Jet lag is still biting at me, it seems. I can't bring myself to stay awake past midnight, but then I can't sleep past 8. I don't feel very tired though, so I guess I'm in a good enough spot.
So, I realize now that I forgot to describe and take pictures of my hotel. There was literally nothing impressive about it, it cost like 40 bucks a night and consisted of a small bed and a narrow tunnel from the door to the desk next to it where I could barely fit my suitcase sideways. The bathroom was of course tiny, with the sink connected to the shower with a hose. It was altogether clean and got the job done, but too many drunk idiots could not seem to figure out what their room number was.
Due to price constraints I changed to a hostel starting from yesterday. I had agreed to meet Ryoko at 2 and her android with GPS would have been very convenient, but unfortunately I had to check out at 10 and my luggage wasn't going anywhere, so I decided to make the trip on my own. This would lead into my first adventure. Anyone who knows me should know by now, my sense of navigation is amazingly bad. The first mistake I made was trusting google maps and copying down loose instructions instead of getting a full map and checking the hostel's website. The second was not trusting my own instructions fully. Basically, I made it to the station and took the JR (train) line to Shiroishi. The problem is, the map said to take the Tozai (subway) line. So that put me at the wrong station several blocks away, and I knew my luggage was too heavy to lug around in the pouring snow where I couldn't even see the sidewalks. I went to wait for the bus that goes from the train station to the subway station, which would have been fine until it occurred to me...I checked my pockets.
The good news is that my passport was still there. The bad news was that my wallet wasn't.
Of course I searched around frantically and checked inside and outside of the station. Eventually I became sure that my wallet did not make it with me across town. I couldn't go back to get it, because that would involve buying a ticket with the money that was no longer with me. I thought of calling Ryoko then and having her rush out to help my hopeless foreign self out, but that would have been too easy. If there's an easy way and a hard way to do things, rest assured, Jonah Matteo will take the stupid way. Not that what I did was too stupid though, most people would think to ask a station master for help. The problem is that my Japanese is far from fantastic. Still, I could make out basic questions, like how much money was in it, what color it was, etc. and respond properly. Besides that, I could barely understand him and I'm sure it must have been a little frustrating for him to deal with me, but he was exceptionally understanding and called back to Sapporo station and had them hold it and wave me through ticket check. In America, the second I dropped the wallet it would be gone, and I'd be lucky if anyone involved in public transit would want to take the time to help me out. I like Japanese service people.
Back at Sapporo station I winged it and figured that if I went to one subway I'd figure out where the Tozai line actually was (it wasn't listed as any line connecting to the station). Sure enough, it was a connecting line. So with that out of the way, I had my next task: finding my damn hostel. The hostel is about 4 blocks from Shiroishi subway station, which means that I was wandering around for an hour trying to find it. My own instructions were pretty bad considering how difficult it is to make out block differentiation and how heavy my bag was and how little I could look up at the street for how much snow was in my face. Eventually I got to a park, gave up, sat on my suitcase and pondered what to do. Across from the park looked like some kind of community center. I decided to have a smart moment and actually read the kanji, 東札幌図書館. Oh. A library. That would be helpful.
I went to the desk, and I could have read out the address to the circulation fellow and asked if he could draw me directions or such. That would have been the easy way. Again, Matteo, lateral thinking. I asked him if he could give me a map of the area. He rented out to me a thick, Japanese-only residential guidebook of the entire area. I soon learned that I was within about a block of the area where the hostel was listed, even though I couldn't find the hostel itself on the map. I still felt lost and it would have been a grand idea of me at this point to ask the guy at the desk to point out to me where on the map I might find the place I was looking for. Y'all ask too much of me. And before you ask, there was no wireless internet or public access computers. I checked. By the way, traversing through snow with a heavy suitcase sucks. Did I tell you guys that? The snow provides additional resistance, making errrrrrthing worse. It was also cold. I don't think I've mentioned this enough. I could make a fantastic drinking game out of how many times I heard "samui" the entire trip.
Somehow though, within 10 minutes I actually did manage to locate my destination. It's a pretty nice hostel, internet access and full kitchen and the like. Real beds too, harder to find than you might imagine in a country like this. I checked in with just enough time to go to meet Ryoko.
We did a little more sightseeing. I had located a mountain that's supposed to have a good view of the city, Moiwa Yama. Navigating towards it was similarly hellish and I would have gotten lost again, but having someone who actually speaks Japanese with me is a huge benefit. It had a ropeway cable car to take us up, which I thought was cool and everyone else was scared of. There was a chorus of "kowai" everywhere. There was one little kid who just kept repeating "kowai" like a Buddhist chant the whole way up. Unfortunately, the view at the top was obscured by bad weather. The good news is that there are other tall locations from which to see the city from, so I'll collect some pictures eventually. Also it was even colder at the top, which of course prompted additional comments from the observant locals.
Getting back was harder, since bus stops tend to pick up from only one direction, and our GPS wasn't helping much. I made the observation that a bus had come from another direction as we were walking, so I made the deduction that we might find a bus stop if we followed that direction. I was right, and Ryoko was amazed at my detective skills. Even if I can't navigate, I guess my faculties of logic are somewhat useful.
I think my American is rubbing off on Ryoko. We were walking in a shopping arcade (covered outlet malls, basically) and noticed some guy running out of a restaurant carrying a huge bowl of nothing but steaming rice. No delivery tin, no takeout box, not even something to go with the rice, just a kilogram or so of the white stuff. And this prompted her to ask "why is that man carrying a huge bowl of rice." This actually shocked me. Japanese do not question such things; if a man were to carry a dead body across the city, so be it, that's someone else's business. I actually had to laugh at the fact that there was something in her city in the natural order of life that just struck her as absurd. Next she'll be asking me why cigarettes require an ID check while alcohol can be found in street vending machines.
Ok, follow up post will finally have pics for once.
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