The North

The bullet train north was fantastic. I was irrationally irritated by the lady beside me who had the window seat and for some reason best known to herself couldn't sit back, but instead sat on the edge of the seat blocking most of the view for the journey. I watched the scenary go past behind her head for a while before dozing off. When I awoke, I was somewhat surprised to see that everything had turned white outside. Snow. And lots of it! Due to a slight miscalculation earlier in the trip, I had booked a ticket all the way to Aomori when in fact I was actually headed for Misawa, a town about an hour from Aomori. Tania, a friend from the University of York, met me at the station and, after a cup of tea, we got a carry-out from the local take-away for dinner. I also took advantage of Tania's washing machine to ensure that the next few days would be pleasent smelling for those around me...

Next morning, I returned to Aomori (after missing the train that I had meant to catch!) and then took another train throught the longest tunnel in the world (which was probably very interesting, but I fell asleep within seconds of entering it!) to Hakodate and changing to a train bound for Noboribetsu. The unfortunate thing about missing the train was that I hadn't the time in Aomori to try to change some money and so I was running quite short as I headed into the wilderness of Hokkaido. Also, the Lonely Planet doesn't really rate Noboribetsu and so the description of the place was quite scant. Worryingly scant if you are heading for the place!

I arrived in Noboribetsu and managed to get to the hotel mentionned in the LP. I then returned to the train station and met with Takako, another Japanese friend from HKU. She met me in her jeep and took me on a little tour of Noboribetsu. She showed me around her school - 3 floors of facilities for 23 students and 11 staff!! Next year, the school will merge with another in order to gain a few more students. After this, we headed to a restaurant for a nice dinner (word of warning, however: raw octopus is bad, really bad). Takako had offered me a space to sleep at her flat, but I had booked my room at the hotel and was eager to try out the Japanese Onsen, or spa in English.

Things started badly when I headed down to the Onsen with the towel and what I thought was a dressing gown. While phoning Tania I noticed that not only were another couple going to the bath already wearing their 'Onsen clothes', but that the 'dressing gown' I was clutching was in fact merely a jacket. I returned to my room and changed into the full costume. The second mistake (which could easily have resulted in complete disaster) occurred when I mistook which colour of door belonging to each sex. I was poking about in the female changing room for probably 3 minutes or so before the sound of female voices in the spa room next door scared me into fleeing. I watched from a distance for a while until I spotted another couple coming and, upon seeing the man entering the green door, realised my mistake. The rest of the Onsen Experience was fine. After removing all clothes, you shower on a little stool and then usually have a choice of indoor or outdoor baths to choose from. The baths at this particular hotel were at 66'C - quite warm indeed.

Next morning, after another blast in the onsen, I wandered up around the Hell's Valley area. This is the valley next to a volcano and the source of the hot water for the onsen. It was interesting to see all this steaming water bubbling up between the snow. I followed a couple of paths around the area. It was quite tricky due to the thick covering of snow, but eventually I made it up to the lake beside the volcano. I then tramped back down to the bus station that would take me back to the train station. I was really running short of money by this stage and had skipped a couple of meals in order to conserve funds. I was hoping to find a bank capable of changing Traveler's Cheques, but Takako had expressed doubts about whether Noboribetsu would have a bank big enough to do that. After spending the afternoon wandering around the place, I suspect she was correct in this assessment! Anyhow, as I had just missed a bus, I was left sitting at the station. I was looking over at the Noboribetsu Grand Hotel, a vast complex noted for its enormous onsen in the LP. I suddenly wondered whether they would have the where-with-all to sort out Traveler's Cheques. Joy of joys: the hotel would change US dollar Traveler's Cheques which, as luck would have it, was what I had chosen to take with me. Despite being charged an extortionate rate of commission, I was glad to have cash again. That afternoon I wandered around Noboribetsu village, out to the harbour and then back to the train station, where I removed my shoes and dried my soaked socks by the gas heater in the centre of the waiting area. Although Japan has a long tradition of removing shoes, I do think that having a foreigner with steaming socks sitting in a train station was a tad unusual for the Japanese, but, given that I am unlikely to be returning in the near future, I decided that it didn't really matter that much!

