Tokyo / Hokkaido trip report
 

We just came back from Japan, spending 4 nights in Tokyo, 3 in Sapporo and 2 in Sounkyo (& Biei, Furano). I'm cutting my trip report into chunks.<BR><BR>DAY 1 : Shinjuku<BR><BR>Flight arrived at Narita Airport. So we’re in Tokyo finally! The hotel limousine ticket counter is just right outside the baggage claim area. Got two tickets for the Keio Plaza Inter-continental Hotel for 3000 yen each. Our shuttle is to take off at 4:35pm. Being the cautious type, we went lining up at the bus-stop (right outside) at 4pm. The conductor was taking people’s bags, tagging them and lining them up. It’s our turn but the conductor wouldn’t take our bags. He said something we couldn’t make out and signaled us to wait in line. The shuttle came, and it’s heading towards Shinjuku alright. Oh now I see, our hotel wasn’t listed – they have at least 3 buses going to Shinjuku, each for a different set of hotels! There’s about a bus every 5 minutes, so this time we waited until the electric panel next to the bus-stop displayed the time of our ride.<BR><BR>We’ve been warned the trip to Shinjuku would take up to 2 hours in rush hours. And it’s rush hours alright. But it’s actually kinda fun to watch rush hour traffic when you’re not heading home! At 6:30pm we finally made it to our hotel. It’s a big hotel and quite well-maintained, but you could still feel a bit of its age. We were given a room on the executive floor – an upgrade I think. Our room was quite big (especially by Tokyo standard) and faces the direction of the Shinjuku station. Not bad of a view!<BR><BR>We wasted no time and spent the evening in and around Shinjuku station – there’s a lot of department stores inside the station, but they all close at 7:30pm or so. The station was very clean and we both felt very safe. Went into Lumine (a department store – but you could very well go into any other) and went to their 6th floor which is their restaurant floor. Casually picked a Japanese restaurant and went in for their set dinners. He had congee with eel and I had grilled red snapper set. The highlight was a little dish we ordered called grilled eel bones. Crispy and tasty! The bill was 3000 yen.<BR><BR>It was already 9pm and there were still a lot of people just getting off from work.<BR>

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DAY 2 : Tsukiji, Imperial Palace, Ginza<BR><BR>We got up "relatively" early this morning at 9am and headed towards the Tsukiji fish market. There were still some little trolleys running around but of course all the buying and selling were long gone. Nonetheless the little streets around the area were still a lot of fun to walk. They were mainly fresh seafood stores with owners shouting for your attention. Some shops carried cooking and serving utensils, from which we got some lovely cardboard coasters. The dried seaweed snacks are not to be missed either.<BR><BR>Had an early lunch at Sushi Say – one of the restaurants in the "nicer" area of Tsukiji. In Tsukiji there is the very local area, which is lined with small shops with counters selling sushi, and there is the nicer area, with ordinary little restaurants that have cleaner-looking sushi bars. I'm sure both areas carry fresh sushi though. We had salmon roe, sea urchin, surf clam and fatty tuna sushi, all very fresh. But as a sashimi die-hard fan, I would actually prefer to have the sashimi pieces by themselves, without the rice! :P Lunch bill : 2800 yen. Miso soup is free.<BR><BR>At this point we made a wrong choice – it was now 12 noon and the August sun was showing no mercy. We were actually very close to the Kabuki-za, where we could have spent an hour or two away from the sun, but we decided to head towards the Imperial Palace first in order to make it before the gardens closed. Now we weren’t really the tough walking type. By the time we got to the palace grounds by subway (we did take Fodor’s advice and went to the Tokyo Station first, which was quite nice, especially for their vending machines!), we were already quite tired, and – did we mention the brutal sun?? There were only a handful of other visitors in the gardens, I guess it was just too hot… We passed the wooded area and made it to the two-tiered bridge. Glad to be able to sit down under a tree, where a group of European students listened to their European guide’s narration close-by. The guide even asked the Japanese palace guard to take a group picture for them! There is a change of guards every hour, and we were lucky enough to witness one of these – no don’t expect the Buckingham type. We only saw two guards coming on bikes, chatted a bit with the present one, and he in turn biked away. :)

