北海道自転車旅行：7/15 女満別へ

July 15, we've went half way through our trip, and it was finally the day our 2 other friends: 宗霖 & his sister would fly in at Memanbetsu (女満別) to join us.

いいな〜太陽は〜！
After days of cloud, fog and rain, it's finally a sunny day once again... once we got out of the valley of Lake Akan (阿寒湖), that is. With all that moisture gathered around the lake and closed in the surrounding mountains, it's still cloudy and cool in the valley, and we sure were happy to leave the valley and it's bad weather, though a little disappointed that we didn't had the chance to see the lake in it's full glory. After the short climb out, we were soon under clear blue skies, forcing us to promptly change from winter clothes to shorts and T-shirts. But sure we missed the sun shine a lot, and it was a long time since we last touched our sun screen bottles, which were once again needed.

After this sign, we were officially out of the Akan area, and starting a a whole day's worth of happy downhill rides. That's right, that's downhill all the way from 9:30am to 1:30pm, almost 50km on route 240, all the way to the city of Bihoro (美幌). Well, actually we made frequent stops and rests, so only half of the time was riding. I recall that although I didn't rode in the front all the way, I still got an average speed of 20km/hr on that downhill. Half way we made a stop at a 7-eleven. Somehow 7-elevens were rare in rural area of Hokkaido, but this one showed up right when we got hungry, with a very nice 100yen sell on all rice balls. Yum!

Route 240 was another route that cut through massive farms, so here comes the cows again.


Here's a scary curve. Scary not because you tend to enter the curve at downhill high speeds, but because there's word by word warning signs by the curve, that said "Death ... accident ... frequently ... happening ... section" (死・亡・事・故・多・発・路・段). A sign for each character, with the signs of "death" in front of the others, so you only see "death" (死亡) when you are entering the curve.
いい加減にしなさいよ〜！
What are the Japanese government's traffic division thinking, that's scare the heck out of people!


Here's another tire guy with a seat belt. The Japanese government seems to like roadside jokes as safety campaigns...

Soon we arrived at Bihoro (美幌), and made a stop at the first Seicomart convenient store we saw along the road. We originally planned to get stuff and cook, but Seicomart's got their new bento (lunch rice in a box) out right on that day: a huge plate of curry rice with fried pork and shrimp (てんぷら丼かつカレー弁当), 毅軍 got lazy and bought it (it was so good!). So we all had microwaved convenient store lunch. We originally planned to stay in Bihoro, but after the amazing progress we made, it's still in the middle of the day. So after a lazy rest at the Seicomart reading comics (manga), maps and a short nap, we were back on the road toward Memanbetu(女満別) .

Yet less then 1 km later, still in Bihoro we stopped again at a Co-Op supermarket.

As we secured our luggages on our bikes in the bike parking area of the supermarket, a clerk walked out of the door toward. Assuming we might be in the way of other customers, we said sorry and prepared to move. Yet he just smiled and asked: "do you like coffee? or tea?" Huh? "Coffee's OK, but..." And he cut us off: "Just wait right here." Before we understood what the situation was he walked out again and handed each of us a can of iced coffee "These are for you!" It was then we noticed his badge on his apron: "Store Manager (店長)". And he left, walking into the store again. The coffee is the Georgia brand (one of Coca-Cola Japan's brands), with different Hokkaido scenic spot photos printed on each can. Just as we finished enjoying the free coffee, the manager was out again, this time giving us free oranges, and telling us to take care on the road (気をつけて！). How touching! Feeling somewhat in debt for all the gifts, we walked into the supermarket to see if there's anything needed. As the Co-Op chain of supermarkets always had the best deals, it's real nice to shop there anyways.


The route between Bihoro(美幌) and Memanbetsu(女満別) is yet another peaceful road cutting between great green plains. There were road signs with beautiful cartoon style drawings of a plane and a lake, showing that we are in the direction of the Memanbetsu International Airport and Abashiri Lake (網走湖). The Airport is where our friends will land, and Abashiri Lake is a large lake extending from Memanbetsu into near by Abashiri, which then connects to the sea via Abashiri river (網走川).

Welcome to the world of green rice paddies and great blue skies.

When we got close to the airport, it was still quite early in the afternoon. our friends were scheduled to arrive later in the night, with a 2 hour delay due to a Typhoon close to Tokyo, so it's still several hours before they land. Yet, as I liked little Japanese airports, which are still built to high quality standards, yet not as crowed, and may have a observation area on the roof, I still suggested we have a tour of the airport.

So here we are, at the Memanbetsu Airport (女満別空港), which, with the small building and large parking lot, looks more like a shopping mall from up front.

