I Have A Life.

There is a full moon on the sky tonight. I saw the moon on my way home and realized that it is the fifteenth day on lunar calender today. I was in Hakodate just one month ago.



In Otaru and Hakodate, I found a lot of footsteps of Chinese immigrants. For example, please look at the photo on the left. Can you see the words "中華義莊" on photo? 大吉利是! Is there any ghost showing on my photo? haha. I found this place next to the Christain graveyard near Motomachi. When an ill-fate chinese immigrant died and no one takes care of his dead body, 義莊 which is established by local Chinese community will help to bury the dead body properly.



Motomachi is a beautiful area. There are full of stone-covered slopes, churches and historial buildings. It would take you a couple hours to enjoy the romance of meiji era. Looking downhill from the top of slopes, you can see a beautiful habour view. The photo below is the former British Embassy.

Leaving Motomachi and going to Goryokaku by tram, you will pass through the busy commerical area in Hakodate between Matsuharamachi and Goryokaku.

At night, you may see some gospels of Tenrikyu marching and intoning scuriptures on the road.The night scenes of Hakodate are attractive, no matter watching from the top of Hakodate Hill or wandering in Motomachi and Kanemorisouko area.



There are a lot of good food surrounding Kanemorisouko area. I love chicken burgers and yaki lunch box. Ramen and grilled seafood are also delicious. The best of all, they are very affortable! Therefore, don't miss any local delicacy when you are in Hakodate.

Nice park! Nice place to enjoy cycling and have a pinic with family.You can rent a bicycle near the JR station to travel around the hugh national park. I saw many tours from Taiwan and Hong Kong near the station. Many Taiwanese and Hongkong tourist rented bicycles. However they didn't drive their bicycles to visit the national park, but jammed the walking trails of small islands near the JR station.







I was taking photos on an island when an old man came. He saw me taking photos, so he stopped and took photos two feet away from me. Suddenly he used Mandarin to said "你好嗎? (How are you?)" to me. I greeted him in mandarin then told him to come to my position for better view and I was leaving the place. He didn't understand what I said and told me he is a Japanese. No problem. "ここ、もっときれい"

Oops, I did not have enough cash to support the whole journey when I was in Sapporo. Moreover, I forgot the password of my credit card...



Moreover, it was Sunday...Arr...



Thanks for the JR pass, I could still go to Otaru as I planned, but I was in crisis. I fought my emotion hard to keep me calm to enjoy the time in Otaru. However, I was not able to concentrate. I supposed to go to New Green Hotel Otaru to check in, but I walked to Otaru Green Hotel on the opposite side of the road and checked in. XP



I rushed to Hakodate on Monday. The staff member in Hakodate Station was very helpful. I learnt that I can withdraw money from post office network throughout Japan. I became a happy tourist again.



Hakodate Station is an interesting station. There is only one ground floor for the whole station. I had no pain to travel inside Hakodate Station with my heavy and bulky luggages.



I registered to the right hotel this time. ;P



It was almost 4 p.m. when I arrived Onuma Park, way behind my schedule. I planned to visit Goryokaku(五稜郭) with my heavy luggages at 4:35pm on that day. So I had to rearrange my plan and visit Goryokaku later. 塞翁失馬. It actually requires an hour walk from Goryokaku JR Station to Goryokaku. (I learned this when I visited Goryokaku two days later.) If I had taken my luggage to visit Goryokaku...One word, "Hell".



Sapporo



I haven't post any photos taken in Sapporo. Let me post 2 photos of an old government building as a record. They were taken right before I left Sapporo to go to Otaru.

In Tokyo

In Nikko

In Kyoto

Goro seems to be an educated character in the TV series. The internal design of the house is very simple but warm. A stove seems to be the soul of the house. A couple of people may sit near the stove to keep them warm, share food, and do a lot of chatting.

By Furano-go, I also visited Rokugo Forest, Cheese Factory and Ningul Terrace. They are interesting places. Ice-cream here is rich in favour of milk too.

The beauty of sunset on that day drove people crazy. I was on train named "Fighters" to watch the change of Furano landscape in sunset. Furano is a very nice place to travel before winter.



I have won big in this 1600yen gambling.

Different from Biei, there are forests in Furano. I got on the bus "Furano-go" outside Furano Station. The bus climbed up to teh hill and passed through a big forest. About half and hour, we arrived at Deserted House.



