flights in japan

[karekora]

[Charles]

I recommend the hokutousei overnight train.

It's really convenient. Grab a beer and an ekiben, hop on in the evening, lock yourself into your private room, wake up in the morning and you're there. You can even reserve an AM shower for a slight extra fee.
There are cheaper train routes to Hokkaido, but you've got to switch trains at odd hours in some really out-of-the-way places, and if you miss your connection, you're screwed.

[kotatsuneko]

online sites give the best air-do prices, i believe you can also get a ferry

or do the will ferguson thing and hitchhike?

you do realise that at this time of the year Hokkaido is really covered in snow and there arent many heated roads/pavements dont you?

please be sure to buy some spiked boots before going up north, if you do forget, you can get some gaijin sized shoes in the tanukikoji shotengai just off odori/susukino, forget going to sapporo tower as the shops there ohly seem to sell fashion shoes..

if you get chance, find a tetsuya ramen, great food and the staff always seem to be handsome young men for some reason.. that is if you plan to go to Sapporo..

theres an international plaza also - the pavement around it is horrific in winter with all that ice so watch out, if you get bored of hearing english "lessons" there, downstairs is access to a "royal host" eaterie..

actually the pavements in Susukino don't look bad!

http://www.hbc.co.jp/susukino.html

most of the info you need for a short stay can be found here:

http://www.xene.net/english/index.htm

I (unfortunatley) only lived there for less than 2 years so am sure that Charles or Thanatos can help more than I. If you need any specific info , I will try to help you all I can.

[Charles]

I (unfortunatley) only lived there for less than 2 years so am sure that Charles or Thanatos can help more than I. If you need any specific info , I will try to help you all I can.

Don't look at me, I lived in Hakodate for a mere 4 months, that was the coldest summer I ever experienced. I never got as far north as Sapporo.

I noticed that karekora is in London so I presume he's coming to Japan just for the yukimatsuri. So he should really do the overnight train. The cost factor drops considerably when you realize that 1 night on the train saves you the cost of 1 night in a hotel. If you fly to Sapporo for almost the same fee, you end up paying for the flight plus a hotel for that night. Might as well use your sleep time for travel and save the money.

I would have mentioned this before, except I thought maybe he had a home in Japan and of course 1 free night lodging wouldn't save him any money.

[kotatsuneko]

heh if memory serves right *she* is in Tokyo and isnt having a terribly good time of it..

it would be nice to see some more posts rather than just asking for free help and dissapearing btw kk...

ta for that Charles, I somehow assumed you had lived there full time.

Did you pick up any Hakodate ben?

[Charles]

Did you pick up any Hakodate ben?

It's a long story, but for a couple of months I lived in a Tenri temple where the grandmother spoke thick Touhoku-ben and was always trying to miai me with weirdo Tenri girls. Just one of the reasons I got the hell out of there. Anyway, I can understand a little bit of Touhokuben but I can't speak any.

[kotatsuneko]

heh, the standing outside in -20 weather speaking through half frozen lips put you off then?

[Charles]

heh, the standing outside in -20 weather speaking through half frozen lips put you off then?

I said it was the coldest SUMMER I ever spent, I think it got down into the upper 30s (fahrenheit) most nights, even in August. Apparently it was freak weather conditions, there were 3 typhoons that hit Hokkaido in full force that summer, I was told they rarely ever get that far.

I got out of Hokkaido before winter. But it probably wouldn't faze me that much, you obviously didn't read my little tale of going cross-country skiing in a -38F blizzard. ha..

[james]

heh, the standing outside in -20 weather speaking through half frozen lips put you off then?

sounds like ottawa.. in fact a lot of the winter conditions people describe above and from what i've seen on t.v. it is strikingly similar.

.. not that this is at all relevant but i'm bored..

[kotatsuneko]

heh, i *know* you said summer, but I was referring to Tohoku ben rather than Hakodate ben, as Hakodate has very mild weather compared to the rest of Hokkaido, I assumed you would realise that I was, in fact talking about the harsh conditions in Tohoku which are directly related to its speech patterns and form of delivery

[Charles]

Hmm.. I wasn't aware that there was a separate Hakodateben, I thought it was all Touhokuben. What's up with that?

Actually, I lived across the bay from Hakodate, almost a 2 hour commute to school every morning. It was considerably north of Hakodate itself, but I don't think that's far enough to get into a different climate. Well, at least, not compared to Sapporo or Wakkanai or someplace like that. But it was still damn cold that summer. Must have been el Nino.

Edit: Come to think of it, a friend of mine once asked me if I ever noticed that some nihonjin, especially middle-aged men (and up), speak without moving their lips much, especially their upper lip. And I did recall seeing that, but I didn't think much of it at the time. Maybe that's related to the frozen-lips thing you mentioned.

[DJEB]

...a friend of mine once asked me if I ever noticed that some nihonjin, especially middle-aged men (and up), speak without moving their lips much, especially their upper lip. And I did recall seeing that, but I didn't think much of it at the time. Maybe that's related to the frozen-lips thing you mentioned.

Memories of childhood in Canada.

The paralysed-upper-lip thing fits middle-aged men all over Japan, not just the frozen north.