Hakkaido.Pre Skywave.2002

[Nick]

Here are some of my Hakkaido pictures from a trip in 2002.

Taken a while before I started thinking about thrashing around the countryside on the skywave.

All captions read from above the photo

Pleae enjoy.

The map.You must always have a map when Japan is the subject.



Welcome to Hokkaido.The snowy Northern island of Japan.One of the locals sitting on one of the local trams that run out to the suburbs in Sapporo,Hokkaido's largest city.




A tram pulling up to one of the terminus in downtown Sapporo.



Sapporo was designed by a North American Architect back in the 1880s.Not suprisingly,alot of the buildings and homes in the inner city resemble North American styles of Architecture.



Ahhhhhhh yes.Your standard Japanese city TV tower,Sapporo.You can find them in Tokyo,Nagoya and most other major Japnese cities.Osaka has a large mountain range seperating it from Nara prefectue.All the TV towers are on the sumit there.



The view from the TV tower observation deck.With a metro area of 1.8 million.Sapporo is Japan's 5th largest urban area.
Tokyo/Yokohama: 34,000,000
Osaka/Kobe:13,000,000
Nagoya:4,000,000
Fukokua:3,500,000
Sapporo:1,800,000
Kyoto(almost part of Osaka):1,300,000



Here is a close up of the same avenue.If your were wondering what that thing was on the mountain in the previous shot,its a ski ramp.Used for the 1972 Winter Oylmpics.

You can see it more clearly from this shot



Stuck!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nope.Just a car making its way through the 6 foot snow on some local country road,somewhere 100 km out from Sapporo



Whooosh!!!!!!!!!! The train was moving pretty fast for a Non Shinkansen(bullet train).



Hokkaido is strange place.Very differernt to the rest of Japan.With exception to the very southern tip,Hokadote,the island was colonised in the late 1800s by the newly industrialised governmet(in the Meiji period).Its the only place you will see farm houses and cattle.No rice in this country.



THE BEST PHOTO OF THE SET.



A man walking down the street of an unkown town.I took this shot while walking around between the changeover of trains.



Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some unknown station on the long journey between Sapporo and Hakodote.



Welcome to Hakadote.The second largest city in Hokkaido.And the oldest! dating back to the 1600s.



Hakadote.Local street



Temple in Hakadote.



somtime in the late 1800s Hakadote,like Yokohama,Nagasaki and Kobe,was designated as a National trading center for trade and development.Many people from western countires were invited to live in these cities and paid very high salaries to offer skills to develop Japan into a modern industrial powerhouse.What a great country.So smart and forward thinking for its time.



Ahhhh Hokadote from the peak of the mountain on the edge of the city



A guy shovelling snow form the top of the cable car.So 007!!!!!! Im almost expecting Jaws to appear any minute,ready to bite Bond on the neck!!!!,only to have his teeth zaaped by Roger Moore with a power drill



Ahhhhhh.What a view.



Ahhhhhh one more of the area around Hakadote



Thankyou for joining me for another tour of Japan.

This time not by SKYWAVE.But JR(Japan Railways)

Dec 2002.

[Vapour]

So coooooooold Once again, thanks a lot mr. Skywave It was January? February?

[Nick]

Hey Mr Moderator in Love.

It was End of December 29th to be exact.Almost 2003

[drwho]

nice pictures Nick..a wonderful landscape

was it a cold day?

[cjfjapan]

Thank you for the many pictures...Im moving to Sapporo next summer, and hope to stay for many years...thanks for the reminder of how beautiful hokkaido is!

Quote from Nick:


"The view from the TV tower observation deck.With a metro area of 1.8 million.Sapporo is Japan's 5th largest urban area.

Tokyo/Yokohama: 34,000,000
Osaka/Kobe:13,000,000
Nagoya:4,000,000
Fukokua:3,500,000
Sapporo:1,800,000
Kyoto(almost part of Osaka):1,300,000 "


Sapporo has 1.87 million people within its city limit of 1,121km2, not within the metropolitan area.


"Welcome to Hakadote.The second largest city in Hokkaido."

Hokkaido's second largest city is Asahikawa (370,000 ppl), not Hakodate (300,000 ppl).

[Nick]

What a great set of photos.I miss those days living in Japan.