Asahikawa Bright Spots

There were some bright spots to this gritty city including the well done Asahikawa City Museum where we took a deep dive into the indigenous Ainu culture, the Kamikawa Shrine, a surprisingly delightful pottery village, and some really good food.

Maya and I tried to eat at a little shack of a place but it didn’t work out so well.  We walked into this tiny establishment where there were 4 seats at the bar and 2 little tables.  We sat next to a lady who was chain smoking and nursing her own bottle of whisky.  The sign on the wall outside said they had yakitori which is basically meat on a stick.  Taking one look at us the bartender lady typed into her google translate and asked if we spoke Japanese. We cheerfully said no but we could use google translate.  She and the drunk patron laughed….then she said “Are you ok with animal organ meats?” That’s a hard pass for us so we typed back, “how about non organ meat chicken or pork?”, which prompted more laughter between the two of them.  She typed on her google translate for a few more moments and said “I’m sorry but we have a large reserved party coming in so we cannot serve you.” Ah ok got it.  Too much of a language barrier, and some places just don’t want or need to deal with tourists so she was politely asking us to leave.  We felt discouraged and so kept walking in the hunt for dinner.

This is fake food on display.  Restaurants are really into their fake food here.

A real bowl of ramen

There’s a pottery village tucked in the corner of the city, a little spot of lush green heaven where carefully designed homes and dense gardens hide residential pottery shops.  Most notable of them all was Potta, run by this beautiful artist whose work moved us to tears.  It was quite the scene, I don’t know what happened in there but Maya and are were just overcome with emotion and we were gushing tears that we could not stop.  We think this woman, her space, and creative energy reminded us of my mom in another life.

Our first visit to a Shinto shrine was at Kamikawa Shrine, built in 1883.  There was a little sign at the purification fountain near the entrance explaining how to wash your hands (left first then right) and mouth.   

Nora explained to us that these paper slips are fortunes called omikuji that one pulls from a box after making a donation to the shrine.  If it’s a bad luck fortune you can tie it on a tree branch and leave your bad fortune behind.  If it’s a good fortune you are supposed to keep it on your person for at least a year to increase your chances of it coming true.  

We’ve heard thrifting is epic in Japan and American Core is a hot style…curated vintage stores sell random t shirts for $25 that resemble the ones in the rag pile in my garage.  Bringing the trash bag of clothes currently found on my closet floor and  designated for Goodwill could be a good way to make some money whole traveling in Japan.  Raid your grandma’s closet for her old Charleston, SC sweatshirts.

We took a detour on the way back to Niseko to stop in Yoichi for a few sights, including our first conveyor belt sushi!  The place was packed so we used the time we had to wait for a table to study the ordering system by watching what the other patrons did after they were seated.

See that little chart on the picture above? Different types of sushi cost a  different amount and get a particular color plate.  After the meal you pile up all of your plates and the guy comes by and scans the stack of plates.  Presumably the plates are embedded with a microchip or a magnetic strip or something, the process is pretty cool. Vicki was very amused by how amazed I was. We ate an enormous quantity of all kinds of sushi and the bill came to a mere $36… for all four of us to be stuffed to the gills :) 

We ended up with a LOT of plates because we didn’t quite understand the ordering system.  You have to write the item number on a little ticket and how many orders of each kind you want.  We thought there was just one piece of sushi in an order so we mistakenly ended up with multiples upon multiples of everything.  The plates just kept coming and coming and coming.  Just when we thought the last plate was being handed to us another one appeared.  We managed to eat all of it! It was quite comical and so all we could do was try not to choke while we cracked up.

The hand of the sushi gods

We went to the sweetest French bakery, an adorable roadside fruit stand, and saw a Tori gate on a karst rock formation at high tide.

The Montana of Japan

Hokkaidō is like the Montana of Japan, if Montana had rice fields, volcanoes, and a longer snow season.  Up here, it’s rural and mountainous with miles of farmland so it’s not the Japan of my imagination.  

Hokkaido is like its own world and it’s so far north that only 27 miles separate Japan from Russia.  We had the day in Niseko to acclimate and try to adjust to the time zone and remain awake during the day. Thanks to a teacher at Vicki’s school who is out of the country we have use of her comfortable apartment.  The view from her window looks out on to ducks living their best lives swimming in green rice fields, providing a nice example of symbiotic farming called the aigamo method.

After settling in we went to 7 Eleven for picnic foods and drove to lake Toya for the volcano museum, picnic, and a walk.  Convince store meals are different in Japan.  For about $5 can buy fresh onigiri and various single serving side dishes for a super filling and healthy meal, it’s the Japanese version of street food. 

We are currently on a 4 day road trip to explore a few places.  Taking a scenic route through the mountains the first stop was Furano to visit Farm Tomita where fields of poppies, lavender, daisy, and lupine are in full bloom.  It’s a popular sight to see in Hokkaidō so we weren't the only ones there by any means.  Lavender is the main feature of the farm and the visitors really get into it by dressing in purple to match the fields.  We happily joined the tour bus crowds to snap photos and eat lavender ice cream.  

After being on the road all day we finally arrive in Asahikawa.  Unexpectedly oppressive and grim, the city is decidedly not cute.  The architecture resembles something like a Soviet bloc country, there’s trash on the streets, the apartment for the four of us is a bit cramped, and the weather is grey and damp. We planned to stay 4 nights and use Asahikawa as a base for exploring the area but very quickly decide to cut our losses for the fourth night, condense our plans, and leave a day early.  

The big draw to Asahikawa a visit to Mt Asahidake in Daisetsuzan National Park. Seeing rain in the forecast we decide to make our trip to the mountain for the only sunny day.  Since summiting the mountain is serious and for prepared hikers only, we opt for a gondola ride up and a 1.7 k pathway around the base of the mountain that takes about 90 minutes. On this active volcano we are treated to stunning alpine scenery, with patches of snow still remaining, and clear blue skies.  

Back in Asahikawa we really enjoyed yakiniku on a Hokkaidō style Jingisukan barbecue.  All manner of meats are available, including horse meat.  We opted for a more typical selection of mutton and Wagyu beef.  That beef really does melt in your mouth no matter how well done a person like me likes it.  We chose this place solely because of the unique curved green door entrance.  You get your own little curtained cubby hole dining area where you remove your shoes before sitting at a low table on a cushion.

You Can Believe the Hype

The view from our apartment in Niseko

I’m here to confirm what everyone says about Japan….that it’s safe, clean, quiet, and efficient. I suspect I’ll still feel that way when we leave, and like everyone else I will dream of when I can return. 

We are not used to this type of travel environment.  If it’s not sketchy, dirty, loud, and chaotic then what am I doing here?

My very good friend, Victoria, moved here last year with her daughter to be the principal of a K-8 international school in Niseko.  Victoria and I went to Valladolid, Mexico together in 2022, my first post Covid international trip, and she is the only person outside of my family that I’ve ever traveled with.  We were very compatible on that trip so it wasn’t out of the question to get together in Japan. Even though I wasn’t sure how I would swing it because Japan is over my travel budget and style,  I promised I would visit.   

I didn’t go anywhere last year. Summer of 2023 took me to the land of bottomless grief and sorrow as I witnessed my mom ending a near decade long battle with dementia.   My mom was enamored with Japanese esthetic for as long as I can remember, she loved bonsai, ikebana, geisha, and Zen gardens.  To say she would have fulfilled a dream by coming to Japan is an understatement, especially if she were to be here with me and Maya.  This trip is a chapter in my grief, I have brought my mom along for this healing grandmother, mother, daughter journey.