We spent the afternoon in Ginza, going from one department store to another. Tasting in the basements was quite fun, and we refilled our bags with some tasty treats. Of all the basement confectionary departments, we think Mitsukoshi has the best one. We only wish they had some sitting area where we could enjoy what we bought though. <BR><BR>By the way, if you are a paper art fan and if you happen to pass by Kyukyodo, do drop in for some beautiful but cheap souvenirs! We bought some really cute paper art postcards.<BR>

Sony Tower was for him. The newest color mobile phones with PDA and the smallest digital camcorder. And the latest playstation games too!<BR><BR>We found our dinner place by sheer luck. It’s called Shiseido Parlour – yes you read it right. This place is really run by Shiseido, which used to sell desserts in the beginning. Their health-conscious menus are ideal for ladies. And some of the most healthy dishes even had calorie amounts listed. I had a seafood dish with excellent fish and tiger shrimps. The manager could speak English quite well. But the waitress brought two identical dessert sets to the table while we’ve only ordered one. Later she brought it back with the nicest smile on earth, apologized a million times and told us the second set was now free! Bill tonight is 8000 yen, the most expensive of this trip. We could see people with business-attire around, and no wonder the glance from the manager when we first stepped in, all weary and in jeans!

DAY 3 : Sumida river cruise, Senso-ji, Kabuki<BR><BR>We had an easy morning and took the 40-minute ferry ride from Hanode pier to Asakusa at around noon time. This cruise was quite alright but you wouldn’t miss too much either if you skip it. If you do take it, it might be worthwhile to take it in the opposite direction since it makes a stop at the Detached Garden which is supposed to be quite nice. (Caveat : we’ve never been there…)<BR><BR>Yes there’s TONS of people flooding the street in front of Senso-ji. But it only adds to the fun of people-watching. Try to notice the Japanese while they’re taking pictures, and you will see everybody holding up the V-sign with big smiles. Quite interesting. The iced sweet green tea from that shop with the pink rabbit logo is not to be missed. Having been to beautiful shrines in Osaka and Kyoto, we weren’t too impressed with Senso-ji itself though. But the pigeon feeding in front of it gave us a great time. There was, as usual, a water place for people to cleanse their hands and mouth. Pigeons were also happily drinking from it. And we saw a lady holding up a handful of water, feeding its puppy!?<BR>

Tonight we again bumped into a fabulous place for dinner! It’s called Tofuro, filled with locals socializing after work. It’s a grill place where chunks of meat and veggies are skewered and grilled right in front of you at the bar. We ordered chicken soft bones, ox tongue, octopus, chicken hearts, mushrooms, etc. All very, very tasty. Dessert was greentea-flavored icee, which took over 15 minutes to arrive! Bill : 2900 yen.<BR><BR>After dinner we ran to the subway station and rode to the next stop Higashi-Ginza (exit 3). We were lucky enough to catch the last Kabuki single-scene show of the day at the Kabuki-za, 700 yen each for entrance to the 4th floor gallery. At the ticket office we were told there was only standing room left, but it was only for an hour, so in we went! The play tonight was about a ghost (what play is not?) and a milk-giving tree. The main character plays 3 roles in the same scene and changes from one to another within seconds. The audience would shout out the names of their favorite players from time to time. Real fun to watch! We were, however, too late to visit the gift shop. We both hope to be back and watch a complete kabuki next time, with bento in hand and shouting!

