Sapporo Day 1

Long Day, seems like vacations always are over here. I suppose that is just the way that I do them though. So it was up early at 420, quick breakfast and then the walk to the train station. The walk takes around 15 minutes. The original idea that we had was to get a taxi to the base, but this was a much more elegant solution. We just use the existing services and go that way. We got to the bus and piled on.

It took around an hour to get the Haneda. This was my first time taking air transit in Japan. Very interesting, they do not check your ID at the airport. It is all based off of you boarding pass. You scan your own pass at security and then again at the gate. They have little blocks at the x-ray machines to keep luggage which is too big from being brought aboard the airplane. I was told mine was too big, which I took care of and no worries after that. At the airport there was a Pokemon airplane, it apparently is one of the ones that goes to Sapporo. It was amazing to walk around the gates and look at the schedule for the Sapporo runs, it is like the Seattle to Portland. This is high travel season though, as approximately 2.3 million people will visit Sapporo this week.

The airplane had a feature which I have never seen before, it had a camera facing forward, and one facing down. So you could see what was happening, that was cool. As cool are the temperatures up here in Sapporo. We arrived at the airport and had an hour and a half to eat. We choose the Mos Burger, always a little different. We then hopped on the bus and headed over to the Lake Shikotsu ice festival. Interesting place, very slick everywhere. I wish that I had purchased the shoe grippers around the second time I almost fell. The one really cool thing they had was a room with evergreen branches built into the wall. It smelled awesome, just like home. They use a wire mesh to make the shapes and then spray lake water over it, to form the ice houses. It was back to the bus and then to the ANA Sapporo.

The ride took around an hour and was really quiet. We picked up our hotel packed dropped off our stuff and headed out. We walked around and saw the Snow Sculptures. Some amazing work. I slipped and performed a perfect slide tackle and took out a teenager. Everyone was okay, but they form could not be better. Also the question was asked earlier which I would protect in a fall my camera or my body. The camera won the first round. We went back to the hotel and got on the bus to head to the Sapporo All you Can Eat Buffet. Which turned into around one round of meat and vegis. Apparently they had no negative ventilation and all the smoke from the grills just hung in the air.

After we got back to the hotel, it was mission Starbucks. Using Google and my phone we headed out. It was a nice walk and we eventually got there. The snow had really started c0oming down at this point. We found a boot without an owner on the street. After a little time inside it was off to find the ice sculptures. It was a nice walk and we found some very impressive sections of Sapporo including a Ferris wheel on top of a building. Then it was back to the hotel to recharge and sleep. 420 to 2345 a decent day.

Photos

Sapporo Day 1