Every 14 Days...(11)

Round Ireland with a Fridge (Tony Hawks)

There have been a lot of books based on drunken bets in recent years, many getting to the point of needless stupidity in order to create an excuse to write a book about their ‘journey’. ‘Are you Dave Gorman?’ by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace is a book I have read previously and is one of the earlier ‘drunken bet’ books to come about. But preceding that was Tony Hawks’ (of the non-skateboarding variety) ‘Round Ireland with a Fridge’: an account of his circumnavigating Ireland with a refrigeration unit after seeing a man hitchhiking in such a way and wondering if it would be possible to achieve.

This is all very well and stupid. What follows is a witty and dry account, naturally with the non-skateboarder, though disappointingly he received a great deal of media coverage during his journey and as such often found it easy to find a free ride, free alcohol and free accommodation. This turns the journey more into a drunken tour round the pubs of Ireland – a book I’m sure has been written many times before.

Though while the journey may have been made easier for him, doesn’t mean it isn’t eventful and entertaining. Travelling alone (not even with a fridge) while reading made it an appropriate read and served as a minor travelling companion. Though I’m sure many have travelled round Asia with a book before me. Funny enough, it justifies the £100 bet it was originally born from. He may be no skateboarder, but has written a certainly cool book.

Days to read: 5

Days per book: 14.1

Coin Locker Babies (Murakami Ryu)

This book took a long time to get going. Over the first few days of reading, I had barely turned any pages, finding it clunky and difficult to get into. To start, there are lots of jumps in the timeline with constant moving forward in time, seeming like a new story starting every ten pages. This allows for plot holes to become apparent and little real affinity with the lead characters. When the two titular coin locker babies reach the age of 17, the book becomes more linear and the characters start to take greater shape, which was necessary if I was to keep going.

So continues my reading of what I’ve so far found to be the inconsistent Murakami Ryu. An improvement on ‘Almost Transparent Blue’, being that it has a story, it’s a bumpy read that has intriguing enough a story but asks too much of the imagination of the reader to fully grasp the motivations of the two leads, and is ultimately a little anticlimactic.

The writing style doesn’t make things any easier, though I would blame this more on the translation than the author himself. Use of slang seems like a cry to gain more street cred, but often feels inappropriate in the context. In looking at his girlfriend, Kiku dreams of her ‘armpits’, her ‘breasts’ and her ‘cunt’, as any young man would.

An overambitious piece, while it has its moments, it falls short in too many areas, furthering my opinions of Murakami as an inconsistent writer.

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 14

The Corner (David Simon and Ed Burns)

Having read ‘Homicide…’ after the joys of discovering ‘The Wire’ at last, I followed it up with David Simon’s sequel, ‘The Corner’, written with former homicide detective, Ed Burns. Like the non-fiction work about the Baltimore Homicide Department, ‘The Corner’ is the record of a year spent following the lives of those involved in Baltimore’s drugs wars; this time from the perspective of the dealers and addicts.

Focusing on one family, the McCullough’s, it’s the real-life account of twelve months in their, and the streets, lives. Again, it has a docu-drama feel: part description of events that unfolded; part account of the wider issues at hand in America’s cities.

With some minor overlap with ‘Homicide…’, it is clear to see how the real-life personalities charted here became the characters of the television series: with father Gary McCullough becoming addict and copper-fiend Bubbles and young dealer DeAndre McCullough part-D’Angelo Barksdale, part-Namond Brice. Indeed, some of those featured did themselves have some role or other in the making of ‘The Wire’, as art imitates life.

Again, it’s a long and detailed read, with numerous people covered extensively, though does show how much time and effort was put in to the research that would eventually become ‘The Wire’: a show two decades in the making.  

Days to read: 22

Days per book: 14.2

End of Days: Tokyo

So, I’d reached the home straight of my journey with a final week in Tokyo to put an end to my three months of laziness. Having covered large chunks of Japan by this stage, I was perhaps ready to return to London, looking forward to seeing some old faces again after several weeks on the road alone.

