2014.08.20 | 北海道夏(3)

[Volume 9 Issue 8, #1932]

Hokkaidō Trip Summer 2014 - DAY 3 of 8 Sapporo (札幌) and A Rainy Day in Asahikawa (旭川)

中文讀者請注意: 因為篇幅問題, 這一系列日本遊記只有英語版本, 敬請見諒..

after a rather "brief" rest as my virgin experience in a capsule hotel the previous night, we rose rather early on day 3 to catch a train to Asahikawa (旭川).. both Nagoya (名古屋) and Sapporo (札幌) in the previous days were just some kind of stopover, and i would rather say our plan for the trip actually started "more officially" after this day..

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we woke up at 6am on this sunday morning as we wanted to catch the 7:48am train to Asahikawa (旭川).. packed and checked-out, we took a cab from Susukino (すすきの) to Sapporo Station (札幌駅 Sapporo-eki).. it was merely a 5-minute ride and we paid ¥980 for it, a wiser choice since we were with luggage and it would be so troublesome to walk to the subway station and take a subway ride that would cost us ¥200 each.. travel tips no need to freak out thinking about taking taxi in Japan, it is not necessarily as expensive as you think, especially if you are in a group to share a car, why not that little bit extra for more comfort and convenience?? but of course, not all the time taxi lah.. #3-1 ■ ■ wait!! what are all these Doraemon thingy again?? weren't we (rushing) to take a train to Asahikawa (旭川)?? yes, we indeed were, and this was actually another roadshow for the Doraemon movie "Stand by Me" inside the Sapporo Station (札幌駅 Sapporo eki)!! oh boy, what a thrilling surprise as we got out of the taxi and entered the station.. #3-2 ■ ■ you know what?? i wanted so much to visit the Doraemon Waku-Waku Skypark (ドラえもん わくわくスカイパーク Doraemon Waku-Waku Sukai Pāko) which is inside the New Chitose Airport (新千歲空港 Shin Chitose Kūkō), but unfortunately both our arrival and departure flights were beyond its opening hours, disappointed but have to miss that.. so when i saw this, i thought God wasn't that mean to me, at least something Doraemon seen out of surprise in Japan, hihi!! we put catching the train aside (since there is always another train to take later if we miss this one) and quickly took some photos with Doraemon like kids.. okay, actually many others were doing the same lah, haha!! #3-3 ■ ■ okay, after some photos we were still in time to catch the train, and indeed we were even able to catch an earlier train that departs at 7:21am (lucky!!) though many was already queuing up at the platform.. we didn't buy tickets with reserved seats but just the normal ones at ¥4500, that explained why we actually buffered some time to arrive earlier, in order to queue up at the platform to (hunt and) secure a seat in the free-seating coach.. you may ask if we used the JR Pass?? we did not, as our fares for the trip did not add up to justify the price of the JR Pass.. travel tips the Japan Rail Pass (or simply JR Pass) would definitely be the first option you would consider while planning a trip to Japan.. find out the fares, do the maths, or probably re-arrange your itinerary to fit in, then make a justification.. :) #3-4 ■ ■ we skipped breakfast provided by the hotel, but bought "station lunchbox" (駅弁 ekiben) to be eaten in the train while traveling.. this was bought from the guy with a cart in the platform as seen in photo #3, something like people selling Ramlee Burger in basket here (hehe!!), convenient huh?? my ekiben as shown is at ¥800, so nicely packed right?? and printed on the packaging are some landmarks of Sapporo (札幌).. okay okay, i know you sure ask me to show what's inside!! just click on the ekiben itself above to unveil the luxury inside, haha~~ :D #3-5 ■ ■ after a 109-minutes ride, we arrived at Asahikawa (旭川) at 9:00am, right on the dot as per the train schedule, punctual!! so unlike the style of Keretapi Terlalu Melampau huh?? hahaha.. at the station, we were welcomed (ようこそ yōkoso) by this mascot of Asahikawa (旭川), but can anyone enlighten us what this cute animal could be?? i actually noticed many cities in Japan has their own mascot and all are so cute.. i personally think this is way more fun and lively than representing the city by boring flags or emblem.. besides the mascot, we were of course welcomed by our friend who picked us up at the station.. since it was still early to check-in our hotel, he fetched us back to his home to meet his family as well as his newborn baby boy (who was just 10-day-old).. #3-6 ■ ■ the friend then casually asked what our plans were, and i showed him our very detailed plan which probably impressed him a lot, haha!! but somehow it was also quite embarrassing when the family tried to accommodate our wish-list.. and so, this bowl of ramen was one of the many items on the list.. for lunch, we were brought to the "Asahikawa HQ" of the famous Hachiya (蜂屋旭川本店 Hachiya Asahikawa honten) to savor the Asahikawa (旭川) style soy sauce ramen (醤油ラーメン shōyu ramen), with extra rolled pork (チャーシュー chāshū) at ¥900.. another variation of ramen for the trip, somehow very different as the noodles was not that curly, and the soup was fish based instead of pork.. i found the taste a little heavy compared to those we had in previous days, don't get me wrong, it was nice though i would not place this as first choice.. we briefly concluded that the more northern the heavier the taste, in order to keep warm under the colder weather.. despite that, come to Asahikawa (旭川) and you gotta taste the soy sauce ramen (醤油ラーメン shōyu ramen)!! and one more thing, it seems like Asahikawa (旭川) is the "city of ramen" because i actually noticed a lot of ramen shops around, but too bad was that, so many ramen so little time!! haha.. #3-7 ■ ■ it was raining the whole day in Asahikawa (旭川) on day 3 (!!!), so we had no choice but to postpone some plans and hoped for nice weather the next day.. anyway, we did hang out around downtown to settle our train tickets, went to an electronic mall and the retail shop of a local bakery.. no photos taken as those were just brief stays, but this was where we spent most of our time that day.. the photo above shows the dining and part of the living room of our friend's house, though i cannot understand and speak Japanese, i still joined in the fun with universal body language.. well, not typically a "touristy" day but definitely a "homey" one~~ :p #3-8 ■ ■ of course, we stayed in for dinner with the family that day.. i'm not showing off, but just look at how scrumptious (some of) the dishes were, and we can surely feel how hospitable they are!! clockwise from top left the delicious dishes we had, very fresh raw fish (刺し身 sashimi) to be eaten with rice and seaweed wraps, fish (cooked the Japanese style - i know this is a very generic description but i really have no idea, hihi!!), oden (おでん - i do not know how to explain this, please refer here yourself) and egg (卵 tamago).. of course these were not all, somehow being a guest, i was not comfortable (and also it was not courteous) to keep taking photos of food, you get what i mean right?? :) #3-9 ■ ■ it was an incredibly rich and warm dinner, i may say, and such an honour to be invited and included.. and now you are seeing the same set of food but in a different setting?? yes, in Cantonese we call this "eat and still take away" (又食又拎 yau sik yau ling), maybe the host was happy enough to let us tapao the leftover back to our hotel, but we definitely felt a little bashful, haha!! what's more, they actually paid for our accommodation (¥12000 per twin room) in this Asahikawa Washington Hotel (旭川ワシントンホテル Asahikawa Washinton Hoteru), that's amazingly wholehearted!! what else more could i say?? it was certainly a night of good sleep after a wonderful dinner in a comfortable room..

so this is a just very brief day 3 since it was raining and we did nothing much but more like having a precious opportunity to blend into the life of a Japanese family.. was it a day with good weather the following day as we hoped for?? stay tuned for day 4 and read about one of the highlights of the trip!! :) travelogue posts in this series: