JAPANEXILE

Sunday 14th October - Completely on a random whim Yumi decided to whisk us away from Toya in her sparklingly clean car over to Niseko. Niseko is the prime Ski resort in Japan famed for its ample powder snow. And from what I’ve been told very popular with Australians, whether you view that as a good or a bad thing is up to you. However, a Ski resort without any Snow is an entirely different thing. It took about an hour from Toya to Niseko, including a brief stop at quite possibly the smallest bakery I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t resist the allure of a cheese covered freshly baked bun so I had my 2nd lunch for the day (I had earlier been to the bakery at the Mizu no Eki and eaten my fill). We got to the main tourist area at Niseko and met up with Haruka before treating myself to the 3rd lunch of the day, a Niseko Dog.

I didn’t really know what you were supposed to do at a Ski resort with no snow, we weren’t exactly prepared for white water rafting or any other particularly extreme activity. Yumi seemingly had a plan however, we drove up to the primary Ski lift and started climbing the mountain! We didn’t get too far, its steep and muddy. We did however have a fun photo sessions doing something I’ve always wanted to, climbing up onto the now stationary chair lifts and the pylons holding them up. There was lots of poses from Craig and I, lots of cries of “Baka Gaijin!” from Yumi and Haruka, and lots of photos.

So after all that excitement it was off to the Cafe to try custard filled rolls, which were pretty damn good. Some more fooling around, a trip to 7/11 to buy some Gundam figurines, and finally we ended up at Huruka’s house, where her cat practiced its boxing moves on Craig and I. Damn funny to watch. A little while later we had to head back, listening to “hanbato hanbato” all the way whilst Yumi swerved all over the road in so she could clap to the beat. There is of course a photo album for the day in the photography section!

Friday October 13th - Unfortunately Craig beat me to the punch with writing this post, so he managed to snag what I believe to be the perfect post title for today - A Mini Adventure. So where to begin. Craig and I had just finished our first day at the Hospital (an update on which will come once I’ve been a couple more times), the sun was shining, we both had our cameras, and we were already part way up the hill, so we thought, “why not climb to the top?”

The question was which top we were supposed to climb to, since there are a lot of hills around here. We eventually settled on walking up the road for a bit until we saw one that looked scaleable. After cutting through a farm to get to the base of the hill we started our ascent, clambering up a bank and straight into the bamboo. And then for 95% of the hour and a bit it took to get to the top in the bamboo we remained. It was damn hard work trying to force my way through the undergrowth forcing me to take off my jumper which had previously been protecting my arms and wrists. So by the time we reached the top my wrists were covered in scratches and bleeding in a few places. When I say force my way through I mean it in quite a literal sense. Despite looking pretty easy to get through, after a few feet you end up completely tangled up and literally need to drag yourself up and through using anything you can grab onto. I got a bit hasty a few times and tried to power through, only to end up on the floor.

Finally the summit is reached! Like something out of a movie we reached the top and were greeted by the sun bursting through the leaves onto us. It somehow seemed really suitable after all our effort. The main motivation for what most people would consider a stupid idea was to get the best photo’s we could, so up a tree I went, getting impressively high I might add. The views, as we had hoped were incredible, couldn’t have asked for better!

The day was however, not yet over. We hadn’t really thought of how we were going to get back home. I didn’t really fancy walking back down the hill in the dark, not to mention is was pretty damn cold by this point. The decision was made to head for the Ice Cream farm, then call Yumi for a lift. We never reached the farm. I was distracted by the prospect of buying some jam from a small roadside farmshop. They didn’t have any jam (that sounded particularly appetising), but the owner did take pity on us and gave us a cup of coffee on the house, which is always nice. The sole other occupant of this little shop was the farmer delivering his produce, who quite surprisingly spoke really good English. So we had a good little chat with him, finding out he used to be a mechanic in the Japanese airforce, but had since retired to Hokkaido to become a farmer/Ski instructor. He was a really friendly guy, who persuaded us to try something to eat whilst we were here. And I’m so glad he did, had a big bowl of Kare-soba. Soba noodles covered in curry, which is now very close to being the best thing I’ve tried in Japan.

So now to get home. No problem, I’ll just call….No battery. Bollucks. It took me a few minutes until I accepted the fact we were going to have to walk home in the cold and dark. So we started off walking down the highway after a brief stop to have a look at the little hut selling porn…The Japanese seem to very open about sex. A few minutes along the road an idea began to brew…Having recently read “Highway to Hokkaido”, a book which follows the journey of an English teacher hitchhiking up through Japan, we were inspired to try our luck. And lucky we were! Within five minutes a pair of Gaijin from Ireland and Scotland no less drove past and gave us a lift home. I have to say, despite it being only a 5 minute journey, I now love hitchhiking. Think I’m going to give it more of a go when I go travelling next year. Not sure how well it would have gone if a Japanese had picked us up, with my limited language skills. Sure I’ll find out next time! Loads more photos here, or via photography section.