DAY 10 (continued) - I passed the time in the Shinkansen train by writing in my journal. However, it wasn't really easy to write with the shaking of the train. At Morioka, I got off and then boarded the train for Aomori. If I was on time, I would have boarded the train straight for Hakodate. At Aomori, I took a quick glance around before boarding an underground Doraemon train. The Seikan Tunnel is quite long and there would be a meter to tell the passengers how far has the train travelled. At Hakodate, I decided to eat dinner. It was unusual walking around the city center area because there are loudspeakers blasting away advertisements, and also Utada's Hikaru's "It's Automatic." Lunch was a simple Lotteria meal. In preparation for the short transfer time and the long trip to Wakkanai, I bought a lot of breads and drinks. After arriving in Sapporo, I took the 22:04 train headed for Wakkanai. Since there are no reservations of this overnight express train, there were no empty seats. Quite a lot of people were just standing up at the ends. I stood up for a very long time. To pass the time, I chatted with a girl who was headed back to Wakkanai to see her family. She used to work in Nagoya before her company collapsed. Anyway, people got off the train along the way, so we managed to find seats. At one point of time, we had to get off the train because the train was splitting into two parts. I went to sleep on the train at about 1:00 am.

Aomori	Underground Doraemon Train
Hakodate Station	Companion to Wakkanai

DAY 11 - I woke up at 5:00 am. The train had been going slow, because it was nearing Wakkanai, yet it was too early in the morning. The girl got off the stop before Wakkanai station. I really had no idea what to do because the Lonely Planet guide didn't say much about this place, nor did I know how to travel around here. I walked around the station and found a place offering Wakkanai bus tours. I didn't have much time as the train would leave at around 1:00 pm. I wanted to go to Cape Soya-misaki despite the bad ratings by Lonely Planet; that was the only place listed. However I didn't know the kanji so I asked a young lady next to me to help me translate. She helped me translate and I checked up the bus guide and it was listed. The bus tour was quite expensive: 3300 yen. The lady also seemed to be a traveller and she didn't know what to do either. She left Nagoya 2 days ago and has transferred many times to get here. At end, we both went to buy 2 train tickets. We boarded the 8:00 am bus. There was quite a lot of old people in the bus and she laughed at that. Anyway, the people count was 13, and the tour guide was an old middle aged woman. 10 minutes after riding the bus, I had already fell asleep. When I woke up, the scenary had changed from the city to the seaside. The ocean was beautiful, though mist hindered the view. We eventually arrived at Cape Soya-misaki where we had 30 minutes to look at all the memorials over here. I wasted no time. The largest monument was for "The Downing of KAL007" which actually happened on 9/1/83 when a Boeing 747 deviated off course from New York to Seoul and was shot down by a missile from a Soviet MIG near Moneron Island at 3:26 am Japan Time. 269 dead... But the main area, was the northern most point of Japan. I didn't really have any feelings when I arrived here though. After returning to the bus, the scenary changed once again. It was like from all those Hokkaido dairy advertisements! On a very green hilly pasture, cows were grazing! When returning to the seacoast road, by this time the mist had dissappeared and the mountain on the island away could be seen. We went to this place with a good view of that island and the mountain. The next place wasn't so interesting - Wakkanai Koen Park. There wasn't much here, except more of thos monements. After this, the tour was over. Luckily there was some sort of festival occurring at the Wakkanai city center. I was hungry by now, and had yakisoba. There wasn't much time and after a visit to the post office, we took the train back to Sapporo. The woman had come all the way from Nagoya and planned to return immediately because she ran out of money. I think it is a little bit wasteful because she will spend only 6 hours of 4 days of travelling for fun. We parted in Sapporo. While dragging all my luggage around, I looked for Yugiri Ryokan. It wasn't easy because the Lonely Planet map wasn't too clear. Luckily I had made a reservation here. After entering, I took off my shoes, followed the owner to the third floor, and put down my stuff. The place was quite old. I tried looking at the maps for more info on Sapporo and Otaru. But I was too tired..zzz

Northernmost Point of Japan

Second Travelling Companion

Cows Grazing

A Nearby Mountain

Wakkanai Matsuri