Blogs from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, Asia - page 10

I’m in Japan and drinking absinthe. What more can I say. I have to say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here in Sapporo. I can go out anytime I want and meet these beautiful Japanese girls who are presented perfectly. And I can approach them and that night will be fantastic on any level you can imagine. But they are not a serious type of girl. Some time I feel like a tourist attraction. The kind of thing you want to have fun with, but don’t want to bring home to your family or your friends. If I can reconcile myself to that fact. I will have a wonderful time here in the land of the rising sun. Recently, I have taken in to of Sapporo’s most important events, the annual snow festival and the opening ... read more

"Shouldn't you be working?" Hmm...yes, a thought that continuously entered my head as I departed for a 5 day trip to Hokkaido (the northern island of Japan). Many Japanese consider Hokkaido far away, and freezing cold...these are not so true. Sapporo is famous for two things: 1) The beer of the same name, and 2) The yuki matsuri (snow festival). The yuki matsuri swells the population from 1.8 million to almost 4 million. As the number of tourists that come for the week-long festival numbers around 2 million. Chris, Mike and I landed in Sapporo Thursday morning. They quickly headed to Furano (a ski resort area that we were staying at for the first two days) as I had to drudge over to the Canadian Consulate to apply for a new passport. I of course forgot ... read more

Our last night in Japan was spent in Sapporo. Sapporo was very pretty, with lots of fairy lights in trees lining the streets. Our hotel was great and even had a bidet but had rice for breakfast. Unfortunately we missed the Sapporo snow festival by 2 days, but we managed to see some of the ice sculptures under construction. We did some more shopping (for Wii supplies) and had lunch at a yakitori restaurant (meat skewers). Then we headed back to Narita Airport for our flight to Vancouver. The toilet there had a button for "flushing noise"!! But it was kind of a cartoon sounding flushing-noise! ... read more

Arrival Day We had an early flight from Hiroshima this morning. Bit of a hassle getting from our hotel, to the train station on the tram, then onto the bus to the airport, then checking in. We had been a bit concerned about the 15kg luggage limit - which we were well over - but noone seemed to care very much and check in went quite smoothly. Easy flight and got into Hokkaido about lunchtime to meet our Ski Japan rep. She had to meet a few more people so we had a bit of time to grab lunch and check out the airport - always exciting. The bus ride out to the village was a good 2.5 hours long but was actually quite a nice ride. The roads were good and it was just fantastic ... read more