Hokkaido + funny slogans

Recent slogan from a coffee mug I drank out of:

"Bistro bear is the best gentleman of a British tradition. He is cleverly refined, is very stylish and kind. Ladies enjoy conversation with him"

The hilarity of poor English translation is apparent everywhere and taking pictures of funny slogans consumes at least 30 minutes out of our days. Other funny examples include: Men's Bar Club Speed, Club rounge (likely meant to be lounge), and 'Refreshing consumption will equate to flavor extravagance.'

Also, it appears nearly every type of company or service has an absolutely unnecessary mascot associated with it. For example, Chandheeb's subway pass is mascoted by a robot whereas mine is mascoted by a respectable working class penguin. Also, the robot and penguin are often sidekicks and respect each other greatly - or so we are led to believe from witnessing their interactions in various pictures. Finally, mascots most often have nothing to do with the service in question, aka refined British bear drinking coffee.

Now, onwards to travel-related info.
So we just got back from a week in Hokkaido, which was very very scenic and refreshing to get to after sitting in the humid swamp-land (misnomer, as it is quite clean) of Tokyo. We spent 3 days on an island of the most Northern tip of Japan called Rebun-to, and did alot of hiking there. We were up everyday @6am (not bad considering the hostel's mandatory lights out policy @10:15. Much to our confusion, the main clientele at our Youth Hostel (and subsequent other hostels) were older than 60. Some over 80 even. It is absolutely shocking how many elderly people are in good shape. A 75 year old couple did a 10-hour 35km hike on the island with us (and this was a rather difficult hike) and had little to no problems finishing.

Back to our lodging. This particular hostel had staff whom the Lonely Planet book described as "an ecclectic young group of men who will do anything to entertain their guests." Though they were entertaining for the first 10 minutes of their 100 dB high pitched Japanese screeches, the effect wore off shortly after. Chandheeb and I thus spent most of our time in the hostel hiding from them to avoid "chores" (people were furiously scrubbing walls and bed posts, both where dust cannot possibly collect) and 2.5 hr Japanese sing-alongs headed by god-awful musicians. At least there were nice sunsets out front, and the hostel itself was in an absolutely pristine location on the waterfront with 3 small mountains surrounding it. Thus another way to avoid them was to climb these small mountains at 10:30am with a large bottle of sake. This allowed calming of the nerves, which otherwise would have signalled for me to strangle them one by one.
Overall: Everything other than hostel staff = amazing.

part 2: Daisetsuzan national park (Japan's largest National Park)
We stayed here for three days as well, though we only got one solid day of hiking in as our other planned day rained us out. However, we turned our initial 2-day hike into a one-day by starting at 6:45am and pretty much going until 5:30. It was wild. My favorite day of the trip thus far. There were not that many hikers that day, and sometimes you could look in all directions without glimpsing another soul or any kind of human intervention. Quite blissful. Complete with PB&J sandwiches plus a delicious rice/bean dessert called Mochi which I've since began to consume about 1/day.

Lost about 8 or 9 pounds so far. Luckily this summer no parasites or rampant diarrhea are involved. Likely just due to the fact that we walk/move around a LOT and often are served nothin more than a combination of rice/miso/ramen/soba noodles (unless we're at Lawrence's for one of his/Satoko's delicious and health meals).

There is some more info I'd like to include about our unscheduled stay in Asahikawa (2nd biggest city in Hokkaido after Sapporo, which we also went to for an afternoon of beer museum-ing) but that will have to wait. I have to run for now, and will likely not post until next week. Going to Okinawa tomorrow for various island experiences, including a 24 hour trial of getting a local fisherman to drop us off on an isolated 2km square island for a Crusoe-like experience.

Anyways, will say somethin again next Saturday or Sunday.
BYE

Cal!