Sapporo Day 2

Today was the free day of the tour, so it was up to us to find stuff to do. Breakfast at the hotel is included with the trip so it was Japanese style western breakfast. This basically means that everything is slightly cold and undercooked. I mean you wouldn't want to ruin something by cooking it. The most interesting piece at breakfast was the pancakes. They were around 1/3 of the size but 4 times the thickness. Pretty good, it was almost like an English muffin.

The first idea was to head over to Otaru. This is a small fishing village around 40 minutes north west of Sapporo by train. We did stop at a MontBell store to pick up grippers for our shoes. These have turned out to be the best purchase of the trip. It is very icy everywhere we go. After taking a couple of local trains we got to Otaru. There was a restaurant that I had heard about on the Japantimes website. Very cool little German Pub, very happy German music being played. We got to the pub at exactly the right time as a flurry kicked up. I part of me was hoping that there would be a TV to see how the Superbowl was going, but that is not the purpose of this vacation. Also pretty cool to have a WSU commercial shown for a few folks in the Northwest during the SB.



After we finished lunch the plan was to walk around Otaru for a while longer, but the wind was making it too cold. We decided to cut that portion of the trip short.
We got to the station just prior to the Rapid Express to the Airport left. Got a perfect seat by the window and got nice shots of the Sea of Japan. After we got back to Sapporo it was back to the hotel to get some energy back.

We then headed out to find another MontBell store. We finally got there and realized they had another Sapporo factory right by the mall. The mall is huge, inside they have a little garden area with three "Windmills" being as they are indoors I don't think they count. The selection of outdoors stores is impressive, just about every brand you can imagine has a store. The tour bus stops there for lunch tomorrow, so we will get another shot. On the way back to the hotel we stopped by Toys R Us.

Another time back to the hotel to get some warmth back before heading out once more. We walked over to the Hokkaido government building. As the temperatures began to drop the ice started becoming a factor. All vehicles do really well here, but it started to take them more time to build up speed. On the topic of full speed next we went to the snowboard ramp. Lots of people doing tricks. Pretty cool, but there is not a lot of room to stop at the end.

After this we went up the TV Tower. Cost was 700 Yen, but you do get a great view down Odori street. You can take the elevator down or use the stairs, if you do the stairs you get a discount at their cafe. The stairs were interesting, and took around 5 minutes.

Dinner was now in mind. I had seen a place that services Japanese steaks in the Snow Festival pamphlet, and that has become a tradition for the winter/spring trip to get great steaks. The restaurant is called Cairn Annex and is located over by Susukino in the Tokyu Inn basement. It was a great meal and it is very entertaining to watch the show they put on. Some of the high lights included a flaming onion volcano, flaming steak, and Hello Kitty fried rice. The meal was around 8000 Yen, so not cheap but very good.

This dining establishment was also chosen for its relation to the Ice Sculptures. There are around three blocks of Ice Sculptures, two are finished and they were working on the last block tonight. This probably was the most interesting thing that I have seen on this trip, how they plan it out and then use chainsaws and chisels to get the work done. Most of these sculptures were sponsored by different companies.

After we finished walking through this area it was back to Odori to see the Snow Sculptures. They close the walk through around 2200, so we had to move around. They have various groups from around the world competing in a competition. One group of from Oregon and is doing a scene where Salmon are swimming up river. There is also a group from Hawaii. After walking through this for around half an hour it was time to head back to the hotel. Which was a little longer than it should have taken, we got a little over confident and kept walking. Luckily the phone showed that we needed to turn right and then get to the hotel.

Another good day in the books.

Photos:

Sappro Day 2