But being that this was to be the umpteenth time that I have visited Tokyo I didn’t feel like I was going there as a tourist at all, but a traveller returning. All the major tourist spots in Tokyo done, my last week was more one of hunting round record shops, seeking out any good graffiti and sitting in pubs watching football. It, therefore, served as a good spot to ease me back into London living before the twelve-hour flight.

Shibuya

My first night was that of England-France in Euro 2012, and so I had the fun task of leaving the hotel at 01:00 to find a pub showing it. I found one, no trouble, though it also advertised itself as closing at 25:00 (the Japanese for 01:00). So, it was both showing the game at 01:00 and closing at 01:00 – do I have to watch through the window? Ordering a pint of Kirin in Japanese during ‘God Save the Queen’ confirmed that I didn’t have to watch through the window, as well as my patriotism. I got chatting to an American, who surprisingly had some useful comments to make about the Premier League, and a Scot from Hertfordshire living in Australia. I remember little about the game and left the pub at 3AM to be offered numerous massages by the night ladies of Ueno. I ventured back for Portugal-Denmark – where I was the only person still watching by 02:30 – and France-Ukraine – which was fun as the match was postponed an hour.

Shibuya

The days were filled by trawling through the ¥250 and ¥500 shelves in Book-Off and Dick Union, where you can find a surprisingly large amount of cheap, rare hip hop wedged in between old Gina G and 2Unlimited CDs. I came away with seventeen newly bought albums, all ranging from around £2-£6 in price and adding to the dilemma of how I was going to pack everything. It was amazing as to the things you could find if were prepared to look that little bit harder: US hip hop rarities nestled between 1990s UK boy bands and Ugly Kid Joe in endless shelves of forgotten CDs that have all made their way to Tokyo. It was a reminder of just how much shit music gets made, with the works of bands long-forgotten sat there to probably never get bought – unless that bloke I met in Sapporo ever pops in – but also a moment of nostalgia when seeing something you recognise and thought was ‘you know, okay’ when 12: Dodgy, ‘Good Enough’? BOOM! ‘Good enough’ being both a title and review. Where are they all now?

Saitama 2002 Stadium

Nissan Stadium, Yokohama

In my quest to visit all ten of Japan’s World Cup stadia, I made journeys to Saitama, to Urawa Reds’ home stadium: Saitama 2002 Stadium, which is an easy enough journey from Ueno, provided you get off at the right train station; and back to Yokohama to the Nissan Stadium: home of the F. Marinos and the 2002 World Cup final. This left me with a total of eight out of ten stadiums visited – not bad for a pointless task. I also visited the National Stadium in central Tokyo for my fourth Verdy game of the season: a triumphant 4-1 win over FC Gifu. Boom! Top of the league! Take that JEF Chiba Utd!

Verdy 4 - 1 FC Gifu

I also made a quick stop in Kawasaki on the way back from Yokohama, as I’d never actually stopped in Japan’s ninth largest city. Type Kawasaki into Google and you’ll get a lot of information about racing bikes, which is probably fair, as Kawasaki is one city in Japan that you can call a dump. It’s almost as if Tokyo said let’s take all the things we need, but might make the place look less attractive and dump them west of the Tama River and call it Kawasaki. Housing was pretty low-rent and there was lots of heavy industry going on. I didn’t see much of it, so probably being harsh, and if you take the time to walk in between the various factories in the bay area, it can probably get quite interesting at least, but don’t plan any picnics.

Kawasaki

My last week, though was less of a travelling experience, and more a living one. I’ve got quite used to Tokyo and can find my way around pretty easily, knowing where I need to go, and so after weeks of seeing new and different things everyday, I spent my last week back in familiar surroundings, getting myself back on European time by watching the Euros in preparation for my new life in Balham…

Oh God, let me go back!

Three months in drum and/or bass...

10 Years Too Late

I don’t remember much about the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, except Owen taking a dive against Argentina…and getting up at ridiculous o’clock to watch one of the worst 0-0 draws I have ever seen…and Rivaldo making a twat of himself…and China were in it…and South Korea did quite well…and my mate walked out of our Stats exam early so he could watch Ireland-Germany (a cracker by all accounts)…and a chipmunk fooled Seaman, but other than that, not much. 

