I took a later train from Sapporo since I had a late start and was trying to recover from lack of sleep and beer beer beer the night before. I was actually really sad to leave Sapporo; I had such a good time there and really regretted that I met my new good friends (Miki & Horifuji) so late during my stay in Japan. And that they lived so far north. It was a relaxing train ride, a lot of it right next to the sea side.

After I arrived, I checked into the hotel which I was extremely excited to see I had my own tiny private room!! The staff wasn’t friendly in any way but I didn’t really care at that point. They did, however, have a really handy map of the area with some restaurants listed. I ventured out to the nearest sushi bar and was very pleased to see a small menu with pictures (point & order!!). It was the most delicious sushi I’ve ever had……….and I’ve had a lot! I tried uni (sea urchin) and ikura (salmon roe) and wasn’t particularly pleased with the taste sensations. It was just something about having your mouth completely full of something that didn’t necessarily taste very good but felt really weird. Yah. Anyway. The other sushi was super tasty and the feeling and ambiance of the place was great!

After dinner I went for a stroll around the areas that have the historical buildings. In the 1800s, Hakodate was opened up to foreigners due to an agreement reached with Commodore Perry. And of course the westerners brought their religion with them so there are a lot of really old churches sprinkled around.

Apparently the Russian Orthodox one was the only one that I found interesting since I didn’t take pictures of any of the others!!Â� Hahah. But there were all different types, really near to each other. If you arrive before 5pm (I didn’t) I think you can go inside too…..Â� But next it was off the the cable car to go to the top of Hakodate Yama (mount hakodate) to check out this night view that everybody talks about. Unfortunately, I was there on a Sunday. So it was PACKED!!Â� Almost more fun to watch the hordes of people with digital cameras aglow (of which I was one) than it was to try to squeeze in and see the lights below.

I walked around a bit the next day. Had intended to go to an Ainu/Northern Peoples Museum but it was closed!!Â� Don’t know why as it didn’t list Monday as a regular closed day, but whatever. Walked around the port area. Got a little bit of a sunburn.Â� Â� And eventually took the train back to Tomakomai to catch the ferry back to Nagoya.

The ferry trip was pretty uneventful…not nearly as many people on the boat.Â� Had a slightly nicer bed this time around. Instead of just a curtain it had a slide down shade that you could lock yourself into if you wanted. More claustrophobic too!

And here’s a really short video of the youth hostel singing and clapping me goodbye as the ferry left.Â� Momoiwaso YH Send OffÂ� You have to download it to your computer to watch it..

Of course I woke up nice and early the next day - why?? i don’t know….Â� I guess I was getting used to it by that point. I didn’t have any plans until later in the afternoon so I took the subway and headed towards Tanuki-koji Street which is Sapporo’s covered street shopping mall. Seems like every city has one… Anyways. It was rather boring and uninspired. Did nothing to help with killing my time! I continued on and strolled around Odori area which looked just like every other downtown shopping area in Japan with big department stores and interesting fashions. But I did find some nice graffiti towards the east end of the area!

After wandering aimlessly for about two hours it was time for me to head over to my tattoo appointment!!!Â� Yay! Before I moved to Japan I had spent a long time on the internet trying to find an incredible Japanese tattoo artist…and of course I found one that was just amazing - Horifuji!Â� I spent quite a long time on his website looking at the detail, the precision, and salivating over the thought of possessing one of his works of art for myself!!Â� And then after I arrived in Japan I finally understood enough of the kanji of his working address to know that he lives in Sapporo. Seeing as how I live in Nagoya, going to Sapporo just for a tattoo was not financially possible. But since I was there at this point………..

Anyway. So my appointment was at 1pm. I had a little trouble finding the place since I got turned around coming out of the subway but made it there just a couple minutes after 1. They were just opening up but he was running a little late. I made myself at home and started flipping through their massive collection of tattoo magazines. I ended up having enough time to get a snack from Circle K too. He showed up around 2pm. But seeing as how I had been looking forward to this for over a year already the extra hour made absolutely no difference to me! We chatted for a bit before starting; had fun playing the japanese-english communication game.

The tattoo took about three and a half hours to complete!!Â� Ouchie!!!!Â� But SO worth it…… I hung around for a while after he had finished so that my head could come back to earth and he ended up inviting me out for some drinks later that night with him and his girlfriend!Â� Yay!!!Â� I went and ate some dinner and came back around 9ish.. We went to two different bars and then to Nakajima park for beers and snacks on a bench (lakeside). I have to say that that night was probably my favorite experience in Japan. Horifuji and Miki are the two most down-to-earth, friendliest, generous, open people that I have met while I was here. And it turns out that Horifuji’s my long lost twin - we have the same exact birthday! Hahahahah!!!!!

