[11:00, on the Hayate Shinkansen from Tokyo to Hachinohe]
We walked out of our hotel at 4:50 to get the first subway train to Shin-Osaka to catch our train, which departed at 6:00. Then, we would just have to follow our route, change trains at the specified times, and we would arrive at 20:00 to Sapporo. I had looked it up on the internet. The trip should be 13 hours long, plus the time it takes to get from our hotel to the station and from the station at Sapporo to our next hostel. I just forgot to do one simple thing: check the "except 'Nozomi'" box on the website.
For those who are not familiar with the Japan Rail Pass, here's a little bit of information. The 'Japan Rail Pass' can only be bought outside of Japan. You can get it for 7, 14 or 21 days (we got the 21 days one, of course). During it's validity period you can get on any JR train for free just by showing it (JR is the main rail company in Japan, so you gan get to almost any place you want with it). There is only one exception: The 'Nozomi' trains. The 'Nozomi' trains are shinkansen (bullet trains) that run between Fukuoka and Tokyo. There are some other trains covering the same route, such as the 'Hikari' and the 'Kodama' trains. The difference between them is the amount of stations they stop at. While the 'Nozomi' goes almost straight through, stopping only at a few stations only, the 'Hikari' stops at several stations along the way, and the 'Kodama' at every station. Thus, the 'Nozomi' is much faster for long distances. 'Nozomi' trains are not covered by the JR Pass, which means that you have to either pay the normal price (which, for a single trip, is more than our average daily expenses) or catch another train.
Ok, back to us. I forgot to check the "except 'Nozomi'" box on the website, and since the 'Nozomi' is much faster, the online route planner chose it for our way from Osaka to Tokyo. Unfortunately, I noticed that today... You might be thinking "so, what's the problem? instead of taking 13 hours, it takes 14 hours to get to Sapporo...". No, it doesn't. The train connections in Japan's mainland are extraordinary. You have trais at least once every hour for almost every line. This, however, is not the case in Hokkaido (the northern island, where Sapporo is located). There, you only have a few lines, and only about 3 trains a day for each line. What I'm trying to say is that the additional hour it took to get to Tokyo made us miss the train we were supposed to take. With our current train combination, we expect to arrive at Sapporo at 21:30, which means that we will arrive at our hostel at 22:00. This is actually not too late for us, but the website of our hostel said we could only check in until 9 pm. I called them from a public phone booth in Tokyo station while waiting for our train, and luckily, they said it wouldn't be a problem.
By the way, our route is:
- Shin-Osaka(6:08) --Hikari Shinkansen--> Tokyo(9:10)
- Tokyo(9:56) --Hayate Shinkansen--> Hachinohe(12:59)
- Hachinohe(14:14) --Hachuko Rapid Express--> Hakodate(17:33)
- Hakodate(17:55) --Hokuto Rapid Express--> Sapporo(21:31)
[18:00, on the Hokuto Rapid Express from Hakodate to Sapporo]
Ok, we already had managed to get used to the heat down in the south, and now it's getting cold. This is the first time during the trip that I've gotten out of a train and noticed that it was colder outside than inside.
By the way, we had heard from some of the tourists we met at the different hostels that the north of Japan was not worth visiting. Ok, it doesn't have many sightseeing spots, but seriously, I'm not in Japan to do sightseeing, or at least not as the main aim. I want to see JAPAN, not just the touristic places. You can't really get to know a country by following the instructions on a guide, can you? I mean, in guides about Segovia, my home town, you probably get routes to see the churches, the aquaduct, the cathedral and the castle. Which is great, if you want to get nice pictures and learn a bit of history. But what can such a route tell you about the modern daily life there? Nothing. Well, the same applies everywhere. So, does the lack of information about Hokkaido in guides really mean that there's nothing to see?
So far, by the things I've seen through the window of the train in the last minutes, I can say that Hokkaido actually IS worth visiting. For example, on the lake we just passed, the water was really calm, making it possible to see the reflections of the mountains in the background, with the sun setting behind them. It was really beautiful...
Oh, before I forget it, even though it is a bit off-topic: yesterday I saw the ad with Matt (the dancing guy) again on TV. This time it was a longer version (or last time I didn't watch it from the beginning), and I could get what it was about. The ad was for Visa, which certifies his "quasy-famous"-ness, as he puts it in his page.
[21:00, on the Hokuto Rapid Express from Hakodate to Sapporo]
After such a long trip, knowing that we'll arrive to Sapporo station in half an hour is really relieving.
I started to look through my older posts a few hours ago in order to correct them and noticed that I made A LOT of mistakes... I'm really sorry, it's just that when I'm finished writing the entries, I'm always way too tired to read through them again, let alone correct them. I just hope you could understand what I tried to say. I'll update the older entries as soon as I'm finished correcting them. But of course, I won't change the content, so you don't need to worry about reading them again looking for new things.
By the way, if someone is reading my blog using RSS or Atom feeds, the entries will probably appear twice, since an updated entry probably shows up as a new one. I'm sorry for that too...
[23:10, at the hostel in Sapporo]
We finally arrived! This is a really small hostel, but it's got everything we need. They even offer free breakfast.
