Week 9: Journey to the North!

May 24th, 2026

This week started real chill, as I was exhausted from many long days in a row during my trip to Kansai. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all mostly rest days where I got work done, chilled out, and took a nice walk. During a walk, I saw that there is an Eric Carle exhibit at a museum near my house, so I will have to check that out at some point.

On Thursday, I had two classes, but was really exhausted and it was tough to get out of bed, so I just took my time in the morning and got out about 45-50 minutes late. Unfortunately, this was one minute after a bus came, so I had to wait for the next one, which ended up being delayed 15 minutes. This was completely unheard of. The most I’ve seen a bus be delayed by here is 4 minutes, and that was only really early in the morning when everyone is squeezing on to get to work/school. 15 minutes was absolutely insane, and felt like forever, especially in the pouring rain. Eventually I did get to class about an hour and twenty minutes late, but luckily there was no lecture and it was just time to work on a project...that I still have to finish. I’ll get on that.

In my second class, Making Effective Presentations, which usually is just okay, we presented in small groups, and while most of ours were relatively serious and boring (mine was about how to make a t-shirt), one person in our group did a presentation on how to effectively kill a mosquito at night, and presented it completely in war terminology (ex. step 1: locate your enemy). It was very enjoyable.

After class, it was time for my next trip, which was up north to Sapporo. When planning for the trip, I accidentally booked my flight from Narita Airport instead of Haneda, which would have been much closer. Because of this, I had to go straight to the airport after class. There was a bus that came only once an hour to get me to the airport, so I was running in the pouring rain to catch it when I heard my phone buzzing with a text that I had forgotten my laptop in the classroom. I ran back to school from the stop, got my laptop, and made it to the bus with less than a minute to spare. Turns out, that bus actually comes every ten minutes, and I was worrying over nothing. At least I got some cardio in.

I ended up making it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I assumed that it would be a relatively average procedure to get to my gate, but this is probably the closest to pre-9/11 airport security that I’ll ever experience. I walked to security and scanned my boarding pass, and there was no TSA or anyone checking my ID. I could’ve just been anyone. When I went through security, I didn’t take my shoes off (which I think is also true back home now, but it’s still weird), and I didn’t even remember to empty my water bottle, but they just let it through after putting it in a machine to detect what was in it. I went from the door to the gate in like five minutes. Domestic flights are crazy.

The flight was quick and easy, taking just under two hours. I took two trains to get to my hotel, which was in Susukino, a bustling nightlife district. When I started to check in, the receptionist asked for my passport in English, but after I asked if showing my residence card was okay instead in Japanese, he switched to Japanese and the rest of the interaction was flawless all in Japanese. Feels good. The hotel room was really nice too, much nicer than the one last week in Kyoto.

This hotel came with breakfast, which was a nice buffet. I had some pancakes, eggs, croissants and yogurt, all very enjoyable. Right after breakfast, I took the train a bit under two hours east to Nopporo forest, a quiet and beautiful forest with some nice easy hiking trails. There were plenty of birds, and barely any people, and it was one of the quietest places I’ve been since being in Japan. There were plenty of beautiful torch azaleas in bloom, which were a common sight throughout this trip.

Every once in a while, throughout the trails, there would be an area of the forest where it was all one type of tree with no leaves, and it looked so out of place, almost like someone had planted them. Not sure what the story is with them, but it was interesting.

After taking the train back to Sapporo, I had lunch near my hotel, and decided to get soup curry, a spiced soup-based dish that Hokkaido is known for. It was really good, and I definitely can see how nice it would be to eat during Hokkaido’s harsh winters. After lunch, I went back to my hotel to grab my undershirt which I had forgotten to put on before, because it was time to go hiking.

The only thing I planned the trip around was a jazz club that I would be going to at night, so a day before the trip I did some research and picked out a bunch of things to do. Friday was supposed to be sunny and beautiful, so I picked some outside things, and Saturday was supposed to be cold and cloudy, so I planned inside things. One of the outside things that I saw online was Mt. Maruyama. The website said it was an easy hike that even children can do, and all of the reviews said it was easy and that you don’t even need any gear. Unfortunately, I’ll never figure out if these things are true.

I went up a nice wooden path, but after a while the wood ended, and the real hiking path started. I had assumed I was already on the hiking path, but no matter. I continued to go up for a while, and it was pretty steep. There were some really steep stairs and hills, and while it was beautiful, it definitely wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Another interesting thing was that I didn’t see anyone behind me, and only ever saw people coming down. Hm. Odd.

