A “new” holiday, introduced from abroad, it’s gotten surprisingly popular here.
I tripped down to Harajuko and Shibuya on Oct. 30th to check out the costumes. Little kids were getting most of the attention.
see more photos – Halloween in Japan – Eight Crazy Frights
even more photos on Google
You really can see Russia from Wakkanai, the tip of northern Japan.
You’ve heard of the islands disputed by Russia and Japan.
That’s the largest, Karafuto/Sakhalin, on the horizon directly behind this memorial.
The Statue of Nine Women commemorates one symbolic war story, that of 9 women working at a telegraph station who committed suicide with potassium cyanide tablets rather than be taken by the invading Russians.
August 1945, in accordance with Yalta Conference agreements, the Soviet Union took over the control of Sakhalin. Perhaps 400,000 citizens were displaced to Japan. So today it’s functionally Russian, as well as politically Russian.
Lesson of the story — If you declare war on Russia, don’t lose.
Actually, ownership of the big island had been in dispute long before that. It’s complicated.
related – wikitravel – Wakkanai
I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work… I want to achieve it through not dying.
Woody Allen
US movie actor, comedian, & director (1935 – )
For years I’ve occasionally followed a photo blog from northern, rural Japan.
An American guy with a wife and daughter trying to build a life in the Japan countryside – and share some of it along the way.
There’s much about food and family.
The guidebooks all tell you to rent a car if you want to explore on the north island Hokkaidō.
The guidebooks are right.
Trains run all over the island, but actually connecting from one to the next on the local lines is tricky.
It IS easy, however, to get to the northern tip of the country, Wakkanai (稚内市).
You CAN see Russia from here, Sarah. (The island of Sakhalin.) But not when it’s grey and miserable. And it’s always grey and miserable in Wakkanai from what I’ve seen. And windy. And cold.
The further you get from Tokyo, the less English. Not even train stations have much English. But this town is bilingual — Japanese and Russian. There is a ferry from here to the mainland.
Without help I wandered the town at night in the drizzle unable to find any of the 3 hostels — all had closed for the winter, as it turned out.
I ended up in less cheap business accommodation, Petit Hotel Joy Wakkanai. Hot shower, fast internet and traditional Japanese breakfast.
… just about to go check the feasibility of a day trip to some nearby islands, for hiking.
That will be a disaster — if I go — guaranteed.
Here I am at Sugatami-ike in Daisetsuzan National Park, an impressive look-out over the fumaroles.
This volcano is LIVE.
From there the top of the volcano was shrouded. Myself and Kim from Belgium were the only hikers bold (stupid) enough to climb higher.
We might have made it to 1900m before being driven off the mountain by wind and freezing, horizontal rain. The summit is about 2200m.
Happily, there was a hot springs and gourmet dinner awaiting me below in Japan’s best and most expensive alpine hostel.
This ain’t the usual hostel grub.
more photos … or read my hiking trip report
If it’s raining in the morning, I’ll hop back on the train until I find better weather.
Even by bullet train it’s 10hrs from Tokyo to Sapporo in the north.
I am overnighting in an internet cafe. Private cubicle with free drinks included for about $16 for 6hrs. Quite comfortable.
Tomorrow I will try for Daisetsuzan National Park, the largest in the country. More bears than people.
Unfortunately it is too late in the season to get much hiking done. But I’ll give it a go.
Might be offline for a couple of days.
… During the Shinkansen‘s 45-year, nearly 7 billion-passenger history, there have been no passenger fatalities due to derailments or collisions, despite frequent earthquakes and typhoons. Injuries and a single fatality have been caused by doors closing on passengers or their belongings …
I’m riding Japan on the extremely comfortable trains, more spacious and comfortable than the European equivalent, I’d say.
I have a Japan Rail Pass, available only to foreigners. JR owns about 70% of the track in the country.
My Pass is good for almost every train, but not the 300 km/h (186 mph) Nozomi. The trip between Tokyo and Osaka, a distance of 515 kilometres, takes 2 hours 26 minutes on Nozomi. My slow poke Bullet train took over 3hrs!
These trains are the envy of UK commuters, and government, says The Guardian.
Obama keeps talking up the concept for the USA, but I doubt it’s going to happen any time soon.
===== Update*
I met a woman on a train today who told me of what happened during the earthquake. The bullet train we were on was shut down for about 2 months. She had a friend on the same line at the time … the train stopped in a tunnel. Passengers had to overnight and then walk out to a peach farm where they were eventually rescued by bus.
Rick McCharles 