WHAT LAU WEI! THIS IS HOKKAIDO MER!?
"My GOD! What kinda train is this? Even PUTRA line is much longer than this lo!" was what I thought when I first stepped into Hokkaido...scary ok! If this is the 1st thing that greeted me in Hokkaido to bring me to Hakodate City, then the city must be actually KAMPUNG!?! NO!! I was expecting a CITY!! CITY!! not a KAMPUNG!! Anyway, the entire trip to Hokkaido from Aomori was a little confusing to we ppl.....because of the ticketing system and the 'tricky' train changing system, we actually went to Hakodate 1st, then turn back to the 1st station on Hokkaido island, then head back to Hakodate again! & if that is not enough, we have to pay 1400 yen for that trip to 'nowhere'.....
It all started like this....we reached the 1st station(called Kikonai) and was supposed to align and take another train, but Fook Hee didn't manage to & was brought straight to Hakodate 1st(wierd as it is, but even if the train goes to Hakodate, we ARE not supposed to take that train) as we took the other slower(this train above) smaller train to the same place(thats why its so tricky!) Well, on the way, Boon decided that we should go visit Doraemon's official house situated inside the underwater tunnel between Aomori & Hokkaido. Well, since I used to be a Doraemon fan(with 50+ comic books), and this is a once in the lifetime chance, why not then? So, when we reached Hakodate, met up with Fook Hee, we took that 'forbidden' train back to where we came from(cos that small train only operates 3 times a day) & half way through, we got caught.....and even though we spoke in 'fluent' Jap about our situation & misunderstandings about this 'forbidden 1'(we were still confused on how it operates) However, with no avail, he butted us out at that Kikonai station even though we wanted to pay the fine....and if that is not all, WE EVEN HAVE TO PAY THE FINE AT THE STATION somemore! & since trains are rare in Hokkaido, we were told that since we aligned from that train(not even our own decision), there is no chance for us to go to the Doraemon thingy for they day(mind u that was just 11.30am in the morning then) Damn gila tention at that time! Have to pay but can't go anywhere except back to Hakodate....I still wanna complain more...but this blog is kinda limited so if u wanna hear me blable bout this stupid incident, wait till u meet me la!!
The truth...
Ok, bad things away, I still arrived in Hakodate in 1 piece and a little 'lighter'....but I can still survive....whats 1400 yen to me...ehem, ehem! Ok, enuf crap! This place behind me is Hakodate, I came here AGAIN at 2.00pm after my cruise to 'nowhere' tired n damn hungry(breakfast was at 6am ler)....so the 'me' in this pic is not actually very able to smile, but frowning at the confusion...well, this place isn't actually so bad at all....its so unlike any place in the entire Japan as it has this 'European' fell over here....well, the words are still in Japanese though, but it really has this slow, western type influence la....just can feel it when I first saw this city....
The 1st agenda of the afternoon was definately MAKAN dee....we came to Hokkaido with this very pure motif to eat something very special....something very unique to us M'sians who thinks that the largest edible animal is no larger than a cow or an elephant(for those mad ppl!) For those who could read Jap, there shouldn't be any suprise...BUT! I still bet no 1 of you have ever tasted of will be able to taste it unless you come to Hokkaido, n only Hokkaido. Well, if I say that this vege stuffed burger has a piece of meat patty made of the largest animal on the surface of the earth, how does that sound? Don't get me wrong that I'm encouraging whale killing, but hey! Since I'm already here, why not taste it? Just one whale burger per M'sian(we ordered the same thing) won't kill all the whales rite? What la those whale killer Japs! It tasted ok only la....the meat tasted like beef but the texture was like rubber(note that only the young toothful ppl are able to chew it) Anyway, 1 is enough for me....no more plz! Supa filling!
