Historical Village of Hokkaido
January 31, 2006, Arrived in Japan 13 days agoThe Sapporo International Youth Hostel has awesome rooms, multiple beer-only vending machines, a spacious laundry room, and friendly staff. It does not have good breakfast food.
After the first day of this stuff, I started eating breakfast from the Sunkus convenience store a block south (yogurt and cereal, mostly). Speaking of which, now is as good a time as any for me to attempt to explain Japanese post addresses. I’ll get to the Historical Village of Hokkaido later in this post.
This Sunkus convenience store’s address is, in Japanese:
〒062-0907
北海道札幌市豊平区豊平７条７丁目３−２６
The first character, “〒”, denotes the postal code, which is 062-0907. This ‘t’-shaped character is seen prominently on the mailboxes throughout Japan, most of which are red. Like in other countries, postal codes are assigned to particular post offices whose letter carriers have responsibility for the areas covered by the code.
The next line has the rest of the address information, decreasing in order of geographical specificity. The top level is prefecture (like a state in the US). “北海道” is Hokkdaido (北 is “northern,” 海 is “sea,” and 道 represents the old concept of a geopolitical entity above prefecture but below nation). “札幌市” is Sapporo (actually it’s “Sapporo-shi”; the 市 means town or city, “shi”). “豊平区” is the district in Sapporo, Toyohira-ku. “豊平7条” is a further subdivision within Toyohira-ku. For example, the Hostel is about a block north of the Sunkus, but it is in 豊平6条. The rest of the address is “７丁目３−２６.” “７丁目” is the block. For example, the Hostel, in the “6″ subdivision, is in the “6″ block of it’s subdivision. “3-26″ is the building’s designation. So, based on this information, and with the extra information that the Hostel’s building is designated “5-35″ on it’s block, you should be able to figure out that the hostel’s full address is:
〒062-0906
北海道札幌市豊平区豊平6条6丁目5-35
There is also a 7-11 convenience store nearby, at:
北海道札幌市豊平区豊平７条１０丁目４−１８
Oh by the way, the katakana for “Sunkus” is サンクス (”sa-so-ku-su”).
After breakfast, I took the subway to Sapporo JR Station and took the Chitose line to Shin-Sapporo (New Sapporo) Station, in the eastern suburbs of the city. From there, the JR Hokkaido bus line has a five minute route directly to the Village. There is also a subway line (Tozai) that goes from Sapporo Station to Shin-Sapporo Station, but I had a JR rail pass so my ride on JR was free; the subway would have cost me a few hundred yen.
Sapporo is still very proud of its Olympic heritage. Although the Winter Olympics were held in 1972, 35 years ago, the public signage is clean and new, and in addition to the winter sports, it includes graphics depicting events from the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. This median was in Sapporo Station:
An interesting shop, “VIS.” At least they’re honest about the intent of their business.
Designated smoking area in Sapporo Station. Even though the station has large open escalators leading to the outdoor platform not far from here, smoking is still banned outside the “Smoke Here” room. One could probably get their fix in there without ever needing to hold a cigarette in their mouth.
The bus dropped me and a small group of tourists off in the parking lot for the Village. As I looked up the snow-blanketed steps leading up the hill to the visitor center building, I immediately thought of this building’s functional counterpart at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which I had visited on July 4, 2004. It’s more than a vague resemblance; the two buildings have the same architectural style, especially in the roof.
I bought my entry ticket and grabbed a liter of something in the vending machine. Amino Supli.
The village itself, a contemporary arrangement of relocated historic buildings from 19th-century Sapporo, with shameless and anachronistic liberties taken with their relative positions. One could compare it to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, where an historical society did something very similar. The village is on the other side of the admission building, which was once Sapporo’s main train station. Cross country skis were propped against a rope outside the doorway, and the tour group was getting equipped. I assumed these were laid out just for them, so I set out in my boots. Later, I was told that anyone can use them. The village isn’t too large, and the snow was mostly removed or packed down, but the skis would have been nice. And romantic, if I had such a traveling companion.
I could write a whole book about snowman paradigms in various countries. Japanese snowmen are quite different from American snowmen.
I was jealous of their skis, mistakenly.
A rickshaw and a carriage.
I don’t know what island or peninsula this map depicts. The first two characters mean “high sun.”
More pictures.
A little after noon, I walked back to the front of the village, and did the same trip in reverse, back to Sapporo Station. All of the big train stations in Japan are collocated with shopping malls, always including large, multi-story anchors. I spent some time window shopping, up and down escalators going for six and seven stories. The basement level of Daimaru has fresh fruits and other foods for sale in an atmosphere that could be best described as an urban farmers’ market. They had panels and panels of the massive apples, pears, and other fruits wrapped in stretchable foam mesh and selling for upwards of 1000 yen each, the kind you always hear about from those who have visited here. It was very crowded. A few levels up it was a more typical department store. Tiffany’s has a branch up there, inside the store but behind its own wall. I found a tea container, a gift for my mom, but it took me awhile to figure out how to buy it. A saleswoman looked alarmed when I picked it up and started walking toward the nearest counter, but acquiesced to walking me there and telling something to her coworker behind the counter. Moments like these made me feel guilty for not having learned more Japanese. In the months before leaving the US, I spent about $50 on language learning software from Fairfield (based in my parents’ town of Harrisonburg, VA), but realizing that I would only be there for a few weeks and not again for quite awhile, and probably never for an extended time, I talked myself out of spending a lot of time and effort to learn it. Should be spending more time on my rusty Spanish… excuses, excuses.
I snapped a picture of a Tissot watch I had surveilled online some weeks before. It was the first time I saw one in person (the one on the left). I bought it a few weeks after returning to the US, and for much less than the equivalent of 44,100 yen.
I had a late lunch of soup, vegetables, steak, and …. white rice.
That’s right. “Dan”cing. I, too, can do any pose with the sofa.
X-Box 360. This thing was released in Japan on December 10, 2005, less than two months prior. Frankly, I was surprised that Microsoft tried to market it in Japan at all, what with the abundance of the more popular, superior offerings from Sony and Nintendo.
Colonel Sanders. Effeminate hands. Fried chicken? No: “Classic Cheese Burger.” I didn’t notice at the time, but there’s a fast food worker behind the counter in the upper-left of the picture, just staring at me with his hands behind his back. It’s a good thing I didn’t act on my impulse to grab the Colonel and make a bee-line for the hostel; he would have been all over me before I could say “finger-licking good.” I doubt that United would have let me check it either, even as oversize baggage.
Rental ads, shown here for historical purposes.
This is a sign by the road near the hostel, for the nearby university. Quite the eye chart.
Solo dinner back at the hostel. Vegetable soup and microwaved gyoza from the Sunkus. Not bad, actually. At the other end of the dining room were vending machines stocked with beer, but I opted for water. Something about drinking alone.
Portable ashtray. I don’t know why.
CalorieMate. I love this shit. I don’t care if it’s supposed to be diet food or something. It tastes alright, makes a good snack on the run, and it has a lot of English (not Engrish) on the box, so you know it’s good.