DAY 4 : Ueno Park<BR><BR>Maybe I should mention the subway stored-value card. We each bought one of these (minimum 1000 yen) and found it really handy. With these you’ll never again have to figure out how much your trip costs. They’re available from machines and there’s numerous designs to choose from at different stations. You’re shown how much your card has left at the end of each journey, and places you’ve visited are clearly printed at the back, so we were able to keep the card as a souvenir when there’s only a small amount left. Another thing about the subway and JR stations – mostly for the kids (and kids at heart, like us). There’s a stamp station placed at each and every station – you just don’t know at which exit it is placed. So kids, don’t miss out when you do see one of these!<BR>

It was drizzling. Not the best for a park visit but it sure beats the sun! The Shitamachi museum was a blast. There’s re-creation of homes of the Edo period using real materials used by the people. The best thing about it is it’s a hands-on museum. You can take off your shoes and go into each of the houses! There are also illustrated leaflets in both Japanese and English placed at every "house" which you can take. The second floor holds many hands-on brainteasers which you can (and are encouraged to) try, complete with games played by kids from the Edo period. Both of us had a great time!<BR>

On our way to the Tokyo National Museum (also inside the Ueno Park), we saw a whole bunch of people lining up, all of them male and quite old. A closer look showed that they were actually homeless people lining up for food. A Christian group was singing “Amazing Grace” (in Japanese of course) and passing out bread and cheese, right in front of the museum. This was the second time we came across the homeless in Tokyo, the first time being a long line of their plastic tents (curiously all in light blue) secured ratger neatly along the Sumida River bank.<BR><BR>There was a special exhibition going on in the museum, but we opted out of it and it proved to be right – there’s so much in the permanent collection that we did not have time even for half of that! I’m not a big museum fan but he is, so including one nice museum in the trip worked out just fine. The museum shop has a lot of neat stuff to bring home too!<BR>

Dinner tonight was back in Shinjuku. It’s a tempura place but unfortunately I don’t have its English name... We were led to the second floor and seated in front of the cook. Again we rubbed elbows with a lot of locals just off from work. They have a tempura set for 1800 yen which includes shrimp, fish and veggies. Glad we only ordered only one set and tried other more adventurous pieces. The baby scallop with mushrooms were heavenly! And so were the giant clams stuffed in their own shells! 5300 yen altogether.<BR><BR>This was our last night in Tokyo, and we spent some last moments in Shinjuku after our early dinner. It was Friday night so the streets were flooded with young folks. The best thing is – we still felt very safe!<BR>

DAY 5 : Tokyo -&gt; Sapporo<BR><BR>Arrived at New Chitose Airport at about 3pm. Picked up this leaflet on our way to the JR station about a 4-day pass around the central Hokkaido area. The staff at the New Chitose JR station weren’t the most helpful and to our surprise they didn’t seem to know what this leaflet was about! So it wasn’t until we arrived at Shinsapporo were we finally able to get hold of one of these. It was 5200 yen good for 4 days for JR stops at Sapporo, Asahikawa, Biei and Furano. Just what we needed. It was 7200 if you want the Chitose Airport station as well. Throw in an extra 1500 yen if you want reserved seats. The basic pass (i.e. the 5200 yen) is also good for the Limited Express trains, which is a real bargain, since a one-way trip from Sapporo to Asahikawa is already 4800 yen!

There’s a good reason why the Japanese travel light and send their big luggages ahead through courier companies – elevators and escalators are lacking in many, many train stations! We have a large suitcase and a small one, and had to go down and up several flights of stairs in Shinsapporo JR station before we finally got to the Sheraton Sapporo – happily claimed to be "2 minutes from the station" (if you have no luggage with you, that is...) For instance, thankfully the station does have escalators that go upwards, saving our backs for our return trip...

Sheraton Sapporo is in Shinsapporo (8 min from Sapporo by JR, 30 min by subway) and seems to have quite a young staff, and many of them seem inexperienced. I’m sorry to say that help with bags in the lobby is non-existent. However they do have an excellent concierge team, one of them I have befriended after providing excellent and professional help with my ATM machine adventure which you shall see. We were given a corner room with a great view though, which is the highlight of the day. The room is definitely smaller than what we had in Shinjuku, with a very small couch – and actually one with fleas! I was wearing shorts on the very last day of our trip and am still having rash more than a week after!