Another thing that I like about small airports is that I get to be very close to the planes.

The first floor is the normal check-in and arrival area, 2nd floor's the waiting area for flights and gift shops. Airport gift shops here seems like a compact version of all the gift shops around Hokkaido, so almost all the gifts were familiar to us after half a month's tour. We could even hold up each merchandise and know if it's a good one, or where we could find a similar one of better quality. But to my surprise, the price here is the same as outside, how rare. Most airport shops sell at rip-off prices. Sure enough, there was a free observation deck on the roof. There were ticket taking gates, now disabled. Seems that they once charged for getting up there, but with less then 10 flights daily, it's just common sense that people won't be willing to pay for getting up there. View's sure superb, with the runway, tarmac, surround rice paddies, and even the mountains far away all in clear sight.


And I always like to play with photos of direct sun light.

青春だ！！！


Plane watching...

I said: "After the tow tractor detaches from the plane, the ground workers are all done with their job, and would wave goodbye to the pilot and passengers before the pilot leaves for the runway." And here it is, seems to be the single most interesting part of airport work that shows a sign of humanity.

And here's the plane's steps to take off...


They had a tiny exhibition showing how large and thick plane tires are.

And it's finally time to leave


The route that leads us out of the airport into the city, goes along side the runway.

Memanbetsu is another peaceful little town with beautiful roads and buildings.

Interestingly relating to the nearby airport, Memanbetsu (女満別) and the surroundings are called The town of Oozora (大空町), and here's a dentist office with a banner featuring a drawing of blue skies and a plane.


We made a brief stop at the Memanbetsu station of the road (女満別道の駅), before going to the Lakeside camping area of Memanbetsu (女満別湖畔キャンプ場).


We had to cross the railroad to get to the lake side, and we took the bicycle friendly overpass that's part of the Memanbetsu train station-library complex, which it self is also very pretty.

Notice that we could already see the beautiful lake from the railway overpass.


And we are finally at Abashiri lake (網走湖). With this sparking beauty, the camping area is very crowded, with campers and people having barbecue. The toll post was closed early, but fear not; the moment we started to set up our tents, the fee collecting guy showed up. Somehow we hoped the guy wasn't that hard working... but the fee was OK.

And there goes my shutter happy finger once again. I love Abashiri lake!

That's a happy crow couple. Interesting how the birds seemed deeply in love.

I love the sunlight on the lake water.

And the sunset, makes it even more gorgeous!

Long after dinner, and after I used up nearly half of my camera's battery juice on the lake, our friends finally landed and called. So off again, to the airport. Good thing the airport was just under 5km from our camping site. What better place could we find for our friends tired from a day's flight?

The runway guiding lights were flashing in different colors, forming a beautiful sight in the night.

And the main terminal shows a different look at night, no longer your neighborhood shopping mall.

The gate at night, empty, it's plane companion long gone.

And here we are assembling two more bikes at the airport. Not making a scene this time, as most people have left, and the airport is closing doors and shutting lights just as we finished.

And soon we were back at the lakeside setting up a 3rd tent of 宗霖 & his sister's. Also, thank goodness they brought us replacement tent polls. Although the length didn't fit well, and the tent is still floppy, it's great that me and 毅軍 are no longer restricted to camping under trees.

Soon, we went off to a near by onsen bath. 宗霖's sister was like "What? I don't want to be all naked in front of others!" Well, we told her that all Japanese places even hotels are like that, unless the most expensive western style hotels. And guys and girls are seperated. But anyway, she resisted going for the night, and said that she wouldn't even have a single bath for the next 2 weeks if it's all public baths. (We thought, "we'll see about that...")

This night's public bath is the best, largest, most luxurious hot spring onsen we've ever seen; yet the admission at 390yen, it's dirt cheep. A part of the hotel 湯元ホテル山水, the bath part is called 美肌の湯 (bath of skin beauty). It had an indoor shower area nearly the size of two fullsize basketball courts, an icy cold pool the size of two home bathtubs, a warm & a hot pool that each could almost be a small swimming pool. And there were 2 water jet massages seats in the hot pool. A sauna (hot steam bath) room the size of a small 7-eleven. And then there's the out door areas, a warm & a hot pool, with Japanese garden style stone & plant decorations all around. Next, imagine two of all the areas mentioned above, one set for men and the other for woman. It was simply humongous. The whole building seems to be much bigger then the terminal building of the Memanbetsu airport! Despite the sheer size, it was as crowded as Disneyland. And all the different pools and gimmicks kept us in there enjoying it for hours! Ahhhhh, maybe it was the best bath we ever had. (Too bad someone didn't come...)

