Chapter 5: Press the Button
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北海道 札幌 サッポロビール園 Sapporo Beer Garden, Sapporo, Hokkaido Fri 06 Oct 2000 16
Through an incredible stroke of luck, one hosteller was headed straight for my next destination, Shakotan Peninsula, and agreed to give me a ride all the way to Sapporo, 5 hours by car away. I'd originally been planning to stay at a little minshuku in Zenibako between Sapporo and Otaru, and had I pressed the point I could probably have gotten a ride all the way to the hostel he was staying in, but when I gently dangled the bait he refused to take it and I took the hint. And when we arrived at the outskirts of Sapporo I saw the skyscrapers and miniskirted girliez and realized that damn, today's a Friday and this is the only big city around, Takkyu Ishino and Fumiya Tanaka are spinning at a rave tonight so why not party and crash at a capsule hotel? The only counterindication I could come up with was the fact that I only had my combat boots with me, but I've (tried to) bounce around in them before and had a tolerable rate of success... so let's do it!
After a decent meal of sushi (if still not up to the praise I heard in Tokyo) I headed for the Sapporo Beer Factory for its free tour and "tasting" session (20 minutes and all the beer you can drink). I took the bus, but was deluded into thinking that the "Sapporo Factory" stop was in front of the Sapporo Factory. Well, it was, but the Sapporo Beer Factory turned out to be only a huge shopping mall, the factory-that-makes-Sapporo-Beer was a 15-minute walk away -- just long enough to make me miss the last tour of the day! Aaargh! I consoled myself with some beer ice cream (tasty in a perverse way, kind of like Sapporo's street numbering) and the thought that maybe I can squeeze in a breakfast visit tomorrow at 9 AM.
北海道 札幌 北欧キャプセルホテル Hokuo Capsule Hotel, Sapporo, Hokkaido Fri 05 Wed 2000 21
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Capsules are well-named: they're self-contained little units, somewhat larger than the average train berth or, come to think of it, the average half-a-bunk-bed you're allocated in most youth hostels (even I find it easy to sit up inside one) and with a TV, radio, light control, etc built in. The basic idea, which is somewhat baffling in practice though, is that on entry you remove your shoes and put them in a little locker, check in at the front desk and give up your shoe locker key in exchange for a locker key. Key in hand, you then locate your capsule, put your street clothing and baggage in the nearby locker (which, BTW, will probably be too small for your rucksack, although I managed to predict this and left mine at the station) and change into the bathrobe. The bathrobe is what you wear around the hotel, when you go to the baths just take a towel (free) and leave your robe in a basket.
Hokuo's spa is on a grander scale than most and in fact immediately topped yesterday's record for wackiest spa, off the top of my head the place has hot baths inside and outside, cold baths inside and outside, a sauna inside and outside (in a faux log cabin), a tepid jacuzzi, body-shaped jet baths, a steam bath, a cold waterfall, a shower area... I hope you'll excuse me if I forgot a few. You also get free underwear, toothbrushes, razors, Q-tips, and use of assorted toiletry paraphernalia (including, oddly enough, shampoo and rinse bottles labeled "Tukanpesu" and "Huuhtelu" in Finnish!) and there are also rooms for exercise, quiet relaxation, watching movies, plus a beauty parlor, massage, beer pub, and other value-added services. All quite legit though, the place is visited families with kids and even has a capsule floor reserved for women. There are more than enough services of a more dubious nature everywhere else in Susukino... and yes, you can leave and come back (check-out is at 5 PM!), but in order to reclaim your shoes you'll have to settle the bill first, which can be paid with VISA. When you return, just show them your receipt to reclaim your locker key. Definitely worth checking out: should you end up in Sapporo, Hokuo is at South 6 West 5 a block from the unmistakable exterior of the King Xmhu (read: "Moo") disco and and seems reasonably happy to accommodate gaijin with some semblance of a clue.
北海道 余市 JR余市駅 JR Yoichi station, Yoichi, Hokkaido Sat 07 Oct 2000 14
As I'd suspected, the party somewhat failed to impress. As usual for Japanese parties, re-entry was not allowed and nobody (including the staff) had any idea about the DJ schedule. The party was at the Kirin Beer Garden, a venue obviously designed for something entirely different, truckloads of bass speakers helped a lot but the long strings of white balloons suspended from the center looked like a giant octopus was about to fall on the dancefloor. One of the DJs I saw was probably Takkyu Ishino but, while I find it hard to hold a grudge against anybody who plays "Work This MF" and Marko Laine's "Read and Write", he didn't have much idea about how to keep up the momentum. As expected, my combat boots proved clunky and I left around 2 AM.