After making it nearly two thirds of the way to the summit, and after needing to take rests nearly every two minutes, I decided to look at Google maps, and realized that I had been going the wrong way. I’m not sure why people only coming down didn’t tip me off to this. I honestly just thought I was a little bitch, because all of the reviews online were talking about how literal babies could do this with a blindfold on, plus I was seeing actual grandmas scaling down the mountain, all the while I’m sweating through both of my shirts and needing to sit every couple minutes to catch my breath while feeling like my legs are falling off. It was slightly relieving to know I’m not quite as much of a little bitch as I thought I was (only slightly!), but I still had to make it to the top. It took many more rests, but I finally made it and got to see the great view of the whole city.

Was it worth it? Absolutely not. The view was great, but for it to have been worth that hike it would have had to been the moon or something. If I was prepared physically and mentally for a more challenging hike, it would’ve been different, but going with no gear, very little water, very little hiking experience and low expectations made for a very interesting afternoon. The way down was a bit easier, especially considering it was the longer way so it was less steep than the real way down would have been, but it still hurt my feet a lot because they were already hurting before. I finally reached the bottom after what felt like forever, and realized that the way I was supposed to go was about 20 feet away from the way I actually went. It was cartoonish how different they were—the correct way to go was a normal forest area with a barely noticeable trail, and the wrong way to go (which is actually the way to go to a nearby zoo) is a beautifully created wooden path. At least I don’t feel like it was completely my fault.

I had more plans for the day, but those were cancelled because I had died one hundred times in the last two hours. I made it back to my hotel, legs hurting maybe more than they ever had in my life. It even hurt to go down the stairs into the subway. At least I finally had time to rest.

Laying down had never felt so good. But I could only do it for so long, because after eating a mediocre dinner, I wanted some ice cream. Hokkaido is known for many things, one of which is dairy, so I went to an ice cream shop and got a pistachio ice cream and raspberry sorbet. It was lovely!

After ice cream time, it was finally time for the reason I booked the trip! Ryo Fukui, a Japanese jazz pianist from Sapporo, opened a jazz club called Slowboat a bit over 30 years ago that he would regularly play at and all of the best local jazz musicians would play at. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2016, but his wife still runs the club to this day. I really wanted to go there, so I went to see the trio playing that night. It’s a tiny place, only seating about 20 people, and has a great atmosphere. Well, it did before some people started smoking. I really take for granted that people don’t smoke indoors in the US anymore.

The bass player ended up sitting next to me before the music started, so I chatted with him for a while. He’s from Connecticut but lived in New York for a long time, and moved to Sapporo with his wife who is from there. He was really nice, and it was great to talk to him about his experience in Japan and with music. Then, the music started, and the band was absolutely lovely. Great setlist, great solos from great musicians.

While the band was playing, I noticed there was someone who, from the back, looked exactly like Harry. His face didn’t look similar, but from the back it was scarily close. I took a picture and didn’t think much of it until the pianist grabbed the mic and said that it was someone’s birthday, and that it was his. Interesting, it was also my dad’s birthday! Funny that the guy who looks like Harry has my dad’s birthday. And then the pianist starts singing happy birthday, dear Daniel. This guy’s name was Daniel, had my dad’s birthday, and looks like Harry from behind. What’s next? Is he also my mom?

After the show, I was able to chat with the pianist in Japanese, and it was easily my best and smoothest conversation in Japanese I've had in my nearly 2.5 years of learning. One of my complaints recently (that I don’t necessarily blame anyone for) was that people don’t really try to work with me in Japanese. If I don’t immediately catch something, they either just repeat what they said again or immediately try to switch to English, even if they barely speak it. I was talking to a friend not too long ago about how I wish people would just try to talk in simpler words, rephrase things, or talk slower instead of giving up on me immediately, because it really made me unconfident in my speaking skills when I knew I was capable of better. The interaction with the pianist really gave me my confidence back, because he actually worked with me. He didn't talk too fast, gave me time to think, and we had a smooth, nice conversation. I was beaming the whole walk back from the club about it. The bartender also gave me a little Ryo Fukui button, and there was even a student discount which I thought was really funny to have at a bar.

The next day’s forecast was high of 62 and cloudy, but when I woke up it changed to high of 68, and sunny. I won’t complain!

First on the list was something I didn’t plan before the trip, and only found out about because of an ad on the side of a train. At the Hokkaido museum of modern art, there was a Pokémon exhibit, and it was really cool. There were very cool large sculptures, a figurine of a Pokémon that could be turned into its evolution like a transformer, cool fabrics with subtle Pokémon prints, porcelain pieces that were relatively subtle (the vase is especially subtle if you don’t get close), the sparkly Kingdra vase, and the Unown tea caddy. If you like Pokémon or art, or especially if you like both, you should click here to see all of my pictures from the exhibit. You may have to zoom in to really appreciate some of them.

I had soup curry again for lunch, and this time it was even better. Not much else to say other than I’ll definitely look forward to next time I can have it.

After lunch, I went to the Hokkaido Historic village, which is sort of an open air museum. It is a collection of rebuilt and moved houses and structures from different periods of history from around Hokkaido. It was cool to go inside them and read about their history, and I’m glad the weather was warmer because it would have not been as fun if it was much colder. There was also a nice pond towards the back, and a horse drawn carraige you could ride.

Nearby was the Hokkaido Museum which highlights the history of Hokkaido. It’s very unique compared to mainland Japan, as humans first colonized the area from modern-day Russia when there was a land bridge due to lower sea level, but not a land bridge to the rest of Japan because the ocean floor is deeper there. It was interesting to learn about the native people, the Ainu people, and their culture, and how Hokkaido eventually became integrated into the rest of Japan and the people weren’t treated very well (sounds familiar…). I also got to learn about some of the wildlife from some cool life-sized models. I had to speedrun through the museum a little bit, so I didn’t get to read absolutely everything. But that's because I needed to get to the next museum before it closed.

The next museum, which I really wanted to see, was the Sapporo beer museum. Beer is probably the thing Sapporo is most world famous for, and even though I’m not a beer guy, it was very interesting to learn about the history of the company and how it shaped Hokkaido and even Japan’s economy, as well as how it continues to function today. They had a tasting area where you could try the regular black label beer, the Sapporo classic (which is only sold in Hokkaido), and the Kaitakushi original (which is the original recipe from the late 1800s). I tried the Sapporo classic, and while it was better than other beers I’ve had and was relatively light, the fact that I am not a beer guy has not changed.

I decided to have dinner at a tonkatsu place, and got a chicken katsu set. The chicken itself was pretty good, but the highlight was the sauce. They give you sesame seeds and a mortar and pestle, and you grind up the sesame seeds to combine with a sweet sauce. It was really fragrant and tasted so nice, and that’s coming from someone who never eats sauce on anything.

Something I was looking forward to since my “experience” at the mountain was going to an onsen, as there was one about an hour southwest from my hotel. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere, and was relatively cheap. When I got there, I did realize that I would only be able to go in for 45 minutes if I wanted to catch the last bus back to the hotel, but I figured if I was enjoying myself and wanted to stay longer, I could just get a taxi to the train station instead. So I didn’t worry about it too much, and just relaxed. It was a lovely time as always, and really relaxing on my body which was sore and exhausted.

After I got out and checked the time, it was about 10 minutes after the last bus. Oh well, I could still call a taxi through Uber and get back easily. Or so I thought. I attempted calling a taxi twice and an uber after that, none of which got any drivers. I was starting to worry a bit, cause I was genuinely in the middle of nowhere, and a four hour walk away from my hotel, but I decided I would start walking towards the direction of my hotel, and call a taxi as I got closer.

I walked for about 20 minutes and reached the bus stop, so I could sit and attempt to call a taxi again. No dice. I started to get a bit more worried. I was really stranded. I was exhausted physically and mentally from a full day of activity, I had completely ran out of water, it was 49 degrees out and I only had a light flannel, and I was in the middle of nowhere, a little over 3.5 hours from my hotel. I called my mom and we discussed some options but I figured my best bet was just to continue walking. Worst comes to worst, I had to sleep out at a bus stop until the morning, or I could try to find a hotel.

I continued to walk for another 45 or so minutes, where I finally reached the edge of a town that had a FamilyMart that’s open 24 hours. I was able to get some water and a snack, and decided to try to call another taxi. And after a few minutes of waiting, I actually got one! I was really surprised and didn’t want to get too excited in case they cancelled, but they didn’t, and I got driven a bit over 30 minutes back to my hotel. I ended up getting home a bit under 2 and a half hours after leaving the onsen. It was such a relief. After a long two days, I really didn’t want to have to sleep outside in the mid 40s. I’m not sure if it comes off well from writing because it’s only 3 paragraphs, but that was one of the longest hours of my life. I wasn’t worried about my safety, but wasn't exactly thrilled with the situation. I effectively undid all of the physical and mental relaxation I went through at the onsen. I would say it was a net neutral, but I had blisters on both feet and my leg hurt, so I think it was a net negative. Oh well. At least it made for a good story!

After a mediocre sleep, I checked out of my hotel and went straight to the airport to go home. A short flight, bus and train ride later, I finally was able to lay in my bed at the house in Tokyo again. Even though it’s not my true home, it’s a lot more home than a hotel, and I really needed to feel a bed I recognized. I promise I did have an amazing time on this trip, even if there were some...experiences. But isn't that what life is all about?

I’m looking forward to an uneventful week with very little plans this upcoming week. Hopefully you won’t be hearing any stories about treacherous climbs or strandedness next time. But if you really want to hear more, I can make some up and add them in.

Until then. Have a lovely day.
-Dan