Japan #9

First time flying into Haneda, it’s pretty great. You miss out on the Come On And Slam, And Welcome To Japan at Narita, but sacrifices must be made.

Adrian arrived yesterday, same flight one day earlier. Honestly it’s a bit of a rocky start as we’re all a bit on edge emotionally (couldn’t sleep on the flight), but we manage.

Not being able to checkin to the hotel straight away sucks, it’s the one downside of taking an overnight flight and arriving in the morning.

Big goal for me was to pick up a good film camera and then shoot with it, first milestone passed. I didn’t see a lot of promising online listings for Tokyo stores, but Matsuzakaya Camera down near Shinagawa station delivered the goods. There were in fact two Nikon F5 bodies on display, both about the same price, and exactly what I was looking for at 31,000 yen – about $410 AUD back home. There’s a little cap or two missing (PC socket) and there’s some wear on the contact points, but it’s perfect! A few rolls of film in hand later, I’m ready for this trip.

Took the trains all the way to Sapporo, the route has improved a lot since I was last here and it’s now a fair bit quicker, especially across the Tsugaru Strait from the mainland.

Being winter and a fair bit further north, the sun is already weakening by 4pm and the snow hits us hard. This is it!

We met up with Elena and her friend to go and appreciate the illumination in town. She’s staying in Kyoto but serendipitously happens to be visiting Sapporo at the same time as us. We get hammered by sudden heavy snowfall, have some good food, then pass out for the night.

Today is a take-it-easy sort of day, food and relaxation. Lots of food. And I bought some 7800 yen worth of film.

The meat being grilled in the later photos is “Jingisukan” style – a rough lexical approximation to the name we know as Genghis Khan. Unexpectedly we got to meet up with Elena and her friend again, so it was a fun and rowdy crowd for dinner.

Shooting Delta 3200 reminds me how much I enjoy black and white photography, but the graininess is really killing me. Maybe I just need to shoot it more to appreciate it more.

Now that we’re in Hokkaido-proper it’s quick to travel around. Otaru is practically an outer suburb to Sapporo, just under an hour away.

I only took a few shots on the Delta 3200 but now I want to shoot colour, so I’ve loaded up the Velvia. I’ll re-load the Delta later and finish it off when I’m in the mood.

Otaru is a proper port town, so it naturally has more history as an international trading hub with the rest of the world. There’s a lot of remaining signs of foreign influence, and there’s a certain charm to it all. I mean it’s extremely touristy, but it’s tolerable.

We’re to spend the next couple of nights in Asahikawa, and boy does it snow properly there! By the time we arrive and get checked-in it’s getting dark, meaning another dinner before 6pm.

A lot of things are closed so we’re a bit stuck for options at this point. We make the trek a couple of km through the falling snow to get to Bikkuri Donkey, a family restaurant chain that I’ve seen before but never been to, always amused. It’s kitschy, in that weird way that Japan loves to replicate the American diner aesthetic. In any case the food is good and not too badly priced in the end, about 1700 yen each.

Something interesting I noticed, some patches of road have heated sections to prevent snow and ice buildup, kind of like the demister in your car. It’s a clever feature but obviously uses a lot of electricity. It’s not entirely clear how they choose which sections of road need it most, possibly just on inclines near intersections.

We’re going out today to see a Christmas tree. Yes, a singular one.

I take back what I said about it being fast, it takes the best part of six hours to get to Hakodate today. Mostly because it’s so far south and there’s no straight line directly there from Sapporo, it’s a big curve around Uchiura bay.

First thing: wake up. Go out in the snow to get to the markets. Eat a whole crab for breakfast, 8000 yen each (he’s a really big crab).

An ambitious expedition to visit both Goryoukaku fort and Mt Hakodate in one day.

• Learnt that those tanks outside everyone’s houses are indeed for kerosene! Used for heating, which is foreign to us because we’re so used to using gas back home
• Kujira steak, it’s not bad. Kinda like kangaroo in a way
• Goryoukaku was alright, but maybe more exciting when not covered in snow
• What’s the deal with the Nippon-Ham Fighters baseball team? Do they use ham legs for batting?
• Mt Hakodate was damn crowded and visibility was pretty crappy, but the view from the deck is pretty nice
• Electrical safety in Japan always makes me uneasy

Getting the Hayabusa shinkansen down to Sendai takes a few hours, and we take it easy for the rest of the day. We basically eat three dinners.