The house was built for a TV drama series "From a North Country". The hero of series "Goro" used garbage to build a house for a lady "Yukiko". I was very interested to see how to utilize wasted materials to create useful things. I was very much impressed. There are also a lot of books in Yukiko's house. Yukiko in the drama should enjoy reading very much. This is a very interesting site I which highly recommend.

I was not able to take photos of farms in autumn in Biei. There is a beautiful train "Norocco" running between Biei Station and Furano Station. Norocco is light yellow green with strips of pupple and light green. The internal of cars reflects the romance of pioneer era. If windows are not all sealed by glass, the design will be prefect...for me.Although there was no red leaf, no sakura and no lavander in Biei and Furano, the landscape of farms after harvest is also full of attractive tropics. Golden pumpkins were laying on farms. Farmers collected hey on their land and prepare hey to store it as food for life stocks.



Sunlight broke out from cloudy sky when I got off the train in Furano. It shone beautiful for the rest of the day.

This photo was taken outside the cheese workshop in Furano.



In Chitose Airport

It was still raining when I arrived the Chitose Airport. At the airport, there was a bus which bring people to visit Lake Shikotsuko then go to Sapporo Station for a fee of 2200yens. I planed to take that bus tour at 2 p.m., so I chose the flight which arrived in Chitose at 12:30. However, it was obviously not the weather to visit the lake, so I dropped that plan to take JR to Sapporo directly.



The weather shouldn't be very good on the following day. If I joined the bus course of Central Bus Company for 7500yens to visit Biei and Furano, it was very likely a waste of money.



Bulletin in JR Station

When I walked to JR station to take train to Sapporo, I found bulletins near ticket office about one-day course of visiting Biei and Furano for 5000yens. The fee of the course covers the cost of a one-day free pass of JR Line and several options of bus tickets. If I could buy the bus ticket only, it would be only 1600yens for travelling in Biei and Furano.



Gambling

I knew nothing about the course. However, I was still going. The whole trip in Japan itself was a big adventure, why didn't I spend 1600yens on one more gambling?



Rest of the day

After buying some okashi as snack in Daimaru, I walked in the rain for about 40mins and found the hotel. I was very tired, but it was only 3pm, so I went to visit the Hokkaido Univeristy. I was very happy with the hotel. My room with private bathroom was very comfortable, and there was free dinner served. Free dinner was not taste good , but it was really great to me because I didn't need to hustle for the dinner as I had to go to bed as soon as possible that night.

I was still very tired when I got up in the morning. It was the right time to join carefree and relaxing bus tours. I took Express White Arrow to Asahikawa. When I arrived in Asahikawa, I found the temperature there is lower than that in Sapporo. I didn't wear enough clothes. I bought a box of bendon in railway station for lunch. I then took a white train with blue and green strips (photo is shown in last article "Railway") to Biei.



Biei

I arrived the Biei station on time. It is a beautiful small station. However, the weather was still not good. It rained sometimes. Bus trip was very comfortable and well planned. I just got off the bus to take picture when I was told to do so.



The photo above shows a typical landscape of Biei in late September. Endless farmland with a few trees standing at the top of low hills. Most crops in farms were harvested. I wanted to take more photos of features on the field, but there is not much freedom in the bus.



Mother and Son

A mother travelling with her son are shown in my photos. They were with me in both bus tours in Biei and Furano. Are they living happily now?

It was almost lunch time when I reached Chinatown in Yokohama.

I first found a beverage store near a TV station. There was cooled sour plum soup(酸梅湯) which is a traditional Chinese beverage and I like it. However it is 380yens per one small cup, about HK$30. I can buy 5 to 6 glasses of soup with $30 in Hong Kong, so I walked away.

Then I saw Chinese traditional cake shops. I checked in those shop and found that they were selling mooncakes. I was impressed by the variety of choices in mooncakes. There were some creative mooncakes made of materials which I have never seen in Hong Kong. I also found five-nut moon(五仁月) which is one of my favourites but not popular in Hong Kong. However, the vaccum packaging of mooncake made me wonder the freshness of mooncake. Good mooncakes should be fresh and contain no preservative. Therefore, I didn't buy any although I was impressed.

Restaurants I found were mostly Sichuan style. I avoid Sichuan-style cooking because it is too spicy for me. Cantonese-style cooking in the town is 2 to 4 time of common restaurants in Hong Kong. However, I told meself that I would try "Wan Tan Noodle"(雲吞麵) with high price if I could find one selling it, but I found no shop selling it.

Eventually I had a type of Shan Xi noodle called 刀削麵 for lunch. Cooks make a big dough and then shave on the skin of dough to make long , wide but thin noodles. However, I could not find a Shan Xi noodle in Shan Xi style of cooking on menu. I ordered one in Sichuan style.

I found wan-tans in a renounced Ramen restaurant in Hakodate. I tried it although it costed me extra 200yens. It tasted not good at all. The skin is not tough and smooth enough although it is thin. Good skin for Wan Tan should be as thin as paper but as tough as noodle and as smooth as tofu. The restaurant also did not put enough shrimp meat in filling. I also couldn't find red vinegar which I love to take with wan-tans. Although there are photos of famous people all over the wall, Cantonese cooking is not their profession.

The long and colourful history of serving in Hong Kong,diversity of bus designs and bus companies, and importance to daily life in Hong Kong make "bus" a popular tropic for photographers in Hong kong.

Railways in Japan caught my attention for the same reasons when I noticed a tired "salaryman" sitting among the crowd at the middle of opposite platform in Rippori Station in Tokyo one night.

I think it would be interesting to use railway or staff in a station as a background to develop stories to discuss people living in Japan in novel or film, so Japanese should have many railway-related art works.

Because of air-conditioning, windows were all sealed by glass for all trains I have taken. I can not take good photos from the train, can not feel the wind flowing, can not listen to the sound of engine.

No one comes near the window to sell goods to passengers any more when a train parked in stations. I miss the old days when I was a child.

I am glad that I have chosen Tokyo as the first destination in my journey. It is a modernized metropolis. I found that it is quite easy for me to adjust myself to adapt the life in Tokyo. In only a few hour after my arrival, I felt comfortable to arrange my life and to handle problems in this city.Clothes I brought to Japan were thick. They kept me warm enough in Hokkaido and Nikko, but they are not suitable to travel in Tokyo. I have planned to buy some clothes in Tokyo, but I didn't plan to go shopping at the first night of journey. However, my jean was wet by orange juice on plane, so I wanted another pants to wear on the next day. Shops in Tokyo are closed early. It was 6 o'clock. I decided to go to Shinjuku. I never planned to visit Shinjuku, but I thought that if there were several shops open until eight to give me chance to compare the price and choice, the only answer which a newcomer could have was Shinjuku or Ginza.



On the way to Shinjuku, I have already learned how to take JR Line to go Yokohama by reading the signs in Ueno Station and have got used to travel the surrounding areas of Yamate and Central JR Line. I tried metro systems in the following day. Since I think railway is a very important part in Japan society and my trip, I will leave detail for the discussion on railway in the future.

I found access to internet easily. I could check timetables of railway lines and other travelling information on internet. After the departure from Tokyo, I could not depend on internet anymore. However I have developed strategies to solve basic problems in Tokyo and was ready to face other challenges when I moved on to a new phase of my journey.JR Tokaido LineThere were JR railway lines I could choose to go to Yokohama. I eventually toke Tokaido Line on the next day. I like the coloring of paint on train of Tokaido Line. It is bright orange with a narrow pale green strip. The bright orange gives the sense of the old yesterday in history, and the pale green represents the feeling of vivid modern day.



Homeless Camp



As a tourist, I mainly went to tourists' spots. I did not expect to see to homeless in Tokyo until I passed the fountain in Ueno Garden to go to Sinobasu Pond. At first, I found a smell of downtown Los Angeles. I am very familiar to that smell because I was used to go to the LA downtown every weekday. I started seaching, and found a lot of camps near Toshogu. Later of the day I saw more camps spreading in Ueno Garden and Sumidagawa. I have watched a documentary film about the homeless in Hong Kong and Japan. Other than that film, I don't know much about those I saw in Tokyo.



Someone has suggested me to go to Inotama Garden instead of Hamarikyu. After seeing all those camps, I arrived Hamarikyu by cuisine. There was entirely different part of world. There is an entry fee for Hamarikyu. The place is quite and elegant. I enjoy walking in the garden. I also felt an impact contrasting the world outside Hamarikyu I saw on the same day.



I shopped in the market near train station, then found the homeless camps in Ueno and Sumitagawa, finally visited a garden built for nobles in the past. Within one day, I encountered different classes of life in Tokyo.

There is a small private museum in Otaru. It is actually an extension of a store at the next door. You can find a lot of things owned by people living in Otaru in the past. The entry to this museum is free.



I found this museum interesting because there are things I have seen in childhood.



This iron does not utilize electricity. There is a window at the buttock of the iron. People put burning coal or wood through the window into the iron. The long nose at the head allows air to flow in and out of the iron. I have seen an old woman at the corner of a street, spraying water from her mouth to wet clothes and using an iron similar to the one on the left hand side to iron clothes.



My family owned a set of printing tools very similar to the set on the right. My mother have already been being a teacher since I was a child. When examination came, my mother wrote questions on a paper with wax with a pen of needle. My father would fix the wax paper on the frame shown on the right, then put ink on the top of wax paper and used a brush to spread ink to paper laying below the wax paper. My sister and I sat one side to watch them. I like the smell of wax paper. I would search wax paper when my parent were busy and stole a piece. Sometimes I took the needle pen to write on wax paper or to do other naughty things. I don't know if my mother is still keeping her tools at home now.



Balances on the left were always seen in stores selling rice. In the past, I sometimes went to a rice store on the next block to order rice for my mother. Every time we ordered 20 to 50 pounds of rice. The shop keeping would put rice into a hugh bag and measured the weight of rice. Finally a man came to my home and put the big bag of rice into a large bucket in kitchen.



I haven't seen these old things for a long time. When I saw them in museum, I was missing them very much especially the printing tool set.

Friends have been waiting for my sharing for a while. However I have taken over 2000 photos in this trip in Japan, it is impossible to finish processing those photos in short period of time. Anyway, let me share something. I have stayed in Otaru for only one day, but I took the best photo in this trip in Otaru in my own opinion.After visiting Biei and Furano, I went down to Otaru by train on the following day. Otaru is a small town in Hokkaido. I arrived Otaru at about 12 noon, and I was able to finishing visiting all target sites and returned to hotel to check in the room before 3pm.



When I checked in the hotel, I felt sorry to plan to stay overnight in Otaru. The room in hotel was the dirtiest room in the whole trip. Moveover I was facing a real problem, I hoped to move to a big city as soon as possible to solve it. Thirdly, it seemed that I had no more thing to do in Otaru.



However, since I had nothing to do after checking in, I spent hour and hours to walking along every street in Otaru, puzzling what Otura really is in the present. What is the role of Otaru Canal to the economy of the town now? What is the true Otaru? I could never spend so much time on thinking and searching in other part of Japan in the trip. Eventually I've got the above photo.



I was facing the canal. Factories or warehouses are sitting at my right and left. The Ocean is at my back. Some boats are having a shelter in the canal. It is a quiet town. It is not colorful comparing with the photo at the right, but for someone, it can be charming in its own way.

Before I got on the plane to Tokyo on September 20, I was not quite prepared for the journey. However, the air-ticket has been bought, I still had to get on the plane.



***



That was quite an adventure in 18 days. I didn't plan the journey well enough, and there were always something unexpected happened. I needed to amend or re-write my itinerary every day. Fortunately, most of tourist sites in Japan are closed after 6pm, so I normally returned to inns early in the evening and have enough time and energy to plan for the journey for the following day. I could also enjoy TV boardcasting and news reports in hotels.



I have watched 2 episodes of TV drama "Shinsengumi (新選組)". Shinsengumi seems to be very popular in Japan. I saw the light blue sign of Shinsengumi very frequently in the trip. I was interested in the characters of Toshizo Hijikata (土方歳三)- since I have been in Hakodate - and Sakamoto Ryouma(坂本龍馬) in the drama. Both Yamamoto Kouji and Eguchi Yosuke are more handsome than the characters who they act. However the real Toshizo in photos is gaunter and more sincere than Yamamoto, I think that Toshizo had experienced a lot of tumor. Sakamoto is very famous person, however Eguchi doesn't have much chance to show up in the episodes I watched.



The schedule of Shinsengumi will change to 5pm from this week. However, Kinki Kids' Show will be shifted to 11pm. Does it mean that the popularity of Kinki Kids in Japan dropped? Kimura Tatsuya is really very popular in Japan. The first poster I saw in train station after my arrival is his. Then I saw the poster many many times in Tokyo. 4 or 5 different ads on TV are hosted by him, much more than other pop stars.



***



I arrived Japan right after the landing of Typhoon Number 20. Fallen trees and broken buildings were always seen. I can tell you I have seen a lot of red leaves...on the floor....

Everytime when I travelled from one city to the next destination, it rained. From Tokyo to Hokkaido, from Otaru to Hakodate, from Hakodate to Nikko, from Nikko to Kyoto. Time after time. However every time when I arrived at the train station of targeted city, the rain stopped or almost stopped except in Nikko. Because of the rain, I skipped the plan of dropping by Morioka and walking outside Sendai Station in order to arrive Nikko two hours ahead of schedule. That decision was proved to be right. The Typhoon Number 21 landed at that evening. The weather was very bad when I arrived in Nikko, but if I arrived two hours later after sunset, it would be more dangerous to search for hotel in hillside area.However, when I went out to visit the cities, the weather was always acceptable and sometimes sunny except the day I visited the Philosopher's Walk. On the next day I returned Hong Kong, Typhoon Number 22, which was the most powerful typhoon hitting Japan in this decade, attacked Japan. I was blessed throughout the trip considering the weather I have met.***



I had a packet of cup noodle as breakfast most of the days because it is very expensive to have breakfast in hotels or fast food shops. After graduation from university, I have seldom had cup noodle. It is quite an experience. It is quite easy to find places to have lunch and dinner at inexpensive price range in big cities. However, food is expensive in Nikko. Therefore I tried to have a set dinner in hotel one night because the price range of dining out is closed to that of dining inside the hotel (minshuku). The meal was hugh! There was too much food but I tried very hard to finish it since I have paid big buck for it. I felt bad to my stomach after dinner, so I decided to have food from convenience stores for the rest of the time in Nikko.



***



Photography equipments I brought to Japan this time were similar to those to Jiuzhaigo, but I took a tripod this time for taking photos at night. I forgot the tripod on the train when I was just arrived in Japan. Thanks for the help from the staff in the Minami-senjuku Station, the tripod was found, but I had to go to Yokohama on the next day to pick it up!



***



This kind of surprise was all over my trip. The last surprise in the trip happened on the last night in Japan...



Since that was the last night in Japan, I didn't need to reserve energy for the next day, I went out to Gion area to have fun until late at night although my ankle was hurted when I was in Nikko. There were a lot of students with their teachers in Gion area. Elementary students following their teachers, high school and junior high students were everywhere. I saw many students having field trips throughout my journery. I have learned to follow students where ever I go. They most of time were going to the same places I were looking for.



It has been very late at night. The old woman at the front desk in hotel doesn't know english. After I paid the rent of hotel room, she refused to get me the key of the room. Altough I heard someone saying "hori...hori..." in the dining room, I didn't aware of any connection between their dialog and me.



The master came back to hotel, she put a box and an english message in front of me. I thought that they put the reason of keeping my room's key on paper since they couldn't speak english. "How is everything going? I hope you are enjoying your travel here..."



"Arr...", I thought. "Thank you, but please go to the point."



I was tired and impatient, so I said to the master, "So, what's wrong. Why can't I have the key?" No answer.



I went back to the message again. It looked like a letter, the sender was... my friend I made on internet not long ago! Oh, My God! There were boxes of chocolate sent by a new friend on internet! I could never think of this kind of thing would happen before it really happened. It is a very sweet thing for a friend have done to me. Let me to say thank you here to my friend one more time.



***



This is only an introduction, but it is getting very long. Three more words. "To be continued..."

I finally returned to Hong Kong yesterday night. It has been a long journey in Japan. Moreover, the journey was full of fun and memorable moments.



Please wait for the new series of journal for the trip. The series is coming soon, but I have to do some organization tasks, develop films, and take care of my daily life first.



Love to all who come to visit me. ;)



各位好～＼(^o^)／ 我昨夜平安地回到香港了。今次的旅程不短啊。有很多難忘的回憶呢。



敬請期待新一輯的遊記。不日連載，但現在先要忙著日常生活的大小事務。



明天星期六，祝大家有個愉快的週末。