Wandering Musings

Ah, Hokkaido. Lovely place… at least the small portion I saw. Akita may be far from many things, but at least it’s relatively close to Hokkaido. The plane took only 35 minutes to get to the Sapporo Chitose airport. There I met up with Suzanne and we set off to explore Sapporo. Our hotel was only a few minutes from the station, in the heart of the city.

Before I left, I asked my students what they recommended doing in Hokkaido. Almost every recommendation involved eating food of some sort. So… that’s what Suzanne and I did. Of the things we ate, those Hokkaido is famous for include butter and corn ramen, miso ramen, seafood (excellent sushi), crab (I tried some of Suzanne’s crab sashimi… that’s raw crab – not the brains this time, a leg… but it was still gross) and Genghis Khan. It was all delicious, save for the crab sashimi.

I took a ton of pictures, so I’ll upload them over several posts. These were taken our first day in Sapporo – September 23rd.

Sapporo has a sort of Londonesque Eye. For 700 yen you can spend about 5 minutes in a giant ferris wheel over the city. The sun was at a horrible angle when we went, so the pictures aren’t the greatest. But you can at least get an idea of what the city looks like.

One of the main streets. Personally, I don’t think there are nearly enough advertisements.

Akarenga, or ‘Red Bricks,’ the Old Hokkaido Government Building. Originally built in 1888, it was one of Japan’s largest and tallest buildings; it was rebuilt in 1911 after a devastating fire. Brick buildings are rare in Japan. This one has 2.5 million of them. Another interesting fact: the octagonal dome design was borrowed from the Massachusetts State House.

A fountain in the popular Odori Park located in the city center.

Suzanne and I having way too much fun with various bears around the city. Bears and foxes are Hokkaido’s most common mascots.

A small shrine adjacent to a crowded shopping strip.

More fountains in Odori Park.

The enormous TV Tower stands at the park’s edge. You can take an elevator to the top viewing deck (for a price), but Suzanne and I were still feeling a bit ripped off from the ‘Eye’ earlier that day, so we passed.

Thus ends day one. We concluded the day watching crazy Japanese game shows in our hotel room. It was fantastic. More pics to come. Day two was even better!