Travelling with a Guide and Driver

Dec 2022

Travelling or touring Hokkaido is quite different from touring the other parts of Japan.

Hokkaido was only developed quite late - within the last 200 years. At which point, western advisers (consultants?) helped to plan the towns. Which is why if you go to cities like Sapporo and Asahikawa, you will find that the streets and avenues are laid out in a grid pattern, and the cities have a "North American" flavour to them. And the roads are quite well planned.

Whereas the roads in, say, Tokyo, or Kyoto are often very "organic" - roads were built over customary paths and trails created by people and carts taking the most convenient routes, buildings sprout where they will, and roads intersect to create junctions and mega-junctions.

Narrow Tokyo street.

JICA 1998 - the trip that started my love for Japan

 [In 1998, while I was with the Ministry, five of us were sent on a Friendship programme with the Japan International Cooperation Association - JICA. JICA has several programmes for the region, where citizens of the region (ASEAN members) are invited to visit Japan and learn from Japan. So participants from Social Welfare sector (like my organisation) would be invited to learn about Social Welfare in Japan. These trips were highly sought after, as it was all-expenses paid, and we even got some spending money! We were young, but even then we were (or at least I was) cynical bastards, and we suspected that this was also Japan trying to win friends and bribe South-East Asians into forgetting or forgiving them for the atrocities of WW II. 

Anyway, when we got back, I was asked to write an article for our in-house magazine or newsletter (I forgot which). This (below) was what I submitted.]

Citibank Global Wallet in Japan

 If you have a Citibank Global Wallet and you need an ATM in Japan to access your cash, go to a Seven-11 (or a 7-i) in Japan. And use theirATM. 

There is options for the instructions in English, and the option to skip info that you do not know.

And you can get your cash.

A Better Penguin Parade

We had previously, in 2018, had a tour to Phillip Island to catch the nightly Penguin Parade.

It was a "once in a lifetime experience"! That's what I say whenever I have an experience, and then say, "never again! Once in this lifetime is enough!"

The Penguin Parade of Phillip Island is a once in a lifetime event. 

If you're lucky or smart, you might even manage to skip it in this lifetime.

If the point is to get a really good view of penguins, the Penguin Parade at Asahiyama Zoo would be more satisfying!

Our Man Hosono

Hosono-san making a HUGE snowball.

On the 22 Dec 2022, after 3 years stuck in Singapore because of the Pandemic (COVID 19), we finally left Singapore, winging our way to Japan (with a stopover at Taipei).

We flew on Scoot, a low cost carrier (a.k.a. budget airline), and we filled in the information requested by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for incoming travellers to declare their vaccination status.

I have rants about both Scoot and Japan's process (as well as Taiwan's process for transiting passengers), but I will save that for another post. 

Maybe.

This is about Hosono-san.

Why can't other airports be more like Changi?

 

As a Singaporean, trapped in Singapore for the last 3 years, I finally got to fly to Japan in Dec 2022.

With a stopover in Taipei.

The custom and immigration clearance for Taipei (even for transit passengers) and Japan (with its Covid screening measures) was hellish.

Using SUICA (travel and convenience card) in Japan

If you have been to Japan, you might have seen signs for SUICA at train stations, or you might have seen other travellers (probably Japanese/locals), using a card for transit travel.  

The video above shows how to get such a card, charge it, and use it for train travel, buying from vending machines, and convenience stores.

Rules for using the onsen

So, here are 8 rules for onsen bathing,

The Kindness of (Japanese) Strangers

From a previous post:

I did not realise that there were TWO terminals at Haneda, and we were at Terminal 2 looking for JAL when it was ALL ANA flights. 30 minutes before our flight we were still at Terminal 2, and we approached ANA ground staff to ask about our flight. They told us we were at the WRONG terminal. So I tried to find my way to Terminal 1... with less than 30 minutes to spare.
Fortunately, the ANA staff ran towards us, checked our flight and bookings (I had a print out of the details), and ran with us to the shuttle bus (shuttling between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2), caught the shuttle bus to Domestic Terminal 1 and put us on it. At Terminal 1, we hunted for the JAL check it, connected with their "Smile" service, and the woman immediately sprang into action! 

(We had also asked a security guard for help and he sent us to the second floor to the check in counter). 

The JAL ground staff took our documents, and checked us through.
It was less than 15 minutes to our flight.
She tagged our luggage to be checked in and we ran for the gate. 
Fortunately, the flight was delayed for 5 minutes. For us? I do not know. Didn't think so,
The flight crew did not mentioned that. We did not seem to have caused any undue delay, so the 5 minutes holdup might just have been lucky coincidence.

