Millie Creightonto them by public transportation). These were indeed important and
valuable places for a Japan specialist to visit. One was a noted north-
ern port site, another the place from which one could see the marine
border between Japan and Russia. Although the border was a distant
marker on the water, it was one of the very few places from which one
can see any kind of international border from the insular country of
Japan. This was also a very important place in this context because it
allowed one to view the contested islands between Japan and Russia.
In the end, I was told that since I was his friend, I could travel along
on the bus for free, as far as transportation was concerned. I would,
of course, have to pay for any of my own expenses for accommoda-
tions or meals at the places we would be stopping.
The bus driver put his confirmation into the conversation and said
that he, too, thought it would be a good idea for me to get on the bus
with them. Sitting next to the driver was the woman who worked
with him on the bus as the travel guide and bus hostess. The four of
us were now discussing seriously this new shift in plan. The proposed
bus routing was to go through these outer areas of Hokkaido ̄ and end
up at Sapporo, the largest city on the northern island of Hokkaido ̄,
so the group could fly out from the Sapporo airport. In the course of
the conversation, this sudden proposal began to shift from sounding
incredibly unreasonable, to making a lot of sense. The voice of the
purely good ethnographer in me, however, kept saying, “You cannot
do that; it was not on the proposed research plan!” The voice of the
purely bad ethnographer expressed excitement about the possibility
of traveling in comfort on one of those swanky tourism buses (for a
change), complete with the cushioned seats, pretty curtains on the win-
dows and chandeliers on the ceilings, along with the nice maternally
comforting bus guide and a driver wearing white gloves. Finally, the
good bad ethnographer entered the mental debate to point out that,
although unanticipated, there was much to be gained on such a trip
in terms of one’s overall development as a Japan specialist. I had, af-
ter all, already been to the museum in Abishiri. Moreover, the trip was
close to free. It might even be fun. I decided that I should allow myself
to go on this bus tour, believing that it might be more productive over-
all, in terms of understandings of Japan, than sticking to a narrowly