Now that we are full, we contacted our hotel for our 'driver' to pick us up & check us in at about 3pm....Well, there wasn't a 'pick up' service actually, but since we told the person in charged that we are from M'sia....this reply came "Oh my! You ppl are from M'sia? Wow! Your Japanese is extremely good! Why not I reduce the hotel rate from 3500 yen per person to 3000 yen PLUS I come and fetch you all wherever you ppl are right now...! Come! Plz stay with me...PLZ!!" Nope, I wasn't exagerating nor lying(I don't lie 1 ok!)....we were all actually kinda freaked up thinking that our hotel might actually be a haunted ghost mansion where the owner, Count Dracula wants to suck some M'sian blood cos he was bored of Jap blood dee....
Nope, that place was fine, very fine, nicely decorated, cozy, just kinda feel at home....and if u ppl wonder, ya, our 'hotel' wasn't actually any hotel, just a person who owns a HUGE(in Jap term) and wants to make some bucks out of it...no wonder it was cheap...but I'm not complaning though, there wasn't any problem at all(No, no 1 to suck our blood too!) However, sad to say this, this hotel is the FINAL hotel that we actually stayed in for this entire trip...the rest? Well, u guessed it right....
MARKET?
A market?! Wow! This is also something new! After checking in and rested for a while, we took of wondering around the area nearby looking for some 'unique' things here and we found this! A WET MARKET! I have stayed in Japan for 6 months now and I have not seen a wet market before except for this place...Japs don't actually buy stuffs in the morning like our mums do(or maids for 'some' lucky ppl!) but in the supermarkets ONLY! So, this sight was new and actually refreshing....a dirty place....FINALLY! But if your notice in this pic, there aren't any rubbish on the floor rite? But trust me if I say this is one of the dirtiest place in Japan dee....as in how clean the entire country is for me to say this place a dirty 1.... well, a wet market still sells what a wet market sells...raw stuffs of course! That was one of the unique things here too....We were all bz taking photos of all the stuffs sold here, some traders even wanted to 'shoo' us of too...but we are from S'pore right?(Only say we r M'sians if its something good) they don't dare to harm us KIASU ppl ones....
RANDY!!
Gosh! Hakodate is really popular with your 'ppl' over here Randy...I saw your cousin, cousin's cousin, Randy.Jr 300 all FOR SALE! And theres tons of ppl buying them up....As we were bz taking pics(as usual) Chin Wooi made this swear, this swear so great with emotion & enthusiam that it defies all other swears I have ever heard of made...that was to eat those 'hairy' crabs no matter the cost!(The most popular 'kiam siap' person on the entire planet just did a miracle!) And we as friends are always there to support him of course! Promising that we SHALL eat it or would never leave this piece of land...EVER!(we actually wanted to eat it ourselves too la!)
This crabs are HUGE! It doesn't really show in this pic, but if you were a M'sian crab, u would wanna call 10 more of your friends to fight of a bully of this size! Safe to say that we humans have tied their hands up to aviod such a thing from happening....and the price there...the 4 of us could eat buffets each n still have money left to buy a can of beer each for each of those oversized crabs.....no craps!
Ok! This is one of the reasons I told you that I don't feel as if I'm Japan as soon as I touched this island....even the bus here has these western feel in it...and that restaurant behind, well, that doesn't look like any typical Jap restaurant(which is usually small & cramped up)..Ya, another suprising thing about this place is that there are more churches than temples over here, anglo, russo, methodist..u name it, they have it! There is also an entrance fees for each church(MUST PAY 1 OK!) so its not advisible to join so many churches or go to youths so much cos i'll make u broke in no time(its not cheap ok! Some charge about RM8 per entry)
After getting bored of all those crabs and buildings....we took a turn downtown to explore Hakodate City...we walked around aimlessly(biasala) and actually wanted to take those trams for a ride around, but since it doesn't bring us to where we wanna go, we just took some photos, and look for more yummies on the way....there was a suprising number of 'Hokkaido Limited Edition' souvenirs around this area, but since there are a lot of days more to go, we dicided to skip buying it 1st except for some that are possible to chew on....we don't want any sweet sticky stuffs sticking on our bags while attracting ants don't we? That Honeydew flavoured Kit-kat was really good! Soo different from the typical types we could find in M'sia or even any other places in Japan....and speaking of limited edition, I really can't find those chocs over here at my place(& Osaka) and anywhere during my entire journey! Well, Japs are true to their words I guess? Furtunately, I got some before my trip ended(about 4 boxes) but now I'm left with only 1.....NO!
