Day 4 - Off to the races

With the worst of the stomach woes in my past, but it making for a not so restful sleep, I decide to just give up around 4AM so I could sit on the couch and reevaluate our planned day. A few weeks prior when I was double-checking the horse racing (Ba'nei) times and schedule for Monday, I came across the fact that they start much later than they do on the weekend, at 14:00. I took that as our opportunity to smoosh in another attraction along the way, a Salmon/Aquarium place where you can walk "on top of" the river and see them out in nature, along with a few more cool looking exhibits. However, the unplanned very bad night of sleep and still not feeling 100% took that newly formed thought and threw it right back out the window. 

Instead, after some convincing, we opted for a slow start to the morning, hanging around playing video games and eating another Konbini breakfast. We would end up on the Sapporo train to Chitose around 10AM, this was the connection point to Obihiro and the racetrack area, it should put us right where we needed to be close to that 14:00 start time along with a little exploration along the way.

Chitose Outlet Mall seemed to be the only thing in or around the station to look at during our 50 minute train layover to get to Obihiro. Not having walked a whole lot by this point (we took a taxi to Sapporo station this morning as Uber worked like a charm in these larger cities), we took a quick run across the street to find out what was there and if it would be worth it. A big sign greeted us, along with a bunch of America outlet mall brands of shoes and clothing. KRISPIE KREME- um, yes please? Of course it turned out to be clear on the other side of the mall, making it for a brisk walk to ensure we wouldn't be stuck for an extra hour train layover (these country trains do not run often!). Success was had with a half dozen "traditional" glaze and chocolate donuts and one kitsune Hokkaido special, I'm told it was a custard type as it wasn't what I ate this day and we marked the first of a couple Eastern versions of American brands off our try list- this one seemed to have pretty good flavor and nice soft donuts, but markedly not as in-your-face pure sugar overload as every single Kristpie Kreme in American has. Very interesting and a bit hard to describe, but I like it.

Obihiro Racecourse for the Ban'ei racing was next. The train ride continued through the countryside until we arrived at a town/small city. It was nice and spread out, not like Tokyo, Kyoto or even Sapporo that we'd seen before. There were more cars, auto shops, gas stations and even bikes here. There wasn't as much walking and definitely not as many train stations, the nearest stop being the JR station over a 25-minute walk away, inside which only had a few souvenir shops and several small "pop up" type restaurants. No malls here. Deciding to hop into a taxi to get the 20-25 minute walk over in a 8 minute drive instead turned out to be a good call, as malls were not what we were after here.

No, today was all about the horses, and the traditional racing known as Ban'ei. Ever since reading Silver Spoon, our daughter had been hyper focused on seeing these giant horses in person. Me being the fan I am of such oddball things then promised her during COVID that this would go on our Japan list for the next trip, which only seemed like fantasy for years. Now that the trip was actually planned and we were well on our way of exploration, the whole day was for her and the fantasy that was playing with, feeding and seeing these giant horses and traditional sport in action. According to her, it did not disappoint and was just thrilling to see the slowing horse race known to man in action. Instead of the laps and by a hair finishes you see at the betting places and domestic horses stateside, these were horses made for nothing but pulling, and pulling sleds very carefully over large hills is what they did. If you are not able to separate your feelings from traditional sports, the use of animals for such things and newer more "humane" thinking then this might not be the place for you, but taking it at face value and appreciating the traditional aspect, horses themselves, the love and care the owners have for the horses and the awe of the place itself was enough enjoyment for me. It definitely wasn't your traditional American's stop in Japan and that always piques my interest.

Inside the racetrack (aside from the racing area itself) was a betting area (we didn't partake), kids play area (for smaller kids), snack stalls, souvenir shops, an area to go out to some stalls and feed the horses, ponies and even bunnies they had there and finally a "museum" area where they talked about the sport, had some awards/trophies on display, showed the farmers and farms these guys came/come from and other aspects of it, mostly in Japanese. Parts of the large building had some beautiful paintings, which I was sure to grab photos of, and there were some very funny traditional board sign photo op spots as well. We stayed for two full

races, grabbed a few souvenirs, ate some ice cream, fed the horses and took plenty of photos before heading back out. It was a full afternoon and without a clear way of how to get a taxi to take us back to a station, we flailed for a few minutes before deciding to just walk, thankfully we had some gas left in our tanks due to the slow morning and taxi ride to the track! One quick nod to the whole reason we ended up here was seen on our way out- I believe this was in front of one of the currently closed museum buildings, I was honestly surprised to not see any merchandise or other nods the entirety of the actual facility otherwise.

It was a long walk back, I'm thinking closer to 30 minutes at our slower-than-Google-calculated pace. There wasn't too much to see in Obihiro, no huge shopping centers, no neon lights, barely even any trains or overpasses. It looked more spread out and urban than any Japanese town I'd see thus far. Reminded me much more of how American towns are spread out and how you can't get anywhere comfortably without a car. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, just very different, and not exactly my favorite feeling. We were darn hungry by the time we made it back to the station too, and not knowing what time we were leaving there were no reservations to make for the train back. They seemed to run on an hourly schedule or so and we had a little over an hour to grab a bite to eat at one of those aforementioned pop-up restaurants. Tonight's menu would be ramen- ran by a single guy behind the counter, costing an entire 600Y a bowl and darn tasty. Afterwards we were ready for the 2 hour long train ride back to the apartment- along with the traditional Japanese napping-on-trains and all.

It was a long, but relaxing ride back, nothing to really report on other than the fact that it takes forever to get to and from Obihiro. Google is not lying when they say 2 hours, but you also have to account for the train layovers and then actually commuting from the train station to your place of staying. I believe we didn't make it back to the apartment before 9:30-10PM this night, making for one of our longest days in Japan. Tuesday would not bring a long day of rest either, instead we were going right back at it as it was time to see the zoo next. I couldn't find that much information on Murayama, just that it was a nice looking area and that I was going to chicken out on commuting to and instead fork over about 2,600Y for a taxi- more on that in Day 5.