The 2002 World Cup came a bit too early for me to be able to afford to head out to the other side of the planet to watch football (something I did last summer, watching Villa play in Hong Kong), as well as the fact I had the small matter of taking exams at the end of my first year at Newcastle University.

I had gone to Beppu for the onsen, but after a couple of days of that, I was a little onsened-out and needed another form of entertainment. Oita is a city that was a short train ride away, so I thought I would go and explore it. But ‘what is in Oita?’ I hear you ask. Not much by all accounts, though it was one of the ten, count them, host cities for Japan’s half of the World Cup. I thus decided to go and have a look at the formerly-named ‘Big Eye Stadium’.

Oita 'Big Eye' Stadium

A confusing walk from the tiny Takio train station, I eventually found it in an out-of-town sports park – like the majority of the stadia. You can see where it originally got its name from, with arches reaching across from one side to the other around the dome-shaped arena, though it is now called the Oita Bank Dome. There were a few bits of memorabilia around to commemorate the World Cup (didn’t exactly see any classics), though the stadium seemed little-used other than the odd Oita Trinita J-League match, which is a shame, as I quite liked it.

Oita 'Big Eye' Stadium

Despite having one of the cleanest train stations I have ever seen, it seemed a strange choice as a host city, other, much larger cities, not getting the nod, but I looked into the other host cities and found that many of them would be stops on my trip. It was then I decided that I would set myself the pointless task of visiting as many of the ten stadia as possible.

Hanshin was the next stop on this magical mystery tour, as I stayed in Kobe for some easy access to the Kobe Wing Stadium (now the Homes Stadium) in Kobe and Nagai Stadium in Osaka. First Kobe, where a long walk saw me arrive on a day when Inac Kobe, essentially the Japanese women’s national team, were playing an early kick-off. The ground seems to have changed a little since the World Cup, though they do seem to favour moving roofs and morphing stands here, so could have simply been down to the day I arrived. It’s not exactly a great stadium, but is big enough and seems to get its fair share of use out of the men’s and women’s Kobe teams.

Kobe Wing Stadium

The Nagai Stadium in Osaka looks a little grander in pictures from the air than in the concrete. A bland, round, concrete affair that seems to have little variety as you walk round it. There were a fair few kids practising appalling dance routines and practicing sports all around it, and two smaller stadiums sit either side of it, which seems a little unnecessary. Occasionally used by Cerezo Osaka, this seems more of a general events venue now, though is definitely one of the more easily accessible stadiums, being relatively central in the city. It was also the site of that depressing England-Nigeria 0-0 that I got up at 5:30 to watch.

Nagai Stadium, Osaka

Next was Sendai and the (Mr.) Miyagi Stadium. Again, one that looks better from the air, but isn’t too bad from ground-level either, though it seems to be greatly under construction at the moment and not being used. What was quite a nice area around the stadium is also a bit worse for wear and could do with a bit of work again as well. Not currently used by Vegalta Sendai, who suffered their own problems during the tsunami last year, and stuck a little away from the city centre, it seems a bit of a forgotten stadium.

Miyagi Stadium, Sendai

Miyagi Stadium, Sendai

I seem to remember seeing a video of one of the stadiums used having two pitches, with one left outside and then moved in as-and-when required. That stadium was the Sapporo Dome, home to the Hokkaido Ham Fighters baseball team and sometimes Consadole Sapporo. I was impressed by the Dome on arrival, looking more like something out of ‘Flight of the Navigator’ than a football stadium, and it sits nicely on the edge of the city, with mountains visible in the distance.

Sapporo Dome

I walked round and decided to take the stadium tour, though this is much more one for baseball fans, Japanese-speaking baseball fans. But the use of some sort of hoover system to move the football pitch in is impressive and the sort of novelty you expect from a stadium built for the World Cup. Silly and unnecessary, the Sapporo Dome is certainly unique, and for that reason alone is one of the better stadiums used a decade ago.

