Warning - badly written due to sleep deprivation, but what an excellent whirlwind! We have spend an amazing few days coming down from Asahikawa on Hokkaido island and have now reached Tokyo, tired, elated, and full of very fond memories.
We hitched from Asahikawa to Sapporo on Tuesday 29th in good time, fetching up at the flat our HC host Ken shares with his parents - all of whom spoilt us with the most unbvelievable kindness. Ken took us around local areas, including a Shinto shrine, and helped Ellen understand about vegetarian things in supermarkets. His mother fed us until bursting (Gengis Khan BBQ) and took us the next day to the rather impressive Hokkaido Village - a collection of 60+ old buildings charting Hokkaido's history and culture in terms of archaeology all set next to a beautiful forest thatwe walked in too. That evening the family took us to a sushi restuarant where I tried most things, including the very weird sea urchin ovary - not something I had imagined ever eating! It was quite nice actually, but a bit pasty. For noe of these (quite expensive) things were Ellen and I allowed to pay, and believe mewhen I say that really did try, such is the beautiful generosity of this family. To cap it all we were set to leave the next day (Thursday) by simply walking the kilometre or so to the express-way interchange - easy - when the dad insisted on taking us 'a short way to a more convenient spot'. 2 hours later we were eating the packed lunch that the mum had sent us off with in the shadow of a new volcano (started erupting 1948) and an hour or so later we had been taken to 2 very beautiful calderas in the Iburi-Shiko area. Finally we were dropped off a long way along our express-way and the hitch to the ferry was simple. I still cannot believe the startling - shock inducing generosity of these people and how it is rooted so firmly in their nature. It has been an overwhelming experience and one full of great times - ellen was shown some of the mum's kimono, and given a beautiful silk scarf, and Ken our host had amazing tales to share from his recent 4 year hitch-hike around Asia and Africa.
The ferry from Hakodate to Aomori onHonshu island was quiet, dropping us in at midnight. We slept comfortably and safely in the terminal building and were up for the long hitch (Still 600+ kms to go to Tokyo) at 7. Despite one depressing stop atthe beginning of the expressway where we were moved on by the police (and back again by ourselves!), waited 3 hours for a ride, and got stuck in rain, we were very lucky to have a series of long fast rides that ended up in Tokyo at midnight. Wow - feeling more than ever like a hick from the sticks driving through Tokyo at night is an awesome experience - Bladerunner come to life. Layer upon layer of roadways ontop of each other, with the tips of some buildings just peeking up by the side of the road while others soar so high into the sky the tops are barely visible. A million tiny lights describing a monsterous, wonderful human beehive on a scale that is too huge for me to contemplate - endless to all intents and purposes. A place that defies and defiles nature to such an extent that I should loathe it but of course I am once enraptured in this living jewel. The very lovely lady who picked us up from the service area outside the city now gives us a a guided tour of central Tokyo (including a letter to present at a particular tempura bar to ensure highest service and quality!) as she looks for the destination I randomly mentioned as somewhere to go, and finding it drops us outside it: a fantasy playground for Andys. This place is about as central in Tokyo as can be. It is an internet cafe and manga comics centre. Each terminal is in a private booth containing the computer and a couch, to sleep on if wanted. It is cheap to stay all night - about 6 quid for the first 5 hours and 2 each hour after, and so in this most expensive of cities we have somehow managed to find very budget accomodation in an unorthadox but quite splendid fashion.
Now it is close to 4 a.m. and I am signing off exhausted but radiantly happy, and very excited about exploring further tomorrow!