I decided I was going to Hokkaido.
I decided I was going to Hokkaido, even if it meant going alone.
I went to Hokkaido alone.
In Japan, there's a very handy thing called the seishun jyuuhachi kippu, which basically translates to "youthful 18 ticket," or put in a more cheesy and anime-like way, the "springtime of youth 18 ticket." With this ticket, for a whole day, midnight to midnight, you can ride any local train on any JR line in Japan, and it only costs 2300 yen per day, which is something like 23 dollars. It actually comes in a 5-pack, so it's more like 11500 yen for 5 days, and it's really just one piece of paper with 5 boxes for stamps. Because it uses stamps, you can't feed it through the regular ticket machine, and you have to go through a staffed entrance gate, but that's not a huge issue. The ticket isn't consecutive, so you can use one stamp slot on one day and the next slot a few days later. Multiple people can also share the ticket. For example, if you get two stamps, two people can use that ticket to get through various stations on the same day.
seishun 18 kippu
Being on winter break and wanting to take advantage of the inexpensive ticket plus adventure, I bought a ticket (which is actually 5 tickets) and planned my trip to Hokkaido. My plans were perfect. I laid out my entire route, transfer times, which stations to transfer, which stations to stop at, etc. Everything added up perfectly. I made a reservation for a youth hostel around Lake Toya, which is in the south-eastern part of Hokkaido, and I packed my things. On the night of January 1, New Years Day, a huge holiday in Japan, I made my way to Kyoto station and got ready for midnight to pass so that I could activate the first day of my ticket by taking the 00:03 kyuukou, express in English, night train at perhaps the earliest time possible.
There were more hitches in my plans than I could even imagine. Like, way more hitches than I could ever even imagine. First things first, I failed to read the fine print, and when I got to Kyoto station, I was immediately told that I couldn't use my pass on express trains. I understood that I couldn't use it on tokkyuu trains, or limited express trains, but the plain express trains part was news to me. Since I got to the station really early just in case I couldn't find the platform, I immediately sat down after that and re-routed my trip. In the end, I had to bite the bullet and shell out some extra money for a short ride on the express train, which brought me to Fukui, where I waited in the (wonderful, amazing God-sent) heated waiting room to catch my connection. The 6:20 am train took me to Kanazawa, where I connected yet again to Toyama and then connected again to...blah blah. Anyway, in the course of two days, I rode 16 trains to get to Lake Toya.
Fukui's heated waiting room
Yay for fun local trains and scenery and whatnot, right? Sure, except somewhere between day one and day two, I ran out of cash. Ah, Japan, a cash-based society, why? I looked into my wallet, which contained about enough money for the bus fair from the final station to the youth hostel, and figured I should make a stop to the post office, the only place with an ATM that would take my American debit card. Somewhere along the way, I dashed out of the station I was transferring at and headed to the post office, only to find it closed. I tried again at the next station. That post office was closed too. One more time at the next station. Closed. What was going on???
Finally I asked a station attendant why the post offices were closed. Apparently, New Years Day is a much bigger holiday in Japan than I expected, and the post offices all close down not just January 1st, not just January 1st and 2nd, but January 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, meaning that I was out of money until January 4th, which would be the day after I arrived at the hostel at Lake Toya. Fantastic. Not only would I have to ask the hostel if I could pay the 2nd day in rather than up-front, I also had not enough money to eat. For an entire day. Thankfully I had packed...a chocolate bar...which was my breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the day.
Between Kanita and Kikonai, the northernmost station of Japan's Honshuu island and the southernmost station of Hokkaido, holders of a seishun 18 kippu can ride the limited express train because no other trains pass through the 30-minute undersea tunnel connecting the two islands. Somehow, however, I was failed to be informed that they can only ride some of the limited express trains, the one I planned on riding not included. That meant I was going to be delayed, and I had no money, so I was unable to pay for an express ticket to cover that distance quickly.
This delay resulted in my reaching Toya station not around 6:40pm, as I had originally intended, but at 9:04 pm, precisely 5 minutes after the last bus left the station. Penguin-ing through the snow to the taxi area, I tapped on the window of the first taxi driver in line and asked how much it would cost to get to my hostel--roughly 3500 yen. GREAT. I didn't have enough money. And it was dark, late, and cold, so I couldn't just walk either. The taxi driver suggested that I call the hostel to ask if I could borrow money for the taxi and then pay them back later, which I did, and thankfully the hostel owner said that was fine. So I hopped in the cab and was driven to the Showa Shinzan Youth Hostel.