I then took the train back to Hakodate and spent 3 enjoyable nights in the hostel of Mrs Sasamoto. She had recently moved from her old hostel (I never did quite work out if it had been demolished or if it had fallen down) to a brand new one nearer to the train station. It was brilliant. Mrs Sasamoto was extremely friendly and even took me to a temple next morning in her car and showed me around. Better still: there was free Internet access. Mmmmmmm. She also had one of those toilets with the built in, electronically controlled bidet. Nice if you like that sort of thing. When I wasn't playing with the computer or the toilet, I was looking around Hakodate - the star shaped Goryo-kaku fort, the churches and some of the old embassy buildings. There was also a cable car up to a view point on the mountain behind Hakodate, a busy little tourist trap, but it was quite pretty watching the sun set and the lights come on down below.

At the end of my stay, I took the ferry back to Aomori. Ferries in Japan take the economy class ideal of 'basic' to entirely new levels. The Belfast-Scotland HSS has McDonalds, the Hakodate-Aomori ferry had a pot noodle machine. After arriving in Aomori, I also discovered that the terminal was some distance from the town centre and so, unwilling to pay the taxi fare, I set off by foot. After disappearing up to my knees in snow at one stage I was becoming a little peaved of the stuff, but when a small blizzard struck up, I decided more positive action needed to be taken and so I took the next passing bus which, fortunately took me to the centre of town. I didn't spend long in Aomori. I tried to find some free Internet access, but it had closed down and instead I ended up in an NTT showroom pretending to be interested in sampling their broadband offering instead.

I returned to Misawa that evening and was met again by Tania. We had been invited to a neighbouring town for an Indian night and Tania's friend June had offered to give us a lift there. There followed a comical 3 hour drive to the neighbouring town. Comical, in that the town was only 45 minutes away, but finding the Indian restaurant and then the hostess's house proved slightly more difficult than was initially anticipated. Anyhow, it proved a great evening both in the car and at the Indian event.

It was cold in Misawa. Really cold. On Saturday, after an all you could eat meal in the local restaurant with June and a few other friends of Tania's, Kerry, Tim and the Japanese girl whose name I have completely forgotten, we went to the Karaoke bar and sang to keep warm. June helpfully lowered the key of the U2 song I had selected and was murdering. That evening, we were invited onto the Misawa Air Base to a birthday party of Stephanie Murphy. As well as meeting the Murphy's, I also met a few other US military types. As well as a huge video collection, the couple next door had something of a thing for Halloween and haunted houses and stuff. Actually, after seeing the photo albums I would almost describe it as an addiction.

Sunday, we attended Misawa's Calvary Baptist Church Young Adults' Sunday School and church service. Then we met up with Kerry and went to the airport to say goodbye to Sean, another of the military types from the base. It was amusing that I was meeting him to say goodbye. After this, we headed out to the beach and watched the Pacific. We then returned to the Air Base to the Chapel for the Protestant evening service. Certain people suggested that I had dozed off during the sermon, but I knew what had been talked about and managed to suppress the spread of such abhorrent allegations! After the service, we headed off-base to a Christian house set up for young people to meet up together. They were also having a St Patrick's Day themed meal that evening and so I had stew and some semi-Irish bread. A really good idea and a very welcoming place.

During the rest of my stay at Tania's, I attended Tania's school and bored an entire class load of English students with my fluency in the English language. When you are conscious of what you are saying, you realise how much slang and rubbish you actually talk. Using the word 'sticky-uppy' being a classic example. I also had dinner with Kerry, June and Tania at the nearby Ramen shop. I don't entirely know what I was eating, but it was very nice. I also read a book about the English by Jeremy Paxman. Again, I don't entirely know what his point was, but it was an enjoyable enough read. I had a look around the Folk Museum by the station which was a tad dry and more than a little cold and also had my second onsen in the local hotel complex which was very wet and usually very hot (except for the cold bath, which was freezing).