sapporo and beyond

well, yet another three hours on the train, and we'd arrived sapporo. keeping the plans really loose here, we're just going to go with the sapporo flow. sapporo is up the northern end of japan, and those not lucky enough to possess the japan rail passes that we have, might not be able to afford to come all the way up here on a whim like us. i think from tokyo i would cost at least AU$200 one way. sapporo is japan's fifth largest city, so aint the sticks, but it boasts some really nice parks and gardens in the middle of the city centre. our plan was to just get a few drinks, and go and sit in the park that runs throught the town's middle. we didn't book any accomodation, as we wanted to go and stay in "love hotel" for the experience. nothing seedy going on, it's just a good option for travellers. if you check in after 11, then you can stay overnight for a lot cheaper than it would cost all three of us, to stay in a dodgy hostel. so that was the plan for the night, and we had all afternoon to kill, soaking sapporo up.

sapporo felt to me, alot like melbourne with all it's small cafes, cool people just hanging around, and greenery right at your finger tips. didn't fell as rushed as tokyo, or kyoto, so justing sitting aroudn was a great option. the park seems to be where alot of cool japanese youth go to chill in the afternoon, so people watching (coupled with delicious local beer) was entertaining enough for us. nj and i saw a guy dressed in a black full body stocking (balaclava included), that was just running around and doing silly things for shits and giggles. he was doign sit-ups, stretchign and running aournd, it looked so funny. after a few hours, we'd met a two lovely japanese girls, who just came up to say hello, and have a drink in the park with us. we told them all about our travels, and they spoke pretty good english, so it was easy to get along. night fell and we were getting hungry. sapporo is famous for it's ramen noodle district, so with our new tour guides leading the way, we found the good places really easilly. we ate delicious food, drank saki, and laughed alot, into the ni ght. after dinner we went to a bar called the 500 yen bar. you can have any drink on the menu (cocktails included) for 500 yen. there was an option to pay 2000 yen and drink all you want, but seeing as we'd been drinking since about three or four that afternoon, one drink at a time seemed alright. maybe next time.

eleven o'clock approached, and it seemed like the right time to go in search of our love hotel accomodation. both japanese girls were curious to see what they were like, so in all, we had five people in our posse. we were'nt sure how easy it would be to get five people into the one room, but discretion being the love hotels unofficial motto, we didn't think we'd have a problem. all check-ins arre automated, so don't even have to deal with any staff. just choose a room, push a button, and go on up. after sussing a few places out, we decided on a place called hotel rio. found a cheap room, and went in. the we had to get people up there in shifts, as not to be suspicious, so it was a millitary style operation. once we had everyone inside, the phone rang straight away, and we were busted. they thought we had four in the room (we had five), and we had to get two people out, or pay more for the room. our japanese tour guides, bid us farewell, and let us stay in the room for the night. it was all a bit abrupt, but what could we do. we couldn't even work the remote control for the tv without them, as everything was in japanese. they had some free kareoke in the room, but we couldn't find out how it worked. all of us a bit drunk, we just decided to call it a night, with sapporo in our dreams.

we all woke up with killer hangovers, and most our japan budget spent. with about a week to go in japan, we decided to put ourselves through hell again, and train the ten hours back down to tokyo. we didn't do all we'd liked to in sapporo, but we feel that we got enough of a feel, to appreciate the place. shinkansen away!


sapporo at night. all the streets were really wide, and lit up by amazing displays of neon. this was a ferris wheel in the middle of town.


ramen posse. full of drinks, food and hapiness.


i think this guy got kicked out of the blue man group, for showing too much of his dark side. he was really funny, and posed for us. i have some video footage too. classic.


the view from the park in the middle of sapporo, where we chilled out.


me, nj and our local guides. you know what they say. when in sapporo...