Sapporo fried chicken).

And in case my co-worker Phil sees this, I found a figurine in the pork bowl restaurant.

I can’t seem to get away from Dodger fans.

Today was the craziest day of my trip. I planned to get on a plane to Wakkanai, rent a car, and see the northernmost point of Japan (which is just a monument, really). It’s just one of those silly things that I really wanted to do after hearing about it. I also heard you might be able to see Russia! You can even go, but I didn’t want to have to score a visa since Russia requires them of US visitors.

I also thought about taking the train, but that’s five hours up and five hours back making it a hell of a long day if I wanted to make it a day trip.

So off I went. I had an 8:20 train to the airport for a 10:20 flight. I didn’t want to cut it close. So I got up and was on my way early, looking for another morning set on the way. Unfortunately, most of the places didn’t open until 8AM! There was a place in Sapporo station, though, that opened at 7:30! Quite tasty, though I burned the hell out of my mouth with the pizza toast. The high-tech gadget to figure out when your order was ready was unnecessary in such a small cafe, but whatever.

The trip to the airport was uneventful and short. The only oddness in checking in was everything in Japanese and I couldn’t find the English option. I pretty much resorted to mashing buttons with unreadable kanji until it all went through. I got a slip of paper with my boarding info. After that it was a long wait. I decided to wander around Chitose Airport and it’s great! There’s restaurants, some shops, a movie theatre(!), a conference hall, and several museums that didn’t open until my flight left. Where else can you go outside and see the planes?

I tried to get into the “Super Lounge” but you need a Japanese premium credit card to get in. My AMEX Platinum and ¥1080 would’ve gotten me in too, but I decided to keep exploring and found a Pronto and had a second morning set. I was going to have toast, salad, and coffee, but they ran out of salad. It was either an egg salad sandwich or a hot dog, so I went with the egg salad. Besides the stale bread it was great.

Security was pretty easy too, similar to having pre-check in the US. I guess you can even bring in liquids if the weird liquid testing machine can scan them correctly. They spit out another piece of paper at security I had to have to get on the plane.

The flight to Wakkanai was on a prop plane and only took 55 minutes.

The even had time to serve a small drink!

After that the fun began. I couldn’t find the email with my car rental information with my iPhone and the three counters didn’t have my info. At some point after the shuttles left, I thought it had to be Toyota Rent-a-car. Nissan was nice enough to give me a ride to the rental area, (which I later realized is really close and I could’ve walked there). The guy at Toyota Rent-a-car finally looked me up in the computer under my name in English characters and said I’d rented the car in the Wakkanai City office! I got a ride back to the terminal (I still didn’t realize how close it was because I was flustered) and looked for a bus.

The taxi driver told me the bus had left and there wasn’t going to be another one for a while. I asked how much a taxi would be into town and it was ~¥4000. I considered my options and decided that would probably be the least expensive option to see what I wanted to see. It cost me ¥4050 but the driver was really nice and was pointing out all sorts of things I needed to know. Watch for speed traps here, most people in Hokkaido drive fast, get gas here because it’s the last one before you return the car, the place you want to go this this way and you should also see Noshappu which is down this road. It was worth it.

Driving the car was easier than you’d expect. The roads in Wakkanai are wide and there isn’t that much traffic. In town, the speed limits are so slow that it’s easy. Plus, not much traffic even in town.

The woman at Toyota showed me how to add destination into their GPS (which was tough to remember because lots more unreadable kanji) and set it for Cape Soya, where I wanted to go, but the taxi driver kept telling me about Noshappu and I forgot why that was interesting to me. Turns out it’s an aquarium I didn’t go into, but I was close enough (ha, nothing’s close out in Wakkanai) that I went first. When I saw the aquarium I realized that shouldn’t be my first stop. But I talked to some motorcyclists (lots of them up there) and OMG THERE’S A GIANT DOE IN THE PARKING LOT JUST WANDERING AROUND.

When I think of urban deer I think of tiny ones, but she was big.

Anyway, I drove back the way the GPS wanted me to (with some wrong turns on the way) and it took longer than I expected. 30-40 minutes? Whatever. It was worth it.

The woman at the Toyota dealer said there’s really good ramen up there to, so I walked up the hill (there was a giant parking lot and I could’ve driven) and had scallop shio ramen! It WAS good.

I looked at all the memorials up on the hill as well. Several for peace, several for WWII, one for the KAL Flight 007 that the Russians shot down north of Japan.