What better way to end a day in Sapporo with hot Sapporo ramen, right? It was already getting a bit cool in the evenings in Sapporo and we both had to put on light jackets. Sapporo has a much, much simpler subway system than Tokyo, with only 3 lines. You won’t get lost here – at least not inside the gate. It was about 7pm when we got to Susukino, the most bustling area in Sapporo, especially at night. We looked for the little ramen street for about 30 minutes, found it, lined up outside the most popular one, only to be turned off by the fact that it’s right outside a public bathroom. Sticking around an area with adult business signs everywhere was no fun either. So he suggested we tried looking for the more pleasant-looking Aji No Tokeidai instead. Aji No Tokeidai is a chain-store, which had been visited by the former prime minister. They have a branch quite close to Tokeidai, the famous Clock Tower.<BR><BR>

The trip proved to be worthy. Our long-awaited ramen (1500 yen each!) arrived with 3 HUGE scallops, sweet corn, bamboo shoots, and, rich pork-bone based miso soup! Yum!!! And there’s a huge piece of… butter!? floating atop the luscious ramen. You’re supposed to blend it in, but we found the soup already very rich! The dumplings are not to be missed either. (380 yen for 5) Best dumplings of the kind we’ve tried! There were large booths and also shared-tables in the restaurant. The chubby guy across the table from us (separated by a translucent plastic screen) actually ordered a ramen AND a big bowl of rice!

DAY 6 : Biei and Furano Tomita Farm<BR><BR>We checked out of the hotel at 7:55am with our small backpack, leaving our 2 bags behind with the hotel. We were to take the 8:03am train to Asahikawa, catching the 10:04 connection onto Biei, just in time to join the bus tour (fare included in our 4-day pass) from Biei. Talk about rush! We had asked the front desk the night before (since the concierge was already off duty) and a young man kindly looked up all the connections for us from the Hokkaido JR Time-table. Moral of the story : always get a copy of the JR time-table yourself (if you can read some Japanese or Chinese characters, that is) and double check your connections!! Better yet, pre-plan all your connections using the website http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/ Our train got into Asahikawa at 9:55 and we rushed to the platform for Biei, only to find that there’s no 10:04 train at all – the next train would be at 10:40! We would miss our bus tour at Biei!<BR><BR>It might be worthy to note that had we known Asahikawa had good-sized coin lockers just outside the gates, we would have brought our 16"x30" bag with us!

Anyway, here we were in Biei, having missed the bus tours, but also with 2 hours on our hands to kill. So we had no choice but to see Biei the hard way – we rented two mountain bikes and headed towards the hilly fields of Biei! The bike shop is just outside the little JR station, right next to the info center. Hourly rental is a mere 300 yen/hr. But we definitely would go for the “electrical bike” (whatever it is – but it’s not a motorcycle) or the rental car next time – the Biei roads are no joke! There are car rental companies close to the station. It was all worthwhile, however, when we reached the lookout point about 20 minutes from the station. It’s a big lookout point with a parking lot and restrooms, you can’t miss it. The flowers and greens (where you could see no ends) were just lovely! We would have stopped for a bowl of ramen on our way back, but we had to catch the Norokko train which would pass through Biei at 1pm.<BR>

The Norokko train runs only in the summer (about 600 yen one-way from Asahikawa to Furano; fare also included in our 4-day pass). It’s a small train with only 2 cars (but actually already 1 car longer than the regular train from Asahikawa to Biei!), with sideway seats looking out to the fields passing by. Way cool! There’s narration all along the trip, but of course, it’s all in Japanese. We got off at the famous Tomita Farm station, which is a temporary one built in the summer, just for the Norokko train. The lavender season was already over, but the “5-color field” was still splendid with all kinds of flowers. The purple lavender-flavored ice-cream was a real treat, and their cantaloupes were really sweet! Hokkaido fresh milk that comes in bottles with purple-rims is of course not to be missed.<BR>We took the Norokko train back to Asahikawa – but speaking of which, we actually could have walked 20 minutes to the closeby JR station from Tomita Farm, and from there we would have more choices of trains for Asahikawa!<BR>

