Hardship post... I can see that. Today in Hakodate it's minus 7 c and there's a Siberian blizzard raging. The snow was so thick when I opened my door this morning that I really thought I wouldn't be able to get out. Here I am on the way to work:
I could certainly live in Sapporo, though. It's got everyone one would need for civilised life, plus some lovely alpine mountains, hot springs, bears...
There is supposed to be quite a large cultural difference between Hokkaido and Honshu. Hokkaido residents are reputed to have a more independent, 'frontier' mentality. In the Kitayama and Marcus' studies of cultural attitudes to self, Hokkaidans scored somewhere between Japanese mainlanders and Americans.
Sapporo, the economic and cultural capital of Hokkaido, is more likely to resemble Honshu culturally, than an isolated place like Hakodate.
Yeah, I was really surprised by the way Hakodate is spread out and oriented around cars. People blow their horns at each other aggressively and drive recklessly. Everything's Drive In. It feels 'individualist'... and I mean that in a negative way – I'm much more at home with the Honshu style; widespread use of public transport, high density urban environments, consideration, etc.
After living there for a year a number of years ago, I returned recently, and walking around in Sapporo after a week in Tokyo was enough to make me breathe a huge sigh of relief (and to contemplate the near miss I had in almost accepting a job in Tokyo.)
While nowadays most/many young people go to work in Tokyo etc for a few years, it's probably fair to say that they prefer Hokkaido - the food's better, summer is cooler, winter is warmer (inside, anyway) things are less expensive and the atmosphere is very different. Odori Park in summer in Japan has a very special atmosphere of friendly community and relaxation that I have never found elsewhere (although some of the less trendy, local night markets in backstreet Taipei and southern Taiwan come close.) Unfortunately nowadays many of the jobs are in expensive, overcrowded Tokyo.
Honshu people probably miss the size of Tokyo etc (Sapporo is around 2 million, which aint bad but isn't limitless like Tokyo.)
With regards to spreading out and transport, while Sapporo has reasonable public transport, if you want to go anywhere in the weekend, or if you live somewhere else, cars are more or less a necessity, unfortunately.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 03:27 am (UTC)I could certainly live in Sapporo, though. It's got everyone one would need for civilised life, plus some lovely alpine mountains, hot springs, bears...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 05:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 05:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 07:10 am (UTC)There is supposed to be quite a large cultural difference between Hokkaido and Honshu. Hokkaido residents are reputed to have a more independent, 'frontier' mentality. In the Kitayama and Marcus' studies of cultural attitudes to self, Hokkaidans scored somewhere between Japanese mainlanders and Americans.
Sapporo, the economic and cultural capital of Hokkaido, is more likely to resemble Honshu culturally, than an isolated place like Hakodate.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 08:06 am (UTC)Right on
Date: 2005-02-04 10:49 pm (UTC)While nowadays most/many young people go to work in Tokyo etc for a few years, it's probably fair to say that they prefer Hokkaido - the food's better, summer is cooler, winter is warmer (inside, anyway) things are less expensive and the atmosphere is very different. Odori Park in summer in Japan has a very special atmosphere of friendly community and relaxation that I have never found elsewhere (although some of the less trendy, local night markets in backstreet Taipei and southern Taiwan come close.) Unfortunately nowadays many of the jobs are in expensive, overcrowded Tokyo.
Honshu people probably miss the size of Tokyo etc (Sapporo is around 2 million, which aint bad but isn't limitless like Tokyo.)
With regards to spreading out and transport, while Sapporo has reasonable public transport, if you want to go anywhere in the weekend, or if you live somewhere else, cars are more or less a necessity, unfortunately.