Blues and Jack Daniels in Wakkanai – The Pointy End of Globalisation
No matter where I go, I leave out this road. That’s Onishibetsu, my home-town for the year. I live about 100m behind that white tower building on the right.
It’s been a long interval since my last post, and that’s largely due to a potent combination of laziness and travel. For the past two weekends in a row I have been away from home and computer, rendering me unable to write anything halfway coherent and utterly exhausted upon return late on a Sunday night!
The previous weekend was spent in Sapporo, the largest city on this island, and was a great time in general. I cannot report overly much on the experience however, as most of the time was spent buying essential items unavailable in the countryside. Things like decent clothes, 30cm shoes and the like. What I can say of the trip, however, is that Sapporo is a horrible place to get lost in! The drive from the north took a surprisingly quick 5 hours by car, but we ended up hopeless driving around in circles for 3 hours in Sapporo, frantically calling Sarah for further directions as we encircled a widening area of the city.
The major problem, in my opinion (and I think Heather may well object), is the utter lack of distinguishing landmarks in the city. Likewise, the lack of road names or even regional markers all serve to frustrate the foreign driver. Given my traditionally hopeless navigational skills at the best of times, this all added onto the stack of challenges in finding our destination. A pain, to be sure, but one that I will be careful to avoid next time!
Sapporo aside, the weekend was spent in Wakkanai, the wonderful town of Russian occupation, and culminated in a rather pleasant evening! The day was spent over delicious sushi chatting with one of Heather’s coworkers about the merits of awesome university debating (ie my style) versus crappy Model UN “do your research on a country for 2 months!” styles, together with the normal internationalisation Japanese folks never seem to tire of. Add in a street pub crawl for the townsfolk, being mistaken yet again for Russians and gawking at the unnaturally cute waitress at a fancy Japanese restaurant, and the day could largely be considered normal by Gaijin standards!
Pub crawl near the Russian sector of Wakkanai. 90 minutes to drag yourself around the block and visit as many bars as possible. Sadly, driver that I was, we could not partake!
Curiously though, Heather had informed me that Wakkanai had a tiny blues club/lounge/loft that might be worth checking out, and check it out we did! The fine establishment of ‘BB Kings’ (I think that was the name) was an extremely small 2nd floor lounge-bar festooned with native American trappings. Lord knows how or why they got there, but it was pretty enough. The barman I think was happiest of all to have two non-Russian foreigners frequenting his abode, but there was unfortunately no official lineup for the night. Undaunted, we hit the beer and Jack Daniels (because it’s everywhere!) and soon enough we were watching a 3-man traditional Japanese guitar group strumming away through several apparently-famous tunes (including the anthem of Fukuoka, I think.) Following this, Boss-san (our resident barman) plucked away with his own decidedly western guitar for our pleasure. Given the size of the establishment, we were effectively 50% of the place’s clientele, so it made for a rather unique and intimate musical experience, as opposed to the thronging sweaty masses I’m used to in South Africa. If only I’d remembered to bring my beret. Nonetheless, the oddity of a South African, American (from Tennessee) and Japanese woman drinking Jack Daniels in a Japanese Blues bar festooned with Native American decorations, whilst listening to a mixture of local and foreign music was not lost.
Much like eating a delicious curry made by Indians in Sapporo, it’s fast becoming apparent that there is no such thing as an area untouched by the western world. It’s by no means a bad thing, but it is noteworthy nonetheless.
Following that, Sunday was spent largely fighting off a creeping hangover with spicy and delicious udon noodles (thick white noodles in your choice of soup and meat/vegetables), avoiding deer on the drive home and basking in the warmth of my apartment’s gas heater!
This sign just about sums up the charm and the hilarity that is Wakkanai.
On a more mundane note, the weather here has fully turned into Autumn mode, with temperatures comparable to Johannesburg’s winter. The autumn colours are fully in gear to boot, with a lot of the browns and oranges one would expect. Nights dip tentatively below freezing and a return trip to Sapporo at the end of this month is looking to be a very good idea, as gloves, thermals, ski boots and assorted wintery things are still in dire need in the land of John!