So we were back in Asahikawa, waiting for our bus-ride to Sounkyo which would take 90 minutes. A better option would be to stay the night at Asahikawa though – it’s a big (but rather depressing) city with lots of hotel choices. It might be worthy to mention that although it’s a long bus ride to the rural area, it’s still a bus ride, and you pay your fare on the bus just like any other bus rides! I notice that in Hokkaido (or maybe Japan?) you don’t pay until the moment you get off the bus. On this bus to Sounkyo, you enter from the hind entrance, take a ticket (indicating where you board) and give the ticket to the bus-driver when you get to your destination. There’s a coin-changer inside every bus so you don’t have to worry.<BR>It’s a long hour with frequent local stops until we reached Kamikawa (also a JR station) where we stopped for 5 minutes. It might be a more pleasant journey to first take the JR to Kamikawa, and then catch the bus to Sounkyo which will only take 30 minutes. Single women might not want to take the last bus though when it’s dark.<BR>

It was already all dark when we finally got to Sounkyo at 8:30pm. Just when we were worrying about the way to our hotel, we were greeted by a smiling gentleman right at the bus. He said our name and immediately we knew he was actually sent by our hotel! Now, you must understand that we had never told the hotel by which bus we would arrive. This gentleman must have tried coming to the bus-stop to meet us more than once! That was really thoughtful of them. Then of course, they might have just come to greet the buses that arrive after dark. It was a 7-minute walk to the hotel, and not well lighted at all, so the pick-up from the bus-station was a life-saver!<BR><BR>We were given a warm welcome at the Sounkyo Grand Hotel. http://www.sounkaku.co.jp/english/index2.htm There were obviously a HUGE group (or several groups) of other tourists on premise. All clothed in their comfy kimonos, they were playing a game of Bingo in the lobby organized by the hotel! A staff with some English explained that (after a lot of apologies) we should hurry to the restaurant ASAP as they’re closing. (Our rate included two meals daily.) So off we went after checking into our room.<BR>

It’s a Japanese-style restaurant and we had to take off our shoes. Some folks were finishing up their meals in the large room of the restaurant as we passed by. And to our surprise we were led to a small private room at the end of the hallway! What a treat! We had the “Couple’s Menu” dinner which went on and on with all sorts of dishes. We had appetizers made with clams and smoked salmon, a hotpot filled with seafood goodies and vegetables, salmon & assorted sashimi, giant crab legs (served cold), a small tempura dish, rice cooked with mushrooms, soup and desserts. It might very well serve 4 people!<BR>

We had requested a Japanese room. They didn’t have non-smoking rooms but we didn’t find the room smelly at all. The room is very big and the futon beds were already made for us while we were eating in the restaurant. It has a seating area overlooking the river and gorge (and unfortunately also the highway – as the highway is built along the gorge…). To be honest the beds were not very comfortable but we had the best sleep after the long day.

DAY 7 : Sounkyo<BR><BR>Breakfast was cafeteria (or should I say dorm-food?) style, a real turn-off and let-down comparing to last night. It was a buffet served in a gigantic, rather run-down “ballroom” with long tables – ideal for tour groups or company retreats I guess. We went in at 8:30 and the remaining food did not look appetizing at all… There were mainly Japanese fare and some simple American stuff. At 9am SHARP everything was quickly taken away.<BR>The short walk to the onsen street in the morning would have been pleasant, but we were even more pleasantly surprised when the same gentleman from last night offered us a ride upon seeing us in the lobby. The owner of the only bike shop in town was a nice enough fellow, and he even offered us a discounted price of 1000 yen (normally 1500 yen) for a daily rental until 5pm. The season must have passed. He had a nice hand-drawn map with sights marked in Japanese. However he could speak some basic English and told us the ride to the twin falls would take 20 minutes. <BR>

It was a very flat and wide road (separate from the highway) to the falls, and the weather was just perfect! There’s grasshoppers everywhere though, and – don’t laugh, it’s not until then that I realized grasshoppers could fly! That’s a scary thing when you’re passing by on a bike. The river was on our right all the time, and we made frequent stops to take pictures of it and also of the beautiful mountains on our left. The bikeway led to the twin-fall park, where one could climb up the mountain a bit (10 minutes) to a nice viewing platform to see the twin falls. We left our bikes at the entrance of the walkway, just as told by the bike shop owner. It’s interesting that people here are all very trusting, and it’s obvious that thefts are not very common, at least in the daytime. And to our relief, there were also two guards at the entrance and they said (I guess!) they could watch the bikes for us. The falls aren’t huge by any standard, but they do look quite artistic (and curiously in a Japanese way) together.<BR><BR>Just when we were about to leave there came a busload of Japanese tourists. One good thing about Japanese tourists is they usually do not make loud crowds. But a non-smoker like me would have a lot of opportunities to frown though.<BR>

We returned to the bike shop and asked the owner to let us leave the bikes there when we ate. There’s this family-run place right at the other end of the little bridge, and at that time we thought it was the only place to have lunch. Their "don", bowls of rice with different kinds of meat were terrific though. He had pork cutlet curry and I had rice with deep-fried oysters. Yum! I noticed they carried these dark-red eggs, which were actually cooked with water from the hot-spring!<BR><BR>By now we’ve exercised and we’ve had our stomach filled. What better things to do than a hot bath in the outdoor bath? (Well, actually you’re not supposed to take hot baths right after meals. Oh well.)<BR><BR>There’s a big indoor bath in our hotel that opens 24 hours, and it’s open to non-hotel guests who pay a onsen fee. We, of course, headed towards the exclusive outdoor bath which is open only from 6:30-9:30am and from 12:30 till midnight.<BR>

We were both lucky enough to find each of the outdoor baths to be our very own! I guess it’s just not the right time for bathing! The women’s bath was not big, but looked quite charming. The temperature was 42C while the source of this water was actually 75C! This water is said to have the curing power for aching backs and shoulders. Well, just what we needed!<BR><BR>The only drawback of this bath was that we could very clearly hear the cars speeding right past us on the highway! As I’ve said, most hotels here are built right on the highway. We’ve visited onsens buried deep in the mountains where the only sounds are those of birds and wind brushing through the leaves...<BR>

While we were taking in views of the gorge back in our room that afternoon, we started counting our money (literally!) and realized a big problem – we haven’t got enough cash! We’ve been warned to bring A LOT of cash to Japan, but I guess still not enough! Getting cash right here in the gorge is out of the question – lucky us we’ve long ago checked that this hotel does take credit cards.<BR><BR>Well, we’ve still got 2 more expenditures to make – cable car and chairlift rides up the mountain! That’s actually the major attraction of Sounkyo. An adult roundtrip fare for the cable car would be 1650 yen, and a roundtrip fare for the chairlifts would take away another 600 yen each. Setting aside the bus fares, and that would give us… oops, 3000 yen to live till the next day! We’re lucky that both dinner and breakfast were included and we could always have lunch in the hotel.

