Day 35

Time to go back to Tokyo. I feel that I have seen enough of Japan for now, many of the obligatory stuff. Only two places left on my schedule. Enjoyed the very beautiful view on the train from Nagasaki to Hakata while listening to AKB music. This is the hotel/hostel I stayed at in Nagasaki. Share room, which is actually perfectly fine. Actually, it's just more fun, since you get someone to talk to and share experiences with.

And saw something funny on the scrolling text news at Hakata. There are now [b]48[/b] people above 100 years old in Japan now. Made a quick stop at Akihabara to check for new stuff and eat dinner. This is beef kebab from Star Kebab located on the street behind Sofmap Mac Center.

Day 33

Started the day with a breakfast buffet at the hotel. Biggest breakfast I had so far, and it was about time I had something decent. Bread and onigiri from the convenience store gets pretty awful after awhile.

With my stomach full, I went to the Hiroshima Castle just for a quick view of it, then walked all the way to this empty tree I don't know the name of, and finally arriving at the A-Bomb Dome. I think I was six days early for the yearly anniversary. People tie origami (folded paper) in a long knot to remember the people who died.

Took the tram back to Hiroshima station to get some local speciality, Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, before getting on the train to Nagasaki. The resturant floor had only teppan food resturants like this one, and they all went crazy when a customer walked by, doing anything to make them choose their resturant. The one I chose was cool, and I could finally conversate in Japanese without them acting like I'm stupid. The chef was pretty skilled with the tools, and I mentioned Teppan Shoujo Akane (drama with Horikita Maki), but they didn't know about it. Obviously they knew AKB, but they seemed to be more proud of Perfume, who are from Hiroshima.

The train to Nagasaki was called Sonic, and both exterior design and interior looked nice with leather seats. Seats were more comfortable, but overall more inconvenient than the regular Shinkansen.

I headed straight for the hotel to get some rest. Both Nagasaki and Hiroshima were hotter than Tokyo. In the evening I went up the ropeway to Mt. Inasa. Didn't get too good pictures.

At the ground station there was a small temple with this cool dragon named Shenlong (Shinryu in Japanese). It's a spiritual dragon from Chinese mythology that controls wind and rain.

Day 32

Time to head out to west Japan. First stop is Hiroshima for more regular sightseeing. Something that puzzles me, is that Japan is so famous for having such good service, but the the way I experience it is that the service is extremely bad at famous tourist spots. I just wanna punch them in the face when I ask or say something in Japanese and get a reply in English like I'm stupid. Anyway, what I especially wanted to see was Miyajima, one of the Three Wonders in Japan. I only knew about a red shrine on water, and the large torii gate.

After seeing those, which went on pretty quickly, I walked around the town a little bit and noticed that there's alot to see on the island's biggest mountain, Mt Misen. There was a ropeway but I decided to walk the 2.2km trail up the mountain since it would feel more of an achievement. Was pretty much alone on the trail all of the time except for two or three groups of gaijins.

Up at the summit there was some big rocks and an obstacle-free 360 panoramic view.

Walked another path down which was longer, and stopped by a complete empty sky shrine.

Finally back down at the big gate I wanted to wait abit for the low tide so I could get closer.

On Miyajima there are alot of wild deers going around trying to snatch food from tourists.

Then back to Hiroshima to try to find the hotel. Spent another 2 hours walking in the dark trying to find it. When I asked for directions at one of the bigger train stations, they told me there are no stations, and that I had to walk or take a cab, but there's a big fucking monorail-type station right there. There was very little light, almost none at all, along the sidewalks. And they were very narrow and dangerous. When I finally found the hotel, there was a group of school students sitting in the lounge room who said I was looking cool. I answered that it was hot, haha.

Day 25

Halway there! I've never been able to keep up with a blog for this long. I guess it's different with a traveler's blog. Anyway, I took the 9:06 Furano Express train from Sapporo, which was nice with seats higher up near the roof and large windows. Also a few TV screens showing live feed from the front car.

Furano is famous for their colorful flower beds. I was about a week late, and most colors had faded. Still tons of tourists, especially from Korea and China. Saw some school girls on the local train, and I must say it can not be that fun living there during the peak season. That goes for any big tourist attraction, really. Below is one of the flower beds. During peak, you can't see any greens - just flowers.

I finally got a good shot of a (small) sunflower bed - something I've been wanting to do for a long time.

I tried the lavender flavoured soft cream. It tasted, well, flowers.

Made a brief stop at Biei for lunch - Biei soy-flavoured ramen. Hokkaido ramen is supposed to taste a little different from normal ramen, but I couldn't feel much difference. Biei got some gorgeous views as well, but it's too far to walk, and I didn't have too much time. Next time I'll rent a car.

Train back to Sapporo from Asahikawa. First stopped by at Naebo for an AKBINGO shot.

AKBINGO Episode #34 (090520)

Then off to Hitsujigaoka for another shot. It actually got chilly and I didn't bring any extra layers of clothing at all. Bought a t-shirt for myself as a souvenir, and put it on immediately. Hitsujigaoka means "The sheep's hill" and there were a few sheep still around when I got there. The statue is of William S. Clark, with the words "Boys Be Ambitious". He was hired by the Japanese government to establish the Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University), and succeeded in making a lasting imprint on Japanese culture. His parting words to his students is a nationally-known motto in Japan today.

AKBINGO Episode #34 (090520)

On the way back to Sapporo I wanted to check out Sapporo Dome closer, but it wasn't lit up at all, so instead I took some night traffic shots.

Finished the day with dinner, Una-don, at Sapporo station and night shots of the old government building and the famous clock tower.

Day 24

The night train was horrible - old and bumpy. I think it was some kind of antique train, because lots of people were taking pics of it. I only got a few hours sleep here and there. Got to the Community Dome, where the event would be, around 7am and started lining up. Sapporo was actually pretty cool, almost chilly, in the morning. But that changed quickly when the sun got out from the clouds. I was so tired I lay myself down in the line using the backpack as a pillow and tried to sleep abit.

Got my tickets around 10:30. They divide the space by blocks, with a walking passage between them, and distribute the tickets somewhat random. I got a ticket in the back block (duh) but got in early so I could stand at the rail. In order to not lose my spot I had to wait there until it started at 2pm. Same songlist as yesterday, but different members. Tomochin, Miichan, Sayaka and Sae was at Sendai and Sapporo, the rest were others than yesterday. The sight was good, but kind of far. I could just barely make out who was who. During the Nemousu play, I think one girl in the audience collapsed. Two staff members were leading her away, then she just fell to the ground. Not sure if she really collapsed or did something not good and just refused to move. Kind of scary, but the event wasn't affected by it at all - I don't think the AKB girls even noticed. Sorry I don't remember anything about the plays themselves now, only that I laughed alot about something Sayaka did. Miichan was leading everything most of the time.

I had seven tickets for today. Did three rounds of Harukyan/Mayuyu. This line was always the longest one, so it was pushed extra fast. Two rounds of Sumire/Yukirin. Yukirin is awesome in person. I pointed out my Team B t-shirt and that I would cheer for her from oversea, and she got really happy about it. Then one round each of Nacchan/Tomochin and Sayaka/Kitarie. Sayaka remembered me from yesterday and asked me how I got to Sapporo. I was too focused on that I wanted to say that I liked today better than yesterday and didn't have time to answer. Kitarie had an eyepatch, they said something about it being bad. She didn't wear it during the minilive though. "Kitarie nara daijoubu!" I said to her, and she showed me her great smile. Oh, and Togasaki, the theater manager, hanged around there. Didn't bother shaking hands or take photos since lots of other people were doing it and resting their dicks on his shoulders. Also, there were two Majisuka cosplayers - Shibuya and Nezumi. Both two really young and short school girls, and kind of cheap cosplay. Not even a real sukajyan. Money is probably an issue. And one guy with Black's (real) sukajyan.

Overall the event was just OK, but the handshakes best so far. There was a load of people, more than SKE had at Yomiuri Land (have not seen AKB there yet). Both here and in Sendai, it seemed ok to cut the line, hold places for friends who would come hours later, and take turns standing in the line. WTF. I seriously got pissed of. The lines were very unorganized and cones placed badly.

Was tempted to buy 3 more shushus, but managed to hold back. I have no idea how much money I've spent already :/

Before checking in at the hotel I went up to Sapporo TV Tower, and on the way back to the station when I took pics of the tower, a Japanese hobby photographer asked me if I wanted to use his tripod. Nice! Didn't turn too well though... I think my handheld pics turned out better. (These are all handheld.)

I had no idea what the hotel would be like. I just booked whatever was available and somewhat cheap. I didn't even know if I was gonna have my own room or share with others. Turned out to be the latter, but that's not a problem for me fortunately. Talked about AKB with one of the guys I'm sharing room with. He's from Nagano, and went by road bike/bicycle all the way to Niigata, then took the ferry there to Otaru (19 hours), to continue on the bike to Sapporo. Cool!

Day 23

Up 4:30 to get on the first train to Sendai. Again, it was easy to spot the kiddy wotas even on the train. They all wear shirts which says "SURF" or "RUSS K". In Japan people wear what everyone else is wearing after they've seen some celebrity wear it. Got into the line about 8:40, They were being real assholes and didn't start giving out tickets until 11. I took of my shirt so it wouldn't be soaking wet, but now I'm a little burnt on the back. Finally got my tickets around 12, then I wanted to buy some goods since they were out of stock in Tokyo. Exact same shop and people as in Tokyo - I guess they travel with the idols to make more money. Bought a Rena towel (Ponytail version from a few months ago), Takamina shushu (so I can have a set of 3), and then B2, A5, K5 on DVD, plus A5 on CD. My backpack is extremely heavy but luckily it's easy and safe to just put it in a locker at the station.

So while waiting for the event to start, noone was allowed to use their cellphone or sit down. -_- Anyway, they did Sakura no Shiori and Aitakatta, then a pretty long Nemousu game thing. Yuko draw a paper from a box which said stuff that members would have to do a quick role play on, and make the audience laugh. The chosen members were also drawn at random from the box. Kinda lame overall, and way too long. But Yonechan was great. Then they finished with Ponytail to Shushu.

The handshaking started right after, unfortunately the tables were hidden behind the stage, so noone could watch them while waiting. It all went kinda fast though, I had number 4000+ and got to do my rounds after only 30 minutes. I used five tickets since I wanted to do five specific members. Had no idea what table combinations there would be though. Luckily I got to meet all the ones I wanted to once. The only ones I did not meet was Tomochin and Matsui Sakiko.

There was no real special experience meeting them though. It's really fast and usually the same shit. At least the stage was a little better (higher up) than in Nagoya. Bootleg stands and a luxury block near the location.

Was done around 4pm and headed back to Sendai for dinner and some shots. Gyuutan (beef tongue) is a local speciality in Sendai. Most expensive food I've had so far I think, but it was godly. Or it's just been too long since I had some real meat.

Afternoon shots from some office building near the station. My train was scheduled to depart 19:38, so didn't have time for night shots.

Then time to board the train which would take me to Sapporo. With two transfers it took almost 11 hours. It's crazy how Tokyo-Sendai take 2 hours, but Sendai-Sapporo so long. This is the train that went from Hachinohe to Aomori.

I think the main reason it takes so much longer is because the trains are older. But it was the only way to get there in time for the next event. At least I had reserved seats, and with JR Pass, it's completely free. This is the train that went from Aomori to Sapporo. At Hakodate it made a long stop to turn all the seats around, because the track changes there. It's a pretty cool feature though, so you never have to ride backwards, and if you want, you can sit four people together.