The Manor

My second stop was actually the next station from the Swan Lake - Mashu.  It's a famous lake area in the east of Hokkaido, but the place I stayed was in the middle of nowhere, far from the lakes.  There is this English-style manor house/hotel.

My close friend recommended this place to me, and I scheduled my trip around staying here for a few nights.  It's a bit pricey if you stay on your own, but considering the place I am staying in Otaru, the quality of the food and services, this manor totally worth every yen I paid.

The day of arrival was snowy. It snowed through late in the evening.  I was very lucky, because until 3 hours prior to my arrival, there was no snow in this area at all.  Now, as you see, it's completely white all around. 

The ground floor of the manor was a living room with fireplace and a dining hall with a view to a field.  The upper floors house 8 guest rooms, but only 2 were occupied including by myself.  So, it was quite tranquil and perfect.
After settling in, I took a walk around in the snow.  I walked down to a brook, then took a big turn within the property.  The innocent snow turned into a bit like a snow storm, so I could not venture out of the site.

I came back in, warmed up in front of the fireplace, and read a little before dinner (I will write about the book in a separate post).  The other guest was an American/Japanese couple who live just 10 minutes from my place in Tokyo.  They were quite nice, and we chatted throughout our stay.
As it turned out, the owner of the hotel is a doctor (or I should say an owner of a hospital) near Tokyo.  He did his internship in the north, became friends with a local hunter, and decided to have a manor house there.  He also has a restaurant in Tokyo, to which I had been to many times.

Before going to bed, I looked out of the window and found the sky was completely clear and starry.  I couldn't resist going out into the snow.  It was close to full moon, and with the snow, outside was quite bright for a night.  Another magical moment.  Very very quiet, the only sound was the strong wind withering.
The moon was so bright.

The second day at the manor, I took a long walk in the snow. This day was sunny, sub-zero, and the most beautiful day.   There were lots of animal foot prints on snow, which turned out to be foxes'.  Snowy mountains were gorgeous against the blue sky.  Saw 5 swans flying south.

I just spent the day walking around, taking pictures, and tried a horseback riding (the manor has stables too).
I stayed at the manor for full 2 days.  I will go back there as soon as I get a chance.

釧網本線 Kushiro-Abashiri Line

Forgot to post this photo yesterday.
北浜駅にやってきた、夜の釧網本線電車。一両です。

Lake and Hot Spring

Last night, I came to a hot spring area further to the south.  The place I stayed was, as I have written earlier, a small B&B with private hot spring.  The owner, a couple in their 60s, welcomed me at the station, prepared my dinner, then kept company with me while I eat.

After dinner, I went out for a walk.  It was a quiet, cold night, with fat moon in the sky.  The sky was bright, and I could not see any star.  I walked out of the property, to the main road outside, and just stood there for 10 minutes, felt so happy.

No sound, absolutely nothing, except for the hot spring water running somewhere.  No, except for the strange noise that sounds suspiciously similar to a pack of wolves... I wanted to walk further, but I could not move.  Who would come looking for me, if one of them attack and kill me?

Next morning, I found out that it was the swans.

 When I came down for breakfast in the morning, a squirrel was eating a walnut on a branch besides the porch.  This kind is indigenous to this area, the kind that does not hibernate in winter.
The squirrel first check each one of the walnuts on the porch, do the second round, before picking one up back to the branch.  So cute.

 Outside, besides the road, baby Christmas trees were bearing weights of the snow.

 There was not a single person around.  Cars pass by every 5 to 10 minutes, drivers looking back at me as though they saw some crazy person.  I had to go down to the lake to see swans.

 Snow was on my hat, on my eyelashes, on the lake, everywhere.  I encounter a group of Chinese tourists when I got there. 

 Except for their coat, and beaks of swans, lichen on a tree trunk was the only color you see.

 Finally, I left the hotel and went back to a station to catch a noon train to the next stop, Mashu Lake area.  Still snowing.

More, tomorrow.

Northern Shore

Animal footprints on fresh snow.  Thin ice floating across a lake.  Wind blowing up powdery snow in the air.  These almost made me cry.