I tried to see Russia but I wasn’t sure that was it.

I headed back to town to see the Wakkanai Centennial Tower and Museum. The museum is at the bottom of the tower and there’s lots of information about the Japanese settlement on Sakhalin, the settlement of Wakkanai, and the Ainu culture of the area. Plus, the view from the tower!

The view was great from up there and I was pretty sure I saw Russia in the distance, just like Sarah Palin!

And Wakkanai in all its glory (actually just a picture I took and I can’t remember why). I think I just took this picture to try to show the windy little road I had to take to get up here.

I met some nice Australians up there and gave them a ride back to their hotel. I actually saw them on the way up and asked if they wanted a ride, but they turned me down. Had a nice chat about how they’re in Japan for a month more than me! They’re going from small town to small town. I think they’re from a part of Australia that my neighbor is from which is to say the coast in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, it was about time to start heading back. I figured I’d better start back around 4PM in case the Toyota Rentacar people had issues with my return (they didn’t) and I had to get gas. On the way I went by the weird breakwater where they have events under the overhang. This day there was nothing going on so I kept going.

I was told to refill and that Toyota was so efficient that the gas gauge didn’t budge. I think that’s why they insisted on seeing my receipt though I only spent ¥363 on 2.47L of gas (0.65 gallons).

I was planning on getting back and eating a quick dinner and I found a Mos Burger in the airport. Even better, I had almost 30 minutes to kill while waiting for my train so it all worked out.

Good thing I ate at the airport since it was pouring when I got back to Sapporo. It was cool and breezy but never rainy when I was in Wakkanai. Well, I’m beat. That’s it for the day. I’m not even bothering to go down to the big bath, though I may take a quick shower in the room.

I’m here for six days, so it’s going to say Sapporo a couple more times.

I was trying to figure out what to do today and I was IMing my sister. I also had ZERO beers yesterday and my head hurt a bit so maybe it’s my sinuses. Anyway, I was trying to figure out what to do.

My sister’s google found different things than I did, and she suggested a chocolate factory. That looked like a kid’s thing, but why not? And sort of on the way was an Olympic ski jump that a Scottish guy I met was talking about with a ski jump simulator. Sounded interesting.

Of course I putzed around for a while and had to get moving to catch one of the few buses I figured I’d see a coffee shop with a morning set on the way but I WAS WRONG. I used my usual trick of just grabbing some food (a can of coffee and a juice plus some bread products) at a combini.

Google Maps is really screwing up the directions on the iOS app. Google thinks they drive on the right side of the road so I’m being consistently directed to the wrong bus stop. In any case, I got on the bus, which turned out to be a highway bus (!) on the way to Otaru! I could’ve just gone to Otaru today, but I figure Sunday is probably not the ideal day for hitting that touristy spot since it might be too crowded on the weekend.

After the first bus there’s a 20 minute walk to the second bus (Google’s “best” suggestion wasn’t the greatest). You can see the ski jump up the mountain if you look very closely.

Even after the first bus, there’s another 10 minute walk uphill to the ski jump. But it was all worth it just for the view.

The jump was the scariest looking thing ever and I couldn’t figure out why there were tracks at the top and astroturf on the way down until I saw two high school kids doing jumps! The top part had rollers, and the landing zone had astroturf that was watered down with sprinklers.

My next stop was going to be the Hokkaido Jingu shrine and then off to other spots. But I was sidetracked by the sounds of baseball. Maruyama Stadium had something going on, and I could hear the oendan (the cheering sections) and the hit of the ball on the aluminum bat. It was a high school baseball tournament that only cost ¥500 for entry.

Even with so few people, there’s a big cheering section (sort of like the pre-MLS Timbers).

I watched the last few innings of that first game (it only went seven innings) and one side was clearly better than the other. High school baseball is really serious in Japan, and those kids hustle. There’s no walking to the batter’s box, it’s running. There’s only three players conferences allowed on the field during a game. And at the start of the fifth inning, both sides have their cheering squad (perhaps the JV players?) rake the field. And warm ups are insane. The second game seemed more serious (there were radar guns and videos analyzing the pitchers) and it was pretty exciting. A nice way to spend the afternoon. I even indulged in some ballpark food, a Japanese katsu curry!

Afterwards, I finally made it to the shrine and there was a wedding taking place (or at least the wedding pictures).

After that it was time to head back to the hotel and I ran into a LGBT Pride Parade!

After that it was time for dinner. I wasn’t that hungry and I was dithering on whether to have Genghis Khan (barbecued lamb) because when I IMed a friend who grew up here for what I should do, eating Genghis Khan is the only suggestion she had.

That’s lamb tongue on the wire grate, and marinated lamb (Genghis Khan) and regular lamb on the “Genghis Khan” grill.

Well, that’s enough for today. Tomorrow I have to fly to Wakkanai and rent a car to see the northernmost point of Japan!

(That’s just a soda, not a hard cider.)

As expected, I did not feel 100% this morning. After rooting around my suitcase I could only fine one clean shirt so decided it was time to do laundry.

Remember all the bad things I was saying about this faux fancy hotel? They have the all-in-one washer/dryers that never wash nor dry properly. Note how the laundry room also has a dehumidifier in it to boost the effectiveness of the dryer? I decided to just go to a coin laundry.

It was a bit of a walk to the first decent coin laundry according to teh Googs but the front desk told me about a much closer capsule hotel that lets anyone use the washing machines. Not only do capsule hotels cater to the younger budget-minded travelers, but they also have the down-and-out who can’t afford real apartments. So I spent a couple of hours in the corner of the capsule hotel guarding my clothes while they washed and dried. Not that anyone would want them but better safe than sorry.

I figured this would be my “down day” and I needed to get my train tickets for this half of my trip. I found lunch at Mos Burger and got the tickets (plus the ticket to the airport for my side-trip to Wakkanai).

I figured this might be a good day to wander around the downtown area and maybe Hokkaido University. I made it to the Hokkaido University campus and had to use the bathroom. I wandered into the first inviting building and it turned out to be the school museum. I found out that they do a lot here and even have a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (organoborate chemistry).

I even had a soft ice cream on the way out.

On the way back to the hotel I checked out the three buildings I was told were “must see.” The former municipal building was having a pet/human fair and I didn’t really check that out.

The clock tower, while historic, wasn’t much to look at.

And of course I was at the tower yesterday for the beer garden (but not today).

I even found the Benson bubbler donated by Portand to Sapporo (out of service right now).

OK, now it’s time to find dinner. I think I’m going to look for this restaurant my sister sent me on Instagram that has omurice. Will update later. (Well, I figure both of you who might see this are probably asleep right now anyway.)

Update:
That was disappointing. I took a half-hour walk down dark streets to the Sapporo Factory, only to find it a mishmash of buildings that were hard to navigate.

When I did finally find the food area, there was no obvious store with omurice. I made a pest of myself asking restaurants if they made the omurice that was shown on instagram.

After striking out and being told that it was probably the previous restaurant at a particular spot (the tables looked the same) I decided to have some Indian food.

It was unremarkable at best as it was kind of bland. The naan was great, though. It was probably better than my second choice.

I made several poor decisions today. First, I thought I should leave the onsen early because WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING? I missed the mochi-making at 9AM because I had to get in a taxi at 8AM to catch my train. That means I had to get up at 6AM, start packing (the electronics take some time to pack), take another onsen bath, eat breakfast, and andiamo. Breakfast wasn’t inconsequential and I was a few minute late for the taxi. The driver was kinda surly so screw that guy.

I slept most of the way on the train because I was tired. I got to Sapporo with not much difficulty but my hotel isn’t close to the train station, it’s on a shopping arcade near the drinking area of Susukino. There’s a row of hotels down here. Somehow I got screwed by booking.com because I have never paid so much for a hotel in Japan (outside of onsens that include dinner and breakfast). $1000 for five nights! And the room isn’t really that fancy! I was so pissed that I called my sister to complain.

I think my reasoning was that if I paid that much, I’d get a nice big relaxing room. Nope.

Here’s what they think a desk is:

Nice Ikea furniture. No sofa like some of the cheaper places I stayed in earlier.

And here’s my view from my non-opening window:

I was mad, but I figured there must be SOMETHING going on making the hotels scarce. There’s a month-long Oktoberfest fairly close by in Odori park and the first thing I did was order a plate of meat and a Sapporo beer.

Can you see what time it is? It’s not even 11AM and I’m drinking. Well, I get chatty when I drink and I went into the information booth where the woman was a beer fan. She told me there was a beer garden at one end of the festival, and I could drink a special Sapporo beer IN A GLASS at the opposite end. Oh, and North Island Beer had a booth and she’d met Tagaya-san, the North Island brewer who came to Portland for OBF. I called the factory to see if he was going to be around but it turns out there’s a beer festival in Saitama and he was there!

