Covering the 3 days left in hokaido before I go to Tokyo

Keep misspelling it Asashikawa but it's Asahikawa...

On the Demon Slayer movie train

Very simple city with a low budget hotel close to the train station. Tommorow I rent a car.

I think I'm used to the traffic after walking so much

>>3203
Just imagine what this place looked like pre-WW2 firebombings.

>>3204
There's a ton of military bases around probably rebuilt on the ashes. I guess it would be a target. I don't really know how active Hokkaido was at the time though or if it only picked up when Japan had the money to spend on the otherwise agricultural island

Pretty cool for 26c after rain. Unfortunately no good photo of asahidake today. Maybe tomorrow morning

Actually wait... Those are the two sister peaks of the main one...

That's a very nice, utopic shade of green.

Apparently this city birthed the ramen dish
... Someone fact check me on this while I'm in line at a super busy ramen store

One really must drink Sapporro while in japan. It's got a far more complex flavor

Very good flavor. Spicy, thick, good meat and good beer

https://maps.app.goo.gl/D1hHKGaaoU95Kdfa8

>Asahikawa
Why isn't it Asahigawa I wonder...
>>3197
>>3200
>>3201
>>3206
>>3207
beautiful place, also nice pics, are those from your phone camera? Is it an iPhone?
>>3214
heh shoulda drank sapporo in sapporo

https://hokkaidowilds.org/hiking/asahidake-ropeway-to-asahidake-summit

This bed is shit and I gotta get up early

>>3217
Samsung 24fe

Fake forecast

Also photography today might be very limited

>>3228
I think you lucked out. Cloudy days with occasional rain is what allows humans to be outside in summer in climates like Japan (or mine) without feeling the oppressive heat and humidity pushing you to the ground.

The fog is disapating but probably will be a lower visibility day unless there's little cloud cover and the sun evaporates it all.

But maybe it's good in a sense >>3229

Was hoping to go to here-ish and get a good shot of the city with the mountain, but will probably refrain if when I pick up the car at 8am it's still quite foggy

It's soo cool I'm wearing a sweatshirt

There's an above 0 chance i get attacked by a bear

>>3237
gaooo

Asahidake is really kakoi but i have barely any reception

>>3236
Enjoy your cool time in Hokkaido while you can...

>>3237
did the kuma bit you

FUCK volcanic ash

My asahidake hike took from 10am at the bottom to 4:00 at the top, then down at 6:30. I took detours, photos and breaks.

I can decend really fast because i was taught to snowboard i think so as long as it's lose gravel i basically just sprint down using my trekking poles to pivot

>>3244
Enjoy your good knees while they last.

>>3246
I'll be young forever

It looks like the other side is getting overrun by bears.

Hokkaido doesn't have enough bear hunters so they keep expanding closer to hiking trails.

Women really so dress exactly as you would expect on a japanese date

>>3248
>Hokkaido doesn't have enough bear hunters so they keep expanding closer to hiking trails.
It's because it's impossible to get a job as a hunter for most anyone. Been trying to get a job helping them control shika population for years. But they don't take kindly to gaijin with rifle (for good reasons I'm sure).

>>3254
That's not unusual. Any time I've been around them in their country or when they're a tourist in my country the girls dress really modest compared to the native women in my country. Usually they have long skirts and are pretty well covered. I think a lot of it has to do with staying out of the sun because they don't want to get a tan.

>>3255
Interesting. I guess they're way to beurocratic in some areas of thought.

Most of the common person store fronts really don't enjoy dealing with foreigners. But there are a few artisian type people who really take pride in knowing there are foreigners enjoying what they do.

I guess there's the people who are just trying to get by who look at you qs politics even though you're openly displaying you're not an american with passport or clothing

>>3257
>even though you're openly displaying you're not an american with passport or clothing
I guess you're going through the same culture shock everyone else seems to have. "I'm one of the good ones" seems to be a common lamentation.

>>3257
Always better to be safe than sorry. Think of it like the skepticism you have towards burgers, it's all just a healthy response.

>>3255
It's because of how strict Japanese gun Laws are.
You can't even get a rifle until you have had a shotgun for 10 years.
Also, every single round you fire has to be accounted for, you literally have to take the brass back to the gunstore to get new rounds.

>>3257
>displaying you're not an american with ... clothing
How do you do that when the entire western world world more or less dress the same?

>>3261
I've been following him through public CCTV systems and he's been wearing nothing but those "Yeah, I'm an otaku. So what?" and general anime shirts.