July 14th 阿寒湖 << | >> July 16th 網走

ニコニコ動画一周年御目出度う！！！

從ニコニコ動画(仮)一直到現在的ニコニコ動画(RC2)，短短一年間版本一直升級，功能越來越強，在此恭喜ニコニコ一歲生日快樂！

之前沒有在blog上正式介紹過ニコニコ，一來因為是日文網站，而我的朋友懂日文的不多；二來還需要用email申請帳號登入才進得去，構成另一個日文考驗；三來，上面的影片是18禁跟一般動畫共存的，雖然A片不是最大部份，但時常會有一兩個在排行榜或首頁出現，在點入影片觀賞前需要自行判斷是否為A片。不過呢，以上缺點並不就因此就把整個網站弄成惡站。以它的優點來說，可是這寬頻網路時代的革命性網站之一呢！所以，就此機會來介紹一下吧！

首先說明一下名稱吧！「ニコ」(念niko) 在日文是「微笑」的意思，而「動画」則不只是動畫而是「影片」的意思。所以有些人翻譯成「微笑微笑影片」網站XD 應該就是要很歡樂的看影片吧！

簡單來說，它是日本最大的影片分享網站，性質跟 Youtube 很像。不過它的特色在於觀看者可以「即時留言」。例如說你看一部影片看到某個情節，忽然有話想說，就留個言。若你在 Youtube 的話，留言跟影片是分離的，你的留言如果不是總結感想的話，就必須很辛苦的先解釋你的感言是針對哪一段情節；而在ニコ上，你可以即時留言，你的留言馬上就以跑馬燈的方式出現在當下你看到的那個地方，之後，別人在看同一部影片時，就會在同一個時間點上看到你的留言。ニコニコ動画的設計者在某個說明影片中說到，這是個「半同步」的網路交談模式。介於「非同步」的email跟「同步」的即時傳訊（如MSN之類的IM系統）。比如說你其實是在「早上10點」留的言，但對其它觀賞者而言你是在「影片時間軸上5分17秒」留的言，造成觀賞者有「同步交談」的感覺。我第一次嚐試留言的時候真的是嚇到。以跑馬燈的方式即時留言是個再簡單不過的概念，但在ニコ出現之前，誰想過呢？能夠以這種方式讓觀眾之間能有所互動真的是個很厲害的作法，ニコ還因此拿到2007年的日本G-mark Good Design Award呢。

除了最簡單的抒發感想之外，這「即時留言」還有很多應用方式，如做翻譯字幕、聊天......等。不過日本的網友們把它發展成有點「營造鄉民集體氣氛」的感覺。例如某部影片出現驚人的劇情發展，畫面上就瞬間一大堆「喔！！！」之類的留言飄過；或有人擺出低頭跪在地上的姿勢，大家就一同留言「orz」；甚至男女主角一同臉紅了，仲鄉民就一同竊笑（にやにや）！不過偶而也會有比較令人無言的，例如動畫女角裙底風光瞬間亮出了不到一秒，就會有人在你發覺之前就留言「看到了！」（みえた！）有時還會出現一些實用的東西，例如有些笑點我因為日文聽力不夠強沒抓到，看到別人的留言就懂了；還有忽然有大喊的劇情出現前還會有人提醒「建議把音量條小」。

如果還不懂的話，就看以下的新聞報導，ニコニコ動画上了台灣的年代新聞呢！

報導中有提到，因為ニコニコ動画的觀眾群台灣人佔了1%，是非日本觀眾的最大群（台灣跟日本的文化交流還真強大呢），於是在當時推出「台灣版」。當時的確有讓我興奮了一下，想說這麼棒的網站終於可以推薦給朋友了。不過可惜它的作法是操作介面中文化（完成度20%），影片資料庫跟日本同步，留言部份中日文分離。於是乎，登入畫面90%日文，新會員登錄畫面全日文，網站上影片大都是日文的，操作介面中文化只有一部分。於是，唯一有用的地方就是某些影片可以正大光明的用中文留言；除此外，既然會登錄會員的都懂日文，似乎大都乾脆回到日本原版，還比較熱鬧。說實在，台灣版有點可惜呢。

ニコニコ動画還有一個我覺得很厲害的地方在於它在影片觀賞網頁下方設置了「ニコニコ市場」。例如，當你在看某一部動畫的時候，下方就會有那一部動畫的DVD、主題曲CD、甚至動畫主題曲手機鈴聲的網路商店連結。有時還有搞笑的連結，像上面新聞報導中報到的那個帶著馬頭套吃蛋的影片，印象中我去看的時候，下方竟然就是那個「馬頭套」的購買連結。原來買這種東西也這麼方便啊！除此之外，還有付費會員，似乎可以看某些有版權的合法影片呢！當然，跟Youtube相同提供給媒體業者付費po廣告也是有的。人家 Youtube 到現在都沒有合理的收入管道，ニコニコ光一年就這麼多明顯而合理的收入來源了。