Sapporo Dome

I could see the Niigata Stadium, or the ‘Big Swan’ Stadium, from my hotel room, and it looked good from above and in the distance. Sat by a lake, I thought this would be a good one to view, though on seeing the lake, I was less sure. The park the stadium sits in is well maintained and seems a site for summer barbecues, even if it is raining, with quite a few people around on a non-match day. The roof is the attraction here, but is only properly visible from above; from the ground, it’s just another concrete circle. The lake it sits next to has seen better days and so doesn’t make for any great views from the opposite side. But lest we forget, this is where Emile Heskey scored his World Cup goal, and for that it is now an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Niigata 'Big Swan' Stadium

Back in Tokyo, I made easy trips out to Saitama for the Saitama 2002 Stadium and Yokohama for the Nissan Stadium. With Tokyo not actually having a World Cup stadium, these were the next best thing, and as such are much larger than the others. Saitama is home to the Urawa Reds, who get some of the better attendances in the J-League and is the most used by the national team. Again sat in a sports park on the edge of a city, it’s not too much of a journey from Tokyo, provided you get off at the right station, and is one still regularly used. There seemed to be much more of a ‘getting things ready for games’ attitude around the ground, with two teams with big fan bases the focus of much attention around the place.

Saitama 2002 Stadium

And finally, the Nissan Stadium – not called that then of course. Home of the final, this is the largest stadium out of the twenty used in Japan and South Korea, and while not the most unique, is definitely the one that feels most like a football stadium from the ones I visited. You sense they were trying to recreate a large European stadium with this one, feeling like it could sit in Italy or Spain. Though probably way larger than they need, the F. Marinos call it home, and it’s again a not too bad journey from Japan’s largest city to its second.

Nissan Stadium, Yokohama

With the exception of the Nagai Stadium and the Nissan Stadium, all twenty were complete in 2001 in time for the World Cup Finals. With the J-League taking off since then, the local sides have tended to make them home and so get some sort of regular use, though Sendai and Oita – either not being used or by a Division 2 side – seem more a place of memories than anything else.

I decided against trips to the last two stadiums in Shizuoka and Ibaraki, because who goes to Shizuoka or Ibaraki?! The Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa is a large one and a regular of the national side, while the Kashima Stadium in Ibaraki is the smallest used in the Finals. That meant a completion score of 80%: a distinction if it were a University degree; that was the dream ten years ago at the end of the first year anyway. My results of my first year were approximately half that…maybe I did watch too much football… 

SEVEN (DJ Kentaro)

Chronological look at the last three months across Japan with a photo from each stop off to Kentaro's 'SEVEN' picked up randomly in Nagoya

Sliding Down Honshu

To get back on to Japan’s largest island, I decided to take the ferry from Hakodate to Aomori. But the boat is no cruise liner, used mainly by lorries to get from A to B via sea. For the price of the ticket, you buy yourself some ‘carpet space’, sitting shoeless in a carpeted room while lorry drivers, a middle-aged woman, a 2.4 children family and an unsavoury-looking character in a ‘Hello Kitty’ tracksuit. The journey was uneventful and when arriving in Aomori, I trailed the lorries off the boat with my two heavy bags – for the first time in my life I felt like a real man.

Arriving in Aomori

It was hot and the sun was blazing, and I had a not ridiculous – but long enough in the heat – walk into central Aomori. A few minutes in, a taxi stopped in front of me and the middle-aged woman from the ferry stuck her head out and beckoned me aboard. Turns out she wasn’t a simple, middle-aged woman, but a psychopathic killer on the run. I exaggerate, of course, but her repeated insistence on hi-fiving led me to believe that she had some undoubted head problems. But I wasn’t to say no to a free ride, and not just because my Japanese is limited.

Aomori

Stopping only one night in Aomori before heading south and arriving relatively late, I had a quiet night with some quick food and an evening stroll. For some reason, I just wasn’t motivated to explore Aomori Prefecture further whenever I was there. Which will probably be a regret, as there are some supposedly good sights to see in the area. But no time to mope on what could have been, I have a six-and-a-half hour train journey down the west coast to Niigata to survive.

After changing at Akita, I sat on the right hand side of the train as it headed south along the coast. The sun out again and having run out of food before the changeover, I started to feel a little ill the further we travelled. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the train was one that Rik Mayall could only describe as ‘rickety’. Still, it ran on time, hey British rail providers!

