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Published: September 6th 2007
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September 2nd - 3rd was the craziest travel day either of us has ever experienced. Woke up at 3 am, taxi to Vancouver airport, flight to San Francisco, 3 hour wait, flight to Tokyo, 3 hour wait, flight to Sapporo airport, train to Sapporo, subway to Hostel area, walk to Hostel. All of this took more than 25 hours so needless to say we were sleepwalking by the time we arrived.
Unfortunately, the hostel hadn't received our reservations for a 3 night stay, but they did have a vacant room so we took it and were asleep before our tired heads hit the pillows. In the morning we called a different hostel and they had vacancies so we headed over there and booked in. Dormitory style only, and men and women sleep in different rooms. That's fine, but we realized that all of our travels over the last few years have been in hotel rooms, we haven't done the backpacking thing for a long time. Some adjustment required!
Another funny thing was that this hostel has Japanese style baths / showers. Basically it's a room with a shallow pool or tub on one end, and several waist high shower
Sapporo Botanical Gardens
Checking out the fish pond heads on the other. Neither of us was too sure what the protocol was but we asked and the front desk lady filled us in while laughing hysterically! Basically you pull up a stool, and sit on it in front of one of the mirrors, then from there it's just a regular shower.
Sapporo is a very nice city. Very clean and safe. Everyone we have met is extremely helpful, for example about three times we asked for directions and the person we asked would leave their place of work and walk us all the way to our destination!! so funny and nice!
One thing we've struggled with is how few people speak english here. The phrasebook has really come in handy! After checking into the second hostel, we spent the rest of the day figuring out our rental car and planning the rest of our Hokkaido trip. Not one person at any of the car rental places we walked into spoke any english, and our japanese stops and starts with salutations, although we're learning! We found a woman at the tourist information office that spoke english well, so we would often go to a car rental place,
Sapporo Botanical Gardens
Looks like a fried egg in the middle then walk back to her and get her to call them for us.
We booked a car from sep 7 - 18 and will drive over central and eastern hokkaido, staying at hostels, ryokan, and camp grounds during this time.
On Wednesday we headed to the Botanical Gardens, and the museum of the Ainu. Very beautiful and interesting. The Ainu remind us both of the Inuit in Canada. From there we walked about 40 minutes to the Sapporo beer garden and museum. The lady at the front desk said "we don't give English tours". We said "you speak English well, why don't you give us the tour?!" she said "ok!!" and next thing we knew our new friend Eri was telling us all about the history of the Brewery.
For lunch we stayed at the brewery, went over to Kessel Hall, and had one of the local specialties - Genghis Khan, which is Lamb barbecued with vegetables over a hot plate on your table. It was very good! and so was the beer! From there we headed back to the Sapporo brewery taster bar where we continued to try all of their delicious flavours. We called a
girl who was by herself over to join us and we ended up having several more drinks with her. Her name was Yoko.
Yoko then took us to the supermarket and helped us shop. It was great having someone to help translate for us. On the bus ride back she called her husband and they thought it would be funny to join us for dinner. Dinner was great. In a traditional Japanese sectioned off room (no shoes!), many different plates of Sashimi, fish, and other Hokkaido specialties were brought to us. Also it was all you can drink so we tried Sake for the first time!
Some of the food was foreign to us, but having Yoko and Daisuke to tell us what we were eating was great. When we couldn't figure out by translating, Yoko would act out the animal, or draw it for us! it was hilarious. Then a plate of fish arrived that still had the heads and scales on. Yoko picked it up with her chopsticks and bit the head off, saying "oyshi!" which means delicious. Michelle couldn't bring herself to eat the head, but Travis did. it was good and the eyeballs were
Sapporo Bier Garten
Our new buddy Eri gave us a private tour! squishy.
After the great meal we found a skyscraper that had a ferris wheel on top of it. Yoko was dying to go on it! so the four of us found the way up and went on it. A great view of Sapporo! Yoko even bought the souvenir photo! too funny! but oop! it was getting pretty close to the curfew at the hostel so we had to call it a night.
Today we met Yoko again (Daisuke had to work) and went to the Ropeway and Hokkaido University. Yoko took us for Ramen which was delicious. It's really great to have her show us around and translate for us. She says she enjoys practicing her English too. For dinner we went with Daisuke and Yoko to a Yakitori restaurant - skewers of meat and vegetables ordered individually then grilled and brought to your table. And of course Yoko ordered us some more Sake! Oyshi katta!
Until next time!
Michelle and Travis
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Adam
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Michelle must have died at the at the Mon Shi Shi's!!!