People living in Asahikawa sometimes have to go to city hall. City hall is a little bit far from this campus. In addition, the route is a little bit complicated too. Furthermore, there are 2 bus stops near our campus! This article explains which bus you should take.

First I want to remind you that there is NO bus to City hall from 北門９丁目(Hokumon 9 Chome :which is the near the Gym) . There are only buses from 旭町２条１０丁目（Asahimachi 2 jo- 10 Chome :which is the near the “Birthday”, the children’s clothing store). You should take the 旭川電気軌道(Asahikawa Denkikidou), not the 道北バス(Dohoku bus). Usually, Denkikdou buses are RED, but sometimes they use a newer decorated bus. Dohoku buses are GREEN.

(Both are Asahikawa Denkikidou bus (旭川電気軌道).

This is a Dohoku bus: 

So far so good, but the No.13 bus of Denkikidou does NOT go to city hall, so you should check the bus number carefully before you ride the bus.

The bus fare from Asahimachi 2 jo-10Chome, one way fare is 190 yen, so if you have 380 yen, you can go there and come back. Or, if you have “Asaca” card and already charge the money in it, it’s easy to pay. You can buy it from vending machine in Nishi AEON or the Asahikawa Denkikidou office which is near the train station on Kaimonokouen.

This is an Asaca card: 

And, here is the time table of the bus from Asahimachi 2jo- 10Chome as of January 2017, so if you forgot the time when the bus will come, please make use of it. (But remember that they can change the time schedule).

I hope this article was useful to you and that you can make it to city hall and back! Have a safe trip! Please leave me any comments or suggestions that you have.

In this article, I want to introduce the bus system of Asahikawa and bus stops that matter for your time here. When you come to Asahikawa, it might be hard to find the bus stops and which bus number you should use to go to Hokkaido University of Education at Asahikawa from Asahikawa station. There are three buses to go my university, numbers is 5,14 and 24. But before you hop onto any bus, you need to make sure it is the right company You should use the Asahikawa Denkikido. The bus color is red. The Green buses are a different company (Douhoku bus).

Nowadays, Asahikawa Denkikido has red buses amd ones that are mostly gray as in the pictures above. To get to the university, you should go to number 14  bus-stop which is placed at Asahikawa city 1 jo 8 chome. Now, this building ( please look at the picture below ) in on the construction.

If you are going to Asahikawa Nishi AEON, you also should go to the same bus-stop, but you don’t use the same buses go to my University. You can use the number of buses 3, 14, 24, 33. If you follow the URL, you can know the time the buses leave the station to University or arrive at the station from University.

After reading this, if you don’t understand what to do, then you had better go to ASH. There is the bus informatio center in ASH. ASH is placed at Asahikawa city 1 jo 7 chome. Moreover,  be sure to check when the university opens because one of my friends arrived at the university before it opened and it had to wait outside in chilly Asahikawa.

(This diagram is in Japanese but the blue part is the wide area for walking we call kaimono koen and the part at the bottom is the train station. To get to the university you want to use either the Red 5 (for the #5 bus) or the Red 14 (for the #14 bus).  (The numbers are just by coincidence correct).

The following pages are in Japanese:

http://www.asahikawa-denkikidou.jp/hyouji.php?ROSEN=5&BSTOP=167&HOLID=1&DATE=2016-10-30

http://www.asahikawa-denkikidou.jp/hyouji.php?ROSEN=14&BSTOP=51&HOLID=1&DATE=2016-10-30

http://www.asahikawa-denkikidou.jp/hyouji.php?ROSEN=24&BSTOP=51&HOLID=1&DATE=2016-10-30

http://www.asahikawa-denkikidou.jp/hyouji.php?ROSEN=3&BSTOP=51&HOLID=1&DATE=2016-10-30

http://www.asahikawa-denkikidou.jp/hyouji.php?ROSEN=33&BSTOP=291&HOLID=1&DATE=2016-10-30

This page is in English but does not explain how to get to the university:

http://www.asahikawa-denkikidou.jp/h27%20bus%20information.pdf

Here’s a diagram of the area around the station in English:

The winter in Hokkaido is often very cold – especially in northern Hokkaido, but there are strong temperature fluctuations.. And these fluctuations means that the snow turns into ice. In many cases, this will be “black ice” – the sort that you cannot see. So you have to be careful when you are walking around in Hokkaido.

In this article, I want to give you some tips for walking on icy roads.

The first way not to slip and fall is to walk using umbrella like a cane. It’s easy to try this method and when it’s heavy snow, you can use umbrella. With this method, you’re killing two birds with one stone.

The second way is to walk like a penguin, this means do not lift the heels of your foot as you walk. Instead, stamp your feet as you are moving forward. By taking small steps, you make it so that you have less of a chance of slipping and falling.

In addition, you should avoid the center of the sidewalk, because it is almost always the place with the most ice and therefore the slipperiest.

The last way to avoid falling is to make your steps straight vertically. To do so, use your foot to grab the ground tightly and you might not to slip. Normally, we walk with a diagonal step where we are pushing forward as we hit the ground. If you step diagonally on ice, you will slip to your front because your foot want to move forward.

If you are using these method, it will be harder for you to slip, but that does not mean you will never slip. So, please be careful as walk around in icy Hokkaido. If you are not paying attention, the ice will make you slip and you might be embarrassed by your fall

Reference:

http://www.mylohas.net/2016/01/051907snow_road.html