Remember what the guy from the staff at Momoiwaso YH said yesterday when I asked if they would wake us up? The thing with "Oh, wake up? Big voice! Aaaarghhhhh!". Well, it's as bad as I imagined it. At 6:30 I was already awake anyway, but it was really shocking. I was lying on my bed. Everything was quiet. But then, all of a sudden, they started playing really loud music over the speaker system they have installed throughout the hostel. How loud? Hmm. Let me see how to explain that... Have you ever been in a disco...? The floor was shaking... Although not with techno, which is the usual type of music that makes the floor shake, but the type of music you get in an old movie.
By the time we finished packing our things and having breakfast, lots of people came to the main room. Music began playing over the loudspeakers, and a member of the staff, who stood in front of everybody, started doing streching excercises, while everyone followed. It's incredible how they can gather such an energy at 7:00 am... Later on, more and more people came to the main room. We asked the foreign tourist we talked to yesterday, and she said: "We're going to clean now.". Then the staff started giving everybody either a broom or a piece of wet cloth. We then formed two lines, with the first one being the people that had the brooms and the second one those with the piece of cloth. At a signal of a member of the staff, they started playing music and making noise with some drums while we cleaned the floor. We had to do the same thing on the second floor and the dining hall. At the dining hall, however, we only had to use the broom. The staff members then got the pieces of cloth and started running around in lines while cleaning the floor with the cloth. I don't really like cleaning, but for some reason I enjoyed this. Maybe it's just that it was competely crazy...
Before coming to Japan, we were expecting to have rain almost every day, since the rainy season was supposed to last until July 15. In the end, it came down to a couple drops, which never really affected our plans. It was obvious that our luck couldn't last throughout our whole trip.
Our plan for today was to do a bit of hiking on the "Flower Trail" at Rebun. We didn't have time to take the eight-hour-long hiking trail, and the flora in Rebun is excellent, so the Flower Trail was our best choice. Unfortunately, it was raining, and there was a lot of wind. Most of the guests, who had planned to leave the island in the afternoon, like us, or even tomorrow, in order to do a bit of hiking first, left with the first ferry. But of course, not us. We went there to do hiking, and we wouldn't leave without.
A great thing about the hostel is that they have signs taped to the walls with the departure time of each ferry. You can leave your heavy luggage in front of the sign that corresponds to the ferry you want to take, and they bring it to the ferry terminal 10 minutes before the ferry leaves, so you can walk to the port enjoying the views withot having to carry all your luggage. So, we left our bags near the sing for the last ferry, bought some raincoats at the hostel, put our backpacks in some trashbags they gave us to keep them dry, and started walking. Some staff members even got out without any coat, despite the heavy rain, and kept waving their hands and saying goodby until we got out of sight, around three or four minutes later.
At first, I didn't want to take out my umbrella, since the wind was really strong, but I really wanted to take some pictures, and I couldn't allow my camera to get wet. I somehow managed to always keep the umbrella in a position where it wouln't be affected by the wind, and could take several really beautiful pictures. The view over the cliffs under the rain was amazing!
However, as we kept going up, the wind got stronger and stronger. At some point, we were struck by a sudden, strong burst of wind, and my umbrella broke. I had to run to the nearest toilet while keeping my umbrella as upright as I could in order to avoid putting my camera under the heavy rain. I put my camera in my backpack again, along with the broken umbrella, and we started walking down again.
For some reason, I don't mind walking around in the cold as long as my hands stay warm. The moment my hands get cold, I start freezing. With the umbrella, my hands always stayed dry and thus warm. So, now my hands started getting wet and I really felt cold. We walked as fast as we could to the ferry terminal, and arrived there at 9 am. The ferry we wanted to take left at 16:45, and our bags were at the hostel... Fortunately, the guys from the hostel were there saying goodby to the guests that left with the ferry at 8:55. At first, we only thought of asking them to bring our bags for the next ferry, but they offered us a ride back to the hostel. We were soaked and freezing, so we gladly accepted the offer. At the hostel, the first thing we did was change our clothes and sit in front of the heater. After around two hours, we started feeling a bit warm again. At 12, the hostel staff drove us, along with several other guests who wanted to take the ferry, back to the port.
