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David's Journal from '94 Hokkaido Trip


It was still dark and cold when HiDae and I headed to the bus stop.  We couldn't afford to miss the trip by being a little bit late, so we decided to take the first bus in the morning at 5:41.  When we arrived at the station, it was 40 minutes earlier than the schedule, but it didn't take too long until I found 16 familiar faces.  I was all pumped up, ready to go, but I was somewhat discouraged by the sleepy 50 minute bus ride on the airport shuttle bus, 40 minutes of waiting for boarding, and an hour of flight to Shinchitose Airport.  As soon as we got off the board, in my sight was a gigantic fish grove with exotic fish that caught everyone's attention.  While I was carefully observing some weird-looking fish, Miss Suzuki, the guide from JTB, called us, gently waving her hand.  Near her, there was a short lady in a uniform who held up a piece of paper with "Sendai Ikuei High School" written down.  Miss Suzuki introduced us Miss Takahashi, the hostess of the charter bus that we would be using for the next three days.  The bus was large enough for everyone to take two or three seats.  It was a tiring morning, but the bus was taking us to Sapporo, and I was excited.
The first place the bus took us to was Sapporo Factory.  When I first heard Sapporo Factory, what came to my mind was a tour of the factory of Sapporo Beer.  Instead, what really came upon my eyes was a modern shopping mall with entertainment facilities which reminded me of Metro Town back home and Sunshine City in Ikebukuro.  It was a little bit cold when we had to wait for our tickets near the ticket booth located outside the building.  We were, however, soon handed the tickets for Star Maker and IMAX movie and guided to Tentai Kojo (Star Maker.)  It was an old-fashioned museum of stars with showrooms including a library on astronomy, displays of constellations, a storehouse of antique collections of stars, and star-making mechanisms.  Some of us had fun by touching the plasma tube and someone else's hand which eventually caused electric shocks.  After the exhibition, we headed to the IMAX theater where we all watched a movie called Speed, a documentary that showed the evolution and achievement of vehicles and of the desire to go faster.  I had seen it before in Canada, so it wasn't too exciting for me.  It was the first IMAX movie I've ever seen in Japan, though.  The lunch was quite appetizing, and most of us enjoyed our non-Japanese-style-Obento.  As we were allowed a little bit of free time, HiDae, Pavel, Miss Suzuki, and I agreed to go window-shopping for a while.  I didn't buy anything, but Miss Suzuki kindly treated us to yogurt ice cream cones.
As we arrived at Hotel San Ruto New Sapporo, it was around 3 o'clock.  The room was a nice western-style twin room.  Mike and I were assigned to share the same room.  Around 3:30, HiDae, Miss Suzuki, and I left the hotel to visit the Snow Festival event area.  Walking about three blocks, we found a street fu

ll with snow and ice sculptures.  Most were imitations of well-known architectures, cartoon characters, animals.  Some of them were unbelievably gigantic and detailed, though.  My favorites were the huge ice castle and 3D Crayon Shinchan.  On another street, many pieces of ice carvings were on display, but I didn't think they were that great.  Well, if I could have seen them before I saw the beautiful snow sculptures, I might have been impressed more.  Anyway, I had a good laugh out of an ice table and bench set with ash trays attached to it.  
We also roamed around the town and found a street full of Ramen shops.  The one we went in was somewhat small and noisy, the cook constantly shouting "Irasshai, irasshai!"  Nevertheless, the Ramen we had was pretty good, although I still can't figure out the difference between Sapporo Ramen and just regular ones.  For desert after supper, we entered a cafe called Yours so that we could warm ourselves and use the coupon that we received on the street.  Miss Suzuki and HiDae shared a pancake, and I ordered strawberry parfait.  As we had a plenty of time left until the curfew, we chatted for awhile, talking about her stay in America and our stay in Japan.  We also did some souvenir shopping on our way back to the hotel.
After the meeting at 9 o'clock, Mr. Tusken came into our room for a chat.  We were half talking and half watching TV.  Soon after he returned to his room, I went to bed.  It was somewhat exhausting day for me, but I had a nice sleep that night.  I forgot to close the window before I fell into sleep.  The next morning when I woke up, I felt a little sore throat, but it became better in the afternoon.  It must have been the chill air from the window right next to my bed.

The breakfast wasn't the greatest.  The scrambled egg was watery, and the bacons were too greasy.  Quite frankly, I never liked the hotel food.  They are always small, expensive, and the worst of all, distasteful.  Right after the meal, I hurried up to my room, packed my stuff, and rushed down to the bus to be on time.  Well, I got onto the bus in time, but others appeared about 10 minutes later.  I was angry to some degree, but Miss Takahashi cheered me up.  By then, we already became annoyingly friendly, and she begged me to sit in the back.  However, I didn't listen to her.
In a couple of hours we reached to Otaru.  We first went to see the Music Box House.  It was such a fascinating place.  From tiny match boxes to a meter tall Totoro doll, everything was made to play back classic tunes or contemporary pops.  Most of them were way too expensive, though.  The next place we visited was Kitaichi Glass Factory.  The building looked like a small wooden hut at first, but seen from inside, it was like a fantasy world.  The displays included the most excellent glass crafts I've ever seen in the last 17 years.  Although too many zeroes were written down on the price tags, I could find just about everything on the shelves there.  Small accessaries, colorful decorations, hundreds of different wine glasses, antique-looking lamps, and even children's toys.  And then, there was Venetian Glass Museum which had similar displays as Kitaichi Glass Factory, but genally very highly priced items.  The first floor was open to the public, but the admission to other parts of the museum weren't allowed without a ticket, so we chose to go see other places on the street.
As we were taking pictures at the famous canal of Otaru, we realized it was almost lunch time.  At the restaurant, we were served with probably the best dishes in the two trips we've been to.  The scallop in tomato sauce and some unknown fish were delicious.  Besides, the soup and the bread were perfect.

