Sapporo

Well I survived all my trips and my crazy busy (but crazy fun) vacation time! I'm back in school as of today, but I can't wait to tell you all about Sapporo!

Patrick and I met in Hakata around 10:00 AM to head out to the airport for our 11:30 flight. The airport wasn't very crowded and we ended up with plenty of time waiting at the gate. The flight was a quick two hours and by about 3:00 PM we'd gone from the Fukuoka Airport to the New Chitose Airport and taken the train into Sapporo. We found our hotel with little trouble and settled in quickly. We talked about exactly what we wanted to do and figured out a lose schedule for our days. We decided to go out looking for dinner around 5:00 and settled on a brewery in Otaru, another city about an hour outside of Sapporo by train. We found it easily and walked around a bit before getting to the restaurant. It was so nice walking around in the snow again! We even found train tracks outside a railway museum with a snow train built out of a snowbank. We eventually got to the brewery and everything was huge! We foolishly ordered large beers and they came in glasses bigger than our heads! The food was also huge, but thankfully we didn't order much so we could finish it all. Everything was delicious and we had a great time exploring the other city. We eventually headed back to Sapporo and decided to try a bar near our hotel called Red Bar. It was a great place and we had a few drinks there before returning to our hotel for the night.

The next day we slept in pretty late and missed the hotel breakfast. We decided to get lunch at the station and explored many restaurants before settling on a かつ丼 (katsudon, fried pork and rice) restaurant. The food was good, but we hurried out to finally get a start on the day. We first went to the Asahi brewery to tour the factory. We took the subway there and noticed some odd things. First, the train made laser noises when it entered the station, which we both thought was pretty cool. Also, the subway had these big rubber wheels on them instead of the smaller, metal ones I've seen on other trains. It was really interested to see! When we did get to our stop, we had a little bit to walk to get to the factory. Unfortunately I had a hard time deciphering Google maps along the way. We found the building, but not the tour entrance and ended up walking the entire outside of the building only to find the entrance was fifty feet from where we started, but separated by a restaurant we couldn't see past from the other side. It had been a cold and rainy walk, but we were still in good spirits and excited for the tour! It was about half an hour seeing everything from the kegs to canning to vintage advertisements. They showed us the assembly lines explained how the made the beer, although the guides didn't speak any English. We were still able to understand and had a great time. At the end there was a tasting for Asahi, Asahi Black, Asahi Super Dry, and Asahi's juice and water products. We had half an hour to sit and talk and try the drinks and some snacks. Everything, the tour and the tasting, were free and really good! Once everything was over we headed back to the subway and went to the Sapporo Beer Museum. That is, a museum for the brand Sapporo, not a general beer museum in Sapporo. It was dark by the time we made it, but there were beautiful lights strung up all around! The museum itself was very cozy and made all out of wood. It almost felt like a giant log cabin. The museum showed how they make the beer as well as old marketing campaigns and models of the equipment they use. The ground floor had a big gift shop and beer tasting. This museum was free as well, but the tasting was not. It was still very reasonably priced and Patrick and I got a sampling of their different beers. We'd had a lot of fun, but it was time to head back near our hotel for dinner. We ended up catching a bus directly from the museum back to Sapporo station and found an 居酒屋 (izakaya) for dinner. We tired many little dishes and they were all great! Even though we have izakaya restaurants in Kitakyushu, the food was different because of the location. This one had different fish available and the best part was that they had real cheese. Hokkaido is known for in Japan for it's dairy products and even in Kitakyushu I buy Hokkaido brand milk and butter.

After dinner we went to our hotel to rest for an hour and put away the things we'd bought. We also tried Royce chocolate, a famous brand in Sapporo, and with the cheese before and the milk chocolate we decided Hokkaido definitely has the best dairy products in Japan. We went back out pretty quickly and walked to an area called Susukino, the "red light district" of Sapporo. We passed Odori park along the way and could see some of the White Illuminations. We also walked past the Sapporo TV tower and the Sapporo clock tower. Both are famous landmarks near the park and it was beautiful seeing them all lit up along the with illuminations. When we made it to Susukino it was amazing! It almost reminded me of Time Square because of the huge, neon billboards. Many of the billboards were even in English including Nikka, Sapporo, and Coca-Cola. We walked around to look at all the places before heading up to a bar called The Electric Sheep up on the ninth floor of one of the buildings. We had a beautiful view of the area and had a few drinks. We were feeling a bit tired and decided since it was Tuesday on a work week we probably weren't missing too much and decided to walk back to our hotel afterwards. We made sure to walk back a different way to see even more of the city, though.

