Ghost train and Blizzard surfers

The other night while I was standing on a train platform way out in the middle of nowhere in northern, rural Japan the bells and lights started to go off indicating that my train was coming. I went outside the little bus shelter thing they provide to keep you out of the cold and waited. A one car train came whipping out of the darkness with absolutely no lights on, inside or outside the thing. I caught a brief glance of a guy driving it. It spooked me, thinking about why this conductor guy would want to ride along through the night in pitch black like that. My train came along shortly afterwards.

This morning I saw guys surfing huge ocean waves off the coast of western Hokkaido. It was blizzard conditions. Tough fellows.

Coca Cola has shiny red and white drink machines in the most far flung areas of this country. I was in an area where some of the roads have no names. But there is a Coke machine on every corner. I also saw ads in English for IBM products way out in the middle of nowhere.

Currently reading `The Third Wave` by Alvin Toffler.

I could survive without every using an asian squat style toilet again. Never sure if I`m supposed to aim or not.

I`m anchored down in Yamagata for the night. The blizzard continues. First train is at 6:31 am.

`Rip It Rich`

Skied Teine Mountain all day today. My thighs are no longer attached to my body. Very exhausting, enjoyable way to spend a day. Saw some snow boarder kids do some unbelievable snow acrobatics. If I fell the way I saw some of them fall the medics would be sledding me down the hill. The boarders just shook off the snow and kept going.
I catch my first train at 5:41 am tomorrow. Will continue on the journey home until roughly 48 hours later. Basically taking subways for two-thirds the length of Japan. Very cheap.

http://www.snowjapan.com/

Snowy Night In Sapporo, Japan

Currently on vacation in Sapporo. I have a few weeks off from my job teaching ESL to Japanese kids. Visited the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art today; http://www.dnp.co.jp/museum/doritsu/hokkaido-e.html .
Also saw took in the Sapporo Museum of Photography. Skiing a place called Teine tomorrow;
http://www.sapporo-teine.com/ . And then it`s back south and back to work.
Tried a place called Fujimi Panorama a few weeks ago; http://www.fujimipanorama.com/ . Not exactly a stellar ski resort. That ski day was a gift from an ex-girlfriend. Her family won`t let her date a non-Japanese so we are no more.

It is worth mentioning that I took only local trains to get up to Sapporo. The trip took 48 hours and involved many, many transfers. However, buying a local train pass was by far the cheapest method of getting up here from home in Kofu. For one stretch of the trip I ended up on a one car train with a drunk high school boxing team. We kept to ourselves.
I missed the last connecting train the first night so Japan Rail paid for a cab with a Buddhist monk going to the same place. The monk had to pee every 20 minutes so we had to stop to let him get out and go. I considered joking with the monk that he was capable of levitation but had to stop every twenty minutes to pee.

A train went off the tracks and killed some people the same night I was on my epic journey north.