back to japan 2 - hokkaido

SO IT'S OFF to the snowy north. The shinkansen whisks us via a long tunnel to the island of Hokkaido. First stop Hakodate, once the main port linking the north to the main island of Honshu. It feels very much like an old American port town, down on its luck – vacant plots, attempts to turn it into a tourist destination on the lines of Cannery Row in California, some interesting old frontier style buildings, but mostly banal modern.

     This was the first port where outside trading contacts were allowed in the 1850s after many years of isolation. The Russians, Americans and British rapidly established commercial bases and consulates. Some of that history is still visible: Russian style architecture including an onion domed orthodox church, a classical house for the Japanese colonial Governor.

     There are huge brick warehouses, now providing an opportunity for Chinese duty free shopping, and a morning market selling a vast array of fish products including gigantic live king crabs.

     Next day we continued along the coast by the narrow gauge railway to Noborobetsu. This is a complete contrast, a spa town in a deep wooded valley, spoilt a little by large ugly hotels for tour groups. However, we stayed in a lovely ryokan (Kashotei Hanaya) – immaculate rooms, tatami mat floors, sliding screens, and its own homely onsen, where you bathe naked in the water from local hot springs. But living on the floor is hard for these old western bones.

The water comes at 80C and high pressure from further into the hills, an area known locally as Hell's valley, all fumaroles and steam and sulphorous smells. The contrast of the soft calm snow and the violent outpourings from the earth were stunning. In the town there's a geyser that boils angrily every three hours.

     Back at the hotel we were served an elaborate kaiseki dinner in our room – multiple courses, each with many elements of contrasting taste and textures, each served on carefully chosen crockery. I have come to realise that modern western chefs have taken all their cues from Japan. The bento breakfast was almost as good.

     So on to Sapporo. We made a short tour of Noborobetsu until our train arrived. The town features a weird 'European' theme park, and little else, although I manged a spectacular cartoon style fall on the ice – without much damage!

Sapporo was colder than the east coast and we tramped the streets despite persistent snow showers delivered on a keen wind. We saw preparations already udner way for the ice sculpture festival.

     The second day was a big improvement – bright and sunny. We went out east of the city and walked through the forest park to visit the Hokkaido building museum, which holds lots of fascinating mostly nineteenth century buildings brought from all over the island. In thick new snow and with few other visitors, it was spectacular. Nearby is the Hokkaido museum; its huge imposing modern building houses an interesting display on the geography and history of the island, emphssiisng that it is at the crossroads between north and south Asia. Prehistoric cultures came here during the ice age and continued as a separate ethnic group – the Ainu – more akin to Siberian peoples than to the mainland Japanese, who colonised and brutally 'assimilated' them during the shogun era. Eventually the island was incorporated into Japan in the late ninteenth century. It all felt disconcertingly like the history of Ireland.

     We returned to the hotel via the Sapporo beer museum – a bit of a tourist trap and the free samples were off limits on the day of our visit. The brewery is a series of interesting nineteenth century buildings (part of that colonisation!)

     We finished the day with tonkatsu comfort food and a few pints in an Irish pub.