So, I haven't posted in a while, but I have a good reason. I was on summer holidays. My previous jobs in Japan gave me about a week off, but with this job I had the best part of a month. Sweeeeet!

A few weeks before the start of the holidays I had been thinking about what I wanted to do. As the holidays got closer and things got busier, I didn't have a chance to make any solid plans. My holidays finally came, and after the first day hanging out in my town I decided that I had to go somewhere or else I might go insane. So, I packed my backpack with a change of clothes and some textbooks (yes, semester 2 of uni happened to start the same day as my work holidays started... damn...) and took off. I had a basic plan in mind – catch a ferry down to western Japan and do a bit of sightseeing for a week or two.

First stop was my company office in Takikawa to pick up some documents for extending my visa. I'd decided that I wouldn't use my car for this part of my holiday, so I had to wake up early to catch one of the three or four daily buses out of my town. Caught the bus to Fukagawa, then caught a train from Fukagawa to Takikawa. Visited my boss, jumped back on the train and headed for Sapporo.



In Sapporo I had to visit the Immigration Bureau to apply for a visa extension. I had all the documents so it wasn't a big deal. They said they'd send me a postcard when the application had been approved (usually takes a few weeks). I grabbed a quick lunch then jumped on a train for Tomakomai, a port town about an hour away. I had already decided to take the night ferry from Tomakomai, but their internet booking site was having a few problems, so I hadn't booked a ticket. With this in mind, I planned to get to Tomakomai early (the ferry departed at 11:30pm) to make sure I got a ticket. I got there about 3:00pm, got a ticket from the train station, grabbed a cheap milkshake from Lotteria, and spent some time wandering around Tomakomai.

Tomakomai is a fairly big town (due mainly to the fact there is a lot of port traffic) and has a big shopping centre. I'd been there before, and I remembered that there was an interesting recreation area in the shopping centre that I wanted to take a photo of. For the first few floors it's just a regular shopping centre, then when you get to about the 4th floor it suddenly opens up into a big open hall about 7 or 8 stories high, with a batting center, tennis courts, a driving range, arcade games, ping-pong etc. It's almost like they built the massive shopping centre but ran out of shops to put in it, so they stopped building floors and built the game centre.



Next, I took a rest beside a fountain. Mona seemed pleased to see me.



That milkshake was good. Oh, and I need a haircut.



At about 5:00 I jumped on one of the two daily buses to the eastern port. Most ships and ferries depart from the western port which is about 10 minutes form the town centre. For some reason, my ferry departs from the eastern port, about 30km from town. I arrived at the terminal just before another ferry was departing. The terminal was very busy for about an hour, then as the early ferry departed it became pretty much deserted. I went to the restaurant there and had an early dinner, then lay down across the seats in the corner of the waiting room and had a nice nap. When I woke up a few hours later, the waiting room had more people. I was surrounded by a group of about 50 members of the Japanese Self Defence Force. They were all dressed in their fatigues and were obviously catching the ferry to or from some training mission. This was the first time I had been up close to some SDF guys (and a few girls). I have to say, if someone starts a war with Japan then I think Japan is in big trouble (unless the war is fought with video games). Not only were most of the people much younger than I expected (from about 17 to 20, I'd guess), but about 35 out of the 50 were sitting around having competitions on their Nintendo DS. You know how army belts have attachment for various things like guns, ammo, water bottles etc. Well, all these guys had special Nintendo DS cases and pockets for their game collections attached to their belts. Hmm...

Anyway, at about 10:30 we all boarded the ferry for the 22 hour trip down south. I was sleeping in a “B class sleeping cabin”, which was not the cheapest room (which gives you a space on a tatami mat in a shared room), but was still very cheap. I had my own private bunk in a room of about 12 people. It looked like this-


Surprisingly, although most things in Japan are designed for small people, this bunk had just enough room for me to stretch out.



I had another quick dinner, got some drinks and retired to my bunk at around 1:00am. As I had been on the go all day I fell asleep pretty quickly. I woke up sometime in the early afternoon, had something to eat and wandered round the ferry. It was a typical Japanese ferry, with a small theatre, games room, bath house, a bar, a shop and a few restaurants that only open for a short time at certain times of the day. I hate ferry restaurants. The stupid timetable means that everyone has to jam in together at the same time, just to eat some overpriced not-particularly-tasty food. Unsurprisingly, many people (including me) stock up on food before getting on board.

At around 9:00 the ferry arrived in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. I had booked a hotel room in Tsuruga for the night. I jumped on the shuttle bus from the port to Tsuruga station (about 25 minutes). On arriving at the station I went looking for a map to find out how to get to my hotel. In most Japanese cities, most hotels are build around the station. I found a map, found my hotel, and found out it was about 4km from the station. I wasn't too upset, as I hadn't done any exercise all day and felt like taking a walk. Walking through Tsuruga at night was a little surreal. The town was very different from towns in Hokkaido, much more like the towns near where I lived when I first came to Japan. Shops were different, people wore different clothes, there were different restaurants etc. It was a nice walk. I hadn't really studied the map too carefully, so I wasn't 100 percent sure I was going in the right direction, but after a while I found my hotel. I went to the local convenience store and got some food for dinner, went back to the hotel, ate dinner, soaked in the tub and then went to bed.

Next... Kyoto.