I actually ended up going to sleep on their sofa at 5am!! Miki was incredibly nice and woke up at 9am to walk me to the train station as I had no idea where it was and had to check out of the hostel and move along with my trip.

Did I mention that he’s an amazing tattoo artist??

so apparently the page disappears after putting too many photos on it? guess it’s a bit heavy..too much info and too many megabytes. so the next parts will be at the top of the page… (a little out of sequence, but oh well)

On June 24th I got on the ferry (more like a cruise ship) from Nagoya heading to Tomakomai port in Hokkaido. I wanted to travel to Hokkaido, but flights were kind of expensive. I had time to spare but not money! The ferry takes 38 hours from Nagoya and costs about $100US each way so that was definitely the best option for me. I was a little nervous as English is minimal to non-existent as far as the ferry was concerned, but it turned out ok. A few people talked to me in English and a few people attempted Japanese. Overall, it was fun! A little disorienting feeling the ocean for so long, but there was a break in the middle at Sendai port (quite a bit North of Tokyo) where we could get out and walk to a shopping center for about 2 hours.

And after 38 hours on the boat, I arrived in Tomakomai Port on Tuesday, June 26th in the morning. I had to take a train to get to Sapporo, the first stop on my schedule. I took a taxi from the port to the train station which was quite a bit further away than I expected. I definitely don’t recommend trying to walk to the train station. It was a good 10 minutes in the taxi. Anyway. Trains don’t run too frequently between the port and Sapporo so I had to wait about 40 minutes. Did a lot of reading.Â� Arrived in Sapporo and went to a Botanical Garden near the University (west of Sapporo station). There was also an Ainu (the indigenous peoples of Hokkaido) museum and a building filled with stuffed animals from Japan, many of which are endangered now. Interesting…..

And then it was on to the Sapporo Beer Factory!!!!!!!!!!!!Â� YAY!!! It was the very first Sapporo factory and now it’s a museum where you can learn all about the history and making process (if you speak Japanese). And you can taste some of their different beers at the end. Really fun. Plus I love their beer.Â� There’s also a beer hall/restaurant where you can try out one of Hokkaido’s famous dishes:Â� “Jinjisu kan” (also know as “genghis khan”) which is fresh lamb and veggies that you cook on a dome shaped hot plate thingie on your table. Delicious!

After the beer garden I headed to the hostel I was staying at:Â� Ino’s Place. It’s not right in the center of Sapporo, but a quick train ride away. And they were really friendly and nice there. Definitely one of the nicer places that I’ve stayed in in Japan! I had an early start the next day as I was going to take a train all the way to the northern reaches of Hokkaido….

After the fun at the factory we went to Okazaki Castle and the Tokugawa Ieyasu museum. In case you didn’t know, Tokugawa Ieyasu was kind of a big deal.Â� Â� He became shogun in the early 1600s and the Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan for about 250 years!!Â� Okazaki was his hometown. The museum was really cool and thanks to Yousuke’s translations I could actually understand a lot of the information since just about everything was only in Japanese.

There are also some pretty grounds around the castle and sure enough, there was an interesting Japanese sign waiting for me to take a picture of it…

After Lisa’s bags were picked up we loaded my junk into Fumie’s car and drove to Nagoya city. My ex-roommate Kerry was kind enough to offer to let me crash at her place for my last bit of time in Japan and Fumie was kind enough to help us lug my stuff there. After that was taken care of, we went to lunch at”Bikkuri Donki” which translates as “Surprise Donkey”. But the biggest surprise was that there was no donkey on the menu…

We then went on a lovely drive past Toyota City towards Asuke/Koranke arriving at Toyota Gorge. It was really nice to see that there was such an abundance of nature right outside of the rather industrialized Toyota city area.

After we hiked around for a while and took in all the clean air we jumped back in Fumie’s car and she drove us to a lovely botanical garden somewhere near Sanage. I have no idea where we really were or what the name of the garden was, but it was really nice!! I got to take pictures of lots of flowers (my favorite) and we saw a neato bug!!!!!

