Day 8 Yamadera hike

This is the start of the trail area 

Stairs near start of trail (if you see this
its a good sign :)

So this was a great day for several reasons. 

First off, we caught our train with like 10 seconds to spare haha...not even kidding...
We trained towards Yamadera station but intended on getting off the one before which is called Omoshiro-Yamadera. From there is an excellent hike that takes around 2-3hrs and gets you to Yamadera (where the temples are located). The hike is a bit confusing to find at first, so basically you come off the train and walk up the stairs. Cross a small metal bridge and you see a small trail opening (pic on right -->) on the left and you walk down it. 

Waterfall at the start of hike

Chestnut I found on the ground 

You see a waterfall and some signs in Japanese that I didn't understand. It's not a super popular route so you may not have any other hikers there with you. When I went, there was another foreign couple from America I believe doing it as well. The hike itself is really beautiful, it's basically flat as you are in the valley and walking along the river side. The only difficulties would be that it can get quite slippery so be careful when the trail gets narrow. Also there are parts when you are just walking on stones and rocks. Really a nice trail for taking some beautiful pictures and nothing too physically strenuous. There are many man made bridges along the way that help guide you and if you continue seeing them you know you are in the right path. 

 

Some cute little bridges 

After sometime in the forest, we came out onto a road and walked down for what felt like a good 3-4km. And you see nice views of rolling hills, trees, and just greenery. Then you come into some residential area and you keep walking straight. I forget what happens after but you basically walk right into the base of the Yamadera temple section. We got a bit of help from a random guy who ended up hanging out with us the entire day and I kinda developed a teeny tiny crush on!

There are numerous temples in Yamadera and it is true that there are like 1000 steps to reach the very top. But don't think it's like one temple you climb to and visit...there are like several flights of stairs and at each flight there is like a stop point with a temple and shops to buy souvenirs and drinks. Then you head up again, and repeat. More temples, more shops, etc.

Small temple on the side of the hill/mountain area

So as I mentioned, I met this awesome person name Koki and he is a pharmacist. He was visiting this place alone and after we bumped into him again for the second time, he asked so politely if he could join us and when we said sure, he humbly bowed and I was like ahh what a cutie!!! seriously though, when was the last time you saw a guy bow to you?!! I was deeply humbled ^.^

Well, this fella turned out to be the sun shine of our day. He was funny, silly, not your typical Jap guy. He took us around the little village, bought us food just so we could taste some authentic foods, surprised us with souvenirs and at the end of the day he even offered to drive us almost back to Sendai! What a sweetheart <3 It always blows my mind how generous some people in this world are. And he expected NOTHING in return!!! How can you do that to complete strangers? Take time and energy to try to communicate with someone who doesn't speak your language; spend money on complete strangers just to make their travels that much more memorable?? I just am so fricken humbled by this culture, I have never witnessed this before in my travels, like ever. I feel like the Japanese I have been fortunate enough to meet so far are beyond generous, selfless, helpful and ego free. I don't get it, I honestly don't! How does a society come/get to this point? It's like in Japan, I am a complete stranger to you and you can still treat me like a friend, I am just in awe :))))

Anyway when he dropped us off at the train station, I'm not gonna lie I teared up a bit  but didn't want him or my friend to see.  I remember him looking at me with this innocent perplexed look when I went back for a second hug cause I didn't want him to go and he just said "She's just like a child.." and I just remember thinking, "yeah I really am!" I just hate saying goodbye to amazing people because you don't know if your paths will ever cross again. 

Day 6 Asahikawa to Sendai

So today was basically a write off as I was in transport for most of the day. I caught a train leaving Asahikawa at 10am to Sapporo to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto and then from there I believe I went straight to Sendai. I arrived in Sendai for 9:30pm...oh god thats a long day of train riding! 

No wait I did one thing today!! I did a short trip to Otaru (music box town) again on my own this time to see some more shops that I had missed because I basically had 3 hrs to chill in Sapporo before catching my train. 
(BTW, its about a 45 min local train ride to Otaru from Sapporo)

My travel route from Asahikawa to Sendai (thank god for Bullet trains!)