I arrived at Hokkaido at 13:35 this afternoon.  On vacation on Friday.
It was not until yesterday that I found out about the scheduled strike of the airline company, although in Japan, normally companies and the labor unions reconcile the night before the scheduled strikes.
When I arrived at the airport on time, indeed I found that the strike never did happen.  But my flight was delayed by 45 minutes! 
My carefully arranged bus/lunch/train connections are already in dismay.

I took flight from Tokyo to Memanbetsu airport, which is close to the city of Abashiri, on the coast of Okhotsk Sea.  From the airport to the Abashiri station, I take an airport bus.  From there I take a train for several stops, get off at Kitahama station, where there is a small cafeteria famous among Hokkaido travelers.  My intent was to spend a few hours there, then catch the next train (which means trains comes every few hours during the day time).

I managed to catch the bus, and was barely in time for the train to catch.  Abashiri station was the loneliest station I had ever been to, among those "terminal" stations which are represented on maps as big dots.  It was smaller than a common local station in the suburbs of Tokyo.  And, there was no slope nor escalator nor elevator to cross over the two platforms.  I had to carry my heavy luggage all the way up, then all the way down, sweating.

Anyway, soon I saw the coast, the sea.  Very lonely but serene landscape.  Railway track, some grassy area, beach, waves, huge body of deep water, then white snowy mountain range on the background.

I got off at Kitahama station.  A man with a camera took a picture of the train, then got on the train.
The cafeteria has been on vacation since a month ago.
お知らせ
１１月２２日より少しの間、休ませて頂きます
店主
I wondered for a moment whether I should get back on train, but decided against it.  I really wanted to come here.
The station was just a platform (one track), a small house divided into a cafeteria and a waiting room.  Cafe was of course closed.

I entered the room.  All possible surface in the room was covered with scribbles and cards and messages and train tickets of the past adventurers.  A simple room, with just 4 seats.  I brought in my luggage (so that the contents won't get frozen), took out a pack of sandwich I bought at the airport just in case, and a thermo mug of coffee from home.  I was very well prepared.
After having a quick bite, I ventured out with my camera.

In front of the platform, across the track, is a wide open seashore.  The seashore covered in snow, the waves strong.  It was sunny, but the light is very weak and powerless.  At 14:50, it was already looking like sunset.
I left my luggage at the waiting room, then started walking along the shore.  An old woman was taking a walk on the beach, and we exchanged friendly "hi."

I had never seen the shoreline frozen.  Sand, water, plants, rocks, everything was frozen altogether.  It was just very cold.  And magically beautiful.  My eyes started to burn, I almost cried.  I was just completely, absolutely happy.

The sun started to sink, so I hurried back to the station.  I was sure I won't find my way back if the sun sets before I do so.

Back to the station, I took out some warming pads, put two in my boots and started wiring this. 
Oh, train is approaching.  I have to go.

Footprint

行きの足跡が、もうすっかり雪の中。

My footprints were almost gone when I was coming back.

Swan Lake

Day 2, in Kawayu Onsen hot spring area.  Yesterday it was sunny, but it started to snow this morning, while I was in a hot spring before breakfast.

Kussharo Lake nearby is famous for traveling swans in this season.  The owner of my B&B told me that this area is famous among nature photographers, that the swans are really white.  Because of the warm lake water, they stay in water all the time, and people feed them there, so they won't get dirty walking around the fields and dirt.  Imagine, swans stay in hot spring and be fed all through winter.  Lovely.

川湯温泉に一泊しています。昨晩とは一変して、朝から雪がちらつき、本降りになりました。屈斜路湖の砂湯付近には白鳥が沢山湯治をしています。この辺りの白鳥は餌を探しに畑の方まで行くことがないので、真っ白で、写真家の間では有名だそうです。
冬の間中温泉に浸かって餌を貰うなんて、白鳥にとって極楽なかんじですね。

Okhotsk

I came to a northern part of the north island of Japan.  The island is called Hokkaido, which means Northern Sea County in Japanese.
Frozen seashore, so beautiful.
オホーツク海にやってきました。

Unfair

It is completely unfair that my company decided to evaluate our performance against each other, while they give me an old computer which crashes every 20 minutes to do anything marginally sophisticated.  I want to buy my work computer out of my pocket, if they let me choose what I like.

