My vacation is over.  I had a great time in Japan.  I’d been to Tokyo for about 10 times in the last 6 years and this was my first time to Hokkaido.  I think I like Hokkaido better than Tokyo.  It’s not because this was my first visit but the people in Hokkaido is more relaxed v.s. people in Tokyo seems like they are in hurry.

Communicate with Japanese

Basically, 70% of the people in Japan do not speak English (or they are afraid to speak English it seems).  I can only speak a few words in Japanese but can hardly understand what they response so we used the most basic language in the world - Body Language.  Most restuarants in Tokyo have English menu or Picture menu if they don’t so ordering food would not be a problem as we only need to point what we would like to order on the menu.  However, in Hokkaido, almost every shops and restuarants would have at least one person who can speak English.  Their culture, “Prolite”, remain the same even when they are speaking English.

How would I rate my trip

I would rate this trip at 9 with a scale of 0 - 10.  We had fun and the food was delicious, especially Ramen, we couldn’t find any restuarants that serve bad ramen.  Hakkaido supplies most of the milk in Japan and their milk is so rich comparing to North America, they their dairy products are very good as well.  Those are “must try” if you are visiting Japan.

I will soon write down some tips, and how/where we went in Japan for anyone who is planning to go to Japan and explore the cities on your own.

Yes, we are going to another city in Hakkaido again.  We are going to a city named Hakodate, one of the famous cities for Onsens (hot spring spa) in Japan.  You can take Japan Rail (JR) train from Otaru to Hakodate, which takes about 4 hours and 45 mins and cost 8,920 YEN per direction.  Since we are a group of six so we decided to rent a mini-van in Otaru to Hakodate, which cost us 23,000 including taxes and insurance for 2 days 1 night, and 10,300 YEN toll for the free way round trip and another 10,000 YEN for gas, and it’s about 5 hours driving.  In this case, we saved about 8,000 YEN per person.

Rent a car in Japan

In order to drive in Japan, you will need a to apply for a International Driving Permit before you leave your home country, and a credit card.  Simular to rent a car in anywhere in North America, you can make a reservation of a vehicle online before head.  You will pay the fee by credit card when you pick up.  Make sure you cancel the booking if you change your mind not picking up the car as of the agreement of the reservation, otherwise, penalties will be charged.

Enjoying Onsen right in our rooms

The hotel that we were staying was in front of the the ocean and we booked the rooms with private onsens in our rooms so we can enjoy the onsen with privacy.  I’ve mentioned before, in Japanese culture, you are required to take a shower before going into the spa and you have to be naked.  Although, it is separate for Men and Women spa, we still not get use to this “naked” culture.  With a private onsen in our rooms, we can enjoy the onsen convertibility

The hotel was great and we enjoyed our stay.  The hotel accommodation rate covered a Japanese Style dinner with 9 dishes (including desert) and a buffie breakfast, and free parking if you are driving.

Whats famous in Hakodate other than Onsen?

At night, we went to the down town of Hakodate, and we drove up to the top of the hill for the night view of Hakodate. (Cable car is availble if you are not driving)  The the night view of Hakodate is one of the best 3 in the world.

We will be going to the fish market located at the downtown of Hakodate (near JR station) next morning for fresh Sashimi!!

The hotel room

The private Onsen in our rooms with full ocean view

The night view of Hakodate from the hill

On the 8th morning, we took JR train to a harbour city, Otaru.  The train from Sapporo Station to Otaru station was 620 Yen per person and the ride (rapid express) is 36 mins.

When we checked out at Keio Plaza Sapporo, we left our luggage at the front desk for storage since we will be coming back to Keio Plaza Sapporo on the 10th, and we can travel to Otaru with the stuff that we need for next 2 nights.  When we arrived JR Otaru Station, we walked to our hotel Sonia II which is in front of the canal.  The hotel is about 8 minutes walking from the train station.

After we checked in our hotel, we went to a restaurant for lunch.  We had prawn, uni, samon, tuna (TORO) sashimi, Hokkaido king crab (KANI) miso soup, and BBQ scallop.  The restaurant  is just around the corner from the hotel, and it is on the way on our right when we walk from the train station to our hotel.