An Izakaya in Mombetsu

Mombetsu was not what I imagined it to be.

We arrived at the Mombetsu Prince Hotel at about sunset. I was led there by the GPS it the car, but the hotel's name was written in Japanese. I was not sure if it were the hotel.

It was. I checked at the front desk, and then checked in.

It was dusk when we walked out to find dinner. According to Google maps there were eateries within two blocks or so. We walked.

Trust me. I don't trust myself driving at night. Heck! I don't even trust myself driving during the day!

Zoo. Zoo. Zoos!

On our latest trip to Japan, we visited the Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, and the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.

"Meh! It's too hot. I'm a Penguin, not a Peking Duck!"

We had missed the Asahiyama Zoo the last time we visited Hokkaido because the zoo was closed. That was in late autumn. Now, being Spring, we should be (and was) luckier.

Partially, anyway.

At Asahiyama, we wanted to see the penguins from the Penguin Arch. This was a plexiglass underwater archway where we could walk and see penguins "flying" overhead in the water.

Unfortunately, because of the warm day, the penguins went "meh" and stayed in their climate controlled rooms where it was cooler.

Log House Wagyu Bibi

Log House Wagyu Bibi Restaurant Entrance

I had wanted to come eat here since I first read about it a few years ago, and since I discovered wagyu beef.

I like food more than I like photography. So I have NO photos of my time at the Log House. You can google "Log House Bibi Restaurant" and find lots of photos, probably better than any I could take.

Driving in Hokkaido

There have been surveys that found that 90% of drivers believe that they are above-average drivers.

This of course cannot be objectively true.

(Unless the survey was conducted in Lake Wobegon from Prairie Home Companion.)

At least 40% of those surveyed were over-estimating their driving skills.

I belong to the 10%. I don't claim to be an above-average driver. At best, I am a barely competent driver.

Well, I believe I am a better driver than my wife, but that's only because she doesn't have a licence.

Anyway, I do not drive in Singapore, saving my driving skills to terrorise drivers in foreign countries (I have driven in Canada, US, Australia, and Japan.)

Brief Hotel Review - Late May 2019

In May 2019 we visited Tokyo (specifically Narita and Ueno) and Hokkaido for 2 weeks. Here are the hotels we stayed in and my brief "review" or impression of them.

Omotesando Street in Narita - The Street of Unagi Restaurants

[Not to be confused with the Omotesando in Tokyo, Harajuku which is a high end fashion street.]

Omotesando Street in Narita Town is the Street of Unagi restaurants. I have also heard the term "Omotenashi", which means "Public face" (Omote), and "Nothing" (Nashi), which together means to serve with nothing hidden in one's public face.

I am sure I am mangling the translation, so take this as a rough translation.

So the Unagi restaurants on Omotesando grill, and even prepare the live eels in full view of the public. There is nothing hidden. (Coincidence or intentional to the idea of Omotenashi? I don't know.)

If you are queasy about seeing your food prepared (and by "prepared", I mean "slaughtered") before your eyes, this is not where you want to be. Unless you intend to go to an Unagi Restaurant and order chicken.

Japan Detailed Itinerary - Sendai and Hokkaido

[Note:  This was from 2017.]

3 Nov (Fri)

Arrive Narita Friday Morning. Took a train first to Tokyo, then change to local train to Ueno, then took the Shinkansen to Sendai. There was a queue at Narita to exchange our Rail Pass voucher for our Rail Pass.

We had planned to maybe get lunch and spend some time in Ueno, but it was crowded, we were tired, and after the long queue, we just wanted to get on our way.

Return to Abashiri, Hokkaido (plans)

My wife and I miss Abashiri.

It was one of the first towns we stayed in Hokkaido when we returned in 2012.

We loved Abashiri because it was not what you expect of Japan. It was a small quiet town. In 2012, we went to Asahikawa after Abashiri and rented a car there. The young woman staffing the car rental agency could speak quite good English and asked us where we had been. I said Abashiri, and she said her grandmother lives there. And commented that it was "dead" or "quiet" or "not a happening place". Or maybe she said that she used to live there and couldn't wait to leave that place.

Well, she's young. She will come to appreciate quiet one day.

We wanted to retire there. We could learn to love it there, we thought (without letting the realistic worry about speaking the language intrude upon our fantasy).

Well, let us have our fantasy.

And if we can't go back and retire there, we can at least return for another visit.