Anyway, here’s the special festival Peach Weizen.

I can’t get away from Portland beer: Migration is pouring here!

I had the festival lager and now I’m three beers in.

I walked the length of the festival to have the Sapporo beer that’s made with hops that were developed here but grow better in the US, so they grow them in Washington and ship them back. (That’s four.)

Now it was time to get back to the North Island booth so I could talk to the president’s wife and ask her about Tagaya-san, etc. But on the way back, in the section that has booths from different Japanese cities, an older woman from Asahikawa said, “Drink our Asahikawa beer!” I also had a pork and cheese (I think) bun. (That’s five.)

So I made it to North Island’s booth and had their sampler: a Pilsner, a Weizen, a Brown ale, and a Stout. At this point I didn’t have the sense to take a picture before I drank them.

And also, at this point, about seven to nine beers in (the samplers were smaller), I had a brilliant idea! (OK, not so brilliant.) But I wasn’t so drunk that I don’t remember installing the Japan Taxi app to make this happen:

The next tour was at 4:30 (in 40 minutes) but since I was alone, they stuck me in an earlier tour at 4PM.

The original recipe beer, on the left, still had yeast left and tasted more like a craft beer. (I had another of those after this. Is that 11?)

I never felt THAT drunk. I knew I’d pay for the all-day drinking but I didn’t know where to get dinner except for the North Island taproom two blocks away.

I had their IPA, and a beer from the guest tap from an old brewer from North Island. (I had the sense to have small pours of 12 & 13).

The salmon fish and chips were very tasty there.

After that, I made it back to the hotel (it wasn’t that late) and took a shower in the room. There’s a big bath downstairs but I didn’t have the energy. I hit the hay at 9PM. I’ll probably feel it tomorrow.

It was time to pack my bags in Hakodate and take the train to my first onsen of the trip in Noboribetsu. But first it was breakfast in the hotel. Yesterday I had the ramen. Today I went to the omelet bar.

The trains in Hokkaido aren’t electric trains. They’re diesel. OK, technically they’re probably diesel-electric. In any case it does make it feel like we’re in the middle of nowhere.

The train from Hakodate to Noboribetsu only took a couple of hours so I arrived around noon. I had to take a bus from the train station up into the mountains to get to the onsen. I think Google told me it would take an hour and a half to walk up there? There really wasn’t much to see on the way up.

As soon as I arrived, I noticed the area was full of Chinese tourists and smelled like farts. Truthfully “FULL” isn’t quite right: there weren’t the gangs of tourists in northern Japan that are all over Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, etc. I had misgivings about the ryokan, but it was great. I gave them my bags and then asked about the local beer. I guess the 7-Eleven was remodeling so it didn’t have the Onidensetsu Beer from Noboribetsu even though it’s just down the hill a bit. I decided to go to the source, a brewery halfway down the hill back towards the train station. It was suggested to me by the woman at the tourism bureau that I take a taxi back. She said there’s no crosswalk and people in Hokkaido drive FAST. I figured I would be in a much better mood after a couple of beers anyway. The fart smell and the small groupings of Asian tourists were getting to me.

Onidensetsu Beer is made by a confectionary shop and they have a restaurant upstairs. Luckily, I made it in before the blackhole between lunch and dinner when restaurants in Japan inevitably close.

The brewery is right next to the gift shop where they sell Japanese sweets.

Amazingly they had a taster flight. Most places just have pints and nothing else. I had the tasters of their three beers and then a couple more of the Kin-Oni (Gold Devil) because when else am I going to find this? (Turns out they have it at the Watering Hole in Tokyo, a place I go to every trip to Japan.)

Here’s the first of two Kin Oni.

After that it was back to the onsen to check in. They told me that dinner would be busy and asked if I could have dinner at 5PM. I’m OK with early dinner but I asked if I’d have time to see Jigokudani, one of the many places named Jigokudani (Hell Valley) in Japan. They said it’s only a 10 minute walk. So once again, off I went. The room was a nice onsen room.

The first thing I saw was a 15′ tall animatronic devil that was just about to do his thing. He said he was the king of the devils and was pretty placid until it hit 3PM and the music started.

His face changes and he waves his arms around a bit. I can’t remember what all he said, but there’s a speech in Japanese.

Then it was onto Hell Valley. There’s lots more than the couple of pictures here. Surprisingly, I think I saw my first group of Korean tourists here.

