Japan Trip Dec 07 (recap) - Day 4

DAY 4 – Otaru 小樽
24th Dec 07 (Mon)

8.30am. Late again. Exhaustion had taken over me and I overslept once more.

Made my way to Otaru and the snowscape along the way was simply beautiful. There were times where I was tempted to alight at any random stop. But hunger and whatever sanity I had left with stopped me.





And finally there I was - Otaru JR Station...



My first stop? To get some brunch in this freezing weather. En route my search, I past by the Otaru Canal…



Rows of nostalgic brick warehouses...



And a field of snow...



In the end, I settled for a bowl of steaming hot ramen in one of the eateries housed within an old warehouse.



After a filling brunch, I was greeted by the following sight:



Yes… it’s that cold that icicles formed from the roof. The passage way was blocked and signages were set up to wan people about its presence as well. Wooo~ dangerous.

Otaru’s known for its glassworks and musical boxes as well. Thus, I set out to search for these items. It’s easy to find many shops that sell glassworks but I had difficulty to locate the renowned shop that specialized in musical boxes. After much struggle (and cursing and swearing to myself), I finally found it!



Needless to say, I spent more than an hour inside listening to the different tunes and trying to decide which ones I should get for the gang. In the end, I settled for the following tunes:
- OST for Spirited away
- Ayaka (March days)
- Lalala Love song
- Mr Children (can’t remember the song title)
- Mika Nakashima (Yuki no Hana)

By the time I stepped out from the shop, it was close to sunset. With a bag load of things, I decided to walk around without the aid of a map. That’s when I saw the sun gradually setting behind the mountain range…

Despite the sensible side of me telling me not to do the foolish thing, I decided to ignore the inner voice and clambered up various hills and slopes just to get a shot of sunset by the mountain range with houses in the fore front. Well… the mountain didn’t look that far any way.

BUT I was totally wrong… the higher I clambered on, the further it was away from me. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! And to think that I almost slipped and fell whilst struggling up one of the steep slopes. Time was slipping away and sunset was coming. But I got tired. Could you just imagine that I’m actually sweating in Winter???????? Oh boy… so “clever” of me…

That’s when I decided to call it quits and took this at the bottom of one of the slopes… without the mountain range of course…



Bit by bit, I slowly made my way down back to Otaru Canal. Along the way, I was stopped by 2 separate Japanese couples asking for directions… Hahaha.. of course I answered them!

‘”Sumimasen. Wakarimasen” (Sorry, I don’t know).

Back at Otaru Canal, I decided to wander off again and went into a back lane that bustling with life! There’s lines of shops that sold seafood (you picked the live seafood from the tank and they would BBQ it for you on the spot and you would stand and eat by the roadside), ornaments, glassworks, accessories and some clothing.

Here’s the Hello Kitty candy dispenser that I took… weren’t they cute?



And another shop that specialized in selling pets’ stuff:



As i walked on, i saw something interesting...



According to Lenus, these were set up to help minimize collapsing snow...

And before i realized it, the sun was setting and at its most glorious moment...









Soon after the sun had set, the Otaru canal lighted up...



While i was taking this picture, a teenage couple (kinda cute looking) approached me and asked if i could help them take picture using their handphone. I took over the phone and just as I was about to click on the button, I realized the screen was blank… For a moment I thought the camera mode was off. But then it struck me! I flipped over and realized my finger was blocking the camera… hahahaha…

Luckily, they didn’t notice as it was kinda dark or I would be sooooo damn paiseh. In the end, I took the picture quite nicely :) Hey! Before you laugh at me, their camera was on the back of the phone and unlike where we had it in Singapore okie (camera on the flip itself)…

Another Japanese old lady then approached me to help them take photo as well. Well… I guess I should have set up a booth there to help people take photo and earn some extra tips for the trip.

After much deliberation, I decided to head back to Sapporo, grabbed a bento at the station, and went back to hotel to catch some rest before setting off to Tokyo in the night train.




24th Dec 07 (Mon) – 9.55pm

Boarded Hamanasu and was surprised to see this…



Did you see a huge luggage in the picture? I was to sleep around that area…

Meaning, I’m sleeping on the train’s carpeted floor. For those of you who get sea sick or car sick, please do not attempt to request for a sleeper bed (there were normal seats) on this train as it would make you really nauseous. I don’t get sea sick nor car sick but I really felt like puking… it’s that bad.

There’s also no room for privacy (which was fine by me) as you were separated from another person by a thin curtain that drew up to your shoulder at most, when you lie down…



Oh!!! And there was this Japanese ah pek who was taking off his thermal pants (he was wearing another pair of pants inside lah) in the open and i think he accidentally revealed his private part for a split second. Yes… unlucky me caught it once again. Not that I was looking but I was unpacking and happened to look at his direction. Haiz…

Before long, I had a 3G video call with the gang (this call was not cheap and my total handphone bill came up more than S$200!!!!). They were wearing black and celebrating X’mas Eve together in a warm setting. Whereas I was wearing black and celebrating X’mas Eve alone in a cold cabin (I had to step outside my warm cabin to pick up the call). Oh well… despite that, it was actually a very nice and surreal experience…

After the call, I made my way back to my “bed” and attempted to sleep but sleep was shallow… because of the constant jerking of the train and the fear of missing my stop.