Hotel Nikko, Niigata

I was pretty much dead on arrival, but soon found that my hotel was probably the tallest building in the city and my room was on the 26^th floor. This meant my room probably provided one of the best views of Niigata, though I soon learnt that accolade equates the best educated out of Luton Sixth Form College.

Niigata

Niigata is a strange one; and not just because this is a city so amazingly out of the natural order as to be the place where Emile Heskey scored a World Cup goal (that actually happened!). With a population of over 800,000, Niigata doesn’t fall into the list of large cities that I have visited that may not be the best tourist spots (Fukuoka, Kobe, Sendai, et al), but feel like they would be easy places to live.

To start, there is an absence of tall buildings in the city. This leaves a visible sky, but also means that the train line – normally hidden among the buildings – is a quite dominant feature on the cityscape. A power station also looms over the city, with the smoke from the chimneys merging into the clouds to create a quite bleak atmosphere at times. Imagine Sheffield…then commit suicide.

Niigata

The city also seems to lack a central hub; split into three parts: south-east of the train station; between the train station and Shinano River; and west of the river, out to the coast. Things are generally spread across the city, therefore, and a lot of walking is probably required to find things. As it rained a lot while I was there, I felt there was a lot of the city that may have passed me by, and what I did find was hardly Luton in Bloom.

Niigata

The Friday night when I arrived, Japan were playing Jordan in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. I went out, unwittingly wearing my new Air Jordan T-shirt, to search for a pub showing it, only to find only one pub where you needed a reservation to get in: I would define that more as a restaurant. While you can find good pubs and bars in Japan, sometimes you come across ones with customs I would describe as strange and as such do not create the desired relaxed atmosphere for a casual few. I’ve never been to Ireland (the theme for this particular establishment), but I don’t imagine you need to reserve a table on a Friday night for a drink in a pub. With kick-off looming and nowhere else visible, I watched the Samurai Blue dismantle Jordan 6-0, Honda bagging a hat-trick. Kagawa is definitely Japan’s second man.

Stadium No. 6 now visited: the Niigata Big Swan Stadium, which is probably better viewed from above than on the ground. I was only a few days shy of visiting it on the ten year anniversary of the beautiful game’s most awe-inspiring moment: Emile Heskey’s goal in a World Cup finals against Denmark in the second round in a 3-0 victory. It’s amazing how much buzz there was about England’s ‘golden generation’ and how there was a lot of expectation for England to do well a decade ago. But watching the highlights of the match back, you can see that greats such as Trevor Sinclair, Nicky Butt, Danny Mills and Mr Heskey featured: there is a reason we don’t get beyond the quarter-finals very often.

Big Swan Stadium, Niigata

Bad weather was forecast for the Sunday, but instead the sun came out (it had been keeping its gay side well hidden) and I went for an on-foot tour of the city to all the sites: the power station, railway bridge, etc., but ended up at the coast which is nice for the sunset and provides views of Sado-ga-shima in the distance – the city’s highlight.

Niigata

I didn’t find much for me in Niigata. Other cities haven’t been great, but have had enough to suggest they could be good places if you lived in them. From my tourist’s perspective, I didn’t see much in Niigata, but maybe that makes it a better place to live. 

Strong Island: Hokkaido

A Japanese woman once said to me that the top three places to go in Japan are: Tokyo, Kyoto and Hokkaido. Based on the success of my visits to the first two, I had high hopes for the two weeks I was due to spend in Hokkaido.

After a long eight-hour journey door-to-door from Hirosaki to Sapporo involving three trains, including an eight-minute change over period in Hakodate – which was reduced to four-minutes when my train was delayed (a train four-minutes late in Japan, I mean honestly) – I wasn’t expecting too much from my first evening in Hokkaido except a quiet night in. But within my first four hours there, I had: eaten some street noodles, seen some stand-up comedy (in Japanese), had some beers, befriended a man drunk enough to give me the full names of each member of Blue and Busted and literally bought a T-shirt.