In search of new dots

I feel empty after 3 or 4 weeks of jogging between work and worries about work.  Unless I recharge some fuel, inspiration does not come out.  It feels like I haven't had much chance of inspirational conversation since last I broke up with my ex boyfriend.
So, I need to read and I need to travel alone.

There is this idea in me about an additional dimension to segment people around me.  Those who look at "now/present" and those who look at "past & future".  I am the latter.

It seems, I fail to notice a lot of things around me.  I am always astonished by how people observe others, often strangers, about what they say, what they wear (which means strangely), or their habits.  Many of them are good at mimicking others, some people are very talented at this.   I can never do it, because I really don't see others that carefully.  I came to realize that I am not so interested in what I see in front of me.
The thing I am rather good at is to connect dots together that are far apart.  When I hear about one fact, I think about many other things, such as a conversation I had with my professor more than 10 years ago, a news I saw on TV, a sight I have seen on street when I had been traveling some time back.  So I am listening, but on the next second, I am not listening.

In short, I am better at creating than analyzing or depicting. And, I am in great need of new dots.

Not sure why I wanted to write about it, but this thought has been around my head for so long now that I needed to get it out.

Seoul

I am in Seoul for a week.  People in Korea always tell me that Tokyo is not interesting for them, because Seoul and Tokyo are a lot alike, but for me, somehow Seoul is interesting and fun.  But perhaps that's because I am a city planner at heart, I am always interested in cities, communities and how the cities are structured.

On my way from the airport, a limo driver kept talking to me for an hour, even though he cannot speak any English nor Japanese.  But somehow he managed to tell me about his favorite baseball team, about his friend in Sendai who got married last year, and his recommendation on sightseeing place in town.  He was friendly and made me happy.  (Korean people are always very nice to me, but maybe because to them, I look like one of them.)

On the other hand, I used to love to visit our office in Seoul, but somehow not any more.  I used to love the company culture here, so open, energetic and everybody young.  It's a good thing to be more structured, better managed, but I keep noticing people pulling legs of each other and that gives me pain.  I mean, it's impractical to be like that, I feel my time wasted. (I guess I care a lot about not wasting my time.  I am also not so interested in speaking about people who are not there)
Also, there aren't many new things for me to learn anymore, so I don't feel as excited as before.

Nevertheless, because it's so cold, Seoul is more Christmassy than Tokyo.  I can't wait for the week to end, then I can meet my best friend.  3 days to go.

These days

 

 At work, we are hosting two guests from NY and India.  And my days have been crazy these days. After this coming week, I will enjoy a few weeks of resting period, which I can hardly wait.

It's been busy but at the same time it's been great.  The Indian guest, who happens to be reading this blog (avidly, thank you), and I became good friends.  I must admit that I had never spoken to an Indian person who lives in India.  I knew some Indian American people, but they are a bit different.  In my graduate school, there was a doctoral degree candidate from Pakistan, but he always kept to himself and didn't really talked to us, I must say I did not have a good impression on him nor his country.

Anyway, while I still have lots to say, let me be brief today, for I am exhausted on Sunday evening.

I wanted to show my new friend some good parts of Tokyo, the parts that I like, so I took him around Aoyama/Omotesando/Roppongi area.  There is a famous street with 4 rows of huge Ginkgo trees near Aoyama area.  Since the autumn leaves festival was still ongoing, we went there, only to find most of the leaves were already on the ground.  But it was quite nice.

He gave me two books of his choice as souvenirs. One is a book about Indian culture by Amartya Sen, the other a collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri.  Both look great, so I am looking forward to start reading them. 
But what fascinated me more was the bag that came with the books.  I think it's quite amazing - all of these 3 people look like themselves, but look quite Indian at the same time.  The artist is pretty good, don't you think?

 

Since I haven't done much other than working and planning for my short vacation, I really don't have much to tell you.  But I did bake a plate of quiche from scratch, all by myself.  I became accustomed to bake tarts these days.

 

 Below, I bought several skeins of new yarn.  The yarn called SHELTER, a sort of a designer yarn that just came out a few months ago.  A carismatic knitter/designer who lives in Brooklyn started his own yarn brand with American wool with a local yarn mill in New Hampshire.  It's a wonderful concept.  Wish I can do something like that in Japan, too.

I am knitting a Guensey patterned scarf with the gray yarn.