Balderdash

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Hokkaido Trip
Day 4 (15/12) - Sapporo, Otaru (Part 2)

The only place in Japan I saw souvenir T-shirts was Narita airport. The Japs don't seem to be very big on them.

We then left for Sapporo. Unfortunately we would not be able to ascend Mt Moiwa in the evening to view Sapporo - ascent after 5 was forbidden because of winter snow.

Tokeidai Clock Tower (1878), built for an agricultural school. The place was built in a US frontier style, explaining why it struck me as weird.

Sand to spray on the streets to increase traction. Nice, but it strikes me as a very short-term (distance speaking) solution.

NHK TV Tower (1956)

We were then dumped into Sapporo Underground Shopping Mall for an hour. Twas just an underground shopping mall - nothing special.

Watch your step

I passed by one McDonalds, and whereas in other countries they list the English names of menu items, they don't in Japan. Gah.

There were 3 options for McFlurry - Oreos, Kit Kat, and a more expensive one in Japanese I suspected was a mixtue of both.

I wildly guessed that this section in Kinokuniya was for items preying on sympathy, but Xephyris informs me that it's a recruitment sign ("don't anyhow guess the meaning of kanji w").

In Kinokuniya they had a section for male writers and a section for female writers. Ah, such sexual segregation.

I walked into one record store and they were still selling a lot of cassette tapes. This coming from the technologically advanced country that brought us the Walkman.

"Two brands that we proposed combined. Netto,s concept is CUTE LOVELY SWEET. A??N+,s concept is ♥. Sweet, naturally graceful. A lot of ideas & a lovely dress. And goods are arranged in ??? town of Sapporo. Please taste feeling and happiness that opens the casket. It will help in the our staff so that a wonderful woman may become more! Please feel free to the staff in this shop to ask. Surely, it is likely to become a happy conversation and a happy shopping. Netto di Mammina."

I walked by the Takasho lingerie shop and from my short survey the padding seemed to be in between what you find in Singapore and what you find in the West.

I saw my second non-CJK (an Ang Moh) in the Sapporo mall.

I have no idea why there's a blood donation centre in the underground train station. I was wondering what a "wicket" was (it's a cricket term for "3 stumps and 2 bails") and what it was doing in a train station - the Japanese reveals that it refers to the station gates.

On the surface I saw my 3rd and 4th (who might've been the 2nd) non-CJKs - who were both Ang Mohs.

Pigeons

Statues

Most women who were wearing bottoms above their knees were in shorts. Maybe they were afraid of getting upskirted (since I doubt shorts are appreciably warmer than skirts of the same length).

1 girl had a bushy tail hanging from her shorts. Wth.

The only non-black hair colours I saw were various shades of brown (not even platinum blonde). The green and silver-haired people must be in Tokyo.

The guide said that Japanese people do not have central heating at home, and use kerosene heaters because electric heating is too expensive. They then have to turn off their kerosene heaters before they sleep, or risk the house burning down. I was skeptical about this, until Xephyris informed me: "it's ridiculous how they dont' have centralised heating here. the old houses is bad [insulation]. my apartment has no central heating, i use electric. 950W, imagine how mcuh it costs. stupid really w]

I saw a few fast food outlets in Sapporo - I hadn't seen any in the smaller places.

There's a 53km underground tunnel connecting Honshu to Hokkaido. Wah.

The next stop was the Asahi brewery.

'The Asahi Breweries Group aims to satisfy customers with the highest levels of quality and integrity, while contributing to the promotion of healthy living and the enrichment of society worldwide.'
I hope they came up with this only after diversifying into non-alcoholic products.

The brewery was not brewing, so they showed us a video instead. This was probably a good thing, since it was voiced-over by a Western guy who spoke English very clearly.

The video was very effusive, repeatedly stressing their commitment to their 'Super-Dry' taste and high quality. It claimed that their beer gave customers the inner strength to realise their dreams, and that their commitment to quality beer included sensory tests on their beer and its precursors (touching the beer and hearing the barley must be strange). Awkwardly segueing into their environmental commitments, they proclaimed that 'Beer is a gift from nature'. Lastly, they talked about their keeping beer fresh - given that it's canned, it's a bit strange to talk about freshness (though beer drinkers will doubtless beg to differ).

Jap toilets are so high-tech - yet almost all of them don't seem to be auto-flushing. It must be a cultural prerogative.

Next, we went to the Otaru canal.

"American Dream. Los Angeles. Nagoya. american_dream21@ybb.ne.jp"
I've no idea what this is. Googling seems to show that it's a clothes/music thing.

Not bad. Amsterdam is nicer though.

Lunch was another steamboat. Luckily it had much less MSG than the other day's.

Horse oil shampoo and body soap.
Maybe this is Jap girls' beauty secret.

"Wanted"
Maybe by Greenpeace for selling Seal and Bear meat (I bought a can of each in curry)

Frozen steamboat for you to go home and cook yourself

I saw 1 butch Jap schoolgirl. Wah. I thought they didn't exist. I also saw some of them not wearing stockings (it was below 0). Gah.

We then went to what had been described to us in the itinerary in English that was exceptionally bad, even by its dismal standards, thus: "Upon arrival, we will visit Otaru Orgel Doh, which houses the "Otaru Music Box Museum", the beautiful heaven sent sounds from the music box now embrace this nostalgic city of Otaru". Contrariwise, it was just a music box shop. It wasn't even a very good shop:

Screwed Jupiter Music Box. The interpretation was very... avant garde.

Some Jap schoolkids were taking a class picture outside, and more than 3/4 of the girls (none of the guys, luckily) flashed the V sign. Gah.

This building was another music box shop, I think. It was playing the Harry Potter theme in an avant garde way also.

Those expecting me to post more pictures of Japanese schoolgirls:

(Specially reuploaded after Imageshack nuked all the images in this post)

"I know your dream is to fuck a Japanese girl, but the fact is you'll die a virgin!"
(alternate link)

I saw a 5th non-CJK - an Ang Moh: with a Jap girl!

Sold out Shiroi Koibito (white chocolate inside a thin biscuit shell). This was the scene at almost all shops (except those I'd seen on the first day). A few months ago they'd repackaged some expired merchandise as new (changing its expiry date) and there'd been a huge scandal (JX told me - just at the Tokyo factory) so they'd scaled back production. Personally I thought it was a marketing ploy to generate excess demand and stoke hype.