現在ニコニコ動画看習慣了，看非ニコ的影片，還會覺得有點寂寞呢！那一堆留言雖然會有點擋到影片內容，不過有種跟衆鄉民一起看影片的既熱鬧又歡樂的感覺。感謝ニコニコ動画跟衆鄉民陪我度過這在家申請學校又沒工作的生命空窗期。

現在，一週年慶，ニコニコ動画首頁的那堆動畫換成了一長串的週年慶系列新聞報導。真是個歡樂的驚喜啊！
(The above logo, "NICO NICO Douga", and "ニコニコ動画" are trademarks of Niwango, Inc.)

DNA storage kit?

Engadget | DNA Direct shrink wraps DNA for future forensics

This caught my eye on Engadget. So some company is selling a DNA "storage kit". I really don't get the point of this, is there a market?

Quoting the DNA Direct company press release, they said that stored DNA can help you "understand your medical history, inherited characteristics, and family tree", saving it for use when newer technologies come in the future. OK, so what's the difference between the DNA you sampled now and stored, and the DNA you sample from yourself right at the time needed? Well, you could say that our genes get old and decay with time, but I don't think DNA in our body would decay any faster then the sample you stored. So, put simply, unless you hope your DNA sample would be available long after you are dead, there is no need to store your own DNA. Then why save it after your dead? You are long gone by then, so what if anything comes out of your DNA? I would not like the idea of my kids going to court over some stupid investigation on my DNA after I am long gone.

Now, to the process. You are supposed to mail in a swabbed sample of your cheek cells back to the company. Let's just assume that the cells are intact when arriving at the lab, and the delivery didn't take too long. Well, the cells better be intact, or the DNA might not survive the shipment. So how would the company do it? The straight forward way (though pure speculation) would be to break the cells in a solvent, pass it through a miniprep DNA purification kit. Next, spin dry the DNA into dry powder, and add that "special protective resin" the company was advertising about (I have no idea what it is, and it must be a business secret). Put it in a centrifuge tube, then in a metal box (thus, UV protective), and send it back to you.

Is there an amplification process in there? If there isn't, so much DNA might be lost in the purification process that it's not of good use. If there is, how do they do it? PCR is the most common and fast way to do it, but if they go cheep and use Taq polymerase, well hello high mutation rate; if they use a better enzyme, like Pfu, the mutation rate is lower, but it's still there. And I am not sure the $175 could afford the use of Pfu.

Of course, there must be some people who are willing to pay for this service, but for the majority of us, I see no motivation to do it, and also see no proof of yield and mutation reliability for serious usability.

北海道自転車旅行：7/14 阿寒湖

The main reason I was dissing the B&B at Lake Akan (阿寒湖), was what started our morning this day. We were woke up by the host at (if my memory was correct) 8AM in the morning, saying that we should check out at 8. What? He never told us anything about an early checkout time the day before, and no relevant posting or handout in sight. Besides, I never ever known a lodging place kicking out guests this early, most are either 10 or 10:30. But this dude woke us up early in the morning and gave us only 30 minutes' grace time to get out of the place. It's not like we liked that crappy shack, but hay, we payed to have a good night's sleep, and this is how we were rewarded.

The plan of the day was to walk around the area for the day, and spend another night at Lake Akan, this time camping at the camping ground. We also considered a near by rider's house, which turned out to be another wooden shack, that we couldn't find the host, and there was only fiercely barking dogs "greeting" us.

So we set up camp at the Lake Akan camping ground, and left our luggage in our tents. In Japan, it's so safe that we could leave our bags by the road and no one would steal it. Well, it's then, I asked 毅軍："Where's our tent's polls?" After a long search in vain, we figured that he left it back at the Ashyoro (足寄) camping place, where he camped alone 2 days ago. I had a list of sporting goods shops around Hokkaido, but all are far away, after all Lake Akan is a national park. And even if they had tent polls, you never knew if it would fit our tent. 毅軍 even considered taking a bus to the next big city by himself to find the polls, but the bus schedule didn't work out; and I really don't like the idea of splitting our group up too far with no cell phones to communicate. What a bad way to start a day! We decided to forget about the polls for the day, as we were there to have fun, not to worry about problems.

It's another day we split ways. Candy's plan of taking the lake tour boat, and then riding around the area, sounded nice, so I tagged along.

