Right, as predicted, I am now back in Sapporo, in fact I'm staying at the same place as last time, which is fine by me as they've got free internet access in the lobby, and my e-mail actually works here, only problem being it'd be nice to sit down while writing a long entry.
I'd like to thank people for commenting on one of my entries for once. Apparently some of you do actually still read this, so I'll start by answering some of what you asked.
Yes, somehow I did manage to forget to mention the earthquake in my last entry. In case you haven't heard about it (don't know how big a news story it is back there) a magnitude seven earthquake struck somewhere offshore, the nearest big city being Sendai. I did feel it where I was at the time (Kushiro), and it was somewhat disconcerting especially since I was on the fifth floor of my hotel at the time. In the end though it's only effect on me was to make me wonder down to the lobby where I felt slightly embarrassed since no-one else seemed to have paid it any attention before wondering back up to my room.
As for sheep, no I didn't actually see any. I hadn't heard about them though so I wasn't particularly looking out for them. I did pass through Furano, the centre of lavender production, but I didn't stay there long and I think it is the wrong time of year so I didn't see any lavender either.
Now since the last entry I went and stayed at Asahidake-onsen for two nights as planned, the main activity there being to climb up the mountain, Asahidake, which is what I did yesterday with my one full day there. Even with the cablecar to skip most of the lower slopes, it still took a fair while to reach the top, climbing mainly over the volcanic rocks, but the view from the top was incredible. The whole endeavour was helped by the beautiful weather, meaning that though there was still snow on the ground in many places it was actually pleasantly warm and I I felt truely grateful of my sunglasses for once.
Today has mainly been spent travelling back here to Sapporo, though the journey itself was not an especially long one, the irregular buses from Asahidake meant I couldn't get started until 11 o'clock, so didn't make it here until 2.
That's enough for this entry I believe. Let me know in the comments if there is anything I've forgotten.
One last note on future plans, I'm heading off to Aomori, back in northern Honshu tommorow, where I plan to stay for a couple of nights, after which I'll pick up my rail-pass to head back down towards Tokyo.
Having travelled around Hokkaido for a while I am now back in Asahikawa, though I'm off again to Asahidake in a few hours. To those of you that have sent me E-mail or were expecting E-mail from me I would like to appologise as I still haven't been able to get to it and probably wont get another chance until I'm back in Sapporo in a couple of days.
Right, well I guess you'll be wanting to know where I've been and what I've been doing since the last entry, or maybe not, but due to lack of comments on what you are interested in that's what your getting.
Or not, since I'm really not sure I'm in the mood for writing a long entry at the moment. We will see what comes about as I have quite a while before my bus.
Right, so after my second night in Asahikawa I took a train to Kamikawa from where I took a bus to Sounkyo Onsen where I hired a bike to ride around the Sounkyo Gorge before staying the night. I had intended to take the cablecar up Kamidake and possibly hike to the summit as well while here but in the end did not have the time.
In the morning I went on by train via Kamikawa to Abashiri where I visited a few museums (not a lot to do there) and spent the night.
The next morning I took a local train to Shiretoko-Shari from where a bus headed up the Shiretoko penisular to Utoro. After checking into a nice Minshuku in Utoro I hitched a lift to the five lakes of Shiretoko-go-ko, via the pass overlooking the mountains. After walking around the lakes I returned to Utoro from where I took a boat that headed along the coast of the penisular for a way, though a major part of the attraction for the Japanese tour groups on board appeared to be feeding the Seagulls. After the boat returned to Utoro I had a very nice meal at the Minshuku.
The next morning I took the bus back to Shari and got back on next local train. I got off next at Kawayu-onsen from where I checked into another pleasent Minshuku (this one with an onsen with a view over the lake) from where I hired a bike and rode to Mt Iou and along the edge of the lake for a while. After returning the bike I spent the earky-evening walking through the forested headland near the minshuku before returning for supper.
The next morning I returned to the train station and went on to Toro where I hired another bike from the cafe in the station (where I lefted my bag) and rode out to a couple of view-points over the surrounding lakes and marshes. After a couple of hours riding I returned to the station and went on to the end of the line at Kushiro.
