So the journey continues northwards towards Hokkaido and to temperatures 10 degrees lower than the main island via a rather long train journey which takes us through the Japanese equivalent of the channel tunnel. First stop on the itinerary is Sapporo, the prefectural capital and japan's fifth largest city. We were both pleasantly surprised at how cosmopolitan and lively the city was as I think we were expecting something a lot smaller given its location and pleased that it was easy to navigate around as it used a more western grid system. We had plenty of time to explore around the sights around Shapiro centre ,take a pleasant but bracing stroll through Odori Koen and sample some of Sapporo's famed beer. Given my slight obsession with visiting zoos in other countries (yes it happens every
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