Thursday, July 23, 2009

Hokkai-go! day 5/6

Here we go, about a month and a half after the fact... there will be some new stuff coming soon though, look out!

June 6th.
off to Takikawa! we had breakfast (まあまあ) at the station and the boarded the スーパーカムイ train to Takikawa (滝川). スーパーカムイ is a combination of English/Japanese/Ainu languages that means 'super god!' but is just your average express train. we arrived in Takikawa with little fanfare and fewer people! around the station were old boarded up and broken down buildings and empty streets... like a ghost town. eerie. we dropped our bags off at the hotel and walked a different way back to the station to try and find life or a convenience store but neither were found... i did find an ATM so could get some money but that was about it. i sent a mail to tigger and he headed over to pick us up around 3 and took us over to the cabin he had rented for the wedding party. again, i didn't feel so good, so little drinking for me but it was a nice get together and it was nice to meet tigger and his lady's parents. as for Takikawa...probably the last time for me, lovely scenery, but not much happening...
June 7th.
got up early for the last time and jumped back on the スーパーカムイ headed to Asahikawa (旭川). we had lunch at the station and then went off to the city museum (旭川市博物館) to learn a bit about the native Ainu (アイヌ) folk. pretty interesting, love the designs! and that was about it. we went out to the airport super early, bought some souvenirs and just wasted time until our flight. all-in-all Hokkaido was a good time. beautiful scenery, open spaces, clean air, clean water, lots of stuff to see and do. just sucked that i felt crappy most of the time, and the weather was pretty crappy most of the time. it was good though. i highly recommend Sapporo but i think we tapped it out so next time Hokkaido is gone to, I'm thinking somewhere else will be on the itinerary.

No comments: