Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Runaway to Hokkaido: Day 1 & 2
As you may know, life tends to get so repetitive that taking a trip every now and then to break the cycle wouldn't hurt much. That actually explains why I gave myself the green light to sign up for a 7 days tour in Hokkaido. On second thought, make that 5 days since I spent the first and final day on an airplane.
Since I have five days of experience to blog about, I'll break it up into five articles lest you wanna read a novelized version of my trip. So, here's a rundown of the first and second day.
The first day was pretty much gone in a flash since we took the 23:35 flight. Then, it was a boring 7 hours in the air to Tokyo, an hour ride to the domestic airport, an hour in the airport and finally, a 1.5 hour flight to Hokkaido. Now, what does that sum up to? A day and a half gone by. What a waste.
The moment we arrived in Hokkaido, I finally got to meet the other 33 'runaways' who were on the same tour and gosh, it was a mix of young, old, cheery, grumpy, humble and snobbish. Well, after all, people do come in all sorts of wacky flavors.
Now, the tour's finally begun. Our first stop was at the Ainu Museum, a museum that displays the life and cultures of the Ainu people. One chilling fact about these Ainu people is that in the past, they have to capture a bear cub and raise it for a few months before killing it. Personally, I'd term that animal abuse but for them, it's a ritual to relieve the bear of its suffering in the world. Sounds weird, right? I'll bet the bear was having a better time before they were put on death row by them. We were also invited to a performance by the modern Ainu people, who are regular Japanese now, on their cultures in the past.
A statue of the village chief.
What's a mascot doing here?
Mascot: I'm not an Ainu. Stop looking at me.
Chewing off on their dog house.
Hope the Ainus didn't move on to dogs for their rituals...
Next, our last stop of the day, we arrived at the Hell Valley, a now dormant volcano. Contrary to it's creepy name, it's actually not all that hellish except for it's pungent sulphurous stench. A nature reserve park laid to the side of the volcano but unless you wanna risk getting attacked by weird looking bees, don't venture into it cause I know I don't.
Toilet for ghosts aka. us.
Finally, we retreated to the hotel for the day and were treated to a display of fireworks. In my opinion, the hotel was the best spot we had visited for the day since I was dead beat after having less than a few hours sleep and the other two locations we visited weren't that entertaining.
Well, anyway, I'll do my best to update day 3 ASAP. No promises though.
Signing off~
Last Updated @ 7:36 AM
Signed: Whoever was here...