>>3261
Wear a stripy black and white shirt and a beret.

>>3257
>Most of the common person store fronts really don't enjoy dealing with foreigners.
This is most places that aren't the west. It's good that they're still that way while still being mostly polite to gaijin. I wouldn't take kindly to the people that were occupying my country and using it as military base either.
>even though you're openly displaying you're not an american with passport or clothing
This doesn't matter to them. All gaijin are the same insofar as not being Japanese. You will always be a tourist no matter how long you live there. Just be thankful they're polite for the most part. They could be openly rude like many other places I've visited overseas.

>>3258
Every gaijin that really loves Japan thinks they're "one of the good ones". Met far too many people that have gone full wap and think they're most Japanese than the Japanese themselves. The differences in the people+culture is what makes traveling interesting. Out of all the places I've gone the Japanese people are by far the most polite towards westerners.

>>3260
>It's because of how strict Japanese gun Laws are.
Yeah I know they're super strict even for natives. I was willing to put up with all of that if I could get a job hunting. I'd love to spend my days hiking the back country and exploring the mountains on foot. All the paper work and stuff that comes with it wouldn't really matter if I could obtain that career.

They do allow some gaijin to come and hunt for a living. It's one of those jobs where it's really hard to get started and super competitive for the few slots available. The deer population has exploded over the last few decades to the point where it's really becoming a problem. Since most of the people over there don't hunt and all the native predators of the shika were killed off years ago nothing is keeping the population in check. So they're paying really good money for professional hunters to cut down on the population and keep the deer out of farms and other areas like old growth forest.

The issue is you have to know someone. Then you have to go through miles of red tape to actually import a firearm and keep ammo. It also has to be stored at local Koban and checked in at the Koban in the area you're working every time. For rifles in particular there is a long long list of dos and don'ts as far as what you can hunt with even with the Government job. Which complicates things a lot since the AR platform is pretty much the cheapest/best option if you want to do day time deer/bear hunting and night time hog hunting with a thermal scope. Then add in the fact that you need to use non-standard cartridge (5.56mm is not enough for bear+hogs) and well. It sucks.

My dream job though. I'll keep trying. The purposely make the paper work required very hard to read to keep people that aren't at expert level fluent from participating. Tons of barriers. But I know of a few gaijin that navigated it all and got lucky. They're living the dream.

I don't even really enjoy hunting that much. But having a job going from farm to farm then to nature preserves to help natives with their massive problem with deer, hogs and sometimes bear really appeals to me. You are basically getting paid to hike around Japan and I'm sure the farmers really appreciate it. I bet being one of the few people in-country legally hunting with cool rifle they only see on TV really helps with making friends.

>>3261
Canadians and other non-Americans have this thing they do where they proudly display their country flag on backpack/clothing to alert everyone around them that they aren't burgers. I've seen tons of tourist doing that over the years. I don't blame them because my fellow burgers act pretty awful when they're overseas. The main issue with being a burger is the fact that those of us in the small towns/rural areas are really rare when it comes to traveling overseas. So everyone thinks we're just like the burgers they see on TV or the rude ones they've met before.

A lot of Americans from the two main places where people have the extra income to do overseas travels are really really rude. It's such a big place and the culture is drastically different depending on where people are from. If I travel a few states north of where I currently live it's like being in a totally different country and the people up there are really rude and foul mouthed. Huge culture shock. They also think people where I'm from are fake nice and can't stand the fact that we want to engage in small talk while actually being sincere about it. e.g. when we ask "How are you doing?" we're actually interested. Same goes for thanking people and such. Those Americans also think the same way about Canadians with their habits of thanking people all of the time. I guess it comes off as fake or something never understood it.

>>3264
>I guess it comes off as fake or something never understood it.
I get what you mean. Down south things like using ma'am or sir is just what you do, but nobody does it up here and saying that is seen as rude by some.

>>3264
>Canadians and other non-Americans have this thing they do where they proudly display their country flag on backpack/clothing to alert everyone around them that they aren't burgers
I have literally never seen any tourists do this in all my years of travelling abroad. I have seen a fair bit of american flag shorts and tshirts though, but they fell out of tourist fashion.

>>3262
Lol. I can't open my pack because I'm heading for hakodate on car number 1 of the limited express from minamichitose station at 7:18 JST.
But i bought canada flag polos a t-shirt and a long sleeve. Only 2 people have said "hey you're canadian" both when I was hiking up asahidake

Got a sunburn from hiking and driving through the mountains.

