Category: The DayBook

Time to get the shinkansen. But first BREAKFAST. What wonders will today bring.

Sure beats carnivorous sea snails.

There is an engine on both ends of the train. I suspect it’s more to streamline the back of the train as anything else.

Walked across the street to the hotel.

In Japan being able to find your hotel is very important. There are better hotels and cheaper hotels but this one, this one I can find.
And for today’s silly sandwich…

I had chicken.

Today was a transit day. It’s 14 hours and 3 trains to Tokyo. So, I decided to do two trains today and one train tomorrow. Getting me into Tokyo at about 2:30 in the afternoon. Rather than getting in after 9:00 tonight.

And a discovery.

These things frequently showed up at breakfast. Always cooked. But I never tried one. Today I discovered they are carnivorous sea snails. I have eaten my share of escargot. But carnivorous sea snails are a stretch.

It’s 65 degrees here and 95 degrees in Tokyo. But, I knew it would be hot in Tokyo in July.

After breakfast I headed out for a little walk. I walk towards the docks.

And, they were having visitors on board. Wonder if they will let me on?

So maybe they will let me on board.

Turns out that Japan does not have a Navy. Or an army. They lost both of those at the end of world war II. They have a Japanese Maritime Self defense Force. Looks like a Navy to me.

There was a couple about my age from the hotel. We faced the ladder challenge together.

Tomorrow, it’s the 0830 train west and south.

Always good to see the sun.  The ocean must be very cold, because it has been very cool here. It’s a little like San Francisco weather. 

The intrepid little old lady traveler wimped out today. My plan was to join a 9.5 hour bus tour through marsh land to a lake that has algae balls. I am sure I would have enjoyed it. But there were too many stops and on and offs. And 9.5 hours with a bus full of Japanese tourists. Well it just didn’t sound like fun.

So. I went walkabout. Read. Enjoyed the onsen. I love the onsen, unfortunately Tokyo doesn’t have hot springs so no onsens.

 

Kushiro doesn’t seem to have a whole lot going for it. But you can tell it wants to be a happening place.

On my walk today about all I saw happening was some fishing

The Mickey mouse club. Or how the Black Death wiped out half the population of Europe.

Checked out of the cheap hotel this morning. Got no complaints about the joint. I got two free cans of beer.

Had a couple of hours to kill before the train. I didn’t use my time wisely. I read a trashy novel on my Kindle in the train station. But in good time the one car train showed up.

Lots of farm land and forests today. And stops in places where the station was only a sign.

My usual plan is to stay as near to the station as possible. But the hotel is about 15 walking minutes from the station. Hope I don’t end up regretting staying this far away from transport.

I washed some clothes. Went to the onsen. I have a chicken sandwich in the fridge if I get hungry later. But for now I am just going to watch seagulls out of my window. 

Figured out there was only one bus that would take me to Shiretoko NP. And one hour after I got to the park the only bus back to the hotel would leave. And there was a 40 minute walk that I could take. It almost seemed like too much trouble. Old age does this. At least to me. Things that were easy are suddenly difficult.

But, eat a cheap hotel free breakfast.

Figure out how to pay for the bus ride and get on the bus.

Well the bus ride was great. Agricultural land. Forest. Ocean. Mountains.

The park also has stuffed animals. The Japanese seem to have a thing about taxidermy.

They have a walk. The signs indicate it will that 40 minutes. Okay. I have 60 minutes. And the sign says that this walk is wheelchair accessible. Unlike my last stroll in the park.

Shari isn’t a happening place. Population about 12,000 max. But it has $50 a night hotel rooms. And the one car train stops here. If you decide to visit Shiretoko NP, stay in Utoro. There are more bus options for visiting the park from Utoro.

Tomorrow it’s back on the one car train heading for Kushiro population 175,000. Only five more nights in Hokkaido. Then on to Tokyo. Got 5 nights maybe. Then home. But nobody is promised tomorrow. That’s why I went to the park today for just an hour. Because I know,I won’t make it back this ever again.

The day started according to plan. I made it to the train station on time. But what I didn’t realize was that my train was a one car train. Not an engine and a car but a combination engine car. One car. Apparently these things used to be quite common in Japan, but now they’re quite rare. So people ride on them just to remember the good old days.

As I was walking into the train station a tour bus showed up. Little did I know that everybody on that bus was going to be on my one-car train. If I was smart I would beat them onto the train. As it was I ended up with the last seat on the train. I had a view of the bathroom. Not the ocean which was my “plan”.

Next on my “plan” was to stash my bag and bus it to Shiretoko National Park. Not a problem. Bus was leaving directly. But there wasn’t a returning bus. Because it’s Sunday.