But the news didn’t take away the fun from riding the cable car! It’s a big car that takes up to maybe 30 people. There’s seats around the edges and all the other people stand. We picked the right side to stand - the side facing downwards, and the views of the gorge and mountains opened up as the car climbed. (Pick the wrong side and all you see is trees right in front of you...)<BR><BR>The cable car brought us to a place called "5th Level", where hikers gathered in the visitor center for snacks, coffee or simply warmth. There’s a nice little restaurant up there, serving Japanese fare with a free view of the mountains thrown in. It was already 5pm and they were already closed. Wish we went up earlier!<BR>

The chairlifts were a lot of fun. They were built for skiers in winter and sightseers like us in the summer. There were two parts to the ride – the first part quite boring across a gently-sloped floral bed. I guess it’s so boring that they even posted teasers on the poles and you get answers 3 or 4 poles down the ride. The teasers were all about identifying footprints of common animals found in the area, including squirrels, rabbits and foxes! Soon the gentle slope gave way to a soaring ride uphill, and trees got smaller and smaller and our views opened up. Warning: this is not a ride for those scared of heights!

Here comes the “7th Level” station, where the entrance to the mountain is. There’s a viewing platform with wooden logs to sit on while you take in the breathtaking views. How we wish we had brought our bento up here to sit on the logs!!<BR><BR>We took the very last chairlifts and cable car down the mountain, and there we saw the real onsen street. It was a real charming little street. I would say it looked even a bit European. There’s gift shops and handicraft shops everywhere. We were lucky enough to find one shop that takes credit cards for purchases over 1000 yen! And the restaurants looked really appealing – but not credit-card-accepting.

We had originally ordered to have the “Couple’s Menu” for both nights. We decided to have a change and therefore went to the front desk earlier in the afternoon to have the shabu-shabu meal for tonight instead. The staff didn’t seem to understand at first, but later on said “okay” confidently enough. Fully expecting a shabu-shabu meal “of three different kinds of fresh clams”, we went into our private dining room, only to find the same kind of hotpot (but different contents) waiting for us! So either the front desk staff did not actually understand us or he failed to inform the kitchen. Anyhow, we reckoned any further conversations in English or sign-language with the waitress wouldn’t help, so we gladly tried the hotpot with crabs. Dinner was just as good as last night, with fatty tuna as the sashimi dish. Fruits choices were wonderful! The large red grapes and cantaloupes were the sweetest!<BR>

DAY 8 : Back to Sapporo; my ATM quest<BR><BR>Before checking out we stepped into the outdoor baths for one last time. This time strangely it gave me a headache which did not go away maybe for an hour. At 10:02 sharp, 2 minutes past checkout time, we were given a call just when we were about to step into our shoes and head towards the lobby. Talk about being on time in Japan! Actually we’ve called the night before and asked if we could extend our stay maybe for an hour, and were politely turned down right away. Oh well.<BR><BR>Our bus was to take off at 11:20am, and we were roaming around the bus-stop for some last pictures. 10 minutes before departure I ventured into the post office, hoping to get a postcard. Postcards they've got none, but voila, a huge ATM machine was standing right next to the entrance to the post office! A sign says, "Need Cash? International cards" Our day could not have been made in any better way! So we took out all our credit cards and tried the machine – but the machine would only recognize our Diners! And the most terrible thing happened – we could not get our PIN right! The bus was departing, and we've got no choice but to leave the machine and its cash alone...

So Fodors was right – at most major post offices there’s an ATM machine that takes foreign credit cards. But who on earth would have guessed that the Sounkyo branch is considered a "major" one?? :)<BR><BR>After we checked back into Sheraton Sapporo, he got a bit of a sore throat. Must be coming down with a cold. While he was taking a nap, I decided to try my luck with the ATM’s! So I called home and got my password alright. The concierge was of great help. She called up a card company to see if their ATM’s take foreign cards, and if they were still open then. She even escorted me to the JR station. It was already 6pm. So off I ran and 3 machines I have tried, and none would work. Came back up to street level and tried another one at the bank. No luck. Went into a mall next to the hotel, followed the directions the concierge gave me to the very machine claiming to work with foreign cards. Still tough luck. And as I started heading back, I saw a post office! And the same kind of machines I saw earlier in Sounkyo! Well, the sounds of cash flipping inside the machine could not have been sweeter. I finally got my ca$h!

