Sapporo and Jokanzei - Days 4-6

[Coldrsx]

The next leg of our trip was a race from Shinjuku to Sapporo Tower.

Team Sake – me – Subway-Shinkansen-Local limited Express – Walk

Team Ramen – Glenn, Chris, Steve – NRT airport bus – NRT-CTS-Tain-Walk




7:00 AM - Maranuchi Line from Shinjuku to Tokyo Station




Tokyo Station awaiting my shinkansen, move already


Good, now where is my Hyabusa


There we go. May I present the E5 Series – 320km/h


Snagged myself a little boxed lunch for the road, how is that airline food boys?




…and just like that, 4hrs later we arrive at Shin-Hakodate station to transfer
















Nearing Sapporo


Walk faster or hop on…






Arrival at our hotel, exactly 8.5hrs later… did I win!?!!?


Team Ramen is off, 2hrs later than myself.


Do you see me?


Arrival at CTS


To the winners, go the spoils. Oh well.








Karaoke time!


After singing all 50 Engrish songs, time to hit Mos Burgers for less hurt tomorrow.

Off to the fish market




Great selection


The most expensive bowl of fresh seafood ever, $35






My side order of crab brain and roe was the best dish of the trip.




Aurora Town


I love these arcade malls for colder or rainy cities.


Ok, enough fooling around, metro to the real cultural experience












Beer, lamb, sausage in a German Japanese Bier Hall, yes please!


A 5L stein seems a wee bit ambitious…or does it?




Some Nikka and music to end the night.


I am very intrigued about the layout of this building.




Mind blown


Setting up for the winter market/lights/festival




Some local soup curry before the bus up to the onsen.


Arigato Goza(i)masu


New home


Magic from the clouds, no, seriously, this powder was ridiculously fluffy.


What’s this, geothermal foot ponds to sit with your friends at, yes!


Trump wins☹




It was snowy, windy and cold (-2) so the town was dead, but I stumbled upon the most wonderful of bartenders and bar unchanged since the 80s. We shared whiskeys and my photos, as he tried to explain all of the famous visitors to the bar.


Change time


Course 1 of 7 or 8.










Tatami time!






Sayonara Hokkaido, time for Round 2 of our race back to Tokyo.




















Sorry I didn’t stop in Hakodate, next time I promise to come see your lights.


Back to Tokyo


My favourite shinkansen awaiting Team Ramen… who beat me again. That said, who really won…


Time for a night out in Shinjuku.

[mousquet]

Superb trip, lucky you. You've got taste, friend.

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Beer, lamb, sausage in a German Japanese Bier Hall, yes please!

Hell yeah, eh? That's better.

[Shawn]

Glad you got to enjoy Sapporo and especially onsen with snow - you cannot get more Japanese than outdoor onsen in the snow.

[Murphy de la Sucre]

Japan is awesome you should explore more and deeper.

[Boffo]

Cool tour. Japan is the best. You sure ate some delicious food!

[xzmattzx]

Great pictures! I have friends in Sapporo. I'd love to go there and see their homeland some time.

Are these pictures from last week? Are they really getting snow already?

[James Bond Agent 007]

Yeah I'm jealous, they got snow already.

[Nightsky]

Nice Sapporo pics. Looks much colder then Tokyo.

[Coldrsx]

Akin of going from Vancouver to Edmonton and yes, MUCH snow. It was an early winter for them though and they had little fall sadly.

I loved Hokkaido and want to go back to hike and ski. The powder that fell was unlike anything I have ever felt in Canada or Europe, it was significantly lighter and fluffier.

[Beedok]

They have snow already? Sapporo truly is wonderful. Really want to move there...

[Coldrsx]

They have had a few snows in the last 3 weeks, it was below 0C as well a few days. I really like it there as well, reminds me very much of Edmonton actually.

[mousquet]

Mountains are inspiring anywhere and "sacred" over there, they claim.

That would partly explain the concentration of people over the Tokyo metro area. They want to preserve much of their natural landscapes, which is hard, given their population and the overall area of their archipelago.

I thought they'd have higher and more dense mountain ranges, though.

[mrnyc]

very, very nice to see this. particularly as besides being japan, i am a big fan of 'going along for the ride' type threads like this.

the seafood and the onsens can't be rated highly enough. but all is not perfection in our beloved japan -- fetishy ramen joints and mos burger are definitely overrated.

[Coldrsx]

Great to re-connect with some Sapporo representatives tonight.