After spending the night in the city I took and early express bound for Sapporo, changing to a local train at Shintoko to go to Furano. After stopping in Furano and picking up some information about the surrounding area I took another local train to Bibaushi where I spent the afternoon walking around some of the surrounding hills before spending the night in the youth-hostel there.
This morning I got back on the local train and rode it the rest of the way here to Asahikawa. So in the last week or so I have been through four different national parks (Taisetsuzan, Shiretoko, Akan and Kushiro) and seen an awful lot of very impressive and beautiful scenery, including mountains, waterfalls, gorges and lakes. From here I am heading by bus to Asahidake-onsen, back in the Taistensuzan National Park where I've got two nights booked at the youth-hostel in Asahidake and am planning to do a bit of walking around that area to finish my scenic tour before returning to Sapporo for my last couple of nights in Hokkaido. There have been a few places that I would have liked to have seen but have had to skip for one reason or another but overall I've seen a lot of Hokkaido in the last few days.
Can't quite remember where I got that phrase from, but I think you should catch the meaning. I'm not actually gone though (and I hope no-one else is), I am still in Japan, just a completely different part of it to last time I made an entry, or even a non-entry.
Last time you heard of my existence I was in Kyoto but I haven't even told you about what I did there, let alone how I now come to be in Asahikawa on Hokkaido. What I really want to do right now is write a couple of e-mails, unfortunatly that doesn't seem to be working here. So instead all you lucky people are actually getting an entry for once. Now all I have to do is try and remember everything that has happened since the last meaningfull entry.
Right, well before I was in Kyoto I went through Nara where I will admit I didn't do much. I visited the main temple, [enter name here] and saw the very tame deer but other than that I mainly just wondered around the streets and parks. That was on May 10th, in the afternoon after my entry from Osaka.
The next morning I took a train to Kyoto (with a little more trouble than usual as the signals weren't working). Leaving my luggage at the station initially I started on the temples around the station. First was To-ji and the attached museum, just to the south-west of the station, before heading back north of the station for Higashi-Hongan-ji , Kikoku-tei and Nishi-Hongan-ji and finally to my hotel after picking my luggage up again.
The next day (May 12th) I headed for Nijo-jo. While exploring the castle here I met a small group taking a short tour of the city and hooked up with them for the rest of the day. What followed was a quick tour of some of Kyoto's best sights, including Kinkaku-ji, containing the Golden Pavilion and Ryoan-ji, known for it's Zen-garden.
With my second full day in Kyoto I didn't do a huge amount, just visited the Imperial Palace before walking to Ginkaku-ji (containing the Silver Pavilion) and on along the Path of Philosophy.
My last full day in Kyoto I headed back out west, starting with Sanjusangen-do and it's incredibly impressive 1001 Buddha's, stretching into the distance. Heading north I visited Kiyomizu-dera, with it's wooden platform sticking into the valley and then went on to Kodai-ji with it's plesant gardens and also visited the small museum nearby. Continuing north I visited Chion-in, with it's massive temple buildings before my final stop of the day was at Heian-jingu and it's gardens.
On the morning of the 15th I headed first to that station to drop of my bag and then returned to the Imperial Palace and watched the prossesion of the Hollyhock Festival passing by before leaving Kyoto by Shinkansen to Tokyo. Changing at Tokyo I took a second Shinkansen as far as Sendai, where I spent that night.
In the morning one more Shinkansen got me to Hanchinohe where I changed trains for an LEX heading through the long tunnel to Hakodate on Hokkaido where I spent a surprisingly pleasant night in the youth hostel there.
The next day I headed first to Onuma-koen where I spent the morning cycling round the lakes and islands. Sometime after mid-day I got back on the train to Sapporo, this time getting off at Toya, to get a bus to Toya-ko Onsen, with beautiful views of the lake on one side and volcanoes on the other. That night I got to see part of a fireworks display over the lake before spending the night there.
The next morning I got back on the train to Sapporo, but stopped off once more at Naboribetsu and visited the Hell Valley there with it's bubbling sulphurous pools and streams before going the rest of the way to Sapporo.
After a night in Sapporo I spent the day in the nearby port town of Otaru before returning for a second night in Sapporo.
