With much of the night still left, we headed to a game centre (one of many in Sapporo; they're everywhere in Japan) called Sugai. Then came my first surprise: I won at a UFO Catcher game (the games where you control a claw to try and pick up a prize), and only on my second try! It's harder here in Japan too - the claw only has 2 pieces to pick up the item, and you have 3 buttons which you can each only press once (1 for forward, 1 for left/right, and 1 for rotation). For only 200 yen, I won a Dragon Ball Z character figure - now my souvenir for Japan! So in celebration, later on that night, I bought a ice cream bar dessert (similar to one I had in Shanghai, I just forgot to post about it before). Very good - a solid chocolate bar surrounded by vanilla ice cream that's all coated in chocolate with nuts.
Then yesterday, despite the still painful stiff shoulders and neck, I decided to try and tough it out and headed to Aibetsu (near Asahikawa) to camp for a night. I was actually invited to a camping event by an English teacher here in Japan who I met online, that was actually a welcoming event for the newcomers to the JET programme (Japan Exchange and Teaching programme). Since the town of Furano was relatively near Asahikawa, I decided to head to Furano first before heading to the campsite in Aibetsu to see the famous lavender flower fields. Bad choice. I missed the train I planned to take to Furano because I was struggling to pack my bag for the camping trip with my stiff shoulders and neck, so I got to Furano an hour later than planned. That left me with not enough time to see what I had planned. There are several factories in Furano that are popular tourist attractions, including a cheese factory, ice cream factory, and wine factory. I didn't get to see any of them, because it turned out there were quite a distance from the actual town, and I had no time. So I decided just to see the lavender fields. I was under the impression from all the guidebooks that the fields were in Furano...my second mistake. They were actually in a neighbouring town. So I hopped back on the train out of Furano; I literally spent 10 minutes at Furano, all at the train station (where I ate a quick lunch), so I didn't see Furano. Anyway, I got to the next town, only to be told that the lavender fields were no longer in bloom (I had just missed them, they finish in August). But I headed out to the fields anyway since I had come all this way. Yet another mistake. Carrying around camping gear on bad shoulders and a neck means a really slow walking pace - I actually had to turn around just before I got to where I wanted to go (Farm Tomita, a farm famous for its flowers) so I could catch the train to Asahikawa.
On the train to Furano.
Furano station.
At the neighbouring town, Naka-Furano.
At Lavender Park. As you can tell, I missed the lavender flowers. And there were a ton of dragonflies in the area.
On the way to Farm Tomita. Again, it's quite evident I missed the lavender flowers. The 1st photo is a good example of all that was left. But I took a picture of some red flowers...I had to take pictures of some flowers even though I missed the lavenders haha.
Farm help working...I was caught off guard by what the women were wearing - they were dressed like Amish women.
The train to Asahikawa from Naka-Furano. It was a special JR train called the Norokko train, meant for sightseeing; I didn't know ahead of time that was the train I had to take, so this JR Pass is awesome.
On the 2nd train to Asahikawa (I actually had to change trains after the Norroko train).
After getting to Asahikawa, I had to take a bus out to Aibetsu where the campground was (another 70 minutes of wasted time). By the time I got to the campground, the sun was almost set, so I had to quickly set up my tent. But after all that trouble, I got another surprise. I actually got to meet a few Canadians (finally)! I hadn't met anyone from Canada since I left Toronto, and I ended up meeting a guy (John) and a girl (Sam) from Calgary and a girl from Vancouver that night! It was so nice to finally talk to some Canadians, and just native English speakers in general (there were a lot of Americans, Brits, and Kiwis there too). Then another surprise. The organizers of the event started to cook and serve dinner, which cost 500 yen. For that price, I wasn't expecting much, but there was so much food (and also cooked quite well) - definitely the most food (and best quality) I've eaten for 500 yen in Japan. They served up soba and ramen stir-fried with diced onions, carrots, and green peppers, eggplant, pork chops, sliced chicken and beef, and bread. I definitely got my fill haha. Then another surprise! I ran into the American I had toured Sapporo with for one day (Ben) at the event - so random and unexpected! Then after a long cook-out, the organizers held a baked goods auction to raise money for the organization. There were some really good sweets (some which I got to sample as some of the winners shared their winnings), but the prices went up way too high for my budget - there was a cheesecake that went for 6500 yen (for that price I could try fugu in Tokyo and the famous crab here in Sapporo)! Then after the auction, I chilled out with the girl from Calgary and a guy from Oklahoma (Ryan), just playing crazy 8s (I didn't even remember how to play it) and chatting, enjoying the cool night air, while many giant moths flew around us - it as nice just to relax with friendly people like that. Then we headed over to join the rest of the crowd around a pond that was beside the campground, just walking around in the dark and talking with new people. It was a long day for me and I was exhausted, so I went to bed a little earlier than most of the crowd, but it was a fun night (even though I was one of only a few that were sober). It ended up pouring after I fell asleep, and the rain didn't let up in the morning. A few campers ended up with flooded tents! There was no way I wanted to stand in the rain waiting for the infrequent bus back to Asahikawa, but luckily I caught a ride with a guy who drove to the Aibetsu train station, along with another American from North Carolina (Will) who was heading back to Sapporo as well. We had to wait for an hour for the next train, but at least we had shelter and we had a good chat. It was funny, apparently a lot of Americans from the south know very little about Canada, which kind of makes sense since they're not close to us like those in northern U.S.
After I got off the bus, walking to the campsite.
My tent. The sole Marmot one.
Dinner getting cooked.
The baked goods auction.
The pond near the campsite...you can kind of tell some people were already pretty tipsy.
Inside my tent just before bed.
The campsite the next morning - everything was wet.
After getting back to the hostel in Sapporo and drying out my tent, I got yet another surprise. Another Canadian came to the hostel...from Richmond Hill! How random and coincidental is that! He used to live at Bathurst and Eglinton (he moved out of his parents' house). We ended up chatting for a while; it was fun to talk to someone from back home. Then when night rolled around, I headed out solo, just wandering the streets and perusing the many different game centres and slot machine centres here. I made my way back to Ramen Yokocho (the ramen alley), where I had a "spicy" ramen this time (I don't remember the actual name). A bit expensive for ramen, but it was tasty. I felt like something sweet, so I grabbed another ice cream treat from the convenience store after dinner. This time, it was a thin piece of chocolate wrapped in vanilla ice cream, coated with a thin layer of chocolate, all inside a crunchy waffle shell. Also delicious! The Japanese really know how to do ice cream desserts haha.
My dinner (ramen) and dessert for the night.
So many unexpected surprises! But that's expected on long travels. Well I'm off to bed now, it's been a long day today too.
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Hey Terence, glad you had a good time with us at Aibetsu! Sounds like you had quite the adventure just getting out there :P It was nice chatting with you and getting some news from home. Good luck on the rest of your travels!
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