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.