Day 9 - Ookurayama Ski Jump (Sapporo)

8th February, 2003 - After a big day out, we hit the slopes so to speak and visited Ookurayama ski jump, which is another venue from the 1972 Winter Olympics, and is still used to this day for international ski jump competitions. It has one advantage of having a great view over the city, especially by going up the chairlift to the summit lookout. The chairlift is an nice way to get to the top - and thankfully it's a return trip (no volunteering to go down via the express route on two skis). They do ski-jumping here at night too.

The view of Sapporo City from the top of the mountain is quite spectacular - if a bit cold. Definitely worth going. You can get there via a bus from Maruyama subway stop - which is also where Sapporo's zoo is... unfortunately the zoo is closed during winter (all the animals get shipped to the tropics to improve their tan).

From the summit you can clearly see the city centre, and the towering Sapporo Station complex that sits atop the central train station. Sapporo is low-lying by Japanese standards, and much of the shopping exists either underground (e.g. Sapporo Station, or Pole Town) or scattered between Sapporo Station and Odori Koen (that's the darkish patch on the right (at right angles to the road to Sapporo Station) - about two-thirds up in the photo below.

Day 2 - Tsuragaoka Hachiman-gu (Kamakura)

1st February 2003 -Arrived at Kamakura. Once you get off the train, you're almost immediately assailed by the local tourist-seeking rickshaw operators. We were holiday-happy enough to say yes to "Eiji" the very talkative guy who promised he'd show us all the old residences in Kamakura. He did too - if by that you took it to mean showing us all the out of the way places.

Actually, we had fun, and ended up on the main road towards Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu (the main temple in Kamakura). On the approach is an arched bridge which was said to only be for the Shogun's use (and it's easy to see why, as it's now blocked off from pedestrian traffic).









Tsuragaoka Hachiman-gu
This shinto shrine was established by the Minamoto clan, and contains many of the aspects that you will find across Japan for these shrines. Firstly there is the wash basin (chozuya) which are used to purify yourself with water prior to approaching the shrine. Ladels are used to rinse off your hands - and no, it's not for drinking. On approaching the main worshipping hall which is generally known as the haiden (not where the God is meant to reside - the honden - that's not accessible to the public), you will find an alter of such, generally with a coin tray (saisen-bako) infront. Make a coin offering (it can be whatever value you wish), ring the bell twice (or strike gong), bow twice and then clap twice and then pray to the God (Kami); finish up by bowing once again. It's like pressing send on a celestial email. Each shrine may be slightly different, and there is also meaning to how the clapping is done, and the depth of the bows. Too much information!

There are also (like most of shrines) places where you can buy an assortment of charms and prayers (including ema, which are used to write your prayers on - more of that later). You can also see sacred ropes, or shimenawa, that establish a boundary to the sacred parts of the temple. Other features associated with Shinto shrines include the bright red torii gates, and the pair of stone lions, komainu.

A Shinto rite is performed...

A nearby lake and bridge.

Day 1 - Night Shopping (Ikebukuro)

31st Jan 2003 - Ikebukuro. Ikebukuro (http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3038.html) is one of the biggest districts on the Yamanote Line (the circular train service that acts as a ring-route around Tokyo).. We went to Toyota Amlux (free to enter) and generally did some shopping (did I mention the fact that it was WINTER... bought a cheap coat here. Don't forget I was coming from an Australian summer.

It's a nice area, and there's plenty of shopping around here... and a good place to grab a bite to eat. Ah - I can remember one of my wife and I's first arguments occured over a dinner in Ikebukuro... what was it about? Hmmm - if i can remember, I wouldn't tell. What a way to start a long (first) holiday. Actually, that's the sort of thing that happens when you start to get deep into the holidaying straight off the plane.

There's a fair bit to do in Ikebukuro (such as Sunshine City bldg) - but unfortunately we arrived fairly late in the day, and were pretty tired. I'd like to go back and explore more.... but that will have to wait.

Day 1 - Nishi-shinjuku Hotel (Shinjuku)

31st Jan, 2003 - We stayed at Nishi-Shinjuku Hotel (http://www.nshotel.com/english/index.html), it's about 10 min walk from Shinjuku Station (in fact it would most probably take you longer to find the right exit out of the station). It's a business hotel, so don't expect any fantastic rooms (it's bigger than a cupboard, but not by much). It's clean and comfortable - and they were very generous about looking after our suitcases whilst we went on overnight trips around Tokyo. Can't recall the price, but very competitive for the location which is very central.

There was definitely some strange aspects of the location however... such as being located next to the cemetary (my first experience of this... and no - Japanese are not buried vertically, as i've heard somewhere... they are almost exclusively cremated).

Also - when we were there in 2003, there was a box-city out the front in an open square, i.e. where all the homeless had set-up. We had no problems here however, and was a stark reminder just how hard it can be (remember it was winter, and temperatures were regularly 5 degC during the day.