'You know what mice are?' Sapporo

Yes, it’s fair to say I immediately liked Sapporo. This was furthered by visiting the Sapporo Beer Museum the next day. While the museum isn’t much to speak of, apart from convincing me that women like beer from the various old Sapporo Beer adverts around the place, it’s free and the bar offers three half-pints for £4, making it one of the cheapest places to drink in Japan (probable hyperbole). I think I’ll go round again! I then made a pact that I would only drink Sapporo while on Hokkaido.

Sapporo Beer Museum

Also while in Hokkaido’s largest city I did the inaugural city tower view that all Japanese cities have; went up the Mt. Moiwa for the city view from a different angle, continued my pointless mission to visit all of Japan’s World Cup stadiums (No. 5: Sapporo Dome), as well as literally buying more T-shirts.

Sapporo Dome

The Sapporo Dome is an impressive stadium, but not so much a stadium more a display of technological advance. Serving as both a baseball pitch for the Hokkaido Ham Fighters and football pitch for the J-League Division 1’s bottom team, Consadole Sapporo, the baseball pitch is the permanent fixture in the Dome, while the football pitch – where Michael Owen took a dive against Argentina a decade ago – sits outside the Dome, hovered in as the inner-stadium morphs to a shrine to the beautiful game. Hugely unnecessary, but impressive nonetheless. In fact, I was impressed enough to take the tour where the guide spoke at a thousand words per minute and even if I could fully understand Japanese, I wouldn’t have caught a word.

Sapporo

Also while in Sapporo I discovered my new favourite shop, for T-shirts at least, in Jumble Store. I’ve been to ones in other cities, though the ones in Sapporo were particularly good. Essentially a second-hand/out-of-date old stock sell-off shop, it is 1990s T-shirt heaven for the likes of me; picking up some garb that is deliciously un-ironic being that they are out-of-fashion originals. I’ve always needed a DC Shoes original Sony PlayStation blueprint T-shirt, and now I have one, along with my 1992 Dream Team on the cover of Sports Illustrated T-shirt.

After Tokyo and Naha in Okinawa, Sapporo was the place I would be staying the longest while here, but Hokkaido’s a big place and I had, sadly, to move on.

Wakkanai was next, arriving at Japan’s northern-most point after a six-hour bus ride. As the sun set, I walked up to Cape Noshappu, to see Japan’s second most northern point in the twilight. The next day, it was off to Cape Soya for the real thing in Japan’s northern-most point. At each, there were excellent views and some monuments, but little else, and there is only so long you can stare out at the Sea of Okhotsk.

Cape Noshappu, Wakkanai

In seeking entertainment, I went up the hills alongside the city, finding a trail to walk through in-and-amongst trees, streams and hills. At the end, I found a sign that seemed to imply that the trail was off limits and that I shouldn’t have walked along it. Oh well, I came out unscathed and having enjoyed it. Luckily for the evenings the most entertaining place was my hotel, providing free onsen, a free washing machine and free noodles from 21:30-23:00. What endless fun I had the two nights I was there.

From Ishigaki to Cape Soya

Two nights in Wakkanai was all that I needed, as I would have run out of clothes to wash in the evenings if I stayed any longer. While the opportunity to learn Russian was ever present, apart from saying that I have been to the most northern point in Japan there was not a great deal of interest there.

Wakkanai

Asahikawa was next after another long train ride involving a change at Nayoro. The first half of the journey from Wakkanai to Nayoro was a long but scenic one, with the endless mountains and trees associated with Hokkaido along the way. However, passed Nayoro, the scenery became less attractive and more urbanised as we reached Hokkaido’s second largest city.

Asahikawa Train Station

Asahikawa surpassed Oita as the cleanest train station I have ever been to, but served largely as a stopping point for trips to Daisetsuzan National Park and Biei. At the Tourist Information Office I was aided by a woman that should get a job at the Too Much Information Office, providing me all the information I required, as well as setting me up with a meal and a place to get pissed for the evening. Oh, and she once stayed in Bournemouth, likes a pint, and loves football and swimming. Asahikawa for me though was little more than Tokiwa Koen and Ishikari River, where I went for nice, long runs each of the two mornings I was there.

