Sapporo - Tokyo - London

Where to start? I'm now in London and everything feels weird.
So back in time...


SAPPORO - Friday to Tuesday
It was quite shock to arrive in a landscape covered in snow.

I arrived early and was picked up at the end of the day by a friend, M, so I decided to go to the cinema to kill some time. For a while I've seen the poster for Gantz, adapted from a manga, a bit violent. Because it is an action movie, I thought it would be easier to follow in Japanese so I decided to go and see that. I wasn't disappointed: on top of the gore scene, the story was pretty good and the 2 (sexy) guys wore tight latex combination. ;-)

I then walked around the mall in the station (outside it was snowing) to get some presents.
At 17h30 I found M in the station and we went to the parents of my other friend, K. I've only seen K&M in London before but it was at the same time weird and normal to see M (and later K) in Sapporo.
K's parents were adorable and the mother prepared an amazing dinner (home made tempura, croquette, ahhhhh).

K arrived later (work work work) and we had a nice time catching up. K and I stayed in the Japanese room at K's parents. The other shock in Sapporo was how warm the house was. Everyone was cold but for me it was like summer. Awesome.

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The next day, we went back to Sapporo for lunch in lovely cafe/design shop. The owner, a friend of M&K was in Tokyo that day so couldn't meet him but M told me he was really surprised to see the picture of this friend, in W* Sapporo.

Then went to a wheel located in the top of a tall building. Must admit I kept wondering if the wheel was going to fall from the roof and the height was bit too much but it was well worth it for the amazing view of Sapporo.

Then we went to a second-hand bookshop where we had a drink. The shop was on one of the floor of an old building. I would have never thought of coming in and really wander how people find the (cool) places in Japan.

 Afterward we went for a bit of shoes shopping between girls and found M in a huge bookshop where we spent a couple of hours.
Then dinner and I went with K to the opening of this exhibition by two artists: tbc (dammed didn't get name card) and Shu Saito (got the card!). We were joined by a couple of K's friends, both really funny and cool. The area where the gallery is, is a middle of regeneration: low rent, lots of artists, galleries, pretty cool. And I really like the artworks (even got a badge from mysterious artist).

After that we heard there was another opening nearby so we went. The artist was a bit freaky, a 26 years-old something, behaving like a child and speaking with a voice of a 12 years-old. Brrr. Really made me feel uncomfortable. But, for the first time, I saw real Otaku (nerd obsessed by mangas, anime and electronic) and I can confirm that none of my friend (or me) are real otaku. Oh yeah, the art. Well was like a very good manga, cute characters (lolitas) so I think it would work well outside of Japan but, perso, I didn't see the point.
After that, we went with K and her 2 mates for drinks in a restaurant at the top of building, where I had a good view of Sapporo by night and nice shochu(danger danger).

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On Sunday, Y, a mate of K, met the night before, drove us to the countryside, We passed a cemetery with statues like in Eastern islands, a huge Buddha and other oddities. No ideas why this stuff was there. We arrived to our destination: a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains (one of them a volcano). Apparently, in the summer, it's a very popular destination because there are lots of onsen and you can take boats on the lake. But when we went, the town was deserted and silent apart from the muffled sound of walking in the snow.

After lunch, we headed back to Sapporo. On the way we stopped at this coffee place which has been designed by architects. It's amazing what good architecture can do: as soon as we entered the building, we felt complete utter relaxation.
After a stop at the supermarket to get the ingredients for the nabe (hot pot) we headed back to K&M's place. Their flat is really cool and the party fun: good food, good drinks, good company. Danger danger.

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On Monday, we chilled out. Even went back to bed after breakfast(!). We went out for lunch in a lovely Nordic-style restaurant nearby. K and I spent a nice afternoon chatting, catching up... But I couldn't help thinking I was at day-2d before leaving Japan.
For dinner K's mum prepared another amazing meal. Basically you pick up a nori (seaweed), chose your sashimi, put all that together with rice and yummmmmmmm. Awesome.

TOKYO - last stop
Arrived there on Tuesday. Grey sky, rain...It was quite a change to be in the middle of this big city, bustling with people, tall buildings everywhere after having spent months in medium-sized cities. Hotel was a bit old and in a so-so area (slept with my luggage blocking the door) but the people at reception were adorable so, at the end it was OK.
My luggage arrived safely from Fukuoka. In Japan, you don't see people carrying huge luggage around in trains/planes. Instead they all seem to send them to their destination via the equivalent of UPS/DHL, except that it's super cheap. I tried to lift my luggage and realised that I couldn't so decided to send to London one last box by post. Thanks God I did that because when I arrived at the airport on Thursday, I was over the weight limit (29kg instead of 20kg). So I had to throw away 1kg, take a membership to Lufthansa, repack to bring my backpack to 8kg and make a very sad face at the counter so they let it pass. I say it's lucky because the box was 7kg (full of precious books - why don't I like hankerchieves instead of books??) so I would have had to pay the extra fuel charge which costs a fortune.
Anyway, enough of that, back to Tuesday. After the post office, the email checking and getting a coffee, the day was nearly over so I just hang around Ueno station, not very inspiring...

Wednesday, I wanted to go back to this amazing stationary shop I visited years ago so headed to Ginza where I spent the day. I just hang out in coffee shops, watching the world go by, trying to take in as much as I could...my mind already half-way between Japan and England.

LONDON
So apart from the little "trauma" at the check-in counter, it was a long trip back home. Will pass on the details but now I'm back in London, everything seems strange and I'm jet-lagged. I'm sure it's only a matter of few days to get used (back) to my surroundings.

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I could have written very ceremoniously The End but, if it is the end of the 3 months in Japan (see title), it's certainly not the end of my story with Japan. So instead it'll just be a See You Later.
^_^