WAKKANAI

This time, I will try to stick with the facts some more. But please don't hold a grudge against me if there's a magical unicorn riding out of this story somewhere, this may have actually happened!

So, I left off at the part where I had secured a plan for the upcoming week. It was someone else's plan, but I really only cared about not having to arrange something myself. The nighttrain took us to Sapporo, which is somewhat northern in Japan:

In Sapporo, Elizabeth had 'something to take care of', so I wandered the streets for a bit before we met up again at the train station. This was the first time I was given some facetowel with commercials on it. The city itself was not very interesting (a few skyscrapers), but I found out that the word 'Chuo' means 'center'. So at least I learned SOMETHING there.

Back at the train station I saw somebody vacuum cleaning the stairs in the station, which I found so strange that I made a picture. She noticed and really really wanted to take a picture of me too, socially I couldn't refuse so I now have a picture of myself on the train station:

I seem a bit uncomfortable in this picture, but trust me, I'm ok ;)

As you might be able to tell from the picture, I am standing in front of the train to Wakkanai, which is where the next part of the way was heading. At this point it was about 13:30 and I had not eaten since I had left Tokyo Ueno last night at 19:00. Unaware that this new train trip would take another FIVE hours, I did not eat anything in Sapporo as well.

When the train left, I was quite hungry and could have done with a nice meal of spare-ribs, luckily, on the plane from Amsterdam to Rome, there was this friendly steward that gave me two packages of smoked almonds, a coke and a small bottle of wine. The coke and wine were already gone at that point, but I took out a package of nuts and enjoyed them very much.

Meanwhile, I was also evicted from the carriage where Elizabeth was sitting, as she bought a ticket and I did not. In Japan, apparently you can buy tickets for 'reserved seats'. I had a Japan Rail Pass, which allowed me to go anywhere anytime as long as I sat in the 'non-reserved seats'. I moved carriages and tried to get some sleep (which I didn't get in the night train).

The surrounding terrain reminded me a bit of Luxembourg, with the lakes, rivers and forests. Quite the contrast from Tokyo.

Five hours later we found ourselves in Wakkenai and made for the Youth hostel there, the guide said it was easy to find but the guide appeared to be wrong. Until we found it. I'll correct the guide on this point: It is easy to find, IF you know what to look for. The youth hostel was on top of a nearby hill, and has a green roof with the hostelling international logo.

The hotel rooms were quite ok, I might have gotten a private room by accident, however I was very glad that there was nobody else sleeping in my room. Snoring. Breathing. I'm always very easily annoyed by that ;)

The bed had been prepared as if it were mid-winter, in the guest book I read that someone was there while the country was completely snowed under, so maybe they only have one set of bedgear:

I tried some dried squid tentacles in Wakkanai, a delicacy that kids love, according to Elizabeth. Unfortunately I did not like it at all and gave the rest to Elizabeth.

The next day we continued our trip by taking a train to the central station of Wakkanai and from there we went to the Ferry station. The ticket machines only spoke Japanese, so buying tickets took us quite some time. The staff was quite helpful though and helped us get the tickets we wanted.

In the waiting area, there were some massage chairs, which I had never used before. They were quite interesting and it was a very nice experience to be massaged when also having an awesome view over the sea:

From there the views only get better and better. We boarded the ferry to Rebun, which is an island a bit to the east of Wakkanai, if you take a look at the map I posted above there is a pushpin at Rebun Taki (waterfall).

On the ferry there were no chairs, only 'seating areas' where people would sit on the ground together. I think the passenger capacity of such a ferry is higher than any European one, because people will not sit next to eachother on benches. On the ground however, nobody really seems to care (maybe it's the Japanese, and not the ground sitting though).

Arriving in Rebun, we were welcomed by a flag waving man screaming 'MOMOIWAAAAAAA' and some more Japanese that I didn't understand (obviously). As our Youth Hostel was called Momoiwa, we talked to him and he told us to go to a truck that was stand-by to bring us to Momoiwa. At the truck there was another person trying to tell us stuff, unfortunately he did not speak much English.

We gathered that he was offering to either take us to the youth hostel by truck in an hour or so, or that we could walk over Flower road. We chose to walk flower road (I dislike waiting anyway) and the man gave us a very ill-detailed map of the island and how we should walk. The directions pretty much said 'walk to the other side of the island by going left somewhere off the main road'.

Leaving our backpacks in the truck, we walked for ten minutes. Elizabeth then didn't trust that we were going the right way anymore, so we asked some old lady if she knew where Flower Road was. She didn't understand what we were saying, so she ran off (pretty literally). This further discouraged Elizabeth and she went back to the truck to take that to the hostel. I decided to ask some other guy that was standing around a few metres further down the road.

After some serious language issues, I think we came to an agreement and he drove me to flower road. When I asked him whether this was indeed flower road, he apparently understood that I wanted to go somewhere else and started driving something further and stopped at the next branch in the road. This branch however was taking a right, and since my only relatively reliable source of information said that I had to take a LEFT, I did not trust this new road.

Then I spoke the magic words 'Momo-iwa', glad that he finally understood SOMETHING I was saying, he took me all the way to Momoiwa youth hostel :D

He dropped me at some shack right next to the ocean, that did not really look like a youth hostel from the outside, but it was. OH IT WAS.

Once inside, I was shown around by the one person there that spoke a sort of English, although he insisted that every meal was a 'supper'. A small price to pay for staying in this awesome place. Inside I was making acquaintances with a little girl that was not afraid of the white man. Then, suddenly, everybody got up and took some instrument. The girl told me that when 'they' came in, I should scream 'OKEARI NASAI' (Welcome home, as I learned later) and make as much noise as possible.

Needless to say, when the doors to the youth hostel opened to the back opening of the truck everybody in the truck (including Elizabeth) was taken completely by surprise by the screaming and battering of instruments.

After the noise died down and the procedure of registering new guests had been completed (which included a completely mad introduction from the 'supper' guy) there was a time in which there wasn't much to do, so I just lied down in the main hall.

After 'supper', some Japanese guy overheard me saying that I was from the Netherlands and informed me that he also was from the Netherlands. He did not speak Dutch anymore, but that's to be expected if you're out of the country for 10 years :)

He asked me whether I would be joining the 8 hour hiking trip of love and peace. How could I refuse something like that, there was a meeting that night to explain what you should bring and how much everything would cost.

We were to be woken up at 4:30 AM, have breakfast at 5 and start walking at 6. From the top of the island back to the youth hostel, this would be about 35 km (~23 mi) of walking. Going uphill, downhill and everything in between.

After the meeting it was time for sundown, which is apparently accompanied by a ritual in momoiwa. Elizabeth was sitting outside, I was inside waiting for a good opportunity to take a picture (profile shot!). But suddenly, everyone stormed outside and sung the song goodbye. It appears that it is a well-known song, because everybody was able to sing with it.

I was very confused, but happy to be there. As a parting gift I'll show you the following picture that I took that night:

I'll be posting more later ... probably ... Hope you enjoyed reading, leave comments! :)