SAPPORO

I just got home from Sapporo, which, for those who don't know, is the capital of the very frigid north island/prefecture of Hokkaido. Two of my friends and I went to see the Snow Festival or yuki matsuri, which was something I had really wanted to see while I was in Japan.

Day 1:
We had an early flight, and so arrived at the airport around 7AM. It was strange because I took the first train out of Kodaira, and it was not crowded, but still fairly populated, which surprised me at 5AM. The flight went by very fast, I think it was only an hour and a half, but we had a 40-minute train ride from the New Chitose Airport to Sapporo. Thankfully, our hotel was close to the station.

After setting our things down, we had a brief lunch at a gyōza shop, and then walked down the lanes of the festival, enjoying the massive snow and ice sculptures. We then stumbled upon what I think (I forgot) was the old Meiji-era city hall of Sapporo. It was a very nice looking building.

After walking around aimlessly, we returned to the hotel for a short rest, then headed off to dinner. We unfortunately made the poor chose of choosing a rather gimmicky and expensive crab restaurant. It was a disappointment, but the crab was at least fresh and delicious. In order to make up for our lack of a proper dinner, we enjoyed donuts and McDonalds (American style).

We then returned to our hotel for rest.

Day 2:
Our big planned day! We woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel. We took an 8:45AM tour bus to the Asahiyama Zoo, somewhere outside of the city. It was around -1°C, yet they still had emu, lions, jaguars, orangutans, and giraffe's out in the cold. Weird. Some guy was throwing snow at the tiger, and I was about to go over to him and say 「性格悪い！」but fortunately for him, he got bored and walked away. Now I know why tigers maul people.

At the zoo we saw the "march of the penguins," which was probably one of the most famous things in Hokkaido. I'm not sure, but maybe. It was kind of cute.

I also saw those little "sea angel" creatures, which was pretty cool.

After returning from the zoo, we chilled in the hotel, and then decided to revisit the festival and get special ramen (which was free, thanks to our tour package).

Before going to sleep, we watched "Roman Holiday" on television. Audrey.

Day 3:
We really ran out of things to do, but we tried to make the best of it. We went to the Sapporo Beer Factory, which was more of a mall than a factory, and enjoyed some nice craftworks from Hokkaido artisans. We then had lunch at the festival - I had a nice lamb stew - and wandered around some more.

We tried to make a snowman, but a security guard came and absolutely WRECKED it after we left. Depressing.

We walked around some more then bought our お土産’s. I thought of getting my younger brother some of these algae balls you can keep as pets, but thought that they probably would get taken in customs, lest they turn out to be some sort of invasive species.

Our return flight was uneventful, and we spent the entire flight watching Vicky Christina Barcelona, which was a little strange. It was entertaining though.

It was nice to get out of freezing weather and return home. I feel like I want to return to Hokkaido in the summer, but I don't think I'd ever really feel the need to go to the Snow Festival again.