Said Goodbye to the Sheraton Tokyo Bay hotel and started
for a longggggggg journey. From Tokyo which is in Japan’s main island, Honshu to
Sapporo in northern island, Hokkaido. Nearly 1135 km. Almost a full day travel
by train. As Sapporo is in another island we had to cross the sea. Guess what…yes,
we were going to cross the sea by undersea tunnel.
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At Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay hotel room balcony,
Tokyo,
Japan. Apr. 30, 2014
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At Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay hotel lobby,
Tokyo, Japan.
Apr. 30, 2014
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At Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay hotel portico, Tokyo,
Japan. Apr. 30, 2014
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Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay hotel, Tokyo,
Japan. Apr. 30, 2014
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‘I should be used to this by now’, was what I was thinking at 9.08 am, as I sat in my designated seat in the bullet train named HAYABUSA 9 to Shin-Aomori. You might have noticed the word, ‘Shin’ appearing along with place names. ‘Shin’ means ‘New’. There are two stations in Aomori, Aomori station and Shin-Aomori station. Our travel would take 3 h and 21 min. I don’t remember much of the occurrence or views we got from the train as again I found myself blinking in and out of consciousness. It was not pleasant.
Our train stopped at major cities such as, Sendai, Morioka, and
Hachinohe and arrived at Shin-Aomori at 12.29 pm.
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Bullet train, Hayabusa 9: Tokyo to
Shin-Aomori.
Japan. Apr. 30, 2014
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Interior of the Bullet train, Hayabusa 9:
Tokyo to
Shin-Aomori. Japan. Apr. 30, 2014
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Having lunch in the Bullet train,
Hayabusa 9.
Japan. Apr. 30, 2014
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Japan map showing Tokyo, Sendai,
Morioka, Aomori,
Hakodate and Sapporo. Japan. Apr. 30, 2014
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At 12.30 pm, I found myself running behind my
parents who feared that they would miss the next train, which I later concluded
was unnecessary as the train took up on its course only a good 10 minutes or so
after we settled ourselves in it. Our next destination was Hakodate. The Limited
Express Super-Hakucho 11 train (Heat 789 series) started at 12.45 pm and would
arrive at Hakodate in Hokkaido Island at 14.58 pm (2 h and 13 min).
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Limited Express Super-Hakucho 11: Shin-Aomori
to Hakodate. Japan. Apr. 30, 2014
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My father was particularly jubilant at this specific and
kept blubbering about going in the tunnel under the sea, while this would have
been interesting for me, I lacked the energy and instead chose to keep quiet
and stare at the diagram of the very tunnel my father was going on about.
Apparently the ride through the undersea tunnel would last for exactly 27 min,
was what I got from my calculation having noted the time the train would enter
the tunnel and the time it would get out given in a table below the
aforementioned diagram. Having seen this chart I couldn't help but think, ‘Japanese
people…..must like time keeping’. A noticeable point in Japan was everything
was punctual and everything had a time designated for it. It was an odd but
worthwhile practice, and I was impressed.
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Passing time schedule in the Seikan
tunnel for the
Limited Express Super-Hakucho 11. Japan.
Apr. 30, 2014
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Seikan undersea tunnel connects Honshu and Hokkaido islands. The tunnel is 53.85 km in
length, with 23.3 km below the sea. That is, the train is traveling 23.3 km directly
under the sea, Tsugaru straight that separates Honshu and Hokkaido islands. The
depth of the sea is 140 m and the tunnel is 100 m below the bottom sea bed;
that is, the tunnel lies 240 m below from the sea level, making it the deepest
rail tunnel in the world.
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Seikan undersea Tunnel, linking Honshu
and Hokkaido islands.
Japan. Apr. 30, 2014
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Exactly at 2.58 pm, we have arrived at Hakodate station. Our
next train, Limited Express Super-Hokuto 11 was at 3.13 pm which would reach
Sapporo at 6.43 pm (3 h and 30 min). The travel time was longer, but was
fortunately our last locomotive before we reached Sapporo.
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Limited Express Super-Hokuto 11: Hakodate
to Sapporo.
Japan. Apr. 30, 2014
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The three and half hours wait was bearable and much more
better for me as I was that time actually awake to see the views flashing by. I
loved the country side with all its mountains and multitudes of trees; it was somewhat
different from our country. And since the sea was also visible I was able to
get good shots from my mobile camera, this lasted until I got bored and ran out
interesting things to take.
At 6.43 pm we reached Sapporo. While Sapporo was not as
impressive as Tokyo and Osaka, it was in its own right a sprawling city.
It was going well for us until that point, but good grace
cannot last and we finally found ourselves facing the problem of finding our
hotel, which by the way, was the same as the one in Osaka, Ana group, Ana Hotel
Sapporo. My father who had seen the hotel sign led the way for some time. I
decided, I did not like the way my parents were dawdling with doubt and took
over. The station was close to a bus terminal which had a building atop it. The
entrance to the building was before the stairwell, near which we were standing.
Thinking that maybe if we were to gain height we might be able to see the hotel
or atleast its sign, I convinced my parents to climb the stairs.
Plan one, locate the hotel from a high point, but failed;
the reason, the mentioned point wasn’t high enough. I decided to improvise and
let fate lead the way after that and we found ourselves at another stairwell,
this time leading down, located at the side of the building near a darkened
carpark. This was where, an accident took place; my mother fell. Maybe it was
because she wasn’t focusing; maybe it was because she was old, who knew. After
that I hanged back with my mother while my father walked ahead in search of the
hotel. I did not see what he was doing but came to the conclusion he asked
someone as soon enough we found our hotel.
Not that we stayed long, and against my wishes I was pulled
along to shop for dinner. Having had a glimpse of the places earlier we found
ourselves at a cafeteria like place, a ground below the electric store we had
entered. The shop was easy to find as it was near the second stairwell. Our
shopping did not last long as most of the store clerks were closing their shops
and after buying rice with some kind of a sauce over it, my mother had bought
the same though the sauce was different from ours.
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Dinner at Ana Hotel Sapporo room,
Sapporo, Japan. Apr. 30, 2014
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The time was nearing 11.30 pm when we finished dinner and we
decided to sleep as we had another trip on the following day!
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