Theoretically we should be sleeping in separate dormitory rooms, but, for some reason, we got the room in the attic for ourselves. You have to get there using a ladder in the women's dormitory, and the roof is really low, but appart from that it's great. It feels realy cozy :D
We walked out of our hotel at 4:50 to get the first subway train to Shin-Osaka to catch our train, which departed at 6:00. Then, we would just have to follow our route, change trains at the specified times, and we would arrive at 20:00 to Sapporo. I had looked it up on the internet. The trip should be 13 hours long, plus the time it takes to get from our hotel to the station and from the station at Sapporo to our next hostel. I just forgot to do one simple thing: check the "except 'Nozomi'" box on the website.
For those who are not familiar with the Japan Rail Pass, here's a little bit of information. The 'Japan Rail Pass' can only be bought outside of Japan. You can get it for 7, 14 or 21 days (we got the 21 days one, of course). During it's validity period you can get on any JR train for free just by showing it (JR is the main rail company in Japan, so you gan get to almost any place you want with it). There is only one exception: The 'Nozomi' trains. The 'Nozomi' trains are shinkansen (bullet trains) that run between Fukuoka and Tokyo. There are some other trains covering the same route, such as the 'Hikari' and the 'Kodama' trains. The difference between them is the amount of stations they stop at. While the 'Nozomi' goes almost straight through, stopping only at a few stations only, the 'Hikari' stops at several stations along the way, and the 'Kodama' at every station. Thus, the 'Nozomi' is much faster for long distances. 'Nozomi' trains are not covered by the JR Pass, which means that you have to either pay the normal price (which, for a single trip, is more than our average daily expenses) or catch another train.
Ok, back to us. I forgot to check the "except 'Nozomi'" box on the website, and since the 'Nozomi' is much faster, the online route planner chose it for our way from Osaka to Tokyo. Unfortunately, I noticed that today... You might be thinking "so, what's the problem? instead of taking 13 hours, it takes 14 hours to get to Sapporo...". No, it doesn't. The train connections in Japan's mainland are extraordinary. You have trais at least once every hour for almost every line. This, however, is not the case in Hokkaido (the northern island, where Sapporo is located). There, you only have a few lines, and only about 3 trains a day for each line. What I'm trying to say is that the additional hour it took to get to Tokyo made us miss the train we were supposed to take. With our current train combination, we expect to arrive at Sapporo at 21:30, which means that we will arrive at our hostel at 22:00. This is actually not too late for us, but the website of our hostel said we could only check in until 9 pm. I called them from a public phone booth in Tokyo station while waiting for our train, and luckily, they said it wouldn't be a problem.
By the way, our route is:
- Shin-Osaka(6:08) --Hikari Shinkansen--> Tokyo(9:10)
- Tokyo(9:56) --Hayate Shinkansen--> Hachinohe(12:59)
- Hachinohe(14:14) --Hachuko Rapid Express--> Hakodate(17:33)
- Hakodate(17:55) --Hokuto Rapid Express--> Sapporo(21:31)
[18:00, on the Hokuto Rapid Express from Hakodate to Sapporo]
Ok, we already had managed to get used to the heat down in the south, and now it's getting cold. This is the first time during the trip that I've gotten out of a train and noticed that it was colder outside than inside.
By the way, we had heard from some of the tourists we met at the different hostels that the north of Japan was not worth visiting. Ok, it doesn't have many sightseeing spots, but seriously, I'm not in Japan to do sightseeing, or at least not as the main aim. I want to see JAPAN, not just the touristic places. You can't really get to know a country by following the instructions on a guide, can you? I mean, in guides about Segovia, my home town, you probably get routes to see the churches, the aquaduct, the cathedral and the castle. Which is great, if you want to get nice pictures and learn a bit of history. But what can such a route tell you about the modern daily life there? Nothing. Well, the same applies everywhere. So, does the lack of information about Hokkaido in guides really mean that there's nothing to see?
So far, by the things I've seen through the window of the train in the last minutes, I can say that Hokkaido actually IS worth visiting. For example, on the lake we just passed, the water was really calm, making it possible to see the reflections of the mountains in the background, with the sun setting behind them. It was really beautiful...
Oh, before I forget it, even though it is a bit off-topic: yesterday I saw the ad with Matt (the dancing guy) again on TV. This time it was a longer version (or last time I didn't watch it from the beginning), and I could get what it was about. The ad was for Visa, which certifies his "quasy-famous"-ness, as he puts it in his page.
[21:00, on the Hokuto Rapid Express from Hakodate to Sapporo]
After such a long trip, knowing that we'll arrive to Sapporo station in half an hour is really relieving.
I started to look through my older posts a few hours ago in order to correct them and noticed that I made A LOT of mistakes... I'm really sorry, it's just that when I'm finished writing the entries, I'm always way too tired to read through them again, let alone correct them. I just hope you could understand what I tried to say. I'll update the older entries as soon as I'm finished correcting them. But of course, I won't change the content, so you don't need to worry about reading them again looking for new things.
By the way, if someone is reading my blog using RSS or Atom feeds, the entries will probably appear twice, since an updated entry probably shows up as a new one. I'm sorry for that too...
[23:10, at the hostel in Sapporo]
We finally arrived! This is a really small hostel, but it's got everything we need. They even offer free breakfast.
Theoretically we should be sleeping in separate dormitory rooms, but, for some reason, we got the room in the attic for ourselves. You have to get there using a ladder in the women's dormitory, and the roof is really low, but appart from that it's great. It feels realy cozy :D
--------------------------------------
Our series of tickets...
Somewhere in the northern part of Japan's mainland
Who said Hokkaido wasn't worth visiting?
Our room, as seen from one end
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