So we had an absolutely lovely day filled with nature, interesting bugs, and great friends!!! I finally remembered at an opportune moment that my camera can take video and took a video of the weirdo bug - you can click here (� Kami Mushi Video ) to download it and watch it on your computer.

Back to my bloggery……. I snuck in a quick trip to Hiroshima and nearby Miyajima island on June 9th through the 11th. Took the shinkansen down to Hiroshima late morning on the 9th - it takes about 2 hours and 20 minutes. After arriving I went in search of the hotel. After checking in, I hopped on the streetcar and went towards the Peace Park, A-Bomb museum area. Wow. It was depressing. Powerful. Moving. Gripping. Atrocious.

There were strings of origami paper cranes hanging all over the place. Thousands and thousands of them. Apparently it’s an old Japanese belief that if you can fold 1000 paper cranes you will be cured from any illness. I guess it’s a way of focusing your brain’s energy on your problem. There was a girl named Sadako Sasaki who was struggling with leukemia as a result of the A-bomb. She folded paper cranes so small they fit on a dime no problem, using needles to help make the creases. But after an 8 month struggle, she passed away. Now many people bring their cranes to Hiroshima in the same tradition, hoping to be cured or just as a symbol to abolish nuclear weapons.

The Peace Park is expansive, with many sculptures and plaques and benches to sit and contemplate the world we live in and our place in it. There is also a large museum with a lot of grotesque photos, mementos, maps, etc. It’s difficult to remember to breathe when you’re inside as it’s just so unbelievable to think that you are standing in the exact location where all of these horrific things happened. And that it did not happen long ago. And, worse yet, that it is your very own government which gave the OK for these things to occur. Really makes you think about how futile and ridiculous war is.

After that, it was definitely time for a little lightening up….time for a walk through the streets and some dinner!!

After a night of rest it was off for another day of adventure!! I went to the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art which was interesting but not all that amazing or fantastic. They are supposed to have Dali’s “Dreams of Venus” but it was on loan to another museum when I was there.Â� Â� And then went on to the Hiroshima Museum of Art which was pretty much all impressionist French art. Pretty good but not inspiring. I think I liked the architecture of the building more than the paintings. But there was a lot to see there. A big basement crammed full of Japanese impressionist paintings in addition to the Frenchies upstairs. Walked past the teeny-tiny Hiroshima Castle and didn’t bother to go in….

After that it was another streetcar ride down to the port to catch the ferry to Miyajima Island!! It was a really pretty ride with a nice view of the Seto Inland sea.Â� Miyajima is famous for Itsukushima Shrine which is built in the sea. There is a huge red tori (gate) that stands in the sea. When the tide goes out you can walk up to it, but when the tide is in it looks like it’s floating in the water. This is one of Japan’s three most scenic sights!! I took a million pictures but don’t worry, I’ll only post a few….

After a bit of basking in the beauty of Itsukushima Jinja (shrine) it was off to Daishoin Temple!! It’s built at the foot of Mt. Misen and seems to enjoy showing off how much money their followers have donated to them. There are a billion buddhas, lanterns, jizos, prayer wheels, and other Buddhist-i-don’t-know-whats. They also had some of the plumpest monks I’ve seen yet.

And then it was a little walk back towards the shrine to hang around and wait for sunset. It was kinda chilly and breezy though so I didn’t stick around too long….

In between the last two pictures I had some dinner. A bowl of udon with tempura stuff on top. A big shrimp and some anago (related to eel). It was tasty!!Â� And so was the beer of course…Â� Went to sleep and was attacked by mosquitoes so didn’t exactly feel well rested the next day but I didn’t let that stop me from climbing a mountain (a little one)!!!!

And then it was a ferry ride back to Hiroshima and a ride on the shinkansen back to Nagoya….. I went to a restaurant in Nagoya called Yamachan for dinner. They make a Nagoya area specialty - chicken wings!!!Â� I’ve never been a fan of chicken wings but these are absolutely delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And thus concludes the Hiroshima/Miyajima post!!Â� Only 800 more posts to make and I’ll be all caught up and up to date!!

I must interrupt the photos to plug the fabulous onsen we went to after dinner. Here’s their website. We got a discount coupon from K’s House and checked it out. It was a little late at night so it was pretty much deserted. There is an indoor pool, a bubbly spa, an outdoor pool, three outdoor ceramic tubs, plus a dry sauna upstairs!!Â� Nice and toasty water - the perfect way to warm up and relax after wandering around in the rain or climbing a mountain. And back to the photos: