Back to Hokkaido - July 6

Finally !

We got up and struck out for Haneda Airport.  I was amazed to see that the industrial area, through which the monorail from Hamamatsucho to Haneda passes, has gotten significantly cleaned up since I was in high school.  We found our way, boarded our plane and made the short two-hour flight without any issues.

At Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, we caught a shuttle to our car rental agency, located in town.  There we picked up a cute little Mazda (aka “Baby Mazda”) which matches all the other cute little cars and vehicles on the roads here.  (Cute pick ups, cute cement trucks, cute garbage trucks...)  A patient and kindly fellow at the car rental place helped with our GPS,  switching it to an English voice, giving me basic instructions and plugging in the address of our first destination, friends Mike & Yoko’s house.  He warned that it might not get us exactly there, since it was a country residence and not a Hotel or significant landmark, but certainly it should get us close.  That gave me pause for concern, but then I remembered I had my cell phone to call them if we had trouble finding their place, so relaxed.  We were in Western Hokkaido and Mike & Yoko live in rural central Hokkaido on the other side of a bunch of mountains, so I was very happy for any assistance finding them I could get!  I wasn’t sure how long it would take, but we picked up the car about 3:30 PM, so I figured even if it took a few hours, we should be able to find it while there was still light.  So.  I instructed Julia to get her nose out of her nook and help keep me on the right (left, that is) side of the road, took a deep breath, and we were off.This was my first time driving in Japan.  During the late 1800’s, when Japan was opening to the world and playing frantic catch-up technologically after a two and a half of centuries of isolation, the Meiji emperor sent delegations to other countries to learn the best of everything to bring back to Japan.  So (I hope I remember this more or less correctly) they got their postal system from France, their knowledge of medicine from Germany, their transportation system from Great Britain, etc.  As a result, Japanese drive on the left side of the road.  It’s not as hard as I thought it would be (knock on wood) to remember to stay on the left.  What’s more difficult is to remember to watch the line on the right (new center-line) for orientation, as opposed to the the left (U.S. center line) one.  There’s a strong tendency to drift left.  I’d asked Julia to help me stay on track with everything from navigating to staying in the right lane.  She eventually stated complaining about having to “baby sit” my driving, but it was helpful to have another set of eyes watching out.  

The drive was long and winding through beautiful rolling green hills.  The hills were almost big enough to call mountains, and were close, layer upon layer, giving the landscape an almost intimate feel.  It was astounding, after being in other parts of Japan, how there were just NO PEOPLE.  I remember Hokkaido as being more spacious, but I think I’d forgotten just how much of it is unpopulated.  We drove and drove.  Dusk came.  As there were absolutely no restaurants in any of the villages we passed through, we eventually stopped at a convenience store for some food and begged the use of a bathroom.  Julia was tired, and getting a little creeped out by the endless, winding road into darkening nothingness.  Then it was dark.  Very dark.  On we drove on winding roads.  finally, we followed our GPS through a small town that should have been our destination, back into the countryside.  Then it plopped us out on a dark road in the middle of freaking nowhere and had the gall to announced we had reached our final destination. Hmmm.  So naturally, I pulled out my trusty cell phone, only to discover we couldn’t get a signal.  Drat!  So I decided to go back to the small town we’d just been through.  There we got not only a signal, but some helpful landmarks.  Mike was able to give us clear directions to their place. (And we had, indeed, been close.)  He flagged us down at the end of their lane with a light.  What a sight for sore eyes!  It was such a relief to be there and they welcomed us so warmly.  We hadn’t seen Mike, Yoko and their two daughters in 9 or 10 years, so the girls didn’t remember each other and the adults were astounded at how our girls had all grown.  We caught up a bit, but went to gratefully bed quite soon.