On Wednesday I was up well before Patrick and decided to head out and explore a bit on my own. I explored the underground paths under the station and surrounding area for a little while before getting hungry. I found a cute little place to get I had a rice bowls. I had one topped with カニ (kani, crab), ウ二 (uni, sea urchin), and イクラ (ikura, salmon roe). Crab and sea urchin, crab especially, are very popular in Hokkaido. It also came with noodles in curry broth, one of the specialties of the area. It was all very delicious! After lunch I explored a little bit more before meeting up with Patrick at the bus stop. We caught a 12:30 PM bus out to the Hoheikyo onsen. The bus was called the かっぱライナー (Kappa Liner). It is an express bus to Jozankei, the town the Hoheikyo onsen is in. Jozandie's mascot is a kappa, a mischievous animal from Japanese folk-lore that lives in ponds and rivers. The bus was really nice, which was good because the ride was a little over an hour. Despite the long drive in snowy weather and the short walk from the bus stop to the onsen in probably two feet of snow, the onsen was completely worth it! It is probably the best onsen I've ever gone to. There were two indoor pools, both of which were very warm (104°F and 108°F).

The best part by far, though, was the outside pool. It was pretty cold going from the very warm inside baths to the snowy weather outside, but there were two very large pools connected to each other with a small, underwater staircase that were amazing. There was probably about a foot of snow on the rocks near the pool and quite a few feet farther back from the warmth of the water. It also snowed the entire time we were there. There were little waterfalls along the rocks and a small roofed section still sporting New Years decorations. The whole thing was just beautiful and I stayed in the bath for far longer then I usually do. I had some milk after the bath before meeting up with Patrick again downstairs. I had some ジンギスカン (Genghis Khan) BBQ lamb, another Sapporo specialty, at the onsen's restaurant before we caught the bus back to Sapporo station. When we got back Patrick decided to check out some of the places I'd found on my walk earlier and I decided to head to the Pokemon Center to do a bit of shopping. I got a new game and had fun looking around the store and the arcade on the same floor. Patrick and I eventually met up again at the hotel. We had a quick dinner at the hotel restaurant before heading to bed early.

The next morning we got up early and had a quick breakfast at the hotel before heading out to try our hand at snowboarding. We boarded the train as part of our two-part commute to the Kiroro, the place we would rent snowboards from. Unfortunately, after a few stops the train announced that it could not go to it's intended destination because of a weather advisory. We got off and waited to see if the trains would start again in the direction we wanted to go, but to get to the mountain we also needed to catch a bus that only came once every two hours. We waited about half an hour, but turned back when we ran out of time to catch our connecting bus. We hadn't given up, though, and decided to try a mountain closer to Sapporo. There was a mountain near to a place called Teine that was on our way back to Sapporo station. We struggled finding the right bus, but eventually found other people with snowboards and decided to follow them. We waited at a bus stop for a little over an hour until a shuttle van came to pick them up. It turned out the regular shuttle buses weren't running due to the snow and without a special pass we couldn't take the van that came to pick up the other snowboarders. Defeated, we headed back to Sapporo station.

We'd taken up all of the morning trying to get to a mountain, but I decided to make the rest of the afternoon more successful. Patrick and I split ways and I went to the Chuo tour bus to book a night tour of the city before catching the 12:30 bus back towards Hoheikyo onsen. The onsen was in the opposite direction as the mountains we'd been trying to reach and thankfully the weather hadn't stopped the Kappa Liner, although the trip was much slower the second time. This time I got off the bus in the center of Jozankei to explore the little town. I found some temples and small shops before eventually heading into on of the small onsens in the area. This onsen was a bit strange because it was on the eighth floor. There were many inside pools, a steam room, and even a small outdoor pool on a balcony. I spent a relaxing afternoon in the onsen and grabbing some おみやげ (omiyage, suvenirs) before catching a bus back to Sapporo for the tour. When I went to get my reserved ticket I found out that due to the weather the cable car that was part of the tour was not running, so that tour was canceled. There was another tour they offered me, but it was all by bus with no stops and I decided not to take it. I met up with Patrick for dinner and we walked around the city for a bit before grabbing some food. We walked around a bit after dinner as well before going back to the room to pack for the flight home the next day.

On Friday I woke up again before Patrick and leisurely had breakfast at the hotel. Patrick didn't wake up in time for breakfast at the hotel, but he headed out to get some last minute souvenirs and a quick breakfast on his own. I stayed in the hotel to finish packing and double-check we hadn't left anything. After checking out we caught the train to the airport. We checked in easily and found out gate, but also found out our plane was delayed. We spent the time grabbing lunch and looking around the souvenir shops. We finally boarded our plane and said goodbye to Sapporo.

I was going to meet some friends for dinner that night, but due to the plane delays I decided to stay home instead. The next day I spent my time cleaning, doing laundry, and just enjoying being home after all my trips. I also made some final arrangements for my two trips in February. Sunday night I went over to see Caol to celebrate having Monday off. It was nice and low-key. Marc also came over around 9:00 PM and we all ended up talking until 1:00 AM. Monday was a holiday, so I met Leah for lunch. We'd both really missed each other over break and it was great catching up with her. We did a bit of shopping and caught a movie (Big Hero 6, but translated to Japanese) before each heading home. Now I'm happily back at school and ready for a quite week.