Tokiwa Koen, Asahikawa

Despite being a stop-off point for visiting Daisetsuzan National Park, Asahikawa is still a two-hour bus ride away. With less than helpful bus scheduling, I wouldn’t be allowed a great deal of time for my day trip to Japan’s largest national park. In the time I did have there, I decided to visit its ups and downs, starting with the Ginga and Ryusei falls along the Sounkyo Gorge, where I luckily didn’t come across any of the advertised bears.

Sounkyo Gorge

Next it was on to Mt. Kurodake, being that it was nearest, and used the ropeways to get close to the peak. Despite the good views from up there, I was disappointed to not be able to get to the peak due to the melting snow making the slope slippery, leaving me to nearly take out a Chinese woman. Despite the good views and sights seen, I left a little disappointed due to not having enough time to fully explore the park as I would want – though that would take a good week or so.

Daisetsuzan National Park

Like many Japanese advertisers, if there was one image I wanted to get while in Japan it is a picture of a lone tree in a green field in the rolling hills of Biei. Self-described as the most beautiful villages in Japan, I wandered the farmland of the area south of Asahikawa in search of the perfect photo. Luckily – as with pretty much my entire time in Hokkaido – the weather was perfect: hot, with bright blue skies.

Biei

Finding endless fields with the mountains of Daisetsuzan National Park as a backdrop, I couldn’t find a lone tree in one. Needlessly obsessed, I walked for hours around the scenic, European-like fields covering myself in sweat and T-shirt tan until I found an image I deemed good enough. Making cycling friends along the way (‘what did you just say?’), I only got to explore the Patchwork Road area of Biei, with more still to discover, though I had an appointment with a bus back to Sapporo and time was running out.

Biei

By this point, with only two weeks left until I return to London, I was knackered, and my next two days in Sapporo were fairly uneventful. I watched Japan make Ali Al-Habsi yearn for his Wigan defence in my new favourite pub, Jersey Bar, as Japan comfortably beat Oman 3-0. (As a side note, Man U new boy Shinji Perfume River had another good game for the Samurai Blue, though playing on the left wing, putting in balls like Ashley Young, you do wonder if Sir Alex wouldn’t be better off looking to strengthen in other areas first.) I then went to the town of Otaru the next day, but was too lethargic to be interested, and so made my way back to Sapporo for some rest, and to literally buy another T-shirt.

Otaru

My final stop in Hokkaido was in Hakodate: a random mixture of various foreign influences, unsurprising in a port town. Parts resemble Scandinavia, with wooden buildings reaching up the cloud-covered mountains, much like in Bergen. Other parts seem to resemble scenes from bad early 1980s American films set in scenes of urban decay (reminder: must watch Police Academy). Though, like Wakkanai, Hakodate is larger than it seems; the train station and hotels seemingly away from the city centre and central hubs.

Cloudy Hakodate

Tiredness and the one piece of bad weather I had in Hokkaido aside, I had moments that I didn’t enjoy in Hakodate, mainly being repeatedly attacked by a crow that seemed to have it in for me, hitting me with its wings as it flew by once and trying to claw at my head twice. The chicken shit always attacked from behind as well. Wanker! I did have some good moments though: a quick stop at the Hakodate Brewery being one, though it did mean I broke my only drinking Sapporo rule.

Moon over Hakodate

With less than two weeks now left before I’m back in the U-to-the-K, Hokkaido was my last real flourish in Japan before I have to start sinking back down Honshu and into reality. Scenically, definitely some of the best parts of Japan I have been to, and in Sapporo, one of my favourite cities here. But Hokkaido is a large island and I only got to see certain parts, and the parts I did go to weren’t fully explored. I could spend a good couple of months here making long bus trips from place to place to see what are undoubtedly some of Sun Origin’s best spots, as well as literally buying some more T-shirts.

Sapporo Beer Museum

But with two and a half months of travelling solo, I’m probably ready to head back home, in need of rest and some more stability after over ten weeks on the road, as well as being a little sick of having to hit pubs/bars/restaurants/beer museums alone each evening. Probably for the best then that I am now heading south back to Tokyo, but not before another couple of stops along the way. My ferry to Honshu awaits…