The very North

From Osaka I took quite a jump towards the North. Well, "jump" is not the right word since I went there by train and obviously spent many hours on Shinkansen (bullet train) - in the best case - and other, slower trains. Well, I do like to travel by train, you get to see quite a bit of the landscape on the way and also it was great to study Japanese.

I travelled from Osaka to Morioka in Northern Honshu, then to Sapporo and spent a night in both places. And then a long journey of 6 hours to the very Northern end of Japan, Wakkanai. It's definitely worth travelling up there, although really far off. The landscape somewhat reminds of Siberia and it's very scarcely populated. It would be a good journey to do by car since it would make stops and side-trips much easier than the train that runs only about 3 times a day.

This Northern landscape really looks quite different from the rest of Japan. For nature lovers this is a true paradise and a rather unknown one as well. Domestic tourists do appreciate Hokkaido (despite the bears, which is surprising considering the risk-averseness of the average Japanese), but there are few travellers from abroad. Well, some Russians obviously visit Wakkanai and its surroundings, but these are mostly fishermen. It's enough to have most street signs in kyrillic as well and the city also offers quite a few booze-only stores (not usual elsewhere). And Wakkanai is the only place in Japan where I have seen quite a few Jieitai (Japanese self-defense force / army). Locals confirmed my suspicion that all of the above is correlated to the presence and vicinity of Russia...

Wakkanai is not that spectacular. A sleepy small town that lives from fishing and from being a the Northernmost point of Japan and a jump-off point to Rishiri-Rebun-National park. It was pretty, pretty cold as well, evenings get really chilly already in this place. The youth hostel, although nicely situated on a hill above the city, was not heated at all and I had to wear my jacket inside as well.

Here a "Thank you" to my friends who gave me the Jack Wolfskin voucher! This is definitely the best jacket I have ever owned so far. And it saves me from freezing to death in Hokkaido. The bight pink color might attract too much attention from the bears however, but that was my choice.