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.

Day 3 - Ginza to Sapporo

I had a rough night of waking up between 8PM and 3AM, at which time I finally gave up to go get dressed and find a Konbini (very well knowing nothing actually opens in Japan until 10AM) for a quick bite to eat and cold drinks. Everyone else ended up waking up, so we all ventured out in the drizzly rain at around 4AM. The streets were still mainly void of people, we saw a decked out race car parked on the side of the road with the driver nearby, a very drunk gentleman stumbling down the sidewalk and a few bar hoppers still walking home from their night out (not looking as drunk). I made the conclusion that the bars around here must close at 4AM, since as we walked more and more of these super stylishly dressed, like bar workers, were roaming about and the streets already had numerous people before we made it back with our Konbini stash of food shortly before 5AM. Our Shinaknsen for Sapporo left early, but not this early, so it was time to get a bite to eat, repack and make our way to the station slowly.  Our first Konbini trip was a success with soft boiled eggs, a bread something-or-another that was tasty and juice/cold waters to hold us over. Why is a soft boiled egg from the Konbini this fresh and delicious tasting? That's a mystery someone from the U.S. will sit astounded at all day long, only taken for granted here in Japan.

We all knew we were in for a long day of travel, this would be the longest one of the entire trip, clocking in at around 8 hours before we'd be up and about again. The first stint was on the Hokuto/Hakodate line and would end there, this is the famous "underground Shinkansen" that connects Honshu to Hokkaido to the north. I was excited to finally make it out of the tourist zone and go exploring here on the third try, to make it all the better, this was my first time being in Japan without bitter cold eating away at us. After much research, my weather plan was working out perfectly, Hokkaido would be 65-70F and cloudy/drizzle the entire time we were there. Not making for those 100% perfect pictures or nice views from higher up, but making it perfect weather to just be there and walk at our own pace. The excitement started to hit again as we traveled through the countryside of Japan seeing all of the flooded rice patties, mountains and greenery pass us by.

One smooth Shinkansen ride later, we were in Hakodate for our transfer to the Hokuto Express, that would take us the last 2 hours over to Sapporo. The Shinkansen extension to make it all the way there (through many mountains, might I add), is due to be completed in 2030. This complex network of trains and fast/efficient travel does not happen overnight! It was a pretty simple process of hopping off one train and over to the next, with a few Konbini and Eki Bento shops along the way, I decide to grab myself my first Eki Bento and we continued the long journey.  Going at a more leisurely pace allowed for some photos to be taken

from the windows and observation of more fields, but this time some of them had horses and cows scattered about. This is where we were, Hokkaido of the north where almost all of Japan's diary comes from. A little sad I wouldn't be able to partake in it all for my GI upset reasons, I made it a must for kiddo to drink some milk and eat some ice cream while we were visiting, a demand she had no problems complying with.

Sapporo Station, ah, another labyrinth of malls and mazes. And for the first time this trip, but no stranger to us realizing that .4 miles is way longer when you have luggage with you.  Instead of doing the smart thing and hailing a taxi for a 900Y cost to the apartment, we decide to walk it. 16 minutes with 25LBS on your back through a busy mall (we were here on a Sunday, tripling the traffic load) and down back alleys wasn't the most fun we'd have, but it was necessary at this point.

Luckily the AirBNB apartment was ready to be checked into and I had very detailed instructions on the process that had nothing to do with interacting with people. A quick code to get into the building and a few turns of an old style lock to get into the mailbox for a very traditional looking key and we were in what would be "home" for the next 4 days. The two bedrooms, living room, separate wash room and toilet down the hallway with a small living room, kitchen and dining room table were more than sufficient for the three of us, I was happy to be grounded for a few days and just sit down for a little bit before trying to figure out the rest of our evening. However, the earth had a wake up call for us, not 5 minutes after we sit down on the couch we here "BWOOP BWOOP BWOOP----- BWOOP BWOOP BWOOP". Having been just 3 weeks out from watching Suzume, I knew this noise! It was your 5 second earthquake warning and earthquake it was! Being on the 8th floor of this complex, it was quiet the shake, so myself and Terra head under aforementioned table until it decides to calm down. Looking at the reports it turned out to be a low 5 on the Japanese scale, basically enough to notice, but not enough to pause trains or knock over the glass on your table. Anything higher and stuff would've definitely been falling over. It took as a very real reminder to talk to Terra about safety and being prepared for these things, as I normally try to be, but sitting through a real earthquake was something for the memory book. In the prior 5 weeks total I've been here, we only had one other very small one in Nikko back in 2010- at the time we weren't even positive that's what it was. An earthquake big enough to trigger a warning was new!

Falling into what I sensed would become a pattern, we didn't really have time for "real lunch" besides what we could find at the train station and it now being close to 5PM, it was time to go find dinner. We had to go back to the Station to pickup the rest of our reserved tickets at a machine anyway, so I was really hoping to hit up a small Ramen place on the way back- the station itself was not hard to navigate in comparison to other places (especially in the coming days, more on this later), however once back in the station and with tickets obtained, we started to look around and realized there was a few cute pop up shops (BT21 and the like) AND a Pokemon center in this area. It was a very large complex of several malls and it really wasn't clear where the center was, so it was a few back and forth, turn around and then turn again and we finally made it into the only 8F mall there meaning it had to be the right one (the first two stopped at 7F). I wasn't aware of a center here, but of course there was, this was our experience in 2018 as well, there turned out to be a center almost everywhere we stopped instead of just the one place I had mapped out. We took the opportunity to grab a few necessities such as IC card pass holders and a wallet, but refrained from "shopping" as these were bags that would have to be hand carried for the next 2 weeks while travelled across the country by train.

Unable to find a ramen place (odd as I remember passing more than one on the walk to the apartment earlier), we ducked into one of Sapporo's famous "soup curry" places. I can't leave an unbiased review as I think I messed up the order and either made it medium or spicy (which ended up being a 7/10 spicy or so on our weak stomach scales). It tasted good overall, but the spice level was too high and I sadly ended up feeling pretty sick the rest of the night (the room even start to spin a bit). We walked the remaining few minutes to the apartment and I quickly took a shower and passed out, hoping to feel better by morning as we were off to the races next.

Days 1 and 2 - Flights and Ginza (June 9/10, 2023)

Full disclaimer here: this is our first time going back to Japan since late 2018, our 2020 trip was unable to be planned because of the pandemic and this was the first real shot we had at going again since Oct 2022 when borders were re-opened. As such, I've been saving for this trip for nearly 4 years in both cash and points, allowing for some more splurges then you'd normally see me have. We are flying Economy Plus, traveling in Green Car class train seats and not worrying too much if it takes a taxi ride to get somewhere. That being said, I still very much travel on a budget and aside from one or two meals, we aren't eating anything extravagant or going to any high end shops. Let the fun begin!

Friday morning (Washington D.C.) - nothing much to note, we get through security and on to our plane at IAD bound for Newark without issues. I realized early on just how much water I'll need to drink on this trip however as I was feeling unwell most of this short flight. We had a tight connection in Newark and with a delay on the landing and being stuck on the runway we basically had to run from one plane to the next, not the most fun I've ever had.

Finally on our long haul flight, but with our bags now scattered across several overhead bins in front of and behind us, I realized all too quickly how hard it was going to be to retrieve our entertainment options. While booking the seats, I opted to pay an additional $224 per ticket each way on the international flights for economy plus and chose the first row in order to maximize leg room. Unfortunately this also meant there were no seats in front of us to stow anything, making life a bit more difficult and bags out of reach overhead (and scattered due to the late boarding).

The flight was long, no getting around that. A little bit of maneuvering and walking around the cabin here and there, we managed to get some headphones and the switch out for some Zelda gameplay, but overall it dragged on for forever.

Finally landing in Haneda Saturday, 2pm local time our 16 hours of being in planes and more than that traveling was over. Immigration and Customs had significant lines, but as Japan usually does, it was all very well organized and moved constantly. I messed up one form for my customs baggage as I claimed my personal laptop in confusion of having to tell them about anything of value I was bringing in and had to go through the manual line, but even that moved quickly. By 3pm we were at the Yamato counter trying our best to ship the one small roller bag we had for luggage somewhere close to our apartment in Sapporo. Google translate already came in handy, as to my surprise, they didn't speak any English at the counter. However, after 20 minutes or so and a few forms and 2,000Y paid, the bag was gone and the best we could do was hope we would see it again.

JR passes were next on the agenda, I had done research and decided it would be easiest and cheapest to take the airport train from Haneda to Tokyo Station using our passes, so getting them at the airport was a necessary evil. The line had about 4 people inside and 10 outside (meaning the lobby area of Haneda) where they would check your confirmation and passport before letting you get into the "real" inside line. The sign said it would take an hour from where I was standing, but it moved quickly and I feel I was out of there in less than 30 minutes, though I didn't exactly time it. Something to note if you are traveling with a group, the purchaser (me, in this case) is the only one that should get in line with everyone's passports, they will process everything when you get up to the counter and give you all the passes, this helps not have hundreds of people (with luggage) clogging up the little office and the overall line. Also to note, there is an IC chip shortage going on right now, so the regular Suica and Pasmo IC cards are not currently available, after a quick inquiry on how to get our 11-year old children's rates on the train/bus (half price), I was confident I could get one for her later in Hokkaido and went on my way.

Locating the airport train and getting on turned out to be pretty darn simple. This being our third trip to Japan and even more things being assigned numbers and English (Romaji) translations there were no issues at all. The car was standing only for about 20 minutes, making the realization we were here and this was the next 28 days hit quickly. Funny, thought I'd be more emotional coming back after trying so hard for so long to return, but something feels like being in the "right" spot here. There was no real emotion, just more of a "let's do this" sort of vibe in the air, even as exhausted as we were.

The Hyatt turned out to be a bit of a hike with luggage (well, backpacks really) through Ginza's evening air. It was around 80F, but stifling humid. A small drizzle in the air and empty stomach's did not make any easier. Check-in was flawless (in English) and after getting the elevator to work with the key card (I tried several times and then the reception had to come over, do the same thing, which worked the first time for him), we were in our room. It was huge for a Japanese hotel room. Those Japanese tubs never cease to amaze me, however this time around I was too tired for that. An instant shower with a good hair scrub and reapplication of make-up and we headed outside for our first real meal in 25+ hours.

So many izakaya's under the tracks, drizzle coming down and party people on the street. Ginza is the uptown of Tokyo,  walking past the Gucci and Rolex stores made sure you knew and I felt a little out of place in such an area. We made our way to Tokyo Station and the underground maze that they call a mall or station complex here to find food. Not really knowing what it should be, I made the final decision to duck into a Tempura/Soba place that had tablet ordering and a nice table in the corner. It was a bit hot inside, but the food was exactly what we all needed and enjoyed it tremendously. Ah, Japanese food in Japan, there is not comparison. Out an entire 2,800Y for three full meals, it was time to relocate to that bed in the Hyatt.

Sleeping on the first day always sucks and this was no exception. Your body goes into overdrive having to stay awake and functional for so long and then your internal clock is yelling at your for laying down at 8AM body time. This is what I would call a fitting conclusion to one long day (that was actually two).