After waking up, I decided to go to the Hokkaido Shrine since it was located in the same park. I had scoped it out a bit the night before, but I couldn't see all that much in the darkness. Upon walking up to a map, I realized that what I had seen the night before were just some worship locations on the periphery...not the actual shrine.
Before going beyond this, I should mention something that happened just prior to me discovering the shrine as it has been a recurring theme thus far. After waking up and accounting for all the bites I had on my body, I got up and was stretching and cracking my back and getting ready for the day when an older gentleman approached me. He asked me something in Japanese. I responded in English. He asked me something else in Japanese. I responded in English. We continued in that manner for a few minutes until his curipisty seemed more or less satisfied. (I'm assuming he was asking me where I was from).
Anyways, back to the story at hand... I went up to the shrine, and it was way more impressive than I had initially thought (seeing as I figured the periphery shrine was the main one). More than that, I was just shocked at how many people were up there on a Thursday morning at six. Mainly they were older people, but I saw a few businessmen, a few families, and some younger people.
Once again, upon seeing my backpack and my camera, three older people came up to me asking questions... Where are you from? Where are you going? How do you like it here? Etc etc. I was so shocked that one of these old guys spoke good enough English to communicate that I exclaimed, "Wow, you speak good English!" To which, he replied, "English. Bad." Only after did I realize that his English really fucking sucked, but he was miles ahead being able to speak and understand some words.
The man told me that the stretching was about to begin... Something I know about from Murakami novels! Norwegian Wood specifically.
Sure enough, at 6:20 two middle aged women in gym clothes get up on the terrace of the shrine and the radio starts going with everyone following alone... Young, old, whatever. They were jumping and kicking the air with... Well, varying amounts of vigor. However, the intent remained the same... Being active and getting a good start to the day. It was quite the sight.
With so many people present, I had been apprehensive to follow suit and perform what I imagine is the ritual before one enters a shrine... Which I observed as taking one of the wooden ladles in your right hand and scooping water from the center of the fountain, then washing your left hand with that water, switching hands and washing your right hand, and finally switching hands again and rinsing your mouth with water poured into your left hand. Lastly, they would tip the landle directly up so the remaining water spilled onto its handle... Most do this practiced ritual with just one scoop of water... I won't say how many it took me.
The rest of the day, I wandered around most of the city. I went to the Hokkaido University Botanical Garden, the old governor's residence (red building), the Sapporo clock tower (small white, wooden building), the TV tower (obvious), and the Sapporo Factory (which is a mall, but I thought it was a brewery before I walked in). I had my first meal there at a place called Bier Keller... Delicious chicken katsu curry (with unlimited rice refills... I took advantage of that!).
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