Issue 12 - snow country
A possibly weekly email about what's been going on in my brain
5 - 11 February 2023
It's difficult for me to believe it has only been a week. Stuff has indeed happened.
Journey
In the grand history of modern aeroplane journeys, this one was uneventful. From the glamorous Manchester Airport Premier Inn through to security where my bag was unzipped, re-organised, searched, scrutinised, re-organised again, and then swabbed by a thoroughly humourless guard. My Heathrow flight looked like it might be delayed due to fog but we thankfully only lost a sliver of time. Unlike my Tokyo flight that is which had two hours of waiting on the tarmac for a "replacement part". To my pleasant surprise this flight required masks to be worn by all which I didn't even know was A Thing; it certainly ameliorated some of my fears of catching the 'rona from other passengers. On the other hand, fifteen hours is a long time to be masked up, and in the final few hours I felt claustrophobia clawing at my brain. Possibly not helped by wearing a face mask, a sleep mask, and headphones. That was a better setup than my neighbours though who decided pulling blankets over their heads was how they wanted to sleep, and in the half-light of the cabin they looked like ghosts in a budget horror movie.
That initial delay meant I missed my connection to Sapporo but I was effortlessly rebooked for one an hour later. Through immigration and quarrantine - take this paper, stand here, look there, scan this, show that - I ended up in the same situation as another person who I only know as The Chap. The Chap was here for a week of skiing and was a complainer: nothing was well signposted enough, or close enough, or how he would have done it etc. I have no time for complainers, so after going through security again (shoes on, belt off, Kindle out) I lost him at the gate through the careful art of just not looking for him.
Jet-lag
At the hotel in Sapporo I checked in only to find my room was still being cleaned; cue two very apologetic cleaners absolutely blitzing the room while I tried, bleary eyed, to connect to the hotel wifi.
It was two in afternoon local time and after setting off on Monday at four in the morning UK time, I had arrived. I had dutifully followed the instructions of my robot overlord (Timeshifter) and only slept for three or four hours the Sunday night, and though I had dozed on the plane, it was not in the same hemisphere as quality sleep. I lasted until seven thirty in the evening after a convenience store lunch and a yakitori dinner from the hotel restaurant, the latter ordered through a touch screen with no English option. That I ended up with any food at all and not just four brightly coloured cocktails was a minor miracle.
I slept for twelve hours that night without breaks. Credit where it's due to Timeshifter, my jet lag hasn't been nearly so pronounced as I remember it being. Though I do still wake up at around one in the morning and stay that way until three. That too shall pass though.
Sapporo
I last came to Sapporo during late spring when it was bakingly hot, this week's temperatures have bounced around -3°C. Cars regularly drive on packed snow and pedestrians navigate gingerly around dirty patches of ice; fresh powder and snow flurries means only fleeting inconveniece when you're used to it. Miraculously I seem to have packed the ideal configuration of clothing to make wandering the city comfortable, probably helped by the lack of hills to work up a sweat on (looking at you Sheffield). Outside of the city centre though the amount of snow Hokkaido gets is truly absurd with two metre high drifts common and every post box, vending machine and shed is capped precariously.
The winter festival takes up the entirety of Odori Park with snow sculptures and various displays (including Yamaha's punishment octohedron, probably for keyboard players that have been naughty); Susukino meanwhile is given over to ice sculptures. Susukino definitely comes alive at night, letting you get closer to the sculptures, now lit up, than during the day when the roads around them are still open. There's a great atmosphere even during the weekdays with primary school trips and music playing, though Susukino is in a more insalubrious part of town, so there's a "Love and Peace" ice sculpture right next to a sign advertising topless dances. There is money at play here though, with many of the sculptures crafted by companies advertising beer and pensions and all points in between.
I had assumed I'd take it easy the Wednesday after my arrival, however wandering Odori and Susukino in the morning and a nearby temple in the afternoon meant I racked up over 30,000 steps: exactly the opposite of what I'd intended. Thursday was more laid back as I took a train and bus (buses are still worrying) out to a museum during the day then, as the Mount Moiwa ropeway was closed due to high winds, I ascended the TV tower in the evening and took one of my favourite photos so far.
Asahikawa
To say Asahikawa was cold would be an understatement, even with the sun out on a Friday afternoon it was -5°C, dipping down to -10 in the evening. That sort of temperature definitely made taking photos tricky, I had so far relied on fingerless gloves with a mitten attachment, but that sort of temperature robbed my digits of any feeling within minutes, so juggling lenses and SD cards had to be kept to a minimum, lest I drop my glasses on the floor again (no damage so far...).
The town runs its own version of a winter festival with snow and ice sculptures, but with Sapporo's Shiodome site closed this year, Asahikawa feels more like a village fete with food trucks, snow slides, and snowmen decorated by the local schools. Unfortunately the town itself does feel a little rundown, with many of the shops and restaurants shut when I arrived at 1pm on a Friday afternoon; the evening did see the town come to life a bit but the shabby shopfronts and glitzy mall told of a town angling for rejuvenation.
Masks
As well as the flight requiring masks, everywhere here in Japan (Sapporo at least) a mask is compulsory. Apart from outside, where the health ministry says masks aren't mandatory, yet everyone still wears them anyway. This presents a bit of a problem for me: as I've been gifted with a large nose and cursed to wear glasses, finding a mask that seals correctly and doesn't fog up my spectacles is a challenge. Combine that with rapid changes between hot and cold environments and pressing a camera to my face, the result is condensation aplenty. So do I play the foreigner and remove the mask when outdoors or do I cave to social pressure and endure a blurry vision of Japan? The answer thus far has been "both" depending on how good my mask seal is and how bold I'm feeling.
Itinerary
- 12th Feb - transfer to Noboribetsu, hot spring time
- 13th Feb - Noboribetsu hot spring exploration
- 14th Feb - transfer to Morioka
- 15th Feb - transfer to Yokote for the Kamakura Festival
- 16th Feb - Yokote Kamakura Festival
- 17th Feb - transfer to Nyuto Onsen
- 18th Feb - Nyuton Onsen
- 19th Feb - transfer to Aizu Wakamatsu
- 20th Feb - Aizu Wakamatsu
- 21st Feb - transfer to Nikko
This was hand-crafted by John.