Blogs from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, Asia - page 8

donnerstag, 09.10.08 die toyoko-hotels sind wirklich ganz toll! - ich bin längst club-mitglied... die lage ist meist sehr zentral gleich in fussdistanz vom bahnhof und sie sind kurzfristig, am gleichen tag übers internet buchbar. für 40 fr. bis 70 fr. gibt's ein zwar kleines einzelzimmer mit breitem bett, einem tisch mit internetanschluss, kühlschrank, wasserkocher und eigener dusche/wc in einer höchst platzeffizient organisierten in eine zimmerecke gestellten plasik-box. inklusive ist auch ein kleines japanisches frühstück - was will man mehr... ok, es hat keine tatami-matten, aber man kann ja ein bisschen abwechseln mit den unterkünften. jedenfalls bleibe ich in nagoya zwei nächte in meinem toyoko-hotel und mache am samstag ein bisschen gemütliches sightseeing in der stadt. viel historisches gibt es nicht zu sehen - neben vielen anderen japanischen städten wurde nagoya im ... read more

So yesterday was my first full day here in Sapporo, and I gotta say this is a great city. Sapporo is the 5th largest city in Japan, and one of the newest. Which means one very big thing - streets here actually make SENSE. Instead of wonderful naming like bank street because 50 years ago there may have been a bank, its grid based and divided into N/S/E/W and how many blocks away from city center. Anyways, I arrived here by train and met up with a guy named Neil, from Chicago. Nice chap. Asked him if he was staying at the hostel too and sure enough he was. So we head that way, I find out he:s up here a couple of days while his friend he was visiting is off working. Before this he ... read more

Since I have changed jobs my schedule has been crazy. Also with the weather being fine, I find it hard to sit in front of the computer sooo much. Hope to write about my recent travels....I have taken sooo many pictures this year.... read more

Day 1 After two great nights in Hakodate my parents and I headed out on the 3 hour journey to Sapporo. Hokkaido doesn't have a shinkansen system so all the trains are super express. We passed by many places that I would love to visit but will have to wait until another holiday vacation. It was rather odd to be in Sapporo without all the snow that was there the last time I was there. After we got to the station we headed into the depths of Sapporo station to find some lunch. Sapporo station has an additional basement that is full of nothing but restaurants. They have a selection that goes from traditional Japanese all the way to Mexican and Italian. The ever present Starbucks held it own for a bit of coffee and snack ... read more

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Yuki Matsuri in Sapporo, Hokkaido with the Kinokawa-Iwade Kazoku on a trip arranged by the Kyoto JET coordinators. Let’s enjoy reminiscing! Japanese vocabulary yuki: snow nenkyuu: paid vacation leave kazoku: family hikouki: plane kouen: park yuki daruma: snowman samui: cold kani: crab hotate: scallops sake: salmon (or sake rice wine depending on the context) shiroi koibito: white lovers tabehoudai: all you can eat nomihoudai: all you can drink February 7: Let’s enjoy Nenkyu Nenkyu is wonderful…instead of waking up at 7:00am and snoozing my alarm every five minutes until 7:30am, I got to sleep in until 8:15am! Woo-hoooooo! For on this day, the Kinokawa Kazoku and I were off to Hokkaido to go to the Yuki Matsuri!!! We... read more