I arrived, the owner paid the taxi driver, and the taxi driver left. After that, I stood at the front desk, and the owner stared at me for a while. And then he chewed me out. "This is unacceptable. Do you know what time it is? The check-in period ended 30 minutes ago. Did you read the instructions? Can you read?" To add further insult to injury, he pulled out the hostel manual and switched to English. "You. made. the. reservation. right?," jabbing his finger at the place in the manual that said "Check-in: 3pm - 9pm" with every word. In my state of sleep deprivation, hunger, and coldness, I just started bawling and didn't stop. Eventually the guy grabbed the keys to my room and started walking, so I followed. Per hostel policy, I switched from shoes to slippers and then noticed that all the other slippers were still on the shelf, meaning that I was the only visitor. Greeeaaat. Not only was I staying at a place whose owner probably despised me, I was staying there with no other people around to soften the situation.
We walked past the bathroom, to which the owner crankily muttered "bath," up the stairs, down the hallway, and finally reached my room. The owner opened the door and then walked off, leaving me to finish my sobbing in peace. The only upside to the experience was that since there was no one else at the hostel, they put me in a private, Japanese-style room, rather than in the multi-person dorm room, which I had originally booked, and there was a heater. Oh, the wifi saved me as well. I took a bath, sobbed my story out to my mom via Skype, and then went to sleep, hungry.
Tired as I was, I woke up as early as possible to walk to the nearest post office and finally get some money. It was two miles away. The whole walk there, I worried about what if there was something wrong with my card, what if the post office hadn't actually re-opened yet, etc. However, when I got to the post office, it was open, my card went through, and I finally held in my hands some very precious paper money. I went straight to the nearest convenience store and bought some melon-pan, a fluffy bread thing surrounded in a crunchy bread thing. It was the best piece of bread I'd ever eaten in my life. Happily eating my bread and walking back to the hostel, I finally was able to relax a bit and enjoy the beautiful lakeside plus snow scenery.
snacks for future hunger prevention
I returned to the hostel, properly checked in and paid the hostel owner, and then headed straight to the onsen, (hot spring) and thoroughly bathed and warmed up. It was glorious. My next two days at Lake Toya were relatively smooth and enjoyable. I spent them between the onsen, chatting with my friends in California, and eating miso ramen, which was invented in Hokkaido. On the last day, even, a group of travelers checked in to the hostel and I was comforted by the footsteps and voices in the hallway of people who weren't me.
miso ramen
Here's a pause to praise one of the ramen shops I visited at Lake Toya. I walked in at 11:30 am, and the energetic grandpa-aged man behind the counter of the empty restaurant invited me to take seat. He pulled out the menu, and I ordered miso ramen, of course, but as the menu flashed by, I noticed that the store wasn't actually supposed to open for another half hour. Feeling my stomach grumble, I was happy that the guy let me in anyway. As he was making my ramen, he asked me various questions about where I was from, what I was doing, etc., and I was happy to actually talk to a friendly person for the first time in a long while. After my ramen came out, he asked if I had mochi to celebrate the new year, and I replied no, since I was travelling. He promptly rummaged behind the counters and came out with a piece of mochi for me. While happily chewing on my mochi, I thought, wow, genuinely kind people do actually exist in this world. He plopped down on the other side of the counter from me and started eating his own ramen--I think I came in during the time that he usually eats--and then cut up an apple for dessert, but first shared half of it with me. It came from Aomori, the prefecture right below Hokkaido, which is famous in Japan for its apples, and it was probably the most delicious apple I've had in years. I'm touched that he shared his apple with me since I was there, rather than hoarding the whole thing to himself. As I was leaving, he gave me a piece of caramel candy, explaining that he always makes them for his granddaughter, who's currently in high school. Meeting such a nice person after having such a rough time was probably the highlight of my trip. Being a pun lover, I also loved the name of the ramen shop, Menkoi. Men means noodle in Japanese, and koi means love, but in the northeastern region of Japan, menkoi is the word for kawaii, which in English means cute. Best thing ever. If I ever start up my own cafe, I might have to somehow incorporate noodles into the menu so that I can borrow the name and have an excuse to use it.
