So I've been slow about updating this blog. Sorry folks. It's not that I haven't had enough time, or maybe I did have enough time, but I didn't have enough worth updating at that moment. I'm in Tokyo now, so I want to hurry up and close up on this chapter so I can talk about the crazy shit that's happened here. I owe you guys like two more posts, including one with pictures, and they'll probably just keep stacking up until I get to Osaka and have a little down time. I should be out and about now, but unfortunately my knee is in heavy pain. I might have to go to the doctor if it doesn't chill in the next few days, because it might actually be getting worse, and that means I may not return to the gym for a good while. Anyway, onto the post.
Sayonara Sapporo
It's weird what happens when you really engage yourself in a distant country like I have. Even though I only spent five days there, I feel like I was there for months and that I have a huge amount of my life there for some reason. I had some pretty incredible times that aren't being written about on this blog (sorry folks, some of you might get the closure but I won't guarantee it). Maybe a few months or years down the road I'll dig up what happened here and drop a post on it, after everything surrounding what happened here has completely blown over in the minds of anyone involved. Until then, you'll just have to deal with a shortage of information. It's not that I'm becoming an adult for the first time, I think that's already really started to happen when I faced my earlier challenges in college and made it through, but I've really had a true brush with adulthood, where I had to consider where I was and where I was going and be mature and reasonable and do my damndest to consider the feelings of others. And somehow, I did okay. With no one to tell me how I should be living my life, I think I did a good job in figuring it out myself. I'm a little proud, and a little melancholy, because adulthood is just not the easiest thing for anyone.
I can only imagine how tough it might be to leave this country altogether in 6 months.
So, most of the last few days was casual sightseeing. And adventuring, as I always do. I kinda missed the feeling of wandering around almost aimlessly by myself hoping to find landmarks and expecting to get lost along the way. On the third day I was by myself until night time, so I decided to go to Moerunuma Park, which is described as entirely filled with sculptures. Unfortunately, its beauty is less remarkable during the winter, where you can't walk anywhere and everything is closed. I walked past the car entrance and missed the walk-in entrance, assuming I was supposed to go around the side or such. I ended up treading through a mile of snow, and trying fruitlessly to climb up packed hills of it, before I turned back around ready to give up. My god was I freezing. As it turns out, the walk-in entrance (marked only in kanji of course) was blocked off by a foot or so of snow. I had to take the car entrance in, and finally made it to the glass pyramid, the only structure which was accessible in winter. I'll be sure to post pictures later. It was cool, but not worth the snowy suffering. The experience though is what counts. I should always be challenging myself.
The rest of the day I couldn't find my way to the beer museum and Ario shopping center. They're only accessible by buses, which I'm too inept to use properly, so I had to put that off for another day. The following day I tried to go to the museum of modern art, only to find it closed until February. I was getting extremely good at not seeing landmarks. I did manage to make it to the "White Lovers" chocolate factory park that day though. It was very victorian, and willy wonkaish, and had a lot of cool Western or early-late-modern Japanese relics, which is cool for a Meiji/Taisho history buff like myself. It was kind of a cheesy place though, but fun for its architectural design.
My second to last day Ryoko was off work again, so we first went to the Akarenga (red brick) governmental building. It was filled with cool archives of Sapporo and Hokkaido history. Ryoko isn't too much into that, but I kinda like that shit. Just for the update, Sapporo was a new and almost artificial city established in about 1863, during which it was a village of 7 people. With the assistance of Western planners, it was soon developed to have something like 40 blocks within the next 3 years, and quickly developed into the newest and most modern single Japanese city. So for anyone interested in late modern Japanese history, it's a fantastic place to set foot.
We followed up with the beer tour, the museum which had a very cool showing of the making and history of Sapporo beer, a major simple of the growing Westernization of the country. There was a tasting option, but it was like 5 dollars for three full glasses, and it was too early for me to have a significant amount of alcohol in my system, so we passed. Plus Ryoko is a lightweight. The museum was connected to Ario, a sizeable shopping mall with all kinds of cool stuff, none of which I could afford. Ryoko found some Western teas she wanted though (twice the price it costs back at home, of course). She couldn't find sour cream, which she said is one of the things she misses the most about America. I kinda can't blame her, sour cream is the shit.
The bus line continued to the Sapporo Factory, which is an even bigger mall with incredible design all over. This is like Mall of America kinda huge. Being in Sapporo kinda made me wish I had a lot more money, because it's not hard to find things to buy anywhere. It actually amazes me how much stuff there is to buy there, since no one in the city seems particularly wealthy. We found a cheap buffet to eat at, which is a rarity in itself. Finding enough food for a poor American is a challenge. The food was Western style, and not great, but it got the job done. I swear there was no pork in my pork chops though.
We said our goodbyes that night and I headed back to the hostel for my last night. The hostel owner is seriously the sweetest woman ever. She asked how I was doing and where I was going and helped me book my flight out to Tokyo and even let me keep my bags at the hostel after check out until I was ready to catch my train out. By this point I had already pretty much seen everything in the city visible in January, so I just killed time in game centers until it was time to go.
There's a lot about Sapporo I feel I haven't seen. I'm not sure how and when exactly to get to the bottom of the city, but I feel obligated to return when it's warm to finish my tour. I can't help but feel like there are some secrets buried within the city that I need to unearth. Plus, I failed to do a proper pub crawl, which is the staple of any traveler's experience. Returning there is definitely on my agenda, somehow I feel like a piece of my heart has been buried there. I just don't know how to dig it up, or what I might do with it if I can reclaim it. Traveling can surprise and amaze you, and while doing it you know you always need to keep going, but sometimes you want to just stop. Like literally stop, and not go forward, as if I could just toss out my visa and start working right there and start a new life or something. It's a very complicated feeling, impossible to describe, but I know I did the right thing in my life by coming in the first place. Sayonara, Sapporo.
End of the first chapter
No comments:
Post a Comment