The hostels tradition "forced us" to dance one last time on the ovservation deck of the ship, while the staff members stood on the port and lead the dance. I seriously don't know where they get their energy from. They looked as if they didn't mind getting wet and cold at all, and kept dancing as the ship was leaving the port. Then they screamed "itterashai" all together, to which we answered "ittekimasu". I wonder what the other passengers though about us. Hmm, a group of people out there, during this cold, windy and rainy day, doing weird dances and screaming... That can't be good...
The ferry shaked a lot more than in the previous trip, and Pia got a bit of motion sickness. However, I still think that the waves here are really small, even compared to what I'm used to see at the Mediterranean Sea. I think the trip took a little longer than it should have, probably because of the bad weather. When we arrived at Wakkanai, however, the weather was better. It was still cold, and a bit windy, but at least it wasn't raining.
We didn't know where our hostel was located. Fortunately, one of the guests at Momoiwaso who took the same ferry, had a little booklet with information about hostels, and could look up the directions. The hostel he was staying at was a few blocks away from ours, so we walked with him while having a little chat. Our hostel was located a bit further than his, so he offered us to take us there after leaving his luggage. However, on our way there, a member of our hostel's staff who was driving back to the hostel saw us and offered us a ride. We said goodbye to our companion and got on the car.
The hotel was very nice, although it lacked one very important thing [for me]: an internet connection. The woman at the reception gave us a map and showed us the location of a hotel near the station where we could get a free connection. We really needed to get a connection, since we didn't even know where to get a room tomorrow, and we certainly didn't want to have to look for a hostel after a twelve-hour train trip... We made a reservation at the Kawayo Green Youth Hostel, somewhere in very remote area in the Aomori Prefecture, and downloaded the train route.
Later on we bought some food for tomorrow and the breakfast for the day after tomorrow, since we don't know if we'll find any store near our hostel...
By the way, we're done with our "planning folder". It is a small pink folder where we have everything we had printed about our plans here in Japan, such as reservation confirmations, train routes, subway maps, etc. Well, today we "used" the last page, the reservation confirmation for the hostel in Wakkanai. From now on, almost everything we do will be improvised :D. Let's see how it goes...
By the time we finished packing our things and having breakfast, lots of people came to the main room. Music began playing over the loudspeakers, and a member of the staff, who stood in front of everybody, started doing streching excercises, while everyone followed. It's incredible how they can gather such an energy at 7:00 am... Later on, more and more people came to the main room. We asked the foreign tourist we talked to yesterday, and she said: "We're going to clean now.". Then the staff started giving everybody either a broom or a piece of wet cloth. We then formed two lines, with the first one being the people that had the brooms and the second one those with the piece of cloth. At a signal of a member of the staff, they started playing music and making noise with some drums while we cleaned the floor. We had to do the same thing on the second floor and the dining hall. At the dining hall, however, we only had to use the broom. The staff members then got the pieces of cloth and started running around in lines while cleaning the floor with the cloth. I don't really like cleaning, but for some reason I enjoyed this. Maybe it's just that it was competely crazy...
Before coming to Japan, we were expecting to have rain almost every day, since the rainy season was supposed to last until July 15. In the end, it came down to a couple drops, which never really affected our plans. It was obvious that our luck couldn't last throughout our whole trip.
Our plan for today was to do a bit of hiking on the "Flower Trail" at Rebun. We didn't have time to take the eight-hour-long hiking trail, and the flora in Rebun is excellent, so the Flower Trail was our best choice. Unfortunately, it was raining, and there was a lot of wind. Most of the guests, who had planned to leave the island in the afternoon, like us, or even tomorrow, in order to do a bit of hiking first, left with the first ferry. But of course, not us. We went there to do hiking, and we wouldn't leave without.
A great thing about the hostel is that they have signs taped to the walls with the departure time of each ferry. You can leave your heavy luggage in front of the sign that corresponds to the ferry you want to take, and they bring it to the ferry terminal 10 minutes before the ferry leaves, so you can walk to the port enjoying the views withot having to carry all your luggage. So, we left our bags near the sing for the last ferry, bought some raincoats at the hostel, put our backpacks in some trashbags they gave us to keep them dry, and started walking. Some staff members even got out without any coat, despite the heavy rain, and kept waving their hands and saying goodby until we got out of sight, around three or four minutes later.
