Travelogue : Neon Goes Japan (Hokkaido Day 3)

After a night of sleep, albeit still tired, but better nonetheless, woke up much later than expected and had to rush to shower and thankfully I pretty much packed everything already and all I have to do is slip my face wash in to the luggage. Ironically enough, despite being the earliest to finish packing, I still was the last person to check out of the hotel room. Forgive me please, but I always will feel like I have left something and I'll inspect the entire room and every corner to make sure everything that is mine is taken! (On a sidenote, I did leave my almond milk in the ridge and forgot to take it T_______T I was so excited when I finally got it.)

Went down for breaksfast and my camera was basically off the entire time till we got to the airport because I was still in sleep mode basically and I just ate and then shut my brain off after that, like I was just to tired to even speak that much. Hahahah! After breakfast, it was time to head towards the airport, at that point I was kind of reluctant to leave the hotel, because it was so comfy! 

And I was apprehensive on how the homestay will turn out as well as how the next hotel will look like, because it really wasn't even a hotel. But one that that I am excited for is the amazing COLD WEATHER. From this I think you guys which state I'm going right? If you still haven't caught on, the state and city I'm going isssss

BIFUKA, HOKKAIDO

So happy when I was told the state I was assigned to was Hokkaido, because the other states were Osaka and Kyoto, which is under the summer heat, with overall temperature similar to Singapore, but just a little bit cooler. But since Hokkaido is technically an Island off the main Japan, so when it comes to seasonal changes, Hokkaido isn't as widely affected as the remaining states. And even though it was summer, the average temperature was 14 degrees and 10 at night! 

When we reached the airport, it was much calmer, and I guess not as bustling as the main airport, and if you are taking domestic flights, you do not need a passport, so the processes are much faster. Of course, the plane is much smaller and older, with the flight being roughly an hour and a half. 

 And who was my seat buddy? Ker Xi! A.k.a twin. 

Once we were on air, I just took photos and slept through the entire flight! I think the fact that I got a window seat helped because I had something to lean on. And I really slept through the entire flight, and smart me just had to sleep with my mouth open, and my throat and mouth was damn dry. And before long, Hokkaido was upon us.

 Always loved the view form the plane window when we are about to land, the macro view is just breathtaking, like you get to see the entire city an bird's eye view.

When we exited the airport, and walked out to board the bus, the weather was BEYOND AMAZING. It was so cold, which is why its a good thing to layer up, which I did. And the wind was so strong at that time, it was like, ughhhh, so cold and nice. Since we the next destination we are heading is a long bus ride away, lunch at a place was voided, and replaced with lunch on the bus, and what we had, was sandwiches.

I don't know if you could tell, but the box is not made of styrofoam but paper! From left to right, 2X Tomato and cucumber, egg mayo, potato salad, and tuna. Honestly, its tasted pretty nasty, the veggy based one is just not edible in my book, I mean I only took one bite and felt like regurgitating immediately period. But that's me cause I'm not a veggies person. The egg mayo I think is the most normal tasting one. The one with the tune tho', there was something else that felt like it was spicy, and melted plastic all at the same time. But thankfully for me, I had quite a bit of breakfast before we left for Hokkaido.

After one toilet break and another 20 minutes worth or trying to sleep on the bus and talking nonsense and Ambrella, we finally got to the place!

This place I forgot the actual name, but what it is, is a now defunct rail road that trains used to run across to get from places to places, kind of like MRT lah, but now it is a tourist experience destination. And the road cornered for tourists to use is 5 km, and we get to ride 'mini-cars' and it was so cool! Initiall me and Ambrella thought that it was going to be those where you have to ride the pedal like a bike. But too bad, technology caught up and it is all machine. 

 The 'mini-cars' we rode.

 Guess who I sat with? Amirah and Ker Xi! And Ambrella's on the front.

Lookin' cute. #bloop. Notice how I am wearing 4 LAYERS, and I was still freezing like fuck.The one and only time I can ever say that, because try doing this in Singapore, and within 20 minutes, you'll die of heatstroke. 

Anyway, the thing went so much faster than what I expected, Wanted to upload the video, but it failed. But, throughout the ride, flies and bugs kept hitting our jackets, and I could've sworn that I swallowed a fly by accident while I tried taking a breath, and I was trying to spit something out without success because the wind was so strong. 