After parting ways after lunch at Lawsons' (real great, mentioned in my last post), me and Candy went to take the tour boat: The Marimo (まりも丸). Well, the boat it self was okay, it was an old boat, and the comfort level of the over all ride, I'd say it's well, kind of like the old city buses, nothing special; in comparison though, it was worse then the experience I had at either Kobe (神戸) , Kagoshima (鹿児島), or even the boat to little Liucheu island (小琉球). There was a gift&snack bar on the boat, empty and closed. They had a recording introducing Lake Akan playing on the boat, but I can't understand most of it. And it was a cloudy, windy, foggy and cold day with occasional drizzles, so looking outside was not fun, either.

Candy seemed to enjoy it, though.

We got off the boat on a tiny island in the middle of the lake, which had a "Marimo tourist center" on it, with exhibitions and aquariums of the marimo seaweed balls.

So the "Marimo center" turned out to be a two story building, each story the size of a 7-eleven. We were like, that's it?

Well, at least we get to see marimo...

Outside was a tiny park for tourists to walk around and take pictures.

And as with every major tourist site in Japan, there will be a sign with the site's name for people to take pictures next to it, proving that they have came.

And that concludes it, back to the boat.

On the way back, the fog got even worse, and it was a world of white outside the window, so much for the boat tour... The attendant started selling marimo merchandise, more souvenirs and a picture book. And they were playing a hilarious "song of the marimo" in the old, slow Japanese enka (演歌) fashion.

まりも〜よ〜まりも、緑ま〜りも♪

Well, that kept me laughing...

And that was that, for our not so interesting lake tour. We did see stuff we didn't see before, but just wasn't as amusing as we thought, most parts of the tour left us thinking "that's all?", and the fog made it even worse.

We next went to a walking route aside the lake yet apart from the shopping strip, to see a less commercialized part of the area. We first came to "Benkei's hotspring foot bath" (弁慶の足湯), where 毅軍 previously said he would be, writing postcards.

It was a free little pool for people to warm up their feet while enjoying the scenery. Although 毅軍 was not there when we got there, it's just what we needed to warm up our cold feet.

And sitting here, we share the same great view of the expensive hotels.



We then continued along the scenic path along the lakeside.

Oh, yet another photo spot sign.

And oh my god, here's the lyrics of that "song of marimo" (マリモの唄) we hard on the boat...

As the lake is surrounded by volcanoes, it's a place of active earth energy release. Other then the previously mentioned hot springs, here's a mud volcano, which the native Ainu people called "Pokke".

The native name sure does sound like the sprouting bubbles. Interestingly, even standing at a distance, we could feet that the ground around it is warm.

There goes the bubbles!

Actually, the mud volcano not only warmed up the surrounding ground, even the lake water close by was warm. And there were signs that said this higher ground temperature also allowed plants of warmer climates, such as ferns, to grow in the area.

The path next lead to the Akan Lakeside Eco-Museum Center (阿寒湖畔エコミュージアムセンター), a government owned museum full of information of the nature, geography, and ecology of the surrounding area. It's admission free, and the shear amount of information and exhibits in there makes it a must stop for nature lovers, like me. Best of all, the marimo there looks much healthier, greener, beautiful, and bigger then those on the island in the lake. There is sufficient introduction to the whole volcano system around the area to feed my curiosity, and also specimen or models of the local wildlife. And the floor of the whole exhibition area is a huge satellite photo of Lake Akan national park. It sure was nice to trace the roads we rode in, and the roads we planned on riding out of the area.

This stuffed bear specimen, is the best of all, the size really gave us a shock. No matter how big you believe a bear could be, you'd still be shocked by the real size. Yet, even this one is not full grown before it's death.

Compare the bear with the chair next to it!

Here's also a specimen of a little dear.

I then decided it's shopping time, parted with Candy, and went back into the shopping strip. As mentioned in my previous post, most of the shops sell wood craft of the local Ainu people. All are similar, key chains, cellphone lanyards, pendents, cups, ornaments, and all kinds of stuff in the form of the local wildlife, such as owls and foxes. Yet, if you look close enough (thank Mai-Yu for pointing that out for me, sure got the eyes of a trained artist), the foxes and owls of each store were slightly different, taking a quality and spirit of it's own, showing the level of craftsmanship. Even in the same shop, duplicates of each craft might have slight differences. As I was choosing cute little "fox-in-a-log" key chains, I noticed that some had their eyes slightly smaller, some had mouths tilting a different way. All signs of it's handmade nature. Some shops sell factory made stuff (the same as in airports), and looking at the eyes of the foxes' eyes, the factory made ones seem to lack a feel of spirit. Of all the crafts shop, I liked a shop called "Ezorisu" (えぞりす) the best.

