Japan's Northern Island
Katherine and I headed over to Sapporo, Hakkaido in Japan, arriving last Saturday on September 22, 2007, after leaving Vancouver at 1:00. Osaka airport was very international and I felt like I could have been in any international airport around the world. That's good, I guess, but it kinda warned me that the Japan I was visiting is a very different place than the place I visited in 1970 with my sister Judith.
Back then, Judith and I wandered the streets and Expo 70 as amazed by everything Japanese as they seemed amazed at us, two young Gaijin. Then I was the tallest man in the room most of the time I was here. Now, the young Japanese tower over me. Things change in only thirty seven years I guess. Also, note to myself..."I'm not young any more." Thirty seven years ago I was already a young adult! Fuck!
As we rode the train into Sapporo from Chisoka airport, with our huge travel bags and an extra bag full of stuff for Alexander, I note that the train system here is still vastly superior to Vancouver's system. Here it is not because of the large population, since Sapporo is only slightly larger than Vancouver. Clearly rapid transit is a priority in a country that imports virtually all of its gasoline from outside. Canada's oil wealth means the we actually do stupid things with our money...like pump it into the air in the form of pollution and CO2.
We were intending to visit Tokyo and Osaka on this trip but now will not go to the southern part of Japan. Our tickets can't be changed with Air Canada, and if we were to go south, we would have to return all the way North again. Stupid airline rules. I wonder it there rules are in response to their right-of-way agreement with Japan. We have similar rules in Canada regarding foreign airlines, but it still pisses me off that there is no flexibility on this score. We probably would have been better off if we had flown with JAL or ANA all of the way, sincere there would not have been the same restrictions as there are on foreign airlines.
But I am not in despair. Hakkaido looks pretty interesting as it is, and spending two weeks here is not a hardship. We spent the first week mostly in and around Sapporo itself, with a couple of short out of town trips, once by bus to a smallist village on the ocean, and the other into the mountains to see the world famous hot springs in Jazenkei.
Sapporo is an amazingly large city, considering that its population is only about the same as Vancouver. The downtown is full of large office towers with an extremely various architectural design. It's like there no zoning, as tiny little tin buildings are next door to 40 story high rises. The only thing they seem to do in common is the subway system. Everything seems idiosyncratic.
Walking about in the north of the city one day it occured to me that my sense of Japanese society needs some alteration. The buildings show a society with a complete disregard for the aesthetic in architecture.
Unlike in Vancouver, where building design is controlled by zoning through city hall, in Japan, people seem to build whatever they want, design controlled by utility not by aesthetic, except on an exceptional basis. Individuality reigns suppreme unlike Vancouver, where zoning is used to maintain districts and areas, both as to function, and as to aesthetic.
In this Japanese seem more individualistic than Canadians, a contrast to my expectations based on my reading. Clearly Japanese poeple here are also more polite. There is a lot of socially correct behavior in public... with bowing very common for even the littlest courtesy. Also people are very friendly when approached with a smile and a happy greeting.
Until next time....
Back then, Judith and I wandered the streets and Expo 70 as amazed by everything Japanese as they seemed amazed at us, two young Gaijin. Then I was the tallest man in the room most of the time I was here. Now, the young Japanese tower over me. Things change in only thirty seven years I guess. Also, note to myself..."I'm not young any more." Thirty seven years ago I was already a young adult! Fuck!
As we rode the train into Sapporo from Chisoka airport, with our huge travel bags and an extra bag full of stuff for Alexander, I note that the train system here is still vastly superior to Vancouver's system. Here it is not because of the large population, since Sapporo is only slightly larger than Vancouver. Clearly rapid transit is a priority in a country that imports virtually all of its gasoline from outside. Canada's oil wealth means the we actually do stupid things with our money...like pump it into the air in the form of pollution and CO2.
We were intending to visit Tokyo and Osaka on this trip but now will not go to the southern part of Japan. Our tickets can't be changed with Air Canada, and if we were to go south, we would have to return all the way North again. Stupid airline rules. I wonder it there rules are in response to their right-of-way agreement with Japan. We have similar rules in Canada regarding foreign airlines, but it still pisses me off that there is no flexibility on this score. We probably would have been better off if we had flown with JAL or ANA all of the way, sincere there would not have been the same restrictions as there are on foreign airlines.
But I am not in despair. Hakkaido looks pretty interesting as it is, and spending two weeks here is not a hardship. We spent the first week mostly in and around Sapporo itself, with a couple of short out of town trips, once by bus to a smallist village on the ocean, and the other into the mountains to see the world famous hot springs in Jazenkei.
Sapporo is an amazingly large city, considering that its population is only about the same as Vancouver. The downtown is full of large office towers with an extremely various architectural design. It's like there no zoning, as tiny little tin buildings are next door to 40 story high rises. The only thing they seem to do in common is the subway system. Everything seems idiosyncratic.
Walking about in the north of the city one day it occured to me that my sense of Japanese society needs some alteration. The buildings show a society with a complete disregard for the aesthetic in architecture.
Unlike in Vancouver, where building design is controlled by zoning through city hall, in Japan, people seem to build whatever they want, design controlled by utility not by aesthetic, except on an exceptional basis. Individuality reigns suppreme unlike Vancouver, where zoning is used to maintain districts and areas, both as to function, and as to aesthetic.
In this Japanese seem more individualistic than Canadians, a contrast to my expectations based on my reading. Clearly Japanese poeple here are also more polite. There is a lot of socially correct behavior in public... with bowing very common for even the littlest courtesy. Also people are very friendly when approached with a smile and a happy greeting.
Until next time....
