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Published: September 11th 2006
Sapporo Tokyo is an amazing city with so much to see and do and crazy fashions to be amused by, but to tell the truth...I"M OVER IT...the mass crowds, the subway, the enormousness of everything! So it was goodbye to Tokyo (new blog coming) and hello to Hokkaido - Japan's second largest and northernmost island. We had planned this trip just in time for the Sapporo Summer Beer Festival. It took about 1 hour 40 mins to fly, and then we caught a train to Sapporo and another train or two to our hostel, Ino's Place. The hostel was very nice and homely, but lacked air-conditioning. We dumped our bags, met some Norwegian girls in our dorm (one was very strange and didn't talk but just took photos of us without asking or saying what she was doing!), then went out for food. We found a great little izakaya close to the hostel and had our first beers in Sapporo - the beer city!
Beer Beer Beer The sun was shinning for our first day in Sapporo, so we hit the road ready for “beer day” and packed our bathers for a park beach we planned to go to. We
Asahi Brewery 10:30am - Thats the way to start a day!
Unlimited free beer for half an hour! The staff must have thought we weren't drinking fast enough because they kept bringing us more!met a guy, Matt from the US, who took us to the Asahi Brewery - he new exactly where it was as he went there the day before! I guess, why not when there is free beer?!!! We had a guided tour (all in Japanese of course - Matt did his best at translating), then we had breakfast - free unlimited beer and cheese and biscuits! Not much later than 11am, we made our way to the next brewery - Sapporo Beer Museum! We gave ourselves a tour this time, and five minutes later, we were sampling more beer and eating more free nibbles!
Ramen and a Regret Time for lunch and to soak up the alcohol! We headed down one of the main shopping streets and found a great ramen restaurant. Ramen is famous all over Japan, but especially in Sapporo. Ramen consists of instant noodles in a soup topped with various ingredients such as vegetables and pork. We all had the most delicious crab ramen! We also tried another of Japan’s more infamous specialties, whale! (see photo)
Moerenum (stupid) Park Approaching a hangover (yes, at 4pm in the afternoon) and after a long bus ride, you
can imagine our disappointment when the artificial beach, we had hoped to swim in, was empty - bone dry!!! Not happy Jan! It is summer and boiling hot so I don't understand why there wasn't water in it! I laid on the grass for a while, trying to recover from my afternoon hangover, while Amy attempted to roll down the hill! The park was huge and there would have been a lot more to see, but we were angry at it, so went straight back to the bus stop!
Sapporo Summer Beer Festival After watching a few episodes of Friends at the hostel, I debated whether my stomach was strong enough to go for a stroll through Odori Park, where I would be surrounded by more beer! Of course I couldn’t come all this way without going, so we cabbed it to Odori Park and entered the crazy zone! The stench of beer was at its strongest and Japanese people were stumbling everywhere, singing, drinking and dancing, without a care! All put together, the atmosphere was totally worth it and I was recovered from my hangover (but still not game enough to drink anymore)! We chatted to a few
Sapporo Factory
Unfortunately we had no time to explore the 140 shops in this compex. friendly Japanese, well, they chatted to us, as we witnessed some very drunk Japanese having a ball.
Living the Life We began our second day early, picking up our supercool Mazda rent-a-car, at 9am. Before long, we had the Japanese GPS all figured out and were on our way, following the pink line on the screen, to Otaru. Otaru is a cute little town, famous for its canal, and is referred to as the ‘Venice of Japan’ - a questionable comparison. Next, we punched in the phone number of our next destination - the Furano Tourist Information Center - and we were on our way, following the pink line again. After a few hours, we had arrived in Furano. Amy picked up a few brochures, and then we checked out some of the town’s attractions. Most notable about Furano, is that it is more commonly known as ‘the navel city’, as it is in the very centre of Hokkaido!
Woody Life Almost dark and no accommodation booked, we typed in the number of a cute looking log house from one of the brochures we picked up. When we arrived at Woody Life we were given a tour of
the cottages. Since we only needed a basic bed for the night, the self contained cottages were a little pricey. We were then showed inside the main house and up the stairs to some beds in the large open roof - the beds similarly laid out to the ones in the huts on Mt Fuji. There were also two private bedrooms on that level. Up another ladder, was the attic, spacious with room enough for two futons - we were just about sold! When we saw the outside barrel shower, we were definitely sold!
Now we had a place to stay, so a little more time to adventure. We drove to Asahikawa, the second largest city in Hokkaido, after Sapporo. We parked (valet!!) then walked around a bit and ate at an izakaya.
Flowers, Meat and a Close Call Waking to yet another beautiful warm sunny day, we began driving, in search for more flower fields. And we found them! Along the way, we stopped at a Trick Art Museum full of 2D paintings that looked very 3D! We drove on “Rollercoaster Road” but were sensible considering we had a hire car and were in a different country! We
arrived back in Sapporo at 3pm and said goodbye to our valuable travel companion over the last two days, the Mazda and GPS - we literally would have been lost without it! Back to the Sapporo Beer Garden for some Genghis Khan - all you can eat meat that you grill in front of you. Absolutely stuffed, we jumped in a cab, then a train in a mad rush to the airport. We were lucky our flight was delayed as we only gave ourselves 15 minutes to check in
and board!!!! Not the first time I’ve nearly missed a flight, however! All was well, and we said goodbye to Hokkaido, a beautiful island, where I hope to return one day for the Snow Festival.
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Kat
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Marissa the brave!
you r so brave Marissa. i cant believe all the things that u have done whilst u have been gone.ur pics r beautiful xo