There were also other stores that sell other kinds of stuff. There were the Marimo related stuff shop (which did not interest me), and parody based Hokkaido theme store, selling stuff related to places all around Hokkaido, such as Abashiri (網走) prison handcuffs, GingisKan BBQ flavored caramel, and the Puma brand look-a-like "Kuma" (bear) series stuff. There is even T-shirts with mock claw marks on them, with the words "bear kick", "bear hit", or "bear throw"; very cool, too bad I couldn't afford them. I also liked a shop that specialized in "Beware of bear" (熊出沒注意) products, from cups and clothing to even foods, all baring the "Beware of bear" mark. I especially like a badge with a suction cup that you are supposed to put on your car window, which said "Bear riding in this car!" (クマ乗っている), but again, too expensive.
Yet, I once saw a Japanese cycler with his bike full of stickers from the places he's been to, signifying how much places he and his bike had traveled to together, and I really liked the feeling. So I bit the bullet and bought one of those "Beware of bear" stickers to put on my bike.

We gathered at the camping site that afternoon, and it was one of the most crowed camping sites that we saw on the trip. There was another hotspring foot bath (足湯) at the site, a roofed area with a central table and seat, while the hot water flows under the table warming your feet (with the table there, seems to me, like a place to have foot bath, and beer at the same time). We sat there talking about what we saw and bought during the day. And there were also other campers sitting there chatting. Two half drunk Japanese guys asked us about our trip, and told us that the girls are more beautiful in southern Hokkaido. I replied, we were on our way north, though. Well, they continued on, saying that the girls are "strongly recommended!" (おすすめ！) They also asked us where we were from, and their response to "Taiwan" was: "wasn't there a idol group called F4?" We replied, "err, yeah", secretly hating the group. And then they got real excited say that they heard that fireworks in Taiwan go rapidly "boom, boom, boom, boom!" Well, guess Taiwan's got a weird yet interesting image in Japan.

After dinner, we were back at the hotspring foot bath (足湯) table, this time with 2 families sitting there. Again, other campers were always interested in people on bikes, and so another chat on our trip. We said we were from Taiwan, and their little girl replied instantly: "Taiwan banana!" (台湾バナナ！) So, Taiwan is famous for it's banana exports? How cute! Sometime later, their other kids came running all around the camping site, chasing a fox! I saw this slender furry thing run by very fast disappearing in a split second, with a huge fluffy tail pointing upward. And the next thing I see, a whole group of at least 5 kids chasing it nosily. Minutes after the comical scene, the kids came to their parents and shouted "Saw a fox, Saw a fox!" (狐見た！狐見た！), and another kid followed excitedly "2 of them! 2 of them!" (二つ！二つ！), and then "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!", and all went chasing the pour fox again.

As for the parents of the 2 families, they seem to have a lot of fun, with huge bottles of beer on the table, and laughing louder and louder. I felt kind of lonely next to them, and we were relatively quite. So I went to the local convenient store and got some drinks and salted soy beens (枝豆). I intended to get beer, but being poor and cheep, I went for the cheapest alcohol containing sparkling fruit juice cocktail. More of a drink then liquor, it really didn't did much, even falled to make me warm, but oh well, it was nice. Mean while, one of the moms of the families sitting next to us was clearly drunk, face all red and walking unstable, shouting meaning less words, while the others were forced to "carry" her back to their tent. Wow, a drunk Japanese mom, really seems like something in anime, and I never realized the anime were that realistic!

That night we guys slept in the slouchy poll-less tent, under a tree, with the top hung from a branch. Looks more like a piece of tarp for the homeless then a tent, but as soon as we are asleep, it doesn't matter any more. As for the polls, Candy called our friends back at Taiwan who would be coming over to join us soon, and told them to bring us the polls.

July 13 阿寒湖 << | >> July 15 女満別

ウォークマンほしい...

