Sapporo! Part One

I am working on my Shanghai post, but it is annoying and Sapporo is more fresh in my memory, so I am gonna post about it before I leave for Hong Kong on Friday! So, here goes. BTW, I am no longer physically able to make summarized blog posts so this is long. Sorry!

Cindy and I started our crazy traveling February-ness on Saturday by heading to Sapporo for the yuki matsuri (snow festival). I was excited, as I had been wanting to go to the yuki matsuri since high school. I was too lazy to go last year, so I am glad we found a sort-of affordable package for it this year, woot!

For those who don’t know anything about Sapporo or the yuki matsuri, here is some info. Sapporo is the biggest city in Hokkaido, which is the northern-most island of Japan. It was my first time being off Honshuu (the main island)! Sapporo is Portland’s sister city, as it is the same something-itude as Portland. Because it is higher north, Hokkaido is COLD! It is always snowing and stuff, and the summers are much cooler than in Honshuu. It is also unlike Japan, in that there is tons of space! It is famous for its nature and its food! There is room for cows and stuff like that, so they are famous for cheese, milk, butter, ice cream, etc. On top of that, they are also famous for ramen and other foods! In other words, they love food! They are my kind of people!

The yuki matsuri is held over seven days every February. The festival began in 1950, and about two million people come from all over the world to see the festival. The main part of the festival is in Odori Park, where artists make huge sculptures out of snow and compete to see which sculpture wins. There are also smaller events throughout Hokkaido during the yuki matsuri.

Anyway, Cindy and I woke up wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too early (4 AM!) on Saturday morning to take the first train to Haneda Airport. Haneda is a LITTLE easier to get to than Narita, but it is still evil. I hate airports in Japan! We were worried about getting there on time, as there are two ekis (train stations) in Asakusa that are FAR apart (400 meters, two traffic lights and lots of stairs in between!) and we had to theoretically get from one to the other in nine minutes. SOMEHOW we were amazing and made it in FOUR minutes and got an even earlier and better train than we had planned on! We rock!

Anyway, we got to the airport and checked in. Um, domestic flights in Japan are SKETCHY, as you literally don’t need your ID. They never check! Scary! Anyway, all went well and we landed in Sapporo, woot!

After a VERY packed and uncomfortable train ride from the airport (2 million people visiting in 7 days=a busy airport!), we got to the downtown area of Sapporo. It was so nice to see SNOW! Woot! It is apparently warmer this year than usual, since the world is ending and all, but it was still pretty cold. Hokkairo (heat pack thingies) and long johns were definitely needed! We were stupid and took a cab to our hotel, as it looked far away on the map. However, we realized that EVERYTHING in Sapporo is close! It is a SMALL big city! The cab driver totally knew we were retarded, but he was nice and drove us the extra long way to make us feel like we got our money’s worth (he didn’t rip us off, as the meter never went up). Needless to say, we walked from then on!

So, it being a Jeff and Cindy trip, we came with tons of recommendations on food to eat while in Sapporo! Well, more like Cindy did and I just followed her! Thanks, Cindy! Anyway, our first meal while there was ramen, mmm! They have a “ramen alley” in Sapporo which is just a bunch of ramen restaurants crammed in one alley. Mmm! We chose a place and each got corn butter ramen, which is one of the many famous foods from Sapporo. Their corn, butter, and ramen are famous, so of course it made for a good mix! Mmmhmm! After that we wandered around a little, then took our usual afternoon nap before heading out again. We trained to Otaru, a town which is about 45 minutes from Sapporo. It is famous for both its sushi and the canal that runs through the town, and it was a cute area. They were having a lantern festival for the yuki matsuri, and it went on FOREVER! It was really cute and peaceful, as the local people made little sculptures and various shapes out of snow, then stuck candles all over them. It is kind of hard to describe, but I will post pics of it later. It was done along a street and it seriously went ON and ON and ON. Cindy and I like finishing things in five minutes, and it wasn’t possible in this case, sad! We did our best, tho ;) We then made our way down to the canal, where they had more lanterns, as well as candles floating on the water. It was cute. There were tons of dates there, as it is a romantic kinda thing to do!

We tried to meet up with Teresa and her brother there, but it didn’t work out, sad. Anyway, after searching for a cheap sushi place for FOREVER there and failing miserably, we decided to go to a nice place. Man, it was yummy! We got kani soup (crab soup. Yes, Sapporo is famous for crab!), and a rice bowl with tons of sashimi in it. It was GOOD! I don’t dig ikura (fish eggs) that much, but they were so fresh that they were SO good! MMMMM! It was worth it for sure!

After that (well, after dessert, hehe) we made our way back to Sapporo, watched some TV and ASSED OUT, as we had been awake for 300 hours at that point!

(hmm, nothing happened in this post, but I want to break it in two so you are not too overwhelmed, hehe. Part two to come tomorrow, and stuff actually happens in it! Sorta!)