Well my last full day in Sapporo and it started off with close enough to a blizzard. So down to breakfast, back to bed and up at the crack of 10am (to make up for the sleep that I had missed). The breakfast by the way in the JR East is unbelievable. I’ve be going big as I have not really much during the day. Cereal with the lot, eggs, noodles, Hokkaido fried chicken, rice, miso soup, bacon, croissant and an orange juice with a coffee and there isn’t any more space left. I would recommend this place to anyone based on the location and the deal I got.

The decision was made to head off to a small coastal town called Otaru. It had been tipped to me and I had meant to go yesterday but train delays due to snow changed that plan. A 45 min train trip and I was greeted but a heavy dumping of snow. The sun had been out only 5 mins beforehand and by the time I had walked about 6 blocks down to the canal area, the sun was coming out again. It was like 3 seasons in a morning (can’t in all honesty throw summer in here) but it did unveil another amazing sight. This island just keeps giving and Otaru highlighted that. The city has a very long Ainu connection (indigenous Japanese from Hokkaido & Nth Honshu) and in 1899, an imperial decree established an open trading port with the US and British (history lesson over). The area near the canal has a very strong late 19th, early 20th century feel dating itself very much to the Meiji Period (1868-1912). All the old warehouses and buildings have been reconverted into a really pretty shopping district. The walk was slow as it was predominantly on ice all the way (I may need some of those ice cleats next time) and was a little treacherous in areas. This is something that I have come to except in my time in Hokkaido and while you never get truly used to it, you get better at coping with it. I stopped off to have the nicest green tea ice cream I have ever had. From here it was further down the road to the steam clock but just unfortunately missed its hourly ritual, so it was off to the train (which was delayed due to the snow haha) and back to Sapporo.

My last stop for this leg of the trip was to the Sapporo Beer Museum. This was the first beer brewed in Japan and after walking on ice for another km and a half, I certainly wasn’t going to leave without at least trying one. Every walk of life in Japan today was influenced so much by the Meiji and the adoption of Western technology into a traditional Asian culture. Beer adopted German methods as far back as the late 1870’s and the museum displayed the western influence, even in the advertising. The tasting room had closed 30 mins earlier, but they had a beer garden, so it was a quick slide over and it was definitely worth the effort.

Sapporo is absolutely phenomenal, and I would love to come back in the near future and witness the snow festival. Anyway, back to Tokyo tomorrow to meet up with Luke & Matthew (on his first o/s trip. Looking forward to it.