There’s also a nice (hilly) walk through the woods to get from the valley to the hot lake.

There’s even a continuously bubbling geyser next to a hotel in town.

I didn’t make it back in time to take a bath before dinner. The food was pretty good, but I picked the fish instead of pork. My cousin told me later that the fish, hokke, is supposed to be tough, dry, and difficult to eat. I guess I picked an early dinnertime because I was the first one down there.

After that it was a trip to the onsen bath (no shower in the room) and I spent the rest of the evening using up the data on my SIM card watching Rick and Morty. Ah the joys of Japanese Netflix.

Oh, and my Bose Sleepbuds are broken.

I think I may have mentioned that I gave myself a day to just do nothing and this is the place where you can do nothing. Also, it was raining. Yesterday it was fairly warm at 80°+ but not that humid, and today it was cold and rainy. I asked someone about this and they said its usually pretty cool here and the weather yesterday was a fluke. Here’s an example from the afternoon.

I had breakfast in the hotel because I figured this is a relaxation stop, right?

Also, I think the food here is mainly fish but I overdid the fish in Sendai and I wanted to cut back a bit.

I went north today, toward the five-sided fort Goryokaku. Well, I thought iI was going north-ish towards the park but I was actually pretty darn lost. Remember what I said about liking to wander around Japan? I think I should say I like walking around Tokyo because it’s so dense that there’s all sorts of things to see no matter where you go. Here in Hakata I saw house after house interspersed with some abandoned schools and warehouses. Once in a while there’d be a drug store or a grocery store, but mostly it was houses. I dunno but that was pretty darn dull. The weather was mostly on-and-off drizzle and when I was moving around it was just a bit too warm for my long sleeved shirt. But it was just on the edge.

In any case, I finally got to the area I was looking for and I really just wanted to sit down. Fortunately there was a Mister Donut there and I spent some time just sitting and drinking coffee. The sweet potato donut was a little too sweet, I think.

I never did make it into the fort, but I did go to the observation tower nearby. A couple of Aussies going by told me to definitely go up, and luckily it was fairly clear when I did.

When I bought the ticket to go up they gave me a piece of paper that needed three stamps to get a prize. The first stamp was paying to go up the tower. The second was to buy something to eat like, say, a delicious gelato.

The third and final stamp was to buy something from the gift shop. I wandered around the shop for quite some time for two reasons. First, I was looking for something cheap. Second, IT STARTED POURING DOWN RAIN.

I bought a little trinket to finish out the stamp card and for my trouble I got a plastic paper protector with a picture from the War of Hakodate of 150 years ago.

Did I go straight back? Did I just jump in a taxi? No, that wouldn’t be foolish enough. I went walking out in the pouring rain to find a Daiso (the ¥100 store) to buy some more cable ties.

It was kind of fun because the Daiso was in an old-school department store with old lady clothes. It even had a Bunkyodo bookstore. I tried to take a bus back to the station but I waited half an hour and it never came. I finally took a taxi rather than walk any farther (further?) in the rain. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching Rick and Morty, though I did make a return trip to Lucky Pierrot. This time I got the 2nd most popular item, an egg burger (a burger with a fried egg on it) and it was excellent. And what’s with all the guarana drinks in Hokkaido anyway?

THat’s it for today, and pretty much it for Hakodate. Tomorrow I’m off to Noboribetsu.

Oh, and I liked the Onuma Alt much more than the IPA.

I told my sister I think I’m eating my weight in mayonnaise. Most of the things I get at the combini seems to have mayo in it. I hid inside today until it was time to leave because it’s supposed to be 90°F today and the humidity is on top of that. Holy cow. Anyway, I got breakfast at the combini and took it onto the shinkansen. Just wandering around in the morning looking for a combini made me sweat quite a bit.

I guess Ichinoseki is similar to the shinkansen stop near my grandmother’s because there was no one getting on the train. And the green car was mostly empty. (There was one lady hiding in there.)

I switched Shinkansen trains at Morioka and the next train was much more full. Everyone was headed to Hokkaido. I didn’t take any pictures of the ride or of the trains. Lots of people were taking pictures of the Hokkaido trains and the signs that said, “Welcome to Hokkaido.” I even slept through the announcements about passing through the $7B Seikan Tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait.

I got to Hakodate and realized I’d booked a stay at a Sheraton. I think I figured I needed a break after all the random hotels beforehand. Well, the random hotels weren’t so bad.

