Day 8: Sapporo to Tokyo

Last day here in Hokkaido, and it consisted mostly of trains, starting with a subway train to the central station, then a Furico train to Onema Koen. Turns out the Furico is actually a tilting train, which explains why it was so fast and smooth. Passed some great scenery as we ran along the coast.

At Onema Koen I hopped out and left the delightful little station. Onema Koen means Lake Onema (although koen actually means park) and it is definitely one of the highlights in Hokkaido, my decision to stop there being aided in no small part by the train stopping right next to it. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but soon weeded through all the street vendors and car parking and found the lake itself. Wow!

Onema Koen consists of the lake itself, and dozens of little islands. There is a great wee walkway that goes from island to island connected by little bridges. Some of the smaller "inner lakes" have massive plantations of water lillies…

Here is one of the bridges, and some more water lillies…

 

And another bridge…

Looking at the map I could see a "view point" but had no luck finding it; I did however find a lovely wee beach…

Since I had romped around the course in record time I went back to the beach and sat down in the cool air for an hour or so. I found a great big dragon fly who was quite happy to pose for photos…

Another view from "my" beach…

Then it was time to head back to the train soon enough it purred into the station and it was time to continue my adventure.

At Hakodate I had to change trains and unfortunately I was not able to get a reserved seat for this train and it was a bit of a mad rush. I ended up in the vestibule for this ride, which is not the best way to travel between Hokkaido and Honshu, although it could be worse. The train is pretty fast, probably another tilting train.

At Shin-Aomori I had a seating reservation on a Shinkansen and so laid back and started my journey to Tokyo. Pretty unremarkable journey, these trains are best for sleeping in I've found. Here is its impressive nose…

Ueno (Tokyo) arrived by 7pm-ish and went to book my tickets for the next part of my adventure. Unfortunately I didn't choose a very good route and ended up having to book a seat on a bus for the bulk of the journey, ulgh! Unfortunately transport options to Tokushima (Shikoku island) were quite limited and apparently I got one of the last 5 seats into Tokushima. That sorted I headed off to my hotel. Rather smelly room this time which I was quite unimpressed about. Too tired to complain I hit the hay and got some well needed sleep.