Random Thoughts During My Time in Sapporo (Hokkaido, Japan)

Welcome to Hokkaido, Japan.  Enjoy your stay at the Sapporo Park Hotel.  Oh my.  There is a bidet in the bathroom.  My first bidet.  Heaven.  How long is too long on the stream?  Is there a such thing as too long?  Hello, room service?  I'll take my food on the toilet.  Can’t. Leave. The. Stream.  

I was worried about the language barrier. Many people spoke both Japanese and English. I'm embarrassed at my lack of dual language proficiency.

There seems to be free WiFi everywhere. That's a huge benefit for me since Sprint doesn't actually have service here.  Keep trying to remember what life was like before my hand-held computer… How did I get around in a new place? How did I find good food? Good drinks? Things to do?

Walking in Nakajima koen (park) was chillfully lovely. The large mountain looming in the background juxtaposed with the large apartment buildings at the fore took me mentally from city to serene and back again. 

​​I was lucky enough to be given a tour of the Hokkaido International School.  The Headmaster welcomed me to his school and gave a full tour.  He took time from his day to have a long conversation with me about the work being done at HIS an how they are trying to improve their school.  Work-related, but when you love what you do, it really isn't like working at all.  It also gave me a great reason to venture into a part of the city I might not have gone to otherwise.  And meeting the HS Math teacher was great, too.  Nothing like perspective from the front lines.

Breakfast was delicious. I took a friend's advice. Eat less of something and more of everything. The red salad (red peppers and red cabbage with a dressing) was yummy. Fried egg was completely on point, but the bacon and sausage, dear God, they weren't fried, THEY WERE BOILED! Travesty to the poor oinker who have up his or her luscious bits for those sides. But it was all made better by a table seat at the window overlooking the deep-snowed park.

There are little cartoon characters everywhere. I'm loving the strange faces created for marketing seemingly every aspect of Japanese life. They make me giggle. 

Everywhere I walk, I find something new.  Even in the places I have already been. In Nakajima koen, I found a blue colonial house. At breakfast, I found the scent of freshly baked butter croissant.  The brilliant yellow orange yolks should be envied in eggs back home. The caws of crows and tiny anime voices serve as the white noise of my day.  The heaps of white snow and frigid cold help me feel the winter that's been missing from NYC. 

I spent much of the time walking, especially in parks which were beautifully abundant in Sapporo.  I like hiking, and what better way to embrace Japanese culture than to hike through the park at Mt. Maruyama and visit the Hokkaido Shrine.  I did my pre-reading and knew to approach the well of water (chozuya), even in the cold of winter, to purify (cleanse my hands) the body before entering the shrine.  Rinse left hand, then right hand, then mouth, return the ladle.  I entered the shrine, observed some tying their prayers to a rope for good fortune, marveled at the beautiful setting, and wandered back in to the park to find the Maruyama Zoo.  Absolutely beautiful way to spend the day.

I found an Australian bar in the Odori arcade.  The Japanese bartender is a nursing student, and looks all of 20.  She was making herself a drink right along with customers.  She also started a conversation with me to practice her English.  She told me about how she likes to sleep late.  She often oversleeps her alarm, and that happened in this day when earlier that morning she overslept for her test in Nursing School.  Luckily her professor was kind and gave her extra time.  

On top of the friendly bartender, I also met an English chap and an Irish lass.  Dan and Christine were fun to chat with, and Dan’s puppy, Mei Chan, was adorable.  They were also young and like to do shots.  I knew I was making a bad decision to start shooting Kahlua and Bailey's, followed by shots of Fireball.  Shots were great in my 20s, not so much in my 40s, but how do you say no to people so sweet?  Turns out Dan runs a ski school and has property in Hokkaido.  Makes it easy to plan my next visit.  Thanks for the drinks!  Made for a rough morning, though.  I am very thankful to have met cool people, regardless of the headache.

Snow came again overnight and blanketed the city in a fine white powder.  I hopped into a taxi to get to the JR rapid train to New Chitose airport.  The driver was a straight up 60 year old snow-driving pimp.  I enjoyed my “Tokyo Drift” action.  This effing guy had the car under his control the whole time.

​Eighteen hour plane rides are no joke, but I would do it again in heartbeat.  I need to go back with more time to spend as this shortened week was not enough.  There is so much more to do, and I already have made mental plans to do them.  I need to make shiroi koibito, I want to take a soba noodle cooking class, and I need to go skiing in Japan.  I only scratched the surface this time, but the short time there helped me to fall in love with this corner of the globe.