I’m wasn’t that impressed by Hakodate. There’s really not all that much here. There’s the history of foreigners initially coming here, but it’s like going to Kobe but removing three-quarters of the stuff. I mean, here’s a bunch of people standing at the top of a hill taking pictures down hill of almost nothing.

I went to the red brick buildings, and as the tourist information person said, that was like Yokohama but MUCH SMALLER.

I tried to go to the Lucky Pierrot (suggested by a co-worker) at the red brick buildings but it was packed. Funny thing is, two blocks away I found another Lucky Pierrot and there was no one in line. I was completely underwhelmed by the chicken sandwich which was my co-worker’s favorite.

And underwhelmed by the hamburger. I also miscalculated and they were huge; I didn’t finish them.

You know who else didn’t finish his sandwich? This Filipino kid who got the Surprise sandwich.

I went exploring the Motomachi area and it was also underwhelming and I finally made it to the ropeway to the top of Mt. Hakodate. I had to ask: can you walk up instead? They told me it would take an hour and it did not.

It was hot, the trail got small at times, and it was quite a ways up. 1096ft to the top, and I started at sea level.

I even took a bad selfie looking directly into the sun.

I didn’t feel like walking back down so I took the ropeway.

After my hike up the hill I felt better about everything and I still had to see the “oldest concrete telephone pole in Japan.” That really tells you how much nothing there is here when they advertise stuff like that on every tourist map in town.

Hakodate beer was on the way back, but I was thwarted for a little bit.

The brewery is inside the restaurant and the bar faces the tanks.

The beer was unremarkable.

I decided just to go to the bar and have an Onuma beer for dinner, but the bar is only open Thu-Sat and it’s Tuesday. So off to the combini again. The onigiri are Sea Chicken and Mayo (my favorite) and Bacon and Egg. I can’t even remember what I thought of the Bacon and Egg now. I also got the Seven-Eleven karaage chicken to compare with the Lawson fiasco and it was much better. Probably more than I needed. Oh, and since Onuma beer is being advertised everywhere and is also in the Seven-Eleven, I got an IPA. It’s not that great.

Honestly, I think I’d rather be in Ichinoseki, but the weird thing is, it’s not as humid here. In fact, Wikipedia makes mention of the high humidity in the areas I was just in. Ah well, I’m just being picky. I’m having fun and I don’t need to rate the cities I’m in.

If there’s a theme to today, it’s I have no sense but especially regarding the weather. Man was it hot. I think I took a screenshot before where it said, “It’s 85°F and it feels like 96°F,” and it was the same today. And this isn’t the sort of heat I’m used to; it’s incredibly humid in Japan. I was soaked and I bought a new quick-drying towel to take with me that I forgot (so my not-fast-drying towel is slowly drying right now) and I wore long pants all day.

The pants almost made sense at the start of the day. I started out in Sendai where the edge of the typhoon was hitting and it was raining pretty hard so I decided to put on my long pants.

I took my sweet time since my train wasn’t until 9:40 and I got panicky when I saw how late it was getting. It wasn’t getting late, it just SEEMED late. I went back to the same tapas restaurant for breakfast and the weekday vs weekend routine was a little different. Coffee was all-you-can drink and was as unspectacular as you’d expect. Also, I tried something new.

The rain here is actually warm, and it was even hotter when I got to Ichinoseki. Even the raindrops felt warm. I remembered fairly quickly that the energy in the typhoon as to do with a the temperature differential and after the typhoon it’s pretty darn hot.

There isn’t a whole lot going on in Ichinoseki, but there were a couple of things I wanted to see as well as a brewery that I definitely wanted to visit. There are goals and stretch goals – I went directly to the brewery. It was warm and humid on the way to the brewery and it was raining a little. Fortunately the typhoon didn’t really hit the northern part of Japan and it was just a short rain. The typhoon, however, decimated parts of Chiba Prefecture next to Tokyo.

That’s Iwatekura beer at Sekinoichi Sake. There was a time that it was almost impossible for Japanese breweries to start up without some sort of “in” like being part of a Sake brewery and that’s the case with Iwatekura beer. I met the president when he came to the Oregon Brewers Festival.

I’d been messaging Satou-san, the owner of the brewery, but had no response. I went anyway and when I showed up they told me no tours without prior notice. I asked if I could say hello to Satou-san and he came out with a big smile and took me on a tour of the facilities.