So I arrived in Otaru and I had about 1.5 hrs to kill. This time I got off the station before the last as it was closer to the shops and restaurants and as soon as I got to the music box museum I felt a deep longing for my friends. It was so weird, cause the last time I was there was with my three friends and as soon as I stepped back inside the shop just by myself I felt really sad they weren't with me and nostalgic. Anyway that ended quickly as I realised that there was much to do with very limited time!

 So there was a point where I had like 45 mins to grab some food and head to the train station for 2:00pm. I was walking in the direction that I knew the train station was in and I saw this sweet sea food stall and decided to grab some squid legs. After I got it, I walked outside and immediately was disoriented. I thought I knew which way to turn so off I went and then I saw a store that I had passed earlier and was like wait a minute I must be heading the wrong way. I then turn around and start walking in the opposite direction and again, I see stores that I knew I had passed from earlier. Omg I cannot describe how fricken confused I was and I was starting to stress out because I now had like 20 mins to head back to the train station and I knew I was still pretty far from it. Finally I just gave up and had to ask someone where the station was. He pulled out google maps and pointed me in the correct direction. I caught the train with like 2 mins to spare. Ahh I felt so lucky when i sat down to just have caught the train. Because otherwise I would have missed my connecting train to Sendai :(

This was my reward for catching my train back to Saporro (Matcha Mochi ^^)

I finally arrived in Sendai, the train station was huge and bustling ( I really didn't know how big of a city Sendai was...) I really didn't know what to expect for Sendai so when I came into this, I was quite excited. The energy was high, people were dressed in suits scrambling to get home etc. I messaged my Buddhist monk couch surfer and he immediately found me in the middle of no where. I was impressed and could already tell this was gonna be a good experience (and yes I continued SC even with that horrid initial experience)

I was greeted by two other lovely girls, one from the U.S. and the other from France. Once we got in the car, Koodo took us to eat some vegetarian sushi, and boy was it ever delicious. It was like a legit Sushi restaurant too where you have the chef making the sushi in front of you and directly placing it on your piece of bamboo leaf !!The other girls knew a bit of Japanese so I was super impressed hearing them communicate with the sushi chef. 


After dinner it was late, maybe around 11 and we headed back to the guest house called Sunshine House, and was it ever a sunshine house. It was basically our own little apartment. There was a triple bunk bed, a small kitchen with a stove, microwave, kettle, oven, fridge and dishwasher. Omg Koodo had taken the liberty of writing with permanent marker how to use everything. It was so funny walking into the bathooom and seeing a spray canister similar to a room freshener that was labelled "use after poo" LOL...I literally died when I saw that. So just picture like white appliances in the kitchen with black ink written all over it!!! 

So after chatting with the girls and hearing how amazing Koodo was, which I could already see we eventually said our good nights and fell asleep

19:37 Sendai! 

selfie with the Shinkensen :P

Chef making our sushi

triple bunk maddness! I slept at the bottom

our cute kitchen

What an amazing host Koodo was...just wow <3

First time being a couch surfer in Japan

First time couch surfing in Japan with a British drunk...

So after what felt like hours of walking in Asahikawa, I finally made my way to my Couch Surfers (CS) bar (yes he owned a bar) with the assistance of Google maps. Thank god Steven showed me how to use that app during my trip cause otherwise I woulda been screwed!!!

I arrived shortly after 18:30 and was greeted nicely by Doug (won't use real names here).. 
He shook my hand which felt like it lasted longer than needed.
Then he gave me a once over, as in looked me from head to toe right in front of me and immediately I felt uneasy. So whatever, I don't make much of it, I drop my bags, take a seat at his bar and start chatting to him about my travels plans, etc. He was honestly great to talk with in the beginning. He was eccentric to say the least, thought he could be gay, reminded me a lot of Alan Carr with the way he spoke. 

(This is Alan Carr btw, not my Couch surfing host)URL: https://www.google.ca/search?q=alan+carr&biw=1366&bih=662&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiqv4vXkY7QAhUj7IMKHVRqA6wQ_AUICCgD#imgrc=1ncD4UFaSL7dcM%3A

Then as the night progressed, two Japanese men came in and I was informed by Doug that they were regulars. Very friendly and super humble they were. The one guy worked in the army doing some top secret stuff that even Doug didn't know much about. Doug informed me that all my drinks were taken care of thanks to the army gentleman. I never got any weird vibes from either of the guys, they just seemed super friendly and honestly so happy that there were foreigners in their town. 