Now were up to Yesterday the 20th May (unless I've missed out something) when I visited Sapporo's botanic gardens before coming here to Asahikawa where I spent the night.
Now it's a very sunny day here in Asahikawa but there isn't a whole lot to do here so I've finally got time to write out this long entry and plan what I'm going to do with the next week or so on Hokkaido before returning to the mainland for my last few weeks in Japan.
This entry is in fact a complete non-entry, as I feel I should post something since I'm online but I have no actual desire to write something. So for the moment this entry is simply a place-holder for an entry actually describing what I've been doing here in Kyoto which will probably appear in the not-to-distant future.
Right, I don't thing this entry is about much, hence the lack of title. I'm back in Osaka now, but since I can't remember where the last update got to I'll have to check that before I can fill you in on what I've been doing. Then I'll tell you what I'm going to be doing.
Right, last entry was from Takamatsu which means I've got several days to catch up on. That I believe was posted on my first night in Takamatsu. I spent the subsequent day there primarily walking around various parks, including one on top of a large plateau nearby, and doing some reading.
After my second night there in Takamatsu I visited the garden that is the main sight of the city. It was another time I had planned to get there early but didn't in the end, but it proved to not be too busy anyway. So with the rest of that day I headed for Kochi, where I checked into a hotel before heading up to the castle.
After my one night there I headed off again for the long train journey to Matsuyama where I checked into a hotel for the next two nights. That night I didn't get a great deal done but did manage to get online (sorry, no update then) and get some accomodation booked ahead (which I'll tell you about later).
The next day I went up to the castle in the morning, and then spent the afternoon out at nearby Dogo, visiting a rather surreal temple and trying out the famous Onsen there. After this interesting experience I went back to my hotel for my second night there.
Yesterday morning I caught a train first to Okayama (AGAIN) and then via Shinkansen to Osaka. After dropping my bags off at the station I headed back out to Takarazuka which has a Manga Museum which proved vaguelly interesting, before coming back and spending the night here in Osaka.
Now we're back to this morning where the only thing I've done is to come here to get on-line. But after this I'm heading for Nara where I've booked a nights accomodation (told you I'd get back to it) and then from there I'll be heading to Kyoto where I have four nights. That will get me as far as the 15th when there is apparently a festival worth seeing in Kyoto so I'll try to hang around for that before heading north via Tokyo with the last couple of days of my rail pass.
Or in fact nothing of the sort. Not sure why that's the title but anyway. I am now in Takamatsu, on Shikoku, in fact I've been on three different islands today (more if you count the ones I went across on a bridge).
After my first night in Miyazaki I did as I had suggested go and visit a small island, in fact a very small island, you could walk around it in about 15 minutes. But since it was a very pleasant, warm sunny day I hung around there for quite a while, walking round and clambering over the rocks, before getting sunburnt and going back to my hotel.
Yesterday morning I got up to head to Beppu, a couple of tiresome train journeys later and I was in Beppu, with a sudden realisation that I didn't in fact know where my hotel was. So after wondering around confusedly for a while I went and did the obvious thing, I asked the Tourist Information desk, who told me, and showed me which bus to get. Now I had been planning to get a ferry from Beppu to Uwajima here on Shikoku, but after arriving in Beppu quite late, and not getting anything done that afternoon, I was doubting the sense of this.
Instead, this morning I headed off to a couple of the hells from the title, these are bubbling, steaming pools of water and mud, volcanically heated. After two of the many hells it was getting towards midday though and I wanted to get on to my next stop (whatever that was to be, I hadn't quite decided), so I headed for the train station.
Now in order to get here I had to go back the way I came, so first I headed for Kakura on the Sonic LEX, from where I could join the Shinkansen tracks out of Kyushu and took the Hikari Rail Star as far as Okayama (Yes, again, I'm getting very used to that station), from where it was the Marine Liner LEX on a rather impressive trip across the Seto Ohashi bridge onto Shikoku (and over several small islands as it hops it's way across the Inland Sea). So, here I am in Takamatsu, and I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. I didn't get here till after most of the sights had shut so I haven't done much yet and other than one garden that is supposed to be very much worth seeing I haven't got plans for tommorow. Guess it's back to reading my guides again.