There was a time when sake was going out of favor and he had to add a sake museum and restaurants to keep the business afloat. Satou-san told me that he’s running out of room for beer production and wanted to convert the banquet facility into more holding tanks, but he also said there weren’t enough large banquet facilities available in the area. The banquet facility is used for weddings as well as other events and is quite popular.

He took me to the restaurant and bought me a very unique lunch. The area of Ichinoseki is known for having hundreds of different kinds of mochi and here’s the selection I had for lunch. It was all excellent.

He mochi comes with a “game” where a stick is place in the bowls. If you find it in your first bowl, you’re going to be lucky today. If it’s in later bowls, that’s the day you’ll have good luck. I got it in my first bowl!

My stretch goal was to see the temples at Hiraizumi, and Satou-san drove me up there to his secondary restaurant/taproom which is a small shop among the souvenir stalls.

Satou-san made it to the Oregon Brewers Festival on the strength of his Sanshou Ale. Sanshou is a pepper used in Japanese cooking. Due to shipping delays, most of his Sanshou Ale didn’t arrive in time for the festival and I didn’t get to try it. It was on tap at the Brewers of Hiraizumi and I got to try it as well as a second lager mixed with matcha powder.

It was great seeing Satou-san and the rest of the visit was gravy. Well, some sort of hot primordial soup since it was so damn humid.

I’d suggest googling pictures of the golden Chusonji Temple in Hiraizumi because I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. It was pretty spectacular (and a slog up a long hill in the heat).

I got back to the station around 3PM and decided to ask the information booth if there was anything else I could see today. They sent me to Genbikei gorge where I was once again wondering why the hell I was wandering around in the heat, but it was worth seeing.

My Eagle Scout experience seems to have faded. I read the map thinking I was taking the 30-minute walking route but I took the 70-minute route around the area. Half of that was in the middle of nowhere, trying to get back to the river.

While on the whole there really isn’t much more than the small river gorge, this is also the place where they have the flying dango (a rope across the river delivers green tea and dango on a food zip-line), a shaky rope bridge, and a weird glass store/amusement park that looks abandoned or haunted. It’s open, and just a little dated.

I got back to the hotel and there’s really not much going on in this town of 30,000 people. Even though there’s a shinkansen station, there didn’t seem to be many restaurants. I decided hit up the Lawson conbini and eat in my room.

Yes those are the sandwiches that Anthony Bourdain raved about, and I’ve always liked them.

So that’s it for the day. I’m going to watch some more Rick and Morty and hit the hay.

I did my laundry yesterday, so I had had a free day in front of me. It was also going to be hot as hell so I didn’t want to do too much. Nevertheless, I knew I had to get out and about at least while the room was being cleaned.

I had the exact same breakfast as yesterday but I figure I might even get it a third time since I don’t know when I’m making it back to Sendai to eat at this place again. Weirder things have happened.

I went to the train ticket counter (a very tiny train ticket counter with only two windows) and got my train tickets for the next week or so. After that I went to the tourist counter and what they would suggest and besides all the places I’d already been they said Shiroishi Castle. Checked google but it didn’t show that much more around the castle other than a fox “museum” which I’m guessing is a zoo, and zoos make me sad. Plus, castles don’t have air conditioning. So I decided to just walk down the main shopping street of Sendai. I didn’t really go into any shops besides a Starbucks, but that was because I realized I hadn’t taken my medicine and I needed a glass of water and it would be much easier just to order a coffee and a tiny, tiny water than to try to swallow a bunch of pills while standing on a street corner.

The jazz festival was starting up about halfway through my walk, and the first group I saw had more performers than audience members. They weren’t hitting the high notes and when I confirmed they were singing gospel I kept moving.

I headed back soon after that and after a stop at the bookstore I went back to the hotel. I bought a book on Japanese phrases for the N1 JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) because I figured more phrases would improve my conversation skills. Plus it would give me something to do if I just wanted to sit in the room or in a coffee shop.

About 1300 I started getting hungry and decided to try Hosoya’s Sandwich which I heard might be the oldest hamburger restaurant in Japan. It was a new adventure, in any case and I decided to brave the heat because I had a goal.

It didn’t take too long, and I got on a bus hoping it would take me to the right spot (google is awful with Japanese buses right now and thinks they run on the right-hand side of the road) and made it about 2PM. It looked suspiciously closed.

Sure enough, there was a sign on the door giving me the bad news.

Turns out they ran out around 1PM because of an unexpected order. At that point I was hangry and needed something. Since I had hamburger on the brain I went to the closest Mos Burger.

