For our destination, Evelyn had chosen Hokkaido Island, for the primary reason, I think, that she had never before seen snow and wanted very much to do so somewhere in this lifetime. Seeing it, she later learned after making our reservations, would not be a sure thing, as she had chosen a date that might be just a bit early. But she had her hopes, and so had I, for I myself have not seen snow in more than 15 years now. I've not even felt cold temperatures, except for a short time in Hong Kong.
The worst thing about Japan is just getting there. First we took a 3-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur for a transfer, and then the 6-hour flight from KL to Hokkaido. Arrival on that island was followed by a 2-hour train trip to the city of Asahikawa. The leg of the trip from KL to Hokkaido took place during the dead of night, but if you've ever tried to sleep on a long airplane trip, you will understand the difficulties faced. Sleeping while sitting up in an uncomfortable chair for 6 hours is difficult even for a tired 71-year-old man (and I can refer to myself as such for only one more month to come, give or take). So, despite being tired, and despite having taken a Xanax pill, I was only able to nod off here and there during the flight.
Once we had arrived, however, Japan was just wonderful. How refreshing it was to step out into temperatures of -1 centigrade and less. How bracing! And how welcome after so many years of relentless heat. Not welcome forever, mind you. One soon learns to curse the cold when cold becomes a constant thing, and to cherish memories of the tropical heat, however deadly.
But there was no snow.
What we did find was the cherry little town of Asahikawa, all decked out in Christmas lights, and populated in the town square and in the mall by brightly decorated Christmas trees. Now that is another thing I have dearly missed, my friends. In Bali, there is no Christmas to speak of, but in Japan it is all the rage, despite being essentially a non-Christian country. But they do love the lights and the decorations and the cold noses and the mittened fingers.
Speaking of which--our first stop on the day of arrival, after checking into our hotel room, was a sporting goods store offering affordable boots and gloves, which were much needed to replace our t-shirts and sandals from Bali.
For the first couple days, we explored our little neighborhood, sampled various choices of Japanese cuisine, acquainted ourselves with Japanese behavior, which is very extremely polite and with a lot of nodding and bowing and muttering of words that would probably translate as sorry or excuse me, and I of course looked for places to smoke. Smoking, as it turns out, is not at all a popular hobby in Japan. One might even say that it is not an acceptable hobby. There was, however, a smoking lounge (fancy word for closet) in our hotel, where I hung out from time to time with other shabby, unacceptable looking people to blow smoke at each other and politely cough or sneeze.
It was on the third day, I think, that we took a 2-hour bus ride up to a little place called Sounkyo. (I don't know why, but every bus trip we took was a 2-hour trip. Go figure. Everything of interest in japan, I guess, is roughly 2 hours away). There was not much in Sounkyo other than a couple of hotels and a street of shops that were all closed, for it was dark by the time we arrived and teeth chattering cold. What we did find, however, was snow! It started to flutter down in little flakes, but then kicked up into a vigorous flurry.
We were in the visitor's center when I noticed the snow coming down. There you go, Evelyn - - snow!
This was probably my favorite time of the entire trip. To see her childlike joy, to see her jump and dance about and catch snowflakes in her hands and put them on her tongue, to scoop up the swiftly gathering snow and let it sift through her fingers (barehanded yet!), or press it into snowballs, which of course she flung at me. She is 53 years old, and she has never seen snow other than in a picture book.
Immediately, she wanted to book a room in one of the hotels. Sadly, however, it turned out that rooms were available only by reservation, and there was no room at the inn. As it was, we had to run to catch our bus, because it was the last bus of the day and if we had missed it, we would have been up Snow Crick.
But there was more snow to come in Asahikawa--not so much as Sounkyo, but enough to keep her dancing and marveling.
Another trip we made (another 2 hour bus ride) was to Shirahige waterfall, a frozen cascade from high cliffs into a ravine of bluish colored water, colored so no doubt by the rocks beneath the surface. There was a lot of snow on the ground there, and so much more of fascination. And hundreds of pictures, I think, although that may be an exaggeration.
Finally, after a number of days, we took a bus down to Sapporo, and then another bus up to a place called Otaru to see a canal that is famous for some reason, and also to visit the Le Tao cheesecake and pastry shop (which, coincidentally, will soon open at the Sanur mall some 5 minutes from my house). But oh well, there was snow there too in Otaru.
From there it was Sapporo to Hong Kong and thence to Bali--and this time, friends, with the help of Xanax and general exhaustion, I slept like a baby on the long last leg home.
No comments:
Post a Comment