Anyway, I left Lake Toya on January 6th and headed to Sapporo for the day. I'm glad I went because Sapporo's an awesome city. I played Blazblue at a local arcade, ate some more ramen, did a bit of sightseeing and then took the night express train (which I paid for) from Sapporo back to Aomori. Normally I would have just meandered back to Kyoto, but since I had to return before Monday and I really wanted to go to Sapporo, I ended up buying the express ticket. And that wasn't a problem because I HAD CASH at that point! Before taking my trip, little did I know that there are two overnight trains that can be used with the seishun 18 kippu, but by the time I found it, it was too late. Since those trains are really popular, the tickets sell out a month in advance, and both the overnight trains are based in Tokyo. It would have been nice to have an excuse to pass through Tokyo, but oh well. After being on my feet for multiple days, I really didn't care.
outside Sapporo station
After transferring at Aomori and then again at Akita, I was comfortable and satisfied with my trip. I was on my way home, and everything was perfect. Oh, but of course, if I ever begin to feel comfortable, something has to go wrong. That must be some deeply engraved law of nature or something. Between Akita and Sakata, my train stopped for a bit due to the snow. The train attendant said it would be a short wait, so I didn't think twice. After half an hour, however, I began worrying about my transfer, but I checked my timetable, and I noticed that I could take the next train, two hours later, and still make it to my planned stopping point. Two more hours passed. And then some more time. By the time the train started moving again, it had been four hours total, and I had missed any semblance of being able to get anywhere on time. Once again, I had a decision to make. I could stop at a station farther away from home, or I could pay a bit for an express train to catch me up. Having already spend more money than I intended to get back in a timely fashion from Sapporo, the first option sounded like a better plan...until I looked at my timetables. If I just went the local train route, I would get back at not at 12:30 pm the next day as I had planned, but somewhere closer to 8 pm. That was too much, especially since I planned on meeting my host family in Osaka for lunch at...12:30. And so, once again, I paid for a short ride on the limited express train to catch me up, and I arrived at my original stopping point only two hours later than I had planned.
I'm actually really glad my train stopped and I arrived two hours late. It turned out that the station I picked, Toyama, which I checked out on my way up to Sapporo, had a heated waiting room, but I failed to notice while scoping it out that the waiting room closed at midnight and didn't open until 4:30 am. Originally I was supposed to arrive at midnight, but since I arrived later, I only had to wait for two and a half hours in the freezing cold, rather than for four and a half hours. Actually, I only waited two hours because the station worker opened up the room half an hour early. But in any case, I was really, really cold. Hopping on the the first train out of that station, at 5:38am, was a great feeling. From that train on, everything went smoothly, and I arrived in Osaka promptly on time.
I saw a lot of this
I had a nice, warm lunch in Osaka, marveled at the lack of snow, went to the bookstore (and even found some study books on the LSATs, for which I've been on the lookout for a while now), passed through Osaka's Koreatown, smelling the familiar and welcome smell of kimchi and kalbi, and then headed home. And I marveled at the lack of snow. And I, once again, marveled at the lack of snow. My trip ended on a good note.
I can't say that I had the time of my life during my trip, or even anything close to that, but I'm definitely glad I went. I learned a lot of things while travelling alone in a foreign country. On the most macro level, I've decided that I want to live in Los Angeles for the rest of my life because it is warm and there are people. I also learned that money is really important, and that while in a foreign country where you don't know the rules of money, always carry enough cash to get you through any emergency situation. Also, read the fine print on things, i.e. train tickets. In any case, my trip to Hokkaido was, at least, a series of very valuable lessons.
Maybe if I have time, I'll write a guide on travelling with the seishun 18 kippu and its caveats for anyone who wants to try something similar. There are a few on the internet, but they're kind of outdated and don't explain everything in detail, so I think that someone, somewhere, may benefit from such a thing. But only if I have time, which is sort of questionable given my life in Japan so far.
Click HERE for a few more/high quality photos of my trip to Hokkaido. They will be completely uploaded by January 15, 2012.
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For photos of my study abroad experience in Japan, check out my Tumblr, which is updated on a much more frequent basis! (Due to not having to write anything.)
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