If you think about it, you spend a huge part of your life waiting. That was our main activity today. Waiting for the bus.
This is the first time during our trip that we didn't set any alarm clock. Although we were woken up by some other guest who had to leave early, we could fall asleep again and stay in bed until 9:30. We got up to get our free breakfast (when you don't have money, anything that's free is great!), and walked out of our hostel's dor without any real plan on where to go. We looked in our map for places that seemed interesting and simply walked in that direction. The first thing we noticed about sapporo is that you can walk in any direction and you'll always find a "Lawson" department store every 100 meters at most. We had already noticed a vast amount of "7 eleven", "Family Mart" and "Lawson" department stores in every major city here in Japan, but in Sapporo it's just excessive...
After some time wandering around we decided to follow the advice of some guys at the hostel and take the bus to Moerenuma Park.
And that's where the trouble started. After searching for quite a long time for the bus station, we finally got to the gate, where we watched our bus leave when we were just a few meters away. We had to wait for the next bus, which arrived half an hour later. We asked the driver how much it would cost to get to Moerenuma Park, and he told us that that bus wasn't the right one. Great, all that waiting for nothing. We asked a woman that was sitting at the bus station for directions, After ten minutes wondering what the hell we were trying to do, and telling us to take the subway to the place she had understood that we wanted to go, she noticed that we had mispronounced the name of our destination. She then told us to take the bus line we wanted to take in the first place, which meant another half an hour waiting. When we got on the bus, a message was played over the loudspeakers saying (in English) that the bus was bound for "Moerenuma Park". Finally!
The park was very nice. The first thing we did was to climb a small hill, from where you can get a very impressive view over Sapporo. It was really windy up there, and way colder than in the south, so we had to walk down again after some time to avoid catching a cold.
Soon after, we walked to the "Sea Fountain", where a show was about to start. From the moment I saw it, I couldn't stop thinking about "Golden Eye" (James Bond). Sorry, but it was just too similar to the antenna in golden eye (at least the concept of it), and I'm too much of a geek to ignore that.
The show itself was beatiful. It was amazing to see and hear the water forming waves, splashing against the walls of the fountain, etc.
After getting some soft-ice at the park and walking around for some time, we decided to make our way home. When we arrived at the bus stop in the park, we found a bus waiting there. We could have taken it, but we would have had to take the subway afterwards. With the other line, the one we had taken to get to the park, we would just have to walk for half an hour to our hostel, so we decided to wait, and sat down on a rock near the bus stop. We waited, and waited, and waited. And no bus arrived. After an hour I stood up and went to look at the timetable. The bus we had seen was the last one... There was a group of people there who apparently did the same as we did. We told them that the last bus had already departed, and went looking for the next bus stop together with them. We kept walking at the bus stop while waiting for the bus, and when we finally managed to get on the bus, they even payed for our bus ticket. From where the bus stopped at we couldn't walk to our hostel, so we had to take the subway. It wasn't too expensive, though, since we were only five stops away.
On our way back, we did as usual: we bough some dinner and breakfast at a department store. I bought something new for breakfast today. I wonder how it tastes...
This is the first time during our trip that we didn't set any alarm clock. Although we were woken up by some other guest who had to leave early, we could fall asleep again and stay in bed until 9:30. We got up to get our free breakfast (when you don't have money, anything that's free is great!), and walked out of our hostel's dor without any real plan on where to go. We looked in our map for places that seemed interesting and simply walked in that direction. The first thing we noticed about sapporo is that you can walk in any direction and you'll always find a "Lawson" department store every 100 meters at most. We had already noticed a vast amount of "7 eleven", "Family Mart" and "Lawson" department stores in every major city here in Japan, but in Sapporo it's just excessive...
After some time wandering around we decided to follow the advice of some guys at the hostel and take the bus to Moerenuma Park.
And that's where the trouble started. After searching for quite a long time for the bus station, we finally got to the gate, where we watched our bus leave when we were just a few meters away. We had to wait for the next bus, which arrived half an hour later. We asked the driver how much it would cost to get to Moerenuma Park, and he told us that that bus wasn't the right one. Great, all that waiting for nothing. We asked a woman that was sitting at the bus station for directions, After ten minutes wondering what the hell we were trying to do, and telling us to take the subway to the place she had understood that we wanted to go, she noticed that we had mispronounced the name of our destination. She then told us to take the bus line we wanted to take in the first place, which meant another half an hour waiting. When we got on the bus, a message was played over the loudspeakers saying (in English) that the bus was bound for "Moerenuma Park". Finally!
The park was very nice. The first thing we did was to climb a small hill, from where you can get a very impressive view over Sapporo. It was really windy up there, and way colder than in the south, so we had to walk down again after some time to avoid catching a cold.
Soon after, we walked to the "Sea Fountain", where a show was about to start. From the moment I saw it, I couldn't stop thinking about "Golden Eye" (James Bond). Sorry, but it was just too similar to the antenna in golden eye (at least the concept of it), and I'm too much of a geek to ignore that.
The show itself was beatiful. It was amazing to see and hear the water forming waves, splashing against the walls of the fountain, etc.
After getting some soft-ice at the park and walking around for some time, we decided to make our way home. When we arrived at the bus stop in the park, we found a bus waiting there. We could have taken it, but we would have had to take the subway afterwards. With the other line, the one we had taken to get to the park, we would just have to walk for half an hour to our hostel, so we decided to wait, and sat down on a rock near the bus stop. We waited, and waited, and waited. And no bus arrived. After an hour I stood up and went to look at the timetable. The bus we had seen was the last one... There was a group of people there who apparently did the same as we did. We told them that the last bus had already departed, and went looking for the next bus stop together with them. We kept walking at the bus stop while waiting for the bus, and when we finally managed to get on the bus, they even payed for our bus ticket. From where the bus stopped at we couldn't walk to our hostel, so we had to take the subway. It wasn't too expensive, though, since we were only five stops away.
On our way back, we did as usual: we bough some dinner and breakfast at a department store. I bought something new for breakfast today. I wonder how it tastes...
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Walking through Sapporo
At the park, with the hill in the background.
From the top of the hill.
"Golden Eye", anyone?
At the Sea Fountain, during the show. It sounded like the waves at the beach, which is probably where it's name comes from.
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