Did I mentioned downtown just now? Ya, its not called 'downtown' just because its the main town, but its really DOWN at the foot of the mountain. The climb up to the cable car station is one hell of a tiring experience, but if the view from this slope is really so beatiful, I can't imagine(at that time) how cool the view would be from up mount Hakodate(will be told later on..) Hakodate is a popular fishing port(the crabs?) so its no wonder that fishermans have this service to bringing ppl out to the ocean to catch some fishes themselves...but for a price of course! Well, we skipped that part without even thinking as the price KILLS ppl like us....
Guess what? On our trip up, we found this strangely huge hall and from far, we could see some ppl entering it in numbers being brought by the bus load...Being another curious 'S'porean'(if anything goes wrong), we wondered inside the hall on purpose & uninvited....the 1st thing we say? FOOD!? My gosh! Theres a buffet going on and there are some dancers in skimpy clothes walking around the hall(we would be informed that there will be a Thai themed buffet going on later...that explais that skimpy clothes..) AND our nightmares came! That guard took notice of us and decided to follow us quietly behind(it was obious la!).....Then, out of no where, we found this blocked staircase entrace. So, calmly but quickly, we got our asses pass the 'blockade', went up to the 2nd floor and WHOLA! A radio station! Since we are being 'persued', might as well find some shelter and hope that those kind radio station fellas would offer us a safe passage!
The result? Well, we 'M'sian' are actually more than welcomed inside the radio station....they actually weren't suprised see us visitors as they are having a 'open radio station'(something like open house in M'sia la!) but since its only until 6pm(we entered at about 6.15pm?), the stairway was blocked....and when heard that we were from M'sia, they quickly invited us in and said this "WoW! You ppl are from M'sia? Your Jap is good ler!"(I personally found out why Japs always say this to us. Its because that they know nuts bout M'sia & this is the only save topic to talk about) Well, they were also so kind as to bring us inside their recording studio where we toyed with some things around while doing what tourist would most likely do...take photos la! This radio station was the best radio station in the entire Japan for 2005, and they got a trophy to show off! Boon actuall took the trophy from the shelf and have his picture taken with it, I don't know if he noticed, but our guide was freaking a little as he took it....the thing was made og pure glass u c...
This pic up there is a quick snap shot with the DJ who went to commercial just a second ago...we rushed in after the door was unlucked, took a few shots, have a quick chat, then ran out again...in less than 1 minute, where she continued her live broadcast! Really admire her ability to talk non-stop la! From current news, weather, sports, 'kay-po' stuffs...all also she can ler! (Talk bout all rounders)
MR. HAKODATE
After that brief 'stopover' we headed back to our main destination, that is up mount Hakodate....If you wonder why I put Mr. Hakodate as the tittle above, notice that with Japs, they have this -san thing behind names, like Cheong-san in my case...and in Jap, 'san' means mountain too! So that makes me a mountain n Mount Hakodate as Mr. Hakodate...enuf crap, this place is has one of the best sceneries in THE WORLD(top 3 to be exact!) Thats why we wouldn't wanna miss this place for all heavens! Even if the price for going up is kinda hefty though.....The best time to go up this place is about 5pm where we could take pics before the sunsets, and wait for a few more hours so we could see the changes slowly. There was a free history lesson about this place in one of the video rooms, but its just another history, nothing much important....
COUNTDOWN!
