Big in Hokkaido

As I already eluded in my last post, it was time to go. I packed my few belongings into my trusty backpack and Boston bag. Time to say good bye to Maki-san. I hope she will find new guests in the coming weeks – tough times ahead for Airbnb hosts. Meanwhile, I had arranged my new accommodation in Memuro, central Hokkaido. For around 150$ Japan Airlines was going to take me from Haneda to Obihiro airport.

Unless you fly domestically inside Japan, this is probably a place you will not see. Of course, we are talking about Haneda airport, which is mainly handling national flights. In my opinion, it looks even better than Narita. They used these shiny white tiles for the walls and overall the atmosphere is very luxurious. Small touches here and there show that somebody planned this airport with passion. Still, the whole thing being empty might have also influenced my judgement.

After my arrival at Obihiro airport, I took the shuttle bus through the pitch black night. It took around 45 minutes to reach Obihiro station, where I then waited for Toshie-san and Haruka-san to pick me up. To my surprise, when we arrived in Memuro, a small city next to Obihiro, fresh pretzels alongside a hot tomato soup were already waiting for me. I got to know Toshi, my new host, and Haruka, her language school disciple.
Toshi showed me around her house and my new room, a brand new 15m² room – for sure a level up. At her house she regularly holds German lessons, as well as pretzel baking and knife sharpening classes. On the one hand this means I get to meet many people and create my own social network, on the other hand it also makes it difficult to avoid people when you just want to focus on something else.

This picture was taken on my second day in Memuro, after returning from groceries. As you can see, the mountains are close. Actually the whole Tokachi region is a huge valley, which also includes Memuro. This means that there are beautiful peaks pretty much all around me. Thus it’s particularly interesting for people who want to go skiing or snowboarding, like me. Furthermore, like all of Hokkaido, farming is big here. The Tokachi area seems especially active in terms of organic agriculture. Wide, Wild, and Unconventional would be my attempt at describing Hokkaido in three words.