How disappointing!

Day 25

We slept like babies. We are getting used to these japanese beds. Or maybe it's just the tiresome talking.

When I planned the trip I factored in a day here and there at an onsen for relaxing. What I should have done was to factor in 2-3 days straight in an onsen to properly rest. One day is good but the rest you get doesn't give you very lasting energy. By the time you put your backpack on your back, you realize how tired you are.

The boys went for a bath in the morning but I was lazy and decided to stay in bed. When they returned I was informed that the baths swap everyday and that they went to the one I had been yesterday. Could the receptionist not have told me when we checked in? I would have made the extra effort to get out of bed earlier. Now we had 1.5h before check-out time and breakfast still to have...

I decided to go to the onsen and just have a look around but when I got there I changed my mind. I had noticed that this morning my skin was softer than the day before so clearly these sulphur bath work. There is no such hing as too soft and I was loving the effect on my skin. 'Jut a quick one' I thought.

The same central circular bath, but with the statues in the middle. One extra bath around but not of a different kind from the others. The outside baths however were different and better. There is a waterfall and the garden is bigger. There is also a small wooden bridge  over a little river that comes out of the bath. Although my bath wasn't long, it was definitely worth it.

Heading to the  dining hall for breakfast a japanese lady harshly told Manuel the he had dressed his yukata incorrectly. You put left over right and he had done the other way around. Japanese are discreet people and I wound't expect someone to mention it. Was she that offended that he wasn't following the rules or is it just because we are portuguese and loud? The funniest thing is that Manuel has been in Japan for more than 3 weeks and he never noticed there was a way of dressing the yukata, despite the fact he read the instructions on our first accommodation in Fukuoka!!

Breakfast was again a huge buffet of mixed japanese and western food. There were about 10 varieties of jams, and the 4 we tasted were bad. Clearly not homemade! The rest wasn't too bad and variety was good. It was going well until I noticed there was an aquarium where yesterday the sashimi chef was. At first it didn't look real as the octopus in it was quite still, but then the 2 fish around it blinked. Oh My God! They keep them alive for the sashimi to be fresh. I felt hot and a wave of nausea overcome me. Manuel kept teasing me saying 'Why do you think the octopus sashimi tasted so good yesterday?'. I couldn't eat anymore. I left the table and went straight out of the door.

No, I am not vegetarian. Yes, I love animal protein. No, I will not stop eating animals. No, I do not like watching animals being kept alive until the minute before they are killed. Yes, I would prefer them to be killed as soon as they are fished, they do not need to see their cousin being chopped into small sashimi pieces. Thank you.

Check-out done quickly and we took the bus back to Noboribetsu train station. We had checked the timetable of the rapid train so today we would be travelling a bit faster. Our japanese friend had warned us the day before about the chinese tourists in the rapid train. He wasn't wrong! They were loads and had huge bags. Although not together, at least we managed to find a seat.

A rapid train it might be but it still took 1h10min to get to Sapporo. I guess it is quick for Hokkaido standards.

The last hotel of our trip was a western style hotel. We chose it because we thought it was cute (check out the photos) and we would probably be fed up of japanese style accommodation by the end of the 4 weeks.

Old style lift:

The floor's counter works!

The floor's counter inside works as well!

How cool is the phone? It works!

We also have separate rooms for the first time. I must say that it has been a challenge for a couple to sleep in the same room as someone else for almost 4 weeks... This is something I didn't think about whilst planning the trip. The lack of privacy and the need of private time for a couple is nothing to be ignored. If we ever do this kind of trip again, I will factor in some separate accommodation several times along the way.

Bags left at the hotel and we went exploring the city. Very modern looking with high rise buildings. The city is partly surrounded by very pretty mountains which still had snowy peaks. The main touristic sites were seen in the first hour: clock tower, tv tower, Odori park.

We tried to find a coin laundry for the boys as their clean clothes were running out but funny enough we couldn't find any. Where are the coin laundries in Sapporo? Jorge did some hand-washing in the evening...

Sapporo station is quite pretty and it has the highest tower in Sapporo: JR Tower - Observatory 38 (173m heigh). It has an impressive view, buildings, streets, the mountain range, heliports and playgrounds on the top of buildings, trains coming and going. It was almost empty, completely different from the Skytree in Tokyo. There is a cafe on the top and chairs strategically placed for viewing. We sat in one of them soaking in the view and the sun. Even the toilets had a view. I mean, the disabled toilet and the men's urinals had a glassed wall. Impressive!

