We visited Sapporo! From Wikipedia: "Sapporo is the fifth largest city of Japan by population, and the largest city on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Sapporo hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics (the first ever held in Asia). Its annual Sapporo Snow Festival draws more than 2 million tourists from abroad." And that is why we visited on the 19th, and not the first through 11th. Because I'm a complete wimp about crowds... Maybe next year? Maybe?
We were late booking this trip, because we just couldn't settle down to a date. But Sapporo has a temple! Miss A had never been, although she has been old enough to attend for months. So, realizing it was something we really should do, we finally just did it. And then all sorts of events that we would miss during those four days started rolling in. Including, but definitely not limited to: Miss R's big biography living museum presentation she'd been working on since the first of the year; Miss A's New Beginnings event at church; Miss A's catapult science project; an invitation for me to tour the World War II caves here on base... The things kept coming in. But the tickets were paid for, and we had to go. And as the day arrived, my anxiety levels dropped, and I started feeling properly excited.
We managed to pack all our belongings in our backpacks. Although they were quite heavy, we mostly managed on the walk to the train station. You can see here Miss R got some Daddy help...
The train rides went smoothly, although they were crowded (of course, in the morning) and hot. We were bundled up for Hokkaido, so it was a bit unpleasant to stand on the packed trains. But on the plus side, Japanese airport security is an absolute dream. No separating out liquids, no removing shoes, helpful smiling kind airport workers. It was one more of those things that has B thinking we should rethink our plan to return to the US...
The plane boarding was also smooth. They boarded escape rows and all window seats first, then middle seats, then isles, in order from front to back. No surprise, everything was done smoothly, politely, and efficiently. We did notice that the isle seats are all equipped with little foot ladder things, so the rather shortish flight attendants can step up to see into the overhead bins. We didn't think they have those on US planes. And another plus- they gave us kit kats instead of peanuts!
Snow! I definitely want to visit Hokkaido again in the fall, when all those lovely gray trees down there are changing color.
Our friends had visited Sapporo a couple weeks previous, and let us know that the Sapporo airport is huge, fun, and full of good food. We ate lunch at a food court when we arrived. Miss M had ramen. B got this amazing curry ramen from the same place.
Miss A, Miss R, and I got tempura and udon. So good. And truly, nothing makes you feel warmer and cozier than warm noodles in your belly.
We rode the train from the airport to our hotel, which was very close to Sapporo Station. The girls took every opportunity to climb on the dirty snowbanks.
We checked into our hotel, which is lovely. We had next door rooms, and the girls' room had three beds! They were ecstatic that no one had to sleep on the floor. And of course the hotel toilets were the whole nine yards. Seat heaters, squirters, and driers! The girls were in heaven. They watched some Japanese tv, always entertaining.
We rested for a while, then walked to see the downtown sites. I had done some pinterest scouting, and we checked off some of the must-sees. This is the Akarenga, which means "red brick." It was built in 1888 from local materials to be a government building.
We then walked to Odori Park, famous for being the site of the Snow Festival sculptures. It is a long narrow park running 1.5 km right through the middle of the city. This was a pretty big disappointment. I knew we were missing the festival, but I thought we might be able to see some of the sculptures remaining, although unmaintained and melted. But they had overturned them all into huge mountains of snow all cordoned off with yellow tape. So the girls couldn't even play in them. Everything was muddy and dirty. I know we weren't seeing the park at it's best, after millions of people had traipsed through.
You don't often hear the word "ardent" used nowadays, which is a pity.
THE landmark of Sapporo is this clock tower. It was built in 1878, and is the oldest building in the city. It's very pretty! Next time we come we will visit in the day so we can go inside.
As a side note, in my research for this trip, I came across some information about some of the mascots of Sapporo and Hokkaido. One of them is Haunted Tokei Guy, which you can read about here. He has the clock tower as a head. As the article says: "The mascot was first unleashed at events and festivals last summer. While children were traumatized, Haunted Tokei Guy also has been attracting fans who consider him “dreadful yet cute.” Tourists apparently often ask him to pose with them for photos these days." I also read about two other mascots, but more on them later...
I took this picture to show some of the beautiful lattice/rope work used to support the plants here. Everywhere the plants are tied like this. It must take forever! This, with the labyrinth of underground passages and shopping malls, is a sure sign that it snows a real heck of a lot in Hokkaido... And of course the girls are still playing with/eating whatever snow they can find.
We waked around forever trying to find this certain restaurant that serves jingisukan, or Genghis Khan. Basically Mongolian barbecue, but with really good lamb meat. It is a Hokkaido specialty. Here is the grill that was in our table. Isn't it pretty? We had a hard time finding the restaurant because, surprise! it was underground. Of course.
To thank the girls for being such good sports about everything, we stopped on our way through the train station and got some Hokkaido soft serve ice cream. (Hokkaido is famous for its dairy products.) It tasted like very sweet very cold milk. We also talked to the tourist info desk people about which ski resort we should try. Those info offices are amazing. I need to utilize them more!
We returned to the hotel, very tired and late, and enjoyed our lovely hard beds, and perfect pillows. It's hard to find a hotel that has great pillows, but this one does. We slept well. No earthquakes, this night...
Thank you for sharing all your adventures. I love keeping up with your family. The added bonus is you're doing it all in a foreign country! Tell Brigham hello from his Hardin neighbor. I am just so amazed at your life over seas!
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