After working out how to use the trams, I got off the stop marked for the cable car. I found myself at a crossroads and the evening had gotten so late that I couldn’t even see where the mountain was anymore. There was a sign leading me down a street and then across a road but then it got a bit hazy. The road split into three directions with no signs at all.
The first direction I chose got my hopes up because there was a very brightly lit building that looked like it could be a cable car station. It wasn’t though; it was just some rich guy’s very brightly lit home in that modern cable car station design.
I went back and found the right way, but only after going down the other wrong one. All these roads had been quite steep and I was red faced and exhausted when I finally crawled up to the ticket window, peeling my discount coupon from my sweaty palm.
Every organisation, company or institute in Japan needs a fluffy mascot; there may even be a law about this. Sapporo cable car proudly mascotises (second use of that word on the Internet ever) itself as Morris:
The view was pretty nice from the top: all the lights of the city and beyond. I couldn’t take any good pictures though because I couldn’t hold my camera steadily enough.
I gave up and took extra shaky pictures instead.
As I was doing this a Japanese man said, “Hello.”
“Hello,” I replied.
“Where are you from?”
“The UK.”
“Oh.” Then there was a traditional moment of silence. “Take care.”
“Bye.”
He walked away and a woman he was with, who had been hidden behind him previously, gave me a nice smile.
There was a floodlight and I took pictures of my enormous shadow, well what would you do alone on the top of a mountain at night?
Getting back to the tram was much easier. I was first in line and hoping the tram would come soon as it was cold. The man and woman from the top of the mountain appeared and walked up the queue to where I was standing.
“Hello,” said the woman from before.
“You queue jumped!” I thought. “Hello,” I said.
“Do you remember us, from before?”
“Yes”
Her English was pretty good, better than the man’s had been. She mentioned to him that I remembered them and he made some noise of interest. Another man poked his head out, he was wearing glasses and I wasn’t sure if he was also in their group.
The woman asked me what I was doing in Japan and I told her about my trip. I said a few things in Japanese and the man started taking interest again. The bespectacled man also stuck his head out from the darkness a little more. A few minutes later the man, who was clearly the social leader, invited me to go for drinks with them. I said yes.
So who were these people? Well sadly I have forgotten their names so meet Mr Sociable, The Woman and Mr Glasses.
Mr Sociable: Came from a small island off the tropical island of Okinawa in southern Japan. He worked in a hotel with the other man and he liked to complain about the American troops based in Okinawa.
The Woman: From Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands. She used to work in the hotel with the other two but left to go back to Kyushu.
Mr Glasses: He was the same age as me and from the same island as the other man. He did not say much, but we did have a conversation about Nintendo.
They were on a mini holiday together but were leaving the next day. I had an even earlier deadline though, my hotel closed its doors at midnight and it was already 9:30 when we got the tram.
They took me to a drinking place in the trendy area of Sapporo I had walked through earlier. They had been to the same place each night of their holiday and were now pretty familiar with the staff. We were taken up to the top floor, “I’ve never been up here before,” said the woman to me.
It was a nice place to drink; the walls were covered with drawings of famous icons like Godzilla, Astroboy and Akira Kurosawa. I broke the news that I was a vegetarian and they ordered some appropriate food for us to share.
They were overwhelmingly friendly; apparently the people from that island have a reputation for it. We talked about my trip and they recommended a few places to visit.
Me and the woman took this picture together.
Afterwards I shook hands with the two guys and then headed outside. The woman came with me making the staff puzzled as to why she was leaving so early. Back on the street she asked me to send her a picture of Hakodate nightview when I got there.
And then I ran I like the wind.
I’ve already said that Sapporo is built on the grid system making it easy to navigate, but somewhere in my haste I got confused. The massive university campus was refusing to be in the right place and pretty soon it was already midnight. I tried calling the hotel but there was no answer.
This might all sound like a bad thing but it did give me the perfect excuse to go to an Internet Cafe so in one way I was happy.
My legs limped me back into town, back past the roadworks and drunken revellers I had run past just minutes ago.
The subway was closing, the last commuters trickling home. I saw a policeman helping a very inebriated youth out of the subway lift. While the policeman descended back underground his previous burden walked in a daze across the road.
He headed straight for a wall and leant against it. His lean turned into a slow slide, he had fallen asleep while standing but somehow his limp body managed to sink itself comfortably to the floor without waking him up again.
Had it been 1983 and I was homeless for a night I don’t know what I would have done, mind you I would have been a foetus. The point is that these days £6 gets you a booth with the Internet, games, DVDs, a bathroom and free drinks. You can also sleep on the comfy leather chair in your booth, but for all the warmth and privacy there was I bet the guy outside slept better than I did.
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