Anyways, I honestly can't even remember the exact moment when things between Doug and I went extremely downhill as the man drank many many beers to say he least but he started becoming aggressive, rude, condescending and all the traits that may be surfaced when one becomes intoxicated. He began calling me a dumb ass, saying I didn't know shit, telling me to fuck off and just all together rude. I honestly just sat there biting my tongue and he could tell I was pissed cause he would just start jabbing me and say things like "oh is someone getting angry with me? "Has anyone ever told you, you're super uptight? Am I allowed to even touch you?..." omg I wanted to walk out right there and looking back I don't know why I didn't. 

Thank god there were two other couch surfers with me whom arrived around 9pm and told me they intentionally were trying to extend their time away from Doug before having to see him again. They were also just as annoyed and the one guy blatantly said "it's a good thing English isn't my first language because I would probably beat you if I understood everything you are saying" These 2 Israeli guys had spent the previous night with him and said it was much worse than what was happening now. I honestly couldn't believe it...I couldn't remember the last time someone had insulted me so much to my face and just wouldn't stop. I am actually getting annoyed and agitated just thinking about it. 

What was even more astonishing was that the 2 Israeli guys thought Doug used CS to get travellers to come to his bar and spend money. They told me that the previous night they each spent 6000 yen ($78 CAD) on drinks (which they thought were covered as Doug kept insisting they keep drinking). Btw a nice hostel costs about $27/night, so when I found out about that, my jaw dropped. 

It's quite a cute and cozy bar minus the barman 

So at one point he was like "Bonnie did you even read my profile on CS?" and I responded, "uhh of course I did, I also read your reviews before requesting". And he was like did you read the part about being familiar with"bar culture"? And honestly it did not ring a bell.
So I tell him that and he starts like freaking the f*** OUT!!! So yeah fine that is totally my error for not having read the part about his home and "bar culture" but my god the man would not let it go. Again calling me typical Canadian, and how Canadians aren't smart, they don't read etc...How I had the audacity to even request to stay with someone without having read their whole profile?! I wanted to shoot him in the face. Oh yeah and he kept saying how I had an "American accent", and I wasn't speaking proper English etc etc...whatever insult you can come up with, he used on me. Anyway by the end of it, I just agreed with everything he was throwing at me and that irritated him to no other... I honestly just couldn't win with him. Seriously it shocks me what alcohol can do to a person. Cause like I said, before he drank, he was quite a lovely person. 

This is the bar with blurred out Doug

 Anyway the nice Japanese men were there just sitting quietly and paying for our drinks and food consumed (one actually left to buy us Haggen Daz icecream!!! I almost died when he came back with it- such a nice gesture and expecting absolutely nothing in return) Eventually they left the bar leaving me with Doug, the Israeli guys and Doug's wife. If only those Japanese men knew what bullshit Doug was saying, they would never step foot into his bar again, that I am sure of. 

So at 1am, the night ended when a random man arrived at the bar who later took us home. It's interesting in Japan, you can actually pay people to drive you in your car if for whatever reason you cannot drive. 
So I got back to Doug's place and he insisted I sleep in the living room away from the Israeli guys and I was like HELLLLZ  NO BROTHA! I will sleep with these random men I just met tonight because I feel safer with them than in a room all by myself with you lurking god knows where in the vicinity...

In the morning, it was like angelic Doug was back. He was completely normal and polite and even offered to take me to the train station. We first dropped off the guys at the highway because they were going to hitch hike back to Sapporo. For a brief moment, my whole self became very aware that it was just going to be me and Doug in the car once the two guys were gone and I honestly didn't know what to do. Luckily, Doug just drove me back and we chatted like normal people, no insults no rudeness of any sort. We exchanged our goodbyes and he wished me safe travels before turning and going. 


Weirdest and freakiest experience I have ever had in my life. 

this shot was taken from the table I was sitting at

Day 5 Sapporo to Asahikawa

So after a shit nights rest I woke up at 5:15am to get packed and head out on foot to Sapporo train station to catch my train at 6:35am. Got to the station and decided to take the next train since I had two hours to wait in Asahikawa for the bus that would take me to the village/onsen area which is the entrance of the National Park Daisetsuzan. 

When I arrived at the Asahikawa train station, I met this awesome Thai medical student who was travelling by himself and also wanted to check out the park so we decided to stick together for the day. After speaking to the tourist information person, we were informed that it would be a terrible idea to attempt to climb the mountain today because the winds were strong and the temperature was too cold. So last minute we decided to skip the whole national park and instead go to Biei. After arriving in Biei we went to see the famous blue pond which was so blue and eerie looking, I can't describe why it was eerie, but I think it's because the shade of blue was so chilly and icy looking, it wasn't a warm shade of blue. 

blueeeee

ICY blue

My beautiful new Thai friend 

After returning back to the main area we decided to rent some touring bikes and attempt to see some nice lookout points indicated in the map. I was feeling very optimistic and certain that we would be able to bike 9km to see the flower fields but was quickly wronged when in the direction we were riding in was covered with ominous grey dark clouds. Also the bikes were absolute shit, 3 mother effing gears!!! Like common!!! Not to mention they weighed like 50 pounds!

At the start of the ride, bright skies 

Just stunning landscape 

As the afternoon progressed so did the darkness 

Small lonely farm in a stormy sky 

Honestly though, riding along in the undulating farmland which had barely any cars, people, or houses, I fantasised how amazing it would be to bring my road bike here and ride this when it was summer and warmer. That is something I honestly have to do in my lifetime. It was so spectacular and my god just biking towards the alps in front of you, ugh that would be my absolute heaven. Anyone interested in joining? ;)

After terminating our journey prematurely we headed back to Asahikawa and there I said goodbye to my lovely Thai friend. I then started heading back towards my first couch surfer host's bar. 

That experience was definitely interesting to say the least and I will explain in my next post. 

Day 4 Goodbye friends

So today was a bittersweet day as I was parting with the friends I came on the trip with.

So after a quick and rushed goodbye, I stayed in the Air B&B until the checkout time and left my bags. I didn't know what to do so I just mindlessly walked around exploring the area. I knew I wanted to hit up the Sapporo beer museum and I had to buy some accessories for my hike the following day.

Sapporo was chilly and cloudy, I don't recall seeing much sunlight and the weather reflected my mood quite well. I was sad that my friends left but at the same time I was really looking forward to feeling that sense of freedom, being able to do what I want, when I want etc. There are definitely pros and cons to travelling with people. On the one hand, its nice to have that familiarity, and a sense of belonging, but I realised whilst travelling with 3 other people that I am not good at compromising at all. And with that realisation I was grateful for being on my own and decided that my deep longing for travelling with someone "special (aka a partner) may not be that glittery and enticing as I once thought it to be.

Grass is always greener on the other side, isn't it? :P

Anyway, I ended up going to the Sapporo beer museum and reading all these interesting facts about how the whole beer culture started in Japan. All I remember reading was that a young 17 year old Japanese went to Germany to study the whole brewing process as he had a great passion for beer and bringing it to Japan. Back then, it was advertised as a "healthy digestive drink" best served chilled. They originally wanted to build the first factory in Tokyo however they realised that it was too warm there and that the beer would ferment. As an interesting side note, beer back then was priced higher than the highest quality sake...!

I wish I had taken photos of the various advertisements displayed, but they were mostly of these upper class women holding these bottles of Sapporo looking elegant and posh. Most of them if not all were painted images. Oh I managed to Google some pics!

URL: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/4829245523_a4fdf52123.jpg

URL: http://girlflapper.blogspot.ca/2010/12/sapporo-beer-ebisu-beer-and-asahi-beer.html

 So here is a progression of how the labels changed with time

     
                                          To what we are familiar with today!

The museum building

Reminds me of a University campus

Enter through here

What blog is complete without a selfie?

                                 Me attempting to fully enjoy my kiddie sized beer (not a beer drinker)