 #TypicalShoeShot. And I shouldn't have brought this pair of shoes even, because it was so heavy and I only wore like a few times before I reckoned that my converse were far more comfortable. Which also meant that extra space and extra weight for baggage.

 And before we knew it, we were back from where we began.

 Even though most of the flowers weren't grown then, but managed to take great shots of those that survived the cold cold Hokkaido weather. 

After the tram ride, we were on route our next destination, the mini-mart! Well, only cause it was along the convenient road to our 'hotel', and the bus ride was ok, but the scenery was really nice. Not in a sense where there's a lot to see, but there's a lot of trees and nature, and the calmness of the city really calms you down somehow. And when we finally reached, I wanted to #step and wear my scarf all, but in the end, as it proves, it was a blessing that I did decide to wear it.

IT WAS FREEZING

 

And I'm not talking about tutorial rooms aircon cold, I'm talking about freezing. My teeth where in voluntarily cluttering, even when we got into the actual mart. And mind you, I was wearing a shirt, a wooly sweater and on top of that, and leather/denim jacket, and a scarf! I thought it was cold when we reached Hokkaido, but it gets colder and colder as the sun sets! But anyway, managed to get some snacks, which was quickly emptied out during the bus ride on route our home for the night.

Yayayyyyaayay, warm at last! Reached the 'hotel' and first thing's first. DINNER. Anyway, I'm sure you notices the inverted commas when I said hotel, because it wasn't a hotel. It was a cottage! Ok, so this place we were staying is super cool! So essentially when you check in, you're basically renting a cottage all to yourself. TO make this simpler, it's like a chalet, but a much more high class one. And everything is made of wood ok, and it's just a comfy space that can house 7 - 10 people! Great place to consider if you're travelling with your friends! 

Dinner was great, got to sit with Ambrella, Vishnu, Yamunah, Viena, Ker Xi, Zhi Xiang, Mike and a bunch of great people, and it was so funny listening to Vishnu and Yamunah talk cause they were explaining to us all the Indian dramas in Bollywood and indian weddings. So funny! 

And by the time dinner ended, which was like a while later, because night fell and we got to put our shoes back on and off to our individual cottages we go. And the temperature once again dropped! And it was cool because as we speak, smoke was coming out of our mouths! And for a few minute, the lot of us were just standing there and taking deep breaths. 

 OMFG SPAZZING. ABSOLUTELY SPAZZING OVER HOW FUCKING COOL JAPANESE TOILETS ARE. OMFG. I've always seen this on pictures, but FINALLY FOR ONCE, i get to see it in real time and real life. Such a smart idea to save water. And in case you haven't got the big picture yet, you wash your hands here after you're done with your business and the water will be used to flush the toilet. On a sidenote, I don't know who, in their right frame of mind would wash their hands here, because the water is SO FUCKING FREEZING. Like put ice in your normal tap water cold. 

I just like how homey the cottage is. But the bathing water though, took me forever to figure how to adjust the temperature, and the shower gel and shampoo they gave us was not labeled! Ok lah, technically there was labels, but it was in Japanese! So it's the same as don't have! So I had to use my quick thinking by pumping both out and smelling them then make an evaluation. And I was probably right, since my body didn't hurt or feel funny. 

Was that the end of the night? I wished, but we had to prepare a performance for the university that we were visiting the next day, and initially I thought all of us had to go there for the sake of going there, and I really wanted to be just doing minor roles or nothing at all, but in the end, all of us had to be in it. So you know what they say, you got to do what you got to do. 

Only photos I took during our time there, and who did I take it with? Viena! Ughhh, I just miss my skin condition when I was there, don't have to worry about it getting oily halfway through, it'll stay perfectly matte and I can slap on as much moisturiser as I want. 

Then we got back to our cottages, a few of the girls came over and all us had a long ass chat, and I was pretty much spending my time packing for the next day's activities. And by the time I got to sleep, it was 4 am, and I couldn't wake up the next morning T______T, more to be explained in the next post! 

And remember how I mentioned the sun in Japan rises super early?!

THIS IS JAPN AT 4AM! And this was not edited and had no filters ok! It looks like a 6am+ in Singapore right?! But I've read somewhere that Singapore is on the wrong timezone anyway, so there is no point comparing to begin with. 

p.s Can't believe how long this post took, here's to stress and laziness.