It was past noon by the time I'd hauled my ass out of bed, through the baths and onward through Otaru to Yoichi, the gateway to the Shakotan peninsula. In Sapporo it had been sunny and warm (even in a T-shirt!), but in blatant defiance to the weather forecast's 10/0/0, in Yoichi it was cold and raining, and the gray clouds suspended firmly above the mountains pretty much put a stop to any plans of camping tonight. The Bikuni YH had ceased to exist, the Shakotan YH slammed the receiver in my ear, the Shakotan Kamui YH and Toho's Re-Fore inn are entirely inaccessible to public transport, and with rainclouds looming and only a few hours of sunlight left in the day I wasn't about to attempt hitching the 100+ km to either one. I bitterly decided that evidently the gods willed that I should not visit Shakotan (and regretted not applying a bit more pressure yesterday), then set my sights on Kutchan and Niseko, to the south. Kutchan has no YH and only one too-basic campground (no water, no electricity), the ones in Niseko are not accessible with public transport and again hitching was contraindicated... Niseko's Toho "Ambitious" minshuku had its answering machine on, but finally the Niseko Kougen YH answered and, in a small saving grace, offered to pick me up at the train station.
And there I was waiting for the third train on that same day, even the Yoichi station's "Jump Kingdom Yoichi Display Hall" (ジャンプ王国余市展示ホール), devoted to the art of Japanese ski-jumping, barely having managed to get a chuckle out of me. Yesterday cost me 10000 yen and today won't be any cheaper. <sigh> And again that ANA ad for a flight to Tokyo for 14000 yen caused the big red ABORT ABORT ABORT button to flash in my head, press the button, the lovely big red shiny button that beckons you ever closer... this is getting slightly worrisome.
Oh well. I knew my quest for nuclear reactors would take me off the beaten track, I just had no idea how tough traveling on that track would be. I'll see what I can do tomorrow... but odds are I'll end up heading straight south to Hakodate and across the straits to Tohoku and the dread mountain of Osore-zan, where the fall Itako Matsuri is starting in two days.
北海道 ニセコ ニセコ高原ユースホステル Niseko Kougen YH, Niseko, Hokkaido Sat 07 Oct 2000 20
I rode past the mist-sheathed inviting green mountains of Shakotan in a tiny one-car local train packed to the (and with) gills due to a fish festival in Sapporo and a three-day weekend. At one point, much to my surprise, an actual steam loco (albeit with a diesel engine bolted to the other end of the train) puffed past: yes, JR does still operate a few iron horses even in the land of the bullet train, albeit naturally they're all geared for tourists and priced to boot.
The hostel is pretty much standard-issue, although it's stuffed full of Pooh-related paraphernalia and is indeed euphoniously called プーハウス ("Puu Hausu") on its sign. The food is also a distinct notch above average and at least three notches above the junk at Sounkyo, with fresh sashimi, ikura (salmon roe) and other little delicacies. Alas, the few other guests fail to fulfill a single one of my exacting criteria and are all headed the wrong way to boot. The owner, a former/reformed/traitorous (pick one) long-haired hippie who now has a shaved dome, is an accordion player, and during his nightly concert I was simultaneously impressed by how difficult it must be to play an instrument with three sets of controls to operate simultaneously, what a bizarre range of sounds the thing is capable of emitting, and how hideous some songs -- like "Yesterday" -- sound when transmogrified by the accordion. One of the better tracks, though, was none other than "Sakkijarven Polkka" (handily Japanized as 池袋のポルカ), the legendary(?) Finnish polka that gained half its notoriety through becoming one of the standard Nokia mobile ringtones, and the other half by being broadcast with loudspeakers during WWII in order to detonate frequency-triggered Soviet land mines!
北海道 大沼国定公園 東大沼野営所 Higashi-Onuma Camp, Onuma Quasi-National Park, Hokkaido Sun 08 Oct 2000 15
The accordion guru was kind enough to give me a lift out to Niseko's 道の駅 ("Station of the Road"), and once again I lucked out: the Asakuras, consisting of a vacationing truck driver from Tomakomai and his wife, not only offered me a lift all the way to Onuma but took me along on their trip along the Japan Sea coast and fed me lunch and squid along the way. They didn't stop much though, so I didn't get a single chance to photograph the cragged rocks of the coast... and the second mistake of the day was solely due to my own stupidity: I asked to me let off at the Onuma Koen station, only to find out that the campground is 6 km away and a train left 1 minute ago, with the next one going in three hours, after nightfall. I hoisted my backpack and puffed 2.5 km to the first designated scenic spot, then hijacked a young couple for a ride to the camping area. (Ed: As it turned out, the mistake was also in the Hitchhiker's Guide to Japan. Grr!)
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After a sunny day the air was warm and the sunset over the lake was a sight to behold. At night, for the first time during the entire trip, the moon and the stars (星空) were shining in the sky. (This is a rare sight indeed in urban, polluted Japan, and I haven't seen it since.) I munched on some hayashi rice heated up with my camping stove and reflected that there are certainly worse ways to spend your last night in Hokkaido.