  I did some souvenir shopping after lunch before we left for Toya Park Hotel.
If I remember it correctly, I think it was around 5 o'clock when we got to the hotel.  Contrasting to the luxurious lobby, the room was a typical Japanese Tatami floor.  This time, Chase, Ryan, HiDae, and I shared the room.  I unpacked some of my stuff and got changed into the Japanese Ohuro gown, wearing a bathing suit under it.  We, then, went down to the second floor for the supper.  When we were guided to the big Tatami room, we found personal tables lined up in two rows with Gohan and Okazu on them.  Some of the side dishes I found inedible, but it was an okay dinner.  Probably HiDae enjoyed his fish more than anyone else.  He challenged to eat the head part for 300 yens.  Poor HiDae!  Was he pressed for money so badly?
Later, Mike, Pavel, Chase, Shaun, and I went to take a bath.  We found an old lady cleaning the man's changing room.  I had my bathing suit on, so it was okay, but when the lady saw other guys entering the bath, she kindly handed them little hand towels.  It was a huge bath place where the streets could be seen out the big window panes.  There were a steam sauna, a medicine bath, cold and hot tubs, and a pool and a hot jacuzzi upstairs.  When I went up to the outdoor pool, there were only two Japanese kids.  Soon after, Mrs. Call came and joined me in the pool, and the kids addressed her with a relatively good pronounciation.  They asked her name, but did not answer when she asked their names.  Later, they said "Welcome to Japan, " and I was very impressed.
After the bath, I tried out the massage chair just outside the entrance of the bathroom.  There were two big humps that were controlled and moved by an electrical device attached onto the left arm.  It was hilariouis, though!  They would move up and down, make circles, or vibrate.  There also was a foot piece that would tickle your feet.  I was soon able to master the methods to fix the humps' width and time interval of massaging.  Since there were three massage chairs, and one of them was left unused, I sat down and relaxed.  My back hurted ever since the car accident I encountered two months ago, and yet I felt better after over an hour of the chair massage.
That night, there was nothing on TV, and I wasn't sleepy at all, so all the guys in my room decided to go to the arcade.  It was where we found all the teachers, too.  While everyone was so eager to play the western gun shooting game, Mr. Tusken and I had a Puckman match.  It was just a regular ye-old Packman with a typo.  At midnight, the man working at the arcade shouted to leave, but we kept on playing, and he got annoyed, I think.  Well, we had a great time, though.  I won the match too!
Before we went back to our room, we called on Therese, Roberta, and Kathy.  They had a Manju to offer, but we decided to share and eat in Sadou style.  Therese made green tea, while we wiped our bowls.  We even did Seija in guest style and did all the bows and everything.  Ryan and Roberta did an excellent job playing as the hosts, and I presented an upside-down formal bow which amused everyone.  After we finally got back to our room, we took a couple of shots of pillow fight and wrestling on the Huton.

The last day's highlight was the snowball fight.  On the way to Noboribetsu Marine Park, we stopped for a quick break.  I had my tuque, ski gloves and waterproof jacket on, and I was ready for it!  In the beginning, it was teachers versus students, but then, the teams got switched frequently without any prior warnings.  Mr. McGregor fashwashed me, but my tuque saved me.  After that, Mr. Markel took away my tuque.  Still, I did okay without it, and at the very end, I paid Mr. McGregor back with a beautiful shot right on his face.  It was the world's best snowball fight place, and I'll never forget this ultimate snowball fight.
At the marine park, I watched Sea Lion and Dolphin shows.  I felt pity for them, though.  All they're doing is do tricks so that they can get fed and stay in their small cage.  And yet, they were so adorable indeed!  After the shows, I looked around in the main aquarium where many weird fish were kept.  It was fascinating to see two huge fish pots that contained fishes living in cold and warm water.  Looking them down from the escalator was nice too, but I liked it better looking upward from the under tunnels.  The lunch was another Japanese Obento that didn't look too appealing.  Most of the guys went to a Lego shop after lunch, though.  I think it's been almost ten years since I last played with Lego.  I made an awesome space ship and took pictures of it too!  And then, Mike, Chase, and I succeeded to get the address of the cute girl at the information booth.  I don't think I'll write to her, though.
Then for a short period, we stayed at a traditional village of the Ainu Indians.  The place was called Shiraoi Poroto Kotan where we could observe their traditional life in the museum.  There was a demonstration of their ritual dance, Iomante Rimuse, and a performance of their traditional instrument, Mukkuri, which sounded like a spring.  By the way, I have to mention that I was really surprised to see such a similarity in the artwork of Ainu and that of the natives in B.C.  On the other hand, I didn't find the visit so exciting.
In the last bus ride to the airport, Miss Takahashi wrote me a farewell note and sang us a Hokkaido song.  Well, it was a short trip, but a good oportunity to see other parts of Japan.  I enjoyed it very much and again, I'm assured that I can't learn Japan just by studying in the classroom at school.  I'd like to come back to Japan after I graduate from high school and see other parts of Japan as well.  I'm sure it will enhance my understanding of the Japanese culture.