Okay. Four hours until check in at the hotel. According to Google, there is a Town Museum 2 km away. Google says that the way is flat. So off I go. (I dropped my bag off at my hotel hoping maybe they’ll let me check in early. No such luck)

Well the town museum was open and it was a great little museum. The museum must not have a very tight statement of collections, which makes it kind of fun for the visitors. But kind of a nightmare for the curators.

They have train stuff, a good collection of artifacts from the original people of this area dating back 2-3 thousand years, they have old appliances, more pinned butterflies than I have ever seen, parade floats and stuffed animals (taxidermied) and skeletons.

I was the only person in the whole museum well except for person at the desk. While I’m walking back towards my hotel, I realize that I’ve seen maybe two or three cars the whole time.  I’ve gone 2 km. I also noticed that the restaurants are all closed. There are no people in this town. Well I did see a guy working on some rose bushes. All right, there are people.

Check into the hotel.

Looking out my hotel room window.

Or maybe this is actually a computer simulation and parts of it got stuck in the Cloud Strike software snafu. 

It wasn’t the day I planned but it was a good day .

An old woman complaint: I haven’t been sleeping all the well. And I no longer have vast reserves of energy. So, lack of sleep is problematic. When I was young sleep seemed like a waste of time.

Today’s adventure was a visit to the Abashiri Prison Museum.

Fishing was Abashiri’s business until the early 1900s when 1200 prisoners came to build a 135mile road in 8 months. Prisoners were sent to Hokkaido much Like the British sent prisoners to Australia.

The prison was all wood. There were no stone walls or iron bars. SuperMax it wasn’t.

There wasn’t a lot of material in English. So, I spent a lot of time translating. 

This prison was used until the 1980s. There was also a cell block from the new improved modern prison. And, you can have a modern prison meal in the old prison dining hall

After 3 or 4 hours, I come back to the hotel. And had a sandwich and a nap. Then a walk

Tomorrow, for no apparent reason, I am going to Shari. It’s 45 minutes away from here. 

About 4 hours on the train this morning.

When I found my hotel at about 12:45, they let me check in. How sweet was that?

The hotel onsen is very nice. The water seems to be rather alkaline. Truth in advertising seems to be important. The hotel says that their water is only 26 degrees and they heat it to 42. 

Walked around town. It is on the ocean. In winter, visitors come to look at sea ice. Not icebergs. But ocean covered in a layer of ice. Don’t think there’s any reason to come in the summer. But here I am.
I came to see a prison. Tomorrow. If I can figure out how to get to jail.

Yesterday I made a snarky comment about Japanese sandwiches. 

That’s Salted Vanilla Whipped Cream and Chocolate Mint Whipped Cream and Chocolate.

Those are seriously weird sandwiches. I didn’t buy a sandwich today

And, that red sign is my bus stop.  I took the 1140 bus back to Asahikawa. Arrived a little after one. Dropped my bag at the hotel and retired to a friendly coffee shop. I decided that I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t want to see anything. I didn’t want to experience anything.  I am sure there are some wonderful attractions in Asahikawa. It’s the second largest city in Hokkaido. And, it gets more snow than any other city in Japan. I stayed in the coffee shop until check in time. I picked up a strange Japanese sandwich for dinner. Aside: all Japanese sandwiches are strange. They most likely think our sandwiches are strange.

Got my train ticket for tomorrow morning. Got money from the 7 Eleven Bank. Checked into the hotel. Enjoyed the onsen. The last hotel’s onsen was definitely volcanic. This one seems to be slightly carbonated. 

Tomorrow I am heading to Abashiri on the 8:30 train.

 

Today’s plan was to walk up to the nearby ropeway and take the ropeway up to a so called loop stroll. It looks like a stroll.

But, I had to get down that pile of rocks that I just got up. And I have always been a little skittish about down. Up might be hard but down is just plain scary.

I don’t want to turn back because there’s a whole lot of rocky downhill. But I have no idea what’s ahead. So, when you’re on a loop trail keep looping. It’s a stroll.

Yesterday I met a woman who was here with an international hiking tour group. I asked her if they’d done any hiking yet and she said yes. They just got here but they had hiked up to the fumaroles. Then comes to a sign announcing that the fumaroles are .2 kilometer away. I am too tired to get any closer.

I could have been on a hike if I were in the US but here it was just a stroll.

When I got back to the hotel I was hot, dirty and sweaty all the way through all my clothes. So I did something very brave. I put half of the clothes that I have with me here in Japan into this washing machine. And then in the dryer.

That’s risky business. 

About the stroll. It was really hard. And I knew that with every step I was in danger of a life-changing and perhaps life ending slip or fall. If I had known how hard it was going to be I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have gone. But I went and I’m glad. But, am I going to do it again tomorrow? Hell no!