Well! For anyone viewing this pic, I will charge a price of 100 yen each....I know who you ppl are so don't think of escaping! Ok, back to my story now, this view is the view with the top 3 ranking thing. As you can see, on the left u can see water and on the right, another patch of water...nothing special? This two oceans have different temperature all together and is totally different! On the right is the Pacific Sea while left is the Japan Sea...and they are just seperated by a few kilometres apart....which creates this 'waist' kinda shape. Pic take at 5.30pm...
This was just half of the real amount of ppl that crammed with me till the night....ALL of them have a camera....if Eric, Cheng Hock, Ramblas, Frex was here to 'Sut' it....they'll be rich dee!
7.00pm....the light are beginning to lit up
8.00pm....very dark & windy up here! Brr...
9.00pm...well, this is it, the 'most beautiful scenery' If you don't think so, then I pity you...cos if the pros who have thousands of photo hours gave this award, it couldn't be wrong....I seriously liked it up there then, except for the chills & the crowd, it could have been a perfect place dee....sorryla, as romantic as it is up here, I don't think any couples wanna be up here to date, unless you don't mind 200 other ppl staring at you la!
Well, we decided that we had enuf of Japan so we decided to head over to Holland right away after getting down from Mr Hakodate....the 12 hour flight was supa tiring dee, but since we heard from this tourist info guide that this place, at the ouskirts of Amsterdam was the most beautiful place at night, we dragged ourselves there praying that some of those shops there contain some eateries which would tame our 'wild' stomach growling fiercely inside...
This place was purely made of 2 things only, either red bricks or wood...nothing else! And its all decorated with lightings, it really felt like we came during the Chrismas season...fortunately, there was a few eateries over there, albiet VERY upscale type of eateries. Without caring for our wallets, our 'guide' took us inside on of the 'expensive' restaurants which actually rocked our wallets and Chin Wooi even went without eating anything inside. Fortunately for us, there was still something 'swallowable' inside the menu, so without further adue, we all ordered a few same stuffs(which so happenes to be the cheaper onces) with the waiter staring at us suprised as why this few 'poor' guys actually come to this place....well, dinner was nice, light on the stomach but heavy to our wallets....
And if u believe that I was in Amsterdamn(I think no one of you will), then those pics are really convincing enough.....well, I don't really remember the place's name, but I looks so like Holland(red bricked buildings), I really asthonished myself when I know that this piece of land is still inside Japan...
Oh ya, to intro a few 'guides' that took us around, the middle guy(sleveless 1) is called Kim Keat. He is my pal since our PPKTJ days. He don't really mix with the Chinese ppl too much & usually stick with the Malays, but since I'm a banana, hey! No problemo! He loves drinking as much as I do athough I don't spend even 1/10 as much as him when it comes to clubbin or drinking....and he doesn't know what and where about this place(even though his college is here) cos he says that his time is spent drinking and not 'jalaning' around...so I guess why he & his friends brought us to that upscale place! That guy on the right of the pic is one hell of a person....WHICH YOU MUST AVOID! His hp is full of porn pics n videos which he proudly shows everyone, and he talks soooo much bull shit, it makes the bulls feel bad to even shit! A word of advise, run when you see him!
Well, that concludes my Hakodate part....of your eyes are starting to bleed or swell and wanna try to file a lawsuit again me, plz contact my lawyer 1st, Mr Jason Lim....I will give you his hp no. when u sue me....thats all I have to say now
To Be Continued>>
4 comments:
ERrr,its really long and it really kills me to finish it,but i succeeded!!Nice pics,but instead of calling it a woman's waist,I'd raher saiy it lookes like an apple no??
oi....too long lar...try snapping it up to a few chapters maybe? I gave up half way...quater actually. I was reading when i scrolled down to see so much and i gave up on the spot...still, nice pics.
And i've only manage to try dried whale meat. smells like 1 week old dead fish and as chewy as....rubber? that kinda describe it huh?
Well, your were warned! Don't say I notify 1st!
hi there!!!!!!
the first time i saw your blog it was really nice..i wud say the flower gardens, the restaurants, foods, the bathhouse and the beer festival... it was really nice and i would say that japan is really a nice, cool and clean place...
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