Someone in another thread said "no one drives bikes in Japan" and that's false. I saw lots of them through the farm country between biatori and asahikawa. Packs of bikes, solo bikes, pair bikes.

Also everyone breaks the speedlimit on that road because literally everything is a 50km/hr that isn't a main road that limits you to 70.. only like the final stretch to drop off the car by the airport had a 2 lane 100kmph highway.

Very scenic drive though. I wish I had a dash mount

Biratori*

Took a detour to shinodai cape because i had a lot of free time left.

It's a bit hard to see, but my destination is over those mountains

What makes you so good at traveling through so much of a foreign country all on your own, shouldn't you be scared, awkward and helpless like the rest of us? Or me.

>>3273
The highest risk thing i did was drive a car(i drove on the wrong side of the street for 10 seconds and drifted into a curb while turning and could have caused a flat.(Left side driving takes time to adjust to)
And hiking up mountain had a realistic bear risk i wasn't prepped for.

It's not like I'm fearless or anything. I don't want to order complicated food in a language I'm not comfortable in and an onsen is awkward alone.

You can't escape social phobia, but you can work around it and do fun things that don't require it.
Would i get a japanese prostitute or go to a hostess bar even if I were fluent? No.

Plus I have criminal brain so it's harder to con me anyways and I look really shifty with my hair not tied back and beard

Like i ordered curry rice and was confused when she started talking about coffee and she showed me the menu which was in kana and said "ooooh wakarimasu" because it's included.

And she had laugh when i gave her the thumbs up and said very good.

Some people in Japan would rather not be in Japan and get that languages are hard.

>>3277
Are they sponsoring the train?

>>3274
>>3275
>>3276
That does make sense. I appreciate the genuine answer a lot.
Speaking of driving, I assume the car you rented also had the steering wheel on the right side? I always wondered if you're allowed to drive those just like that if you got your license in a different country.

>>3278
I bought the green car so I didn't get to see it all. If I remember when I get off I'll check to see. The limited express trains seem more professional.

>>3279
Yeah. Presuming the government allows it. To drive in some countries you have to actually get an "International Drivers Licsence" or equivalent which specifies under various conventions that the government deems you able to drive in another country.

Previously people staying in Japan on visas would set their Air BnB or such as a permanent address then switch their liscence over to a Japanese one to get whatever benefits that brings. Perhaps more formal car rentals.

The Japanese government's recently been seeing an increase in foreigners causing accidents so they're closing that loophole. I think the guy who did my car inspection looked at me funny for that reason. I have an IDL but it's probably industry knowledge that renting to a white guy means they'll wind up crashing it.

Yeah
the limited Express is not advertised

>>3274
>an onsen is awkward alone.
would you like to go together

>>3267
nice pic
>>3268
>"no one drives bikes in Japan"
There are a lot of loud bikers around where I live but the normal ones are mostly mopeds.
>Also everyone breaks the speedlimitn
Yeah, remember my お向かい going above 110 on the on the highway, scared me.
>>3270
nice vid
>>3276
>she had laugh when i gave her the thumbs up and said very good
she thought you were kawaii (*´ω｀*)

>>3274
>I don't want to order complicated food in a language I'm not comfortable in
Just ask for their recommendation and order that? You can stumble your way through any situation and leave a good impression as long as you're polite and smile.

>an onsen is awkward alone
It really isn't. It's much more pleasant and peaceful if you aren't forced to interact with anyone other than the curious 50-something salaryman sitting next to you.

>>3273
He's going to Hokkaido, not Mogadishu.

Going to Tokyo soon.

I lied with the first thread. Berun is flying in for tonight as well.
Restrain from the homo jokes please

>>3292
The meal ticket system doesn't allow for that really and there are a few customs you have to follow.

>>3303
>The meal ticket system doesn't allow for that really
don't go to those places?

>there are a few customs you have to follow
smile and thank people and you're golden.

>>3304
I'm not charismatic enough to pull off a miracle smole

>>3302
>Restrain from the homo jokes please
boooo
>>3303
for recs you can ask "osusume wa?"
worked for me

>>3257
>>3264
Honestly it's not that weird. The only country in the world where you can greatly assimilate with the native population and the culture no matter your origin is the US. Even then it's only really been true in the new millennium and it's debatable to what extent or if it's good or bad.
I think it's a shame. It's only natural to emulate something you admire. If this were a nicer world it would be understandable and accepted why some do this. Have you never wanted to be part of the team? Alienation is a cruel thing.

Or if there was be a way to shapeshift at will...