Today we left the Yokohama hostel and went to Asakusa. This will be the last place we stay before we fly home to America on Friday. The hotel we're staying at is pretty nice, but it was a little more expensive than the other ones we've stayed at. The most important part is that the neighborhood is much better.

The sleeper train from Sapporo was delayed by a few hours again, they might have said it was due to the earthquake a few days ago. We did travel through the area where it happened. We checked back into the hostel in Yokohama for tonight, but tomorrow we're going to a Japanese-style inn in Tokyo.

The next day, Maru-sensei's mother served us a western-style breakfast. It included fried eggs and bacon, but they were served mixed in with vegetables as well, so it had a little bit of a Japanese twist. It was very delicious of course, like everything Maru-sensei's mother served us.

After breakfast, we went to Okurayama Ski Jump Stadium, which was built for the Olympics that were held in Sapporo in the 1970s. It's not really the size of a mountain, but it has a ski-lift and the view from the top is pretty nice.

This morning we woke up to go out with Maru-sensei. First, her mother served us a Japanese style breakfast complete with fish and rice, and Japanese style eggs. Then we took the subway to Otaru, which is northwest of Sapporo, and close to the Sea of Japan. For a lot of the ride there, the train goes right along the sea.

When we woke up in the morning, the train was stopped for awhile, and then we realized it was raining pretty good. It turned into a 4 hr train delay, so we used the time to take showers on the train. When I had gone out into the lounge earlier to have a water, some ladies offered me some of their food. I must have been looking pitiful or something. And then the train conductors served us some onigiri as well, so at least we didn't have to buy expensive food in the dining car.

Today is our last day in Yokohama for now. After I did a wash and gathered all my stuff, we checked out of the hostel, and took the train to Ueno, where our train to Sapporo would depart from later in the day.

There, I went to the starbucks near the train station, and then we wandered around shopping until it was closer to the time for the train. I found one neat department store that actually had some reasonable prices. Compared to the usual department stores, it had a pretty sloppy layout, but it was actually affordable also.