I'd like to begin this entry by apologising for the long delay since the last entry and appologising in advance for the (probable) erratic timing between future updates. Unfortunatly when I am travelling around between cities I find it harder to get online and I've been doing rather a lot of travelling since the last entry.
In fact I've been on 6 different trains, in three different cities, and up 2 differnt volcanoes. After that last rather worried-sounding entry I managed to use an on-line service to book an extra 2 nights there in Fukuoka. I didn't actually do a great deal with the extra time that gave me there, but it at least let me work out what I was going to do next and make some preparations.
By the time I got back to it, (On the 25th) I was unable to book a room in Nagasaki for that night through the same on-line service for the 26th, but I booked 2 nights in Kumamoto, 2 in Kagoshima, 2 in Miyazaki and 1 in Beppu, taking me right through from the 27th of April to the 3rd of May. But still leaving me nowhere to stay on the 26th. After my last night in Fukuoka I activated my 21-day railpass in the morning and headed to Nagasaki. On my arrival (two trains later) I visited the tourist information office to see if they could help me to book accomodation in Nagasaki for that night, as it turned out they couldn't help with that, though they did suggest a few places I might try. I then went to the JR Hotel on top of the station, since it was nearby, obvious, I could get a discount with my Pass, and it had a glass elevator. I wasn't very hopefull about my chances of getting a room there but I did, so my accomodation problems were solved for the immediate future.
When I went to the Tourist Information centre they had given me some information about a tall ships festival taking place in Nagasaki over few days (I love the way I keep stumbling onto these sort of things). It turned out that on the particular night I was there there was a fireworks display over the harbour, now since my guidebook said the nightime view across the bay from such-and-such a point was particularly spectacular the conclusion was obvious. So that evening after I spent the afternoon visiting the obvious sights in Nagasaki, the Hypocentre, Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum, I took the cablecar up to the lookout and watched the fireworks from up there, where they went particularly well with the lights of Nagasaki spread out below.
In the morning I got a train to Kumamoto. I didn't do anything special here my first day, but the next day I visited a graden in the morning before heading off to Mt Aso, my first volcano. Now in another of those interesting messes (involving forgetting my railpass), I got to the station significantly later than I had intended. Fortunatly though this resulted in me getting there around 10 O'clock, and I noticed the departure board mentioned the SL-Boy at 10:15. I remembered from my guide book that this was a steam train that ran the route up Mt. Aso on holidays, but needed reservations, now I assumed it would have been long booked up but thought it couldn't hurt to go ask. As it turns out I am very glaad I did as I greatly enjoyed the ride up to Aso on the train, apparently originally from America, complete with Japanese conductors dressed as cowboys.
Once at Aso I caught a bus further up the mountain, stopping at the Volcano Museum, from where I walked to the bottom of the cable car after looking around. I took the cablecar up to the crater which was a spectacularly barren sight, with the smell of sulphur wafting over everything. I didn't have a whole lot of time up there though as by then it was round 4:00 and the last bus back down was at 5:00, so I soon headed back down, taking first the bus and then the train back to Kumamoto.
The next day in Kumamoto I spent the morning visiting the castle, before taking yet another train on to Kagoshima. Here
I again quickly found my hotel but since I hadn't got out of Kumamoto till rellativly late after visiting the castle I didn't do much that evening other than explore the area a little. The next day I headed out early again to take a ferry to Sakurajima, the island (though actually now connected to a peninsular by a lava flow) volcano close by. I arrived on the island just in time to take a bus tour of the island that left at 9:30 and took up the next 3 hours. After the tour I spent a while walking along the coast before heading back to the mainland. I used the rest of that afternoon to explore the city a little more and climb to the viewpoint that looks out over the city with a good view of Sakurajima before my last night there.
That was yesterday, today I took another train here to Miyazaki, and now after visiting the cities science museum and checking into my hotel it's nearly 6. I have a couple of nights here as I mentioned earlier, I'm planning to visit a small island here tommorow (not volcanic this time), and possibly something else aswell. I'll try to update you again soon as to what I've been and hopefully I'll have made some more plans as to where I'm off to after Beppu so I can fill you in on those as well. (Currently I want to catch the ferry from Beppu to Uwajima but this hasn't been confirmed yet.)