I guess the better jazz bands had much larger audiences. I saw tiny crowds for Dixieland, a band doing a cover of Earth, Wind, and Fire, a woman singing the king of inoffensive songs they play in boutiques, and an odd band with a shamisen player. This band was doing a cover of “Birdland” which annoyed me because:

1) I was hangry, and

2) I’d rather listen to a proper recording of it on my iPhone.

I had to walk between the crowd and the band to get to Mos Burger, and I didn’t care. The only other thing I really wanted was a lot more air conditioning in Mos Burger.

Next I decided I needed a sun hat (my mom was always telling me to wear a hat in the sun), a quick-drying towel to mop my sweaty brow, and a non-leather belt since my belt was staining my light-colored khaki shorts. Oh, and a non-leather wristband for my watch because the cheap leather one I had was staining my wrist and smelled funny. Stupid humid heat.

Back to the hotel with some snacks. I’m not sure what I did besides sit around for a while. By the way, those sweet corn sticks tasted just like sweet corn. I have to get that again.

I gave the front desk another chance to make a dinner suggestion. They gave me a coupon for a nearby fish place which was great, but it turned out to be a Japanese drinking restaurant where I expected all the plates to be small and expensive and I’d have to pay at least $50-80 to get out of there. I paced in front of the place for a while before I finally gave in and went in. The only part I was wrong about was the the plates were not small. I only spent about $50 and about halfway through I questioned whether I was going to be able to power through, but I did it.

Oysters steaming in the can. She said they were too small to fry, so I expected them to be tiny. Ha. Too small my ass. At least she came back to open the oysters for me.

It’s hard to see in this picture but I think there was enough salad for three or more people.

And that’s not all of it.

And this is the damage at the end, plus two beers.

Well, that’s it for another day. I’m supposed to be going to Ishinomaki tomorrow and I’m going to try to score a tour of a sake and beer factory. I met the president at the Oregon Beer Festival. I also found Rick and Morty is on Japanese Netflix so I should probably stop typing and start finally watching that. No more beer for the night.

I didn’t sleep great last night but it also wasn’t awful. I keep waking up before I want to get up. I had to meet the group of company presidents at 9AM and I was up by 6. Even then I thought I was going to be late, like I was for dinner with them. I was able to squeeze in a “morning set” at a tapas place on the way to their hotel.

I was in time to go to Matsushima with the presidents. This group was the travel committee, and the full group of suppliers goes on trips every other year with 30 more presidents. I found this out when the senior member of the group said it was time to choose the next destination and whoever spoke up would be more likely to get their choice. They had a two-day trip/meeting and their business seemed to be concluded in 5 minutes. Of course there was the business of having a good time.

It looks like I only took one picture of Matsushima’s islands.

There were a couple of reasons for that. One was it was kind of foggy out and there are lots of better pictures taken by professionals out there. The second is that I agree with my grandmother (my mom’s mom) who said, “Meh, the islands near Murozumi (part of Hikari-City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) are prettier.” I’ve translated that from the original Japanese.

We even took a boat ride out in the islands where there was a recording constantly describing the islands. One of the presidents (the youngest one, who spoke very good English) asked me, “What makes an island? These look like rocks,” and I tended to agree. How Japanese to name all these damn rocks with reasons for the naming.

We went to the fish marketplace (kind of a tourist trap) and had sushi for lunch. It certainly was tasty though.

On the way back we stopped at a chikuwa factory. Or was it kamaboko? Yeah, kamaboko. It was pretty tasty and is made from whitefish. The factory was a little odd as it also housed a couple of art museums, and a tanabata museum next door. Why? I don’t know.

We also stopped at the castle, which I went to a couple of days ago, for ten whole minutes. Then they dropped me and one of the presidents off at the train station and the rest went off to the airport to head back to Kansai.

I lucked out – it was more fun chatting with the presidents club on the way to see Matsushima than going by myself listening to economics podcasts.

I got back to the hotel around 4PM and I decided it was time for laundry! And then I went out looking for dinner at the station. It was kind of crowded because of the Sendai jazz festival and from a baseball game letting out. I found a place that wasn’t that crowded, probably because the beef needed more seasoning. But it wasn’t bad, and there were multiple people in mobility devices inside! Yay inclusion!

I also finally made it to the big bath downstairs, and figured a way to spend the money on my extra Suica cards!

And a happy pumpkin pudding to you too!