Konichiwa! Well, first we were too busy to have any downtime to update the blog, and then we finally had some downtime but not downtime FROM the downtime, but now we're sitting outside the JR Noboribetsu station with an hour or so before our train arrives, out on a cement bench shaped like a wooden log right behind a statue giant red snarling Oni (demon), welcoming visitors with a raised spiky club...in short, the perfect place to do a little blogging.
So, to backtrack - Sapporo gave us a nice little slice of karoshi-inducing stress levels, as I had to squeeze in no less than three major business meetings in the space of 48 hours, all in entirely different parts of the 2-million strong city.
Odori park.
Some words about the JR Rail Pass: Said rail pass, while purchaseable in the USA, allows 7 days of unlimited access to Japan's version of Amtrak but does not guarantee one a seat on any given train. You can reserve seats, of course, but only in Japan, physically (I can SORT of understand that...I suppose it prevents foreign scalping and re-selling, which to be fair would probably happen). So, the woman at the desk, who mercifully speaks much better English than I speak Japanese, politely tells me that several of the trains we wanted to reserve are booked solid, and that at least two of them do not any longer exist.
Somewhat stymied in our original master-plan, we attempt to repair to a place eith wireless so we can re-shuffle hotels and schedules...now, one would think that n the center of Sapporo Station, the city's equivalent of Grand Central, full of stores and restuarnts and all the usual temples to capitalism, would have *someplace* with either free or purchaseable wifi...but no. Or rather, it's available, but you have to sign up for an account and get a password emailed back to you, which you of course can't get to because you have no internet access that lets you check your email. The only way out of this catch-22, I suppose, is to know in advance what place you will want to use wireless at, then sign up at home and arrived prepared. Sigh.
Josh eventually did work some alchemy in a Starbucks that got us a day-pass, and it was through surfing there that we began to construct a new itinerary.
Did I mention that the clock was ticking until our train to Noboribetsu (the last one of the day) departed?
So it turns out the best available route I had wanted (that would let us have seen the fire festival at Aomori) actually, upon closer examination, would have required no less than (wait for it) SIXTEEN train changed, and one air flight. Not going to happen. The next best route had a midnight-to-six layover in some podunk village in southwestern Tohoku. Josh was not too keen on an overnight bus...so, alack and weladay, we had to drop our Aomori plans. We seem to have gained an extra night in Tokyo, in which, after several late nights of hitting to Japanese hosteling websites, I did manage to snag us affordable accomodations.
With the help of the JR lady (and by help I mean, she sat down with us and, with no obvious signs of impatience, went over paper tome after paper tome of trains chedules with us), and with Josh's constant help in translating military time to the 12 hour system for me, we managed to get our act in order JUST in time for us to thank the lady with some bagged candies, race to the pay-storage lockers that held our luggage, accidentally spend about $14 in screwed up opening-and-closing goofs, and give me access to my causal clothes. I've been dying in the non-air-conditioned heat for the last two hours because we haven't had time to change...and we still don't, as the train is leaving within moments. But I've simply had enough. So I ask Josh to stand guard, ala beach towel duty, while I wedge myself into an alcove in the station and disrobe from the waist up. I get so nervous that my shirt gets caught on my watch and I'm trapped, and the only way I can free myself is to just tear through with brute force until SOMETHING gives...in this case, that something was the clip on my watch. My $15 rhinestone-laden, last-minute-purchased airport mall watch.
So I change clothes, grab my now-pocketwatch, and we race up the steps to the platform carrying said oversized luggage, find the right train car, and collapse safely into our precious reserved seats. Hurrah!
Josh describes the preceedeing series of events as "chewing through life's Rubick's Cube that was the JR ticket experience."
Dehydrated as I was, Josh fortunately stopped me from leaping back onto the platform to try and purchase water from the vending machine. Turns out there was a concessions lady on the train anyway. Yatta!
So you can see why we needed just a tad of downtime after that, and we chose to spend it in...HELL! Well, yes, Japanese hell, Noboribetsu-onsen, my favorite live-volcano sporting, sulfur-smelling, demon-statue ridden resort full of hot spring baths and spicy ramen. When not luxuriating in 40 degree celsius hot-baths, we treated ourselves to incomprehensible Japanese TV (including an infotainment game show about feminine armpit hair removal and a postwar dramatization with Tommy Lee Jones as General MacArthur), ate some very good ice-cream, watched animatronic Peach Boy characters on parade, and walked around the volcano trying not to pass out from the fumes. In short, relaxation city!
The only major annoyance thus far at the resort was a raven that pooped (twice) on Josh's ipad.
I freely admit that I owe Josh some thanks for declining my suggestion of taking a "twenty minute walk" from the JR station to the resort (that turned out to be a 20 minute BUS RIDE)...he takes care of the math and the orientation, I take care of the Japanese language and customs. I think two gentlemen with ADD can add up to one functional person (or half of a Liana or Taneka. I mean, at least ONE of us, at any given time, seems able to alert the other when he has left his wallet, keys, tickets, passport, money, lower intestines, etc) on a table somewhere without realizing it, so that's been quite effective thus far.
Update: We're now in Nanae, more to come!
- D
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