これほしい〜

今天無聊到Circuit City去玩了一下，UI出乎意料的順手，比iPod更合乎我習慣的操作邏輯。最擔心的日文顯示問題似乎OK，而銀幕出乎意料的漂亮。只差沒有帶耳機去試了，不過Sony的音質表現豐富度與細膩度從來沒讓我失望過，再加上網路上所有的review都說這兩台的音質不是跟iPod有得比就是比iPod棒很多。自從高中時代一群同學一同測試CD隨身聽時，發現同樣的耳機與CD，Sony的隨身聽音質就硬是比人家好，音樂播放機這部份我就一直都用Sony了，從當時買的CD Walkman 到現在服役中的 Clie 娛樂PDA都是。

既然單獨的Walkman表現這麼棒，我想不必考慮Walkman手機了，只能打電話的廉價手機也用的不錯，至少從來不會當機（聽說高階手機都會當，不過我沒用過高階手機XD）

關於Mac支援問題，這兩台是Sony第一批嘗試不鎖PC的機種喔！

不過 A810系（圖左）＆ S610系（圖右）之間也很難決定說
左邊比較好看（不過右邊實機還是比照片有質感）
右邊有FM廣播
左邊送高級耳機
右邊馬來西亞製（另一邊中國製）
左邊銀幕大了那麼一點點
右邊按鈕大了那麼一點點
價格呢，原價是右邊便宜，Amazon上兩台特價同價格。
可惡的Sony，搞出這兩個規格難分難捨的機型，就算依照上面幾點計點，還是平手...... 若馬來西亞製的那一型送高階耳機就很容易選了說。

でも、ほんどに、予算無し...... ○|￣|＿
目前無收入，娛樂預算零　T_T

看愛情片

看各個動畫中，各個男女角色之間的感情發展路線，每一段戀情都有一個發展開始的契機。

無聊的我，試著把自己套入那發展的起點，想著若換我當那男主角，會有何結果？

以自己對各種事件的反應做推估，每一種開始都會被我發展成......

「哥兒倆般的好朋友關係」XD

還好我沒有買過所謂「戀愛模擬」電腦遊戲，否則交朋友能力如此強大，玩起來應該挫折感頗重吧......○|￣|＿

飄

長髮
緞帶
裙擺
水袖
旗子
風鈴
花瓣
落葉
羽毛
雲朵

為何隨風飄揚的東西總是特別美呢？

北海道自転車旅行：7/13 阿寒湖へ

毅軍 got up early this morning and came to the inn to have breakfast with us. Having great bread and coffee in a Japanese style room really is a great experience.

Today's destination is Lake Akan national park (阿寒湖), another of the most famous tourist spots of Hokkaido, mainly because of the ball shaped seaweed (marimo/マリモ) living in the lake. The road to Lake Akan is another whole day through farms and hills, places with very little people. Yet, there was no less of road side driving safety promotions.

Wow, how did they got the idea of that tire man?

We made significant progress today because 毅軍 went out full power on jokes, totally imitating the way one of our friends back in Taiwan (邦尼) guided club ride trips. Some how, imitating the pace, language and even upright riding posture of that friend made the girls laugh all the way along, while riding at a much faster pace without realizing. すげええ Some people really could make people laugh, something I was never good at.

Halfway, a police officer stopped us and some cars ahead of us, and guided us to a wide parking lot next to the road. At first it seamed like some kind of traffic control for road construction. Yet, after we stopped, a whole group of grade school kids guided by their teachers, lined up next to us, and shouted together: "We are from the local elementary school, we would like to present you a gift for a traffic safety campaign!" Bowed, and then a kid came over to each of us (one on one) and presented us the gift, full of stuff that reminds us not to speed and stuff. The girl who was responsible for giving me my gift seemed to be slowest, and very shy, stammering with her words under encouragement from a teacher (do I seem that frightening?). She was soooooo cute! One of the teachers had a short chat with 毅軍 (again, because he spoke the best Japanese), asking where are we from and where we are going. Finally, we waved good bye, and left, the kids shouting "take care (気をつけで)!" To bad I was too stunned by this unsuspected presentation that I forgot to pull out my camera before we left.

Actually, almost everyone we meet in Japan gave us a warm "take care (気をつけで)!" Making us feel all cozy inside even though they are strangers. I really like how they care about each other in Hokkaido, like every one are friends.

We stopped later shortly to peek in the package: several little packs of tissue paper with safety promotions printed on, a wooden badge with the words "亀亀運動実施中 (turtle turtle campaign in effect?)" with a turtle drawn on it, kind of meaning that driving slowly like a turtle would be safe. Also several hand out leaflets and a little craft hand made of paper and toothpicks also wishing us safety on the road.


We had lunch at Kamiashioro (上足寄), kind of the only store we could find on the road today. Well this tiny store seemed to be the center of this little farming area. It the local grocery store, post office, police station, and even gas station, all in one. Talk about a place with not much customers, things there were extremely expensive, as the market was too small for such a rural place. Well, we bought some food and cooked noodles there (well, as far from the gas pump area of course).

It was getting cooler and cloudy with a drop or two of rain in the afternoon as we read toward Lake Akan. We passed several farms along side the road, it was all grass, hay, and cows.