And for anyone interested (but I hope you won’t end up in the same situation), the post office is in the basement of the shopping mall “Luo-1”, and it’s open until 7pm.<BR><BR>Dinner tonight was in one of the Japanese restaurants in the hotel. The rice bowl covered with sea urchin, salmon roe and crabmeat that I had was superb! And at a very good price! They even converted a small section of the restaurant into a non-smoking area just for us!

DAY 9 : Sapporo<BR><BR>It’s the last full day of the trip. We had a late start and headed towards that “Racoon street” near Susukino for our ramen lunch. We went into a little shop called the Firebird and found the menu all in Japanese. The young fellow could not understand us at all but was patient enough. So we just ordered two of the most expensive items on the menu, hoping to be the best variety. So one bowl of ramen came, along with another bowl of… curry and rice??? Who would have thought you could get curry in a ramen shop? Lesson of the story: the dearest is not always the best! But anyway, the curry is not bad (not the best either), but the ramen is certainly not nearly as good as what we had three days ago in Aji No Takeidai! The bill came out to be about 1800 yen.<BR><BR>The street is lined with souvenir shops. Same items all carry the same prices across shops. So we just went for the one that looked nicest and have air-conditioning, hoping the edible items would be the freshest. The famous “Snow Brand” white chocolate cookies weren’t that impressive after all. But the cooked scallops are the best!<BR>

We each bought an 800 yen all-day subway pass, by the way. Should’ve gotten the 1000 yen pass valid for both subway and the bus! There’s this sightseeing bus (which smells) that goes in a loop with stops at or near major sights including the Sapporo Beer Garden. The Beer Garden’s free 30-minute tour and sampling was not bad at all. And if you don’t drink beer, you can sample their sodas and juices! It’s all you can drink for free in 15 minutes!<BR><BR>On our way back we made a stop at the Sapporo Factory Mall which proved to be a waste of time. It’s just like your average American mall next-door with nothing too exciting.<BR><BR>What better way to end a Sapporo trip by having some really fresh and tasty sashimi at a really authentic place? We went to Sushi Sen downtown and had their sashimi set and hand-rolls. (5000 yen total)<BR><BR>Not far away from our hotel is the chain convenient store Lawson. There we had our last chance to get great-tasting but cheap Japanese groceries. We bought a whole bagful of milk (try Snow Brand!), yogurt and ice-cream for breakfast and snacks.

DAY 10 : flight to Tokyo for our connection back home<BR><BR>Hokkaido milk again proved to be really delicious! The hotel bakery did not disappoint us either. We had the best bread with chopped fruits and mixed berry danish. We would definitely go back to the hotel for their bakery but would probably stay in a hotel in Sapporo next time, not Shinsapporo. :)<BR><BR>So that's it. And thanks for reading if you've been with me to this point.<BR>:)

Bonjour Kat,<BR><BR>Great report, full of fantastically useful informations. I'm glad you had such a good time.

Hi again, Florence!<BR><BR>I must thank you and a number of others for answering a my quesions to make the planning of this trip much more pleasant! It's people like you that make this board so helpful and also friendly (especially to clueless people like me) :) Merci beaucoup! I just felt that it's time I give back a little.<BR><BR>By the way, we almost took your suggestion of walking Asakusa dori to reach Senso-ji, however we switched over to the Sumida Cruise last minute. We hope to go back soon to take that other route!<BR><BR>I forgot to mention, there's a youth hostel up in Sounkyo, which is supposed to be very popular (booked up way in advance). We haven't checked it out (as it is, like any other youth hostel, buried in the woods.) And there's a public hotspring bath (a supposedly nice and clean one. Looked quite nice from the outside) in the middle of the little onsen street - people from hotels without their own hotspring baths all come here. Discout tickets to this bath (~500 yen) could be purchased from that little restaurant by the bridge I mentioned (on the second floor, by the wine/beer shop).