Another interesting aspect of Sapporo station, and train stations in general, it the fact that they have huge shopping malls. This one has 3 buildings of shops! We popped in to one of them and found a kit-kat shop with different flavours: sakura & green tea, plum, strawberry, citrus, pear, apple, edamame, sweet potato, chilli, wasabi, etc, etc, etc. Unbelievable!

On the flight into Japan we had chated with a man who advised us to go to the beer museum and beer garden. For anyone who doesn't know, Sapporo is the mecca for japanese beer, aka Sapporo beer. Jorge had had it before and it tastes similar to Super Bock. On arrival at the museum we were wowed by the receptionist, who spoke in an impeccable spanish. It was the first time we saw a japanese speak in a foreign language that is not english or chinese! Museum is free and small but explains well the history of beer in Hokkaido and how the beer is made with very cute scenarios.

The beer garden is obviously in the grounds of the museum. It has 4 restaurants to choose from and we went from one to another to find a reasonably priced. We wanted to eat Jingisu-kan, mutton and cabbage prepared in a iron griddle, which is a speciality of Hokkaido. We discovered that they all do it. We settled for the one inside the old beer factory building, a pretty red brick building. On arrival we were given plastic bags to store our bags and coats as the lamb smell is strong (we felt it as soon as we opened the door) and sticks to anything. We were also given bibs. I don't think the food is that messy that requires it but the boys were in the mood for fun and wore theirs.

We ordered a dose of lamb Jingisu-kan but fearing that we might be sick if we ordered 3 doses, we ordered a dose of seafood rice, crab cakes (delicious!) and a dose of chicken Jingisu-kan. Jingisu-kan is done on the table, it's similar to teppanyaki but with a special equipment. Of course, all washed down with Sapporo beer!

We walked back to the hotel but stopped on the other side of the road where a Pachinko & Slot gaming alley is. Pachinko is a typical japanese game and Manuel had been talking about it ever since we arrived in Japan. He had wanted to see an old japanese women playing pachinko with a big basket of little balls on her lap. We had seen one in Fukuoka and he ticked that of his list but then we needed to play...

We thought pachinko was an elaborate and complicated game of flipping the pins to get a ball into a small hole. Pachinco resembles pinball but the machine is vertical. After a while of frantically moving a lever that seemed to do nothing, the man on the next machine told Manuel to keep the hand holding the lever turned to the right side, keeping the lever still, not to move it. What?!? Is that it? The lever releases the balls and they free fall. Some (not many) hit the hole, the majority does not. Every time a ball hits the hole, 3 more come out for you to play with. No! It couldn't be it! We started observing the other players... and got disappointed. It was indeed it! A mind-numbing, passive, uninteresting game. How the hell do you get addicted to it? The players had the right hand on the lever (there are even arm rests!) and with the other hand they would smoke or feed the machine with more money or with the balls they had in baskets lined up behind their seat. 

They were all statically looking at the balls free falling. Is this really the game that represents 40% of Japan's leisure industry (including restaurants and bars), has 20 million regular players who cough up more than a ¥30 trillion a year?!? After spending a ¥1000 note, we were in no mood to spend any more.

The weirdest thing however is that gambling for money in Japan is illegal. These pachinko addicts play for the fun of having several baskets of balls. The balls can be swapped for prizes but we saw some of the prizes (key rings, cheap jewelry and similar sorts) and you need a shit load of balls plus some money to buy them. Ridiculous!

Another interesting feature of these pachinko places is that pachinko balls make an incredible amount of noise. So much so you have to shout to hear each other. As soon as the doors open you feel like you are going to be crushed by a tsunami of balls, that's how the noise sounds like. We had walked into one in Beppu and as soon as we were hit by the noise we started laughing with our hands covering our ears, the gaming alley attendant started laughing at us. The noise is a trademark.

Disappointed with pachinko we decided to try the slot machines downstairs. They are the same as in the west but you have buttons that allow you to stop the wheels turning, allegedly increasing your potential for winning. Another ¥1000 note (yes, it's the minimum allowed) and the chips went a lot quicker than the pachinko balls. As in pachinko, there were several addict-looking people continuously feeding chips into the machines. We got bored even quicker!

So that was it. A very disappointing experience of gambling in Japan with japanese games. We left the gaming alley with watery eyes and stinking clothes from the smoke and sore throats from the shouting.