From Tokyo to Hokkaido

6 Aug 2006 (Day 2 in Japan)

We had an interesting time exploring Asakusa/Tokyo (where we were staying for 2 nights since Sat), Jinbocho (Book Town) and Yanaka (Cat Town). We were following the maps Kuro.shiro.neko has found in a Japanese book which shows places where stray cats have been sighted. Perhaps the weather is too hot and the cats have gone into hiding, so we only found 1 cat in the alleys of Asakusa, another in Yanaka and 2 cats in a shop selling cat inspired stuff in Yanaka.

At night, Kuro.shiro.neko`s friend brought us to a restaurant in Asakusa for izakaya kind of food (which I understood to be serving a variety of traditional Jap food). On the way, we sighted 2 stray cats near the shrine temple and another cat outside the restaurant. I tried some grape juice alcoholic juice that he recommended to be a popular drink among the Japanese ladies. We amused our Japanese friend that we have spent the day looking for cats and we will be visiting Cat Land when we are back from Hokkaido 7 days later.

7 Aug 2006 (Day 3)

We woke up around 5am, so that we could freshen up, had a quick breakfast before we rushed off for our train ride on the bullet train/shinkansen @ 7plus am to Hakodate and changed to another train to Sapporo @ 5 plus pm.

We had shio ramen for dinner and will be retiring to our hotel room soon. This hotel chain which we also stayed in Asakusa/Tokyo is quite good. Free internet access and I can call back Singapore @ 100 yen for 3 mins :) Kuro.shiro.neko has asked me a few times whether I would like to learn Japanese language when I return to Singapore. I still cannot give a definite answer. I had taken a beginner`s course about 6 or 7 years ago but I didn`t practise and so I gave up in the end. Maybe after this trip, I will be able to give her an answer.