At first, I didn't want to take out my umbrella, since the wind was really strong, but I really wanted to take some pictures, and I couldn't allow my camera to get wet. I somehow managed to always keep the umbrella in a position where it wouln't be affected by the wind, and could take several really beautiful pictures. The view over the cliffs under the rain was amazing!
However, as we kept going up, the wind got stronger and stronger. At some point, we were struck by a sudden, strong burst of wind, and my umbrella broke. I had to run to the nearest toilet while keeping my umbrella as upright as I could in order to avoid putting my camera under the heavy rain. I put my camera in my backpack again, along with the broken umbrella, and we started walking down again.
For some reason, I don't mind walking around in the cold as long as my hands stay warm. The moment my hands get cold, I start freezing. With the umbrella, my hands always stayed dry and thus warm. So, now my hands started getting wet and I really felt cold. We walked as fast as we could to the ferry terminal, and arrived there at 9 am. The ferry we wanted to take left at 16:45, and our bags were at the hostel... Fortunately, the guys from the hostel were there saying goodby to the guests that left with the ferry at 8:55. At first, we only thought of asking them to bring our bags for the next ferry, but they offered us a ride back to the hostel. We were soaked and freezing, so we gladly accepted the offer. At the hostel, the first thing we did was change our clothes and sit in front of the heater. After around two hours, we started feeling a bit warm again. At 12, the hostel staff drove us, along with several other guests who wanted to take the ferry, back to the port.
The hostels tradition "forced us" to dance one last time on the ovservation deck of the ship, while the staff members stood on the port and lead the dance. I seriously don't know where they get their energy from. They looked as if they didn't mind getting wet and cold at all, and kept dancing as the ship was leaving the port. Then they screamed "itterashai" all together, to which we answered "ittekimasu". I wonder what the other passengers though about us. Hmm, a group of people out there, during this cold, windy and rainy day, doing weird dances and screaming... That can't be good...
The ferry shaked a lot more than in the previous trip, and Pia got a bit of motion sickness. However, I still think that the waves here are really small, even compared to what I'm used to see at the Mediterranean Sea. I think the trip took a little longer than it should have, probably because of the bad weather. When we arrived at Wakkanai, however, the weather was better. It was still cold, and a bit windy, but at least it wasn't raining.
We didn't know where our hostel was located. Fortunately, one of the guests at Momoiwaso who took the same ferry, had a little booklet with information about hostels, and could look up the directions. The hostel he was staying at was a few blocks away from ours, so we walked with him while having a little chat. Our hostel was located a bit further than his, so he offered us to take us there after leaving his luggage. However, on our way there, a member of our hostel's staff who was driving back to the hostel saw us and offered us a ride. We said goodbye to our companion and got on the car.
The hotel was very nice, although it lacked one very important thing [for me]: an internet connection. The woman at the reception gave us a map and showed us the location of a hotel near the station where we could get a free connection. We really needed to get a connection, since we didn't even know where to get a room tomorrow, and we certainly didn't want to have to look for a hostel after a twelve-hour train trip... We made a reservation at the Kawayo Green Youth Hostel, somewhere in very remote area in the Aomori Prefecture, and downloaded the train route.
Later on we bought some food for tomorrow and the breakfast for the day after tomorrow, since we don't know if we'll find any store near our hostel...
By the way, we're done with our "planning folder". It is a small pink folder where we have everything we had printed about our plans here in Japan, such as reservation confirmations, train routes, subway maps, etc. Well, today we "used" the last page, the reservation confirmation for the hostel in Wakkanai. From now on, almost everything we do will be improvised :D. Let's see how it goes...
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Rainy day at Rebun Island
The "Flower Path". Try and get a sharp image with my camera while holding an umbrella against some really strong wind...
The farewell ceremony - Some of the Momoiwaso Youth Hostel staff members, dancing in the rain, with strong winds and a temperature of 10 degrees celsius. And they do this everyday for every ferry that arrives and leaves... Somebody please tell me how to get such an energy! By the way, sorry about the black stripe. I had to keep my camera as covered as possible to keep it dry.
On the ferry, looking through the window...
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