Day #1- Tokyo's Haneda Airport to Sapporo
After arriving in Sapporo, we took a bus to our hotel, ANA Hotel (part of the All Nippon Airways family). Since it was before check-in time, we left our luggage at the cloak and walked to the Sapporo Beer Museum for lunch.
Sapporo Beer is a popular Japanese beer in the US but the Sapporo Beer in US is made by a brewery in Canada. Anyway, at the museum was a famous restaurant that serves a signature dish to Hokkaido, lamb. At our table, we prepared the lamb and vegetables and drank beer out of tall steins. The meal was excellent and is a must on anyone's trip to Sapporo. However, I suggest eating at this place at the end of your travel in Sapporo since one set of the clothes that we brought smelled like BBQ.Afterwards, we toured the beer museum which was established in the late 1800's (Japan's Meiji era). It was interesting to see the advertisements of the different eras and the different beer bottles. Before leaving the museum, we sampled different kinds of beer that are found only in Hokkaido. (those in Tokyo can't find the specialty beers that we sampled).
By the time we finished visiting the museum, we returned to our hotel and checked-in. After freshing up, we went out in search of a good restaurant for some good Hokkaido food. We found a sushi restaurant and had some excellent crab sushi and boiled crab. (crab and lamb is very abundant and popular in Hokkaido). We also and a variety of sashimi (raw seafood without the rice) and a tofu salad.
Later, we made our way to the largest entertainment district north of Tokyo, Susukino. This district is very lively and picturesque. Here, we visited a very popular alley of ramen restaurants. Ramen is a Chinese dish of noodles in a broth. People of Sapporo claim that their city was the first place to serve this dish in Japan. In the US, you can find cup of noodles and prepared in the microwave. I recommend getting a real meal of ramen if given the chance.
We finished up our first day in Sapporo by visiting the Sapporo Tower. Similar to the Tokyo Tower, this tower has many radio and TV antennas on it and a big clock (Tokyo Tower does not).
Day #2- Otaru, Hokkaido and more of Sapporo
Otaru, a town about an hour by train away from Sapporo is famous for it scenery, landmark of original buildings from when the town was first established in the late 1800's. Although it was May, there was still snow on the ground in the shaded areas. This town has many alleys where water from the nearby mountains flows. The alleys were very active of melting snow rushing down stream. Many of the landmarks had descriptions up in four languages (Japanese, English, Korean and Russian). Russia is close to Japan with Hokkaido being the closest. Not too many foreigners are in Hokkaido in comparison to the Tokyo area but when I did see a foreigner, in most cases they were Russian. After seeing the sights, we had a great sushi lunch (I can eat sushi 3 times a day!).
A half day is all you need for Otaru, so we returned to Sapporo and saw the various sights. We visited the former Hokkaiko government office which was modeled after the old Mass. state house. In the late 1800's this building was the largest building in Japan. Next to the main Sapporo train station in the JR Tower. At the top of this tower, you can see all of Sapporo City and the Sapporo Tower.
After catching the excellent views of Sapporo from the JR Tower, we called it a day.
Day #3- Sapporo's Fish Market, Dr. Clark Museum/Statue and Sapporo Dome/Japanese Baseball game
The most famous fish market in Japan is the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. However, Sapporo's fish market is probably as good as the one in Tokyo since Hokkaido is so abundant in fresh seafood. We visited this place and bought some tuna and had it sent to my mother-in-law in Tokyo.
Afterwards, we went to the outskirts of Sapporo and visited the Dr. Clark museum and statue. Dr. Clark was an American professor who taught at Hokkaido University. He was famous for his quote, "Boys, be ambitious." Here, we had lunch. We sauteed fresh seafood at our table.
Later in the day, we visited the Sapporo Dome (opened in 2001). This dome is the home of the local pro soccer team and the Nippon Ham Fighters pro baseball team. Since I have never seen a Japanese baseball game and since there was a game that evening, we decided to watch the game. After visiting the dome's trophy room (pictures and models of the famous performers who have been to the Sapporo Dome), we killed some time at a local shopping mall and returned to the dome and watched the Seibu Lions from Saitama take on the Nippon Ham Fighters. The Fighters have the famous player, Shinjo who also played in the US for the Mets and San Fran Giants. While we were in Sapporo he announced that he was retiring at the end of this season. Anyway, the crowd was light due to the holidays, but the game was fun.
Japanese fans are very vocal and noisy throughtout the game but in a poliet and organized fashion. One team's fans will cheer wildly for the top part of the inning and the other team will do the same the bottom part of the inning. We left the game at the 7th inning and returned to Susukino and had dinner at the famous Ramen alley. Ramen is tradionally spicy but the cook wisely toned it down a notch for me since many foreigners visit this place. The place was small and the game that we left was still in progress on the TV. But for whatever reason, baseball games are not televised after 9PM for the rest of the prime time TV programming. (This would drive me crazy if I was a big fan of baseball). The Kimchi Ramen dish that I had was great and plenty hot eventhough the cook toned it down.We took a stroll through Susukino and then called it a day.
Day #4- Hokkaido University, Okurayama Ski Jump, Winter Sports Museum
Hokkaido University is a very beautiful and picturesque site and reminded me of the local university in my hometown, Furman.
Spacious, lots of vegetation, and big western-style buildings. After visiting this place, we went to a restaurant that served "Hokkaido curry soup". Japanese curry is taken from the curry of India but is thicker and poured over rice. The Hokkaido version is a combinaton of the two.Later in the day, we went to Okurayama Ski Jump where Olympic events took place back in 1972. Near the ski jump is a winter sports museum where lots of memoribillia is on display from the 1972 Olympic games and the other sporting events that have taken place.
We then returned to the Sapporo airport and caught our flight back to Tokyo with lots of great memories and pictures and stories to tell of Japan's most northern island.
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