Sapporo Days

May 29

Time to say goodbye to M, and to Tokyo for a few days, grab my shinkansen.

Realize I actually got the wrong ticket, so rebook it quickly to the same exact hour, with plenty of seats available, grab some Ekiben, and sit down, and start watching all the things I have missed during the past few weeks, all the netflix series and some movies, and the 4 hour trip goes by faster than I expected.

The Hayabusa Shinkansen is the fastest one, 320km/h , so it arrives to Hokuto station in no time, and I need to switch to a slower train, to get all the way to the capital of the north. A wonderful sunny northern island, mountains and beaches pass by as I do a zig zag from Hakodate to Sapporo.

Sapporo Station, I arrive after 3pm and the weather changes for much colder than I expected, around 10 degrees. I have not experienced such low temperatures since London.

I walk towards the hotel, check-in and they tell me they have a public bath all the way on the rooftop, making it almost like a rooftop pool, just hot.

There are rules to follow of course, no tattoos and such, but otherwise pretty relaxing, I don't think too much about it, and just want to go for a circle around the city. I dress up a few extra layers and walk in one direction, realize that was the wrong direction... check the architecture and see that one of the main city buildings is being rebuilt and is all covered up, that takes care of that.

Go pass by the Sapporo tower, like a younger brother of Tokyo Tower, skinny, and just with a big clock, some observation deck but really feels like the view from any surrounding building is better.

Head towards what is called Beer Factory, Sapporo Beer Factory that its, a bunch of red brick warehouses and a mall attached to it. The mall looks empty, the beer factory itself seems to be just some showrooms, and not the main facility... I decide to grab some yakisoba for dinner and head back after a good meal.

Time to try the public bath, dress up for it, and undress, enjoy the warmth and that feeling of solitude looking from above, for the first few minutes I am alone, then a few people do come in and find their spot.

I think it's time for me to find my way out of here, and I head back to my hotel room, the view from the top is fantastic, and even from my room I can see the tower.

Sapporo May 30, Tue

I wake up early, plan a few routes through the temples and main areas, don't think too much of the museums inside the city as they seem pretty barebones, head through some of the nice night areas, which are dead during the early morning. See that parks are still full of blooming wisteria, and do a loop of all the northern side of the city, got a few goshuin as usual, and loop back towards the main hotel and station area.

The main mall becomes my lunch destination, grab a good veggie dish, with some roast beef, and even have time for some bit presents shopping in the mall.

It's finally a work day in London, so need to catch up on that.

Think about my options for the later afternoon, and decide to just walk around the night areas with my camera, have fun capturing some streets and shots of Trams passing by, grab some simple chicken for snacking and end the day, as I plan on going to Hokkaido Historic Village on the following day.

May 31, Wed

I grab an early train and bus to Hokkaido Historic Village, it's much more pleasant than I expected. As the Island of Hokkaido was all conquered a bit later 1800, all houses are generally westernized, but still with japanese interiors.

An interesting mix, as the point of that village was to showcase what types of houses, and professions of early settlers were, some brought over from different parts of hokkaido, some reconstructed.

All the houses look picturesque and people inside interact with you showing what is the purpose of this, or that, I enjoy casual conversations with some, telling i'm on my journey across Japan.

As the bus only comes every other hour, I grab a curry lunch inside and enjoy my meal, doing some japanese kanji lessons in between, heading back to the station I see I still have a few hours before work begins, so pass by a few more shrines on the other side of the station, and the university of Sapporo, which is also mostly western style.

Grab a coffee at the station, start the usual work, grab some more pictures from the areas around me and pack for tommorow, Hakodate awaits.