Then we started climbing the hills surrounding Lake Akan.

The lake was formed by collecting rain water in a valley between several volcanoes.


Going into the volcano area, the surrounding plant life started to change. We were especially fascinated by these pink tipped leaves.

I choose to ride in the last today, to give 毅軍 a chance to ride in his own speed. As we started climb again, I started to use the ride and rest trick again to ride at a comfortable speed and also stay behind the girls, we were really enjoying the scenery at a slower pace. Suddenly, I realized that I was resting for like 20 minutes, and the girls in front were not moving.

Wondering what made them stop, I rode ahead to join in where they were staring at...

Woo, another fox, this time resting right next to the road, so close. The fur didn't seem as healthy and beautiful as the two I saw on Daisetsuzan (大雪山), though. Candy said that she saw a poster in some place that said wild fox that get to eat road side tourist feed foods tend to have unhealthy fur, and this one seems to be waiting for some one to feed it.

But still, it's so cute we can't stop pressing the shutter button...

毅軍 was waiting for us at the top of a hill that seems to be the climax before entering the valley. Close by, there was a sign pointing to a dirt road leading away from the main route into the forest that was labeled waterfall. I forgot the name of the waterfall, but anyway, I like off road trails, and off we went!


Sure, road tires were much more slippery on dirt roads, but it could be managed.

This sign greeted us at the end of the trail:

Basically it read: "Incidents of crow robbing stuff from car windows are frequent in this area. Please take all valuables with you before leaving the car. Also, please don't harm the trees!"

Well, let's see.. My valuables are in my backpack, and what's left on my bike is banana peal that I couldn't find a trashcan to throw away. I left the banana peal on my bike in hope that the crow would "steal".

A little route down into the valley of the river brought us to the waterfall.

Well, there goes my shutter happy finger again...

After we left the waterfall, we were going downhill, again into a lake valley; and again meet with strong fog, cool wind, and rain drops. Clearly, this valley, like the others we saw days before, was a basin of collected moisture. We once again meet what we escaped Daisetsuzan for. I told my friends that I would not want to see another lake-in-the-valley on this trip again. 毅軍 said that Lake Akan (阿寒湖) sure is as cold as the name suggested (the "kan" in the name means freezing cold).As so we once again arived at the Lake side shivering, wet and hungry. Well the good part is that the rain stopped when we arrived. All wet and cold again, this time all four of us agreed to stay at a bed&breakfast (although we choose to stay only, no meal option). I forgot the name of the place, but I don't want to remember. We choose it because it is cheep and also serves ramen, a convenient way to get rid of dinner. Yet as we would later find out, after we paid, the host didn't treat us well. How should I say it, he sort of treated us as "stupid tourists who are only sources of money". The time we were allowed to use the bath room is ridiculously short (an hour at a specified time for all 4 of us), that annoying look on his face were as if we were pests, and all questions were answered brief and unwillingly, with no manners. Well, duh, the only smile we saw was right before we agreed to stay and pay the fee.


This is a cute little bus stop for the tour bus of Lake Akan. The place we stayed at was the white building to the right of the picture. I am telling all readers to AVOID that place if you want a good experience. And this is the only place in Hokkaido that I would advise this strongly to avoid. For your info, the taste of the ramen sold there was also under par.

Lake Akan is a bustling tourist attraction full of, well, what else? Tourists and shops. We called it the "heaven of gifts of souvenirs", because the sheer number of the shops, and the quality of the crafts. They're mostly craft shops of the Hokkaido aborigines, the "Ainu", who are very good at wood crafts. The crafts, although high in price, was well worth it because of the quality. They also had "Ainu style ramen", but the price was more then double that of the average price in Hokkaido, so we were scared out of the store. Something we took as "scary", was that the store keepers were shouting out to tourists that they had a free service of etching on words on the wood crafts if we buy them, and when they saw us, they immediately switched to shouting in Chinese! Seems like there were so much Taiwanese tourists here that the Ainu people had learned our language (we could recognize it as the Taiwanese accent); farther more, there were even price tags in traditional Chinese. We felt like there was no longer the privacy that we have grown used to of talking in a language that other don't understand. Well, 毅軍 said may be they couldn't understand the Taiwanese dialect, and walked into a store and shouted out loud: "黑店！黑店！" (Black store, which means a store that rips off customers.) Well, sure enough no one even turned to look. But boy are we laughing!

Later in the night we realized that local "Lawson convenient store" was selling fried chicken and oolong noodles for half the average price. We immediately regretted having the B&B's crappy ramen for dinner and decided to have oolong for lunch the next day.

July 12th 糠平湖 << | >> July 14 阿寒湖