Regular Sightseeing Bus

There is a Sightseeing Bus in Otaru city and Shakotan that goes around most of the attractions, and you can always get the information from the front desk of the hotel that you are staying.  We choosed to take the train to Minami Otaru Station to the far end and visit all the shops and attractions along the Ironai 1-chome.  We visited Music Box Musiem, their shop has hundreds of different music box for sale and on the third floor, you can make your own unique music box with 250 different musics you can choose from.  In Otaru, you can find a lot of shops that sell product of glass, they are very famous.

The following picture of the canal is taken by our hotel at night.

We left Tokyo at 8 a.m. from the Hotel and take the flight from Hanada Airport to Sapporo Chitose Airport.  Then we took the airport shuttle from the airport to our hotel, Keio Plaza Hotel Sapporo.  The ride was about 80 minutes and during the trip, the shuttle had multiple stops within Sapporo Central Area and it was kind of a city tour

We arrived at the hotel at about 4 p.m this afternoon.  After we checked in the hotel, we started to explore the city.  The hotel is about 5 minutes walking from the Sapporo JR station and about 3 minutes walking to Subway stations.  By the JR station, there are 2 malls and four or five department stores.  We started our stopping in one of the mall by the JR station.  On the 10th floor, there is a Ramen Kingdom, which has more than 6 different Ramen restuarants.

We were shopping until 7 p.m. and we took the subway Namboku Line to Susukino station (2 stops) to a Japanese Style Beef BBQ restuarant for our dinner.  We had a good time, and the following is a picture of the night view from my hotel room.

My friends and I went to the Tokyo Car Show 2007 today.  We left our hotel at 9am, we took the Japan Rail (JR) from Tokyo Station with “Keiyo Line” to the Kaihimmakuhari Station.  The Exhibition Center is about 5 minutes walking from the station.  The ticket was 1,100 Yen when purchased online or 1,300 Yen at gate.

The car show includes modern technologies, Commercial Vehicles, Bikes, and most importantly, Cars.  In the car show, you will see a lot of cars that you’ve never seen in N. America, as they are available in Japan only.  Besides the cars, the show girls are also attractive.  Whenever there is a show girl describing the cars, there must be a crowd surrounding and taking pictures.

How many air bags in your car? 

You will never have enough air bags in your car comparing to this model.

Environment Friendly Race Car

Usually, race cars are lots of horse power and consume a lot of fuel during races, how about a hybrid race car?

Funny Concepts.

During the car show, car manufacturers are showing off their concept cars.  There are lots of cool concepts as well as funny looking concepts.  The following is one of the funny concept cars made by Nissan.

Pretty Race Queens

Porsche is always my favorite, and most excitingly, the have a GT2 for display and I’m lucky enough to sneak to the front and took some picture of the car and the pretty show girls.

Super Cars

Besides Porsche there are a few Japanese super cars that I like, for example Skyline GT-R (Grey) and Subaru Impreza STI rally edition (blue).

We stayed until 4:00 pm and I enjoyed the show

Wohoo!  At last I’m in Tokyo, Japan after 10 hours flight from Vancouver.  We arrived Tokyo Narita International Airport at 3:30pm.  After we claim our baggage, we took the airport shuttle (Friendly Airport Limosine, is what the shuttle is called) to the hotel, Keio Plaza, in Shinjuku.  The shuttle costs 3,000 YEN per person and it stops right in front of the hotel, it’s very convenience.

After we checked in the hotel, we went to have our dinner at a izakaya for a beer and some sea food.  It was delicious.  Hm…. That Could Be In My Mouth.  Yummm!!

Alright, I’m really tired after the flight and it’s time for me to sleep.

Tomorrow, I will be going to 2007 Tokyo Car Show.  I’ll take lots of pictures and if you would like to know more about the car show, please come back tomorrow.  See you guys

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

I am setting up a discussion forum that talks about Computer Software/Hardware, HTML/DHTML and/or other scripting language, Blogging, Video/PC games (MMO or Single Player).  Please leave a comment if you have a suggestion.  Of course, the contents must be legal in most countries.

I’m expecting to launch this forum after my trip to Japan this Sat.  I’m so excited as it’s been two years since my last visit to Japan.  During my trip in Japan, I’ll keep posting articles about what I see in Japan whenever I can access Internet with my laptop.  So if you are interested in getting my updates about my trip, make sure you subscribe my feed or enter your email to subscribe my email list for feed updates.