What: my trip to Hokkaido, Japan
When: February 9th-14th, 2010
Why: mainly to see the famous Yuki Matsuri (snow festival)
Where: Sapporo and Otaru, Hokkaido
How: 19 hour ferry!
After having spent six days on vacation, two of those on a ferry boat and four of them on the coldest island in Japan, last Monday morning was definitely rough. But I managed to make it to school just in time with omiyage in hand and many stories to share with my co-workers about my trip to
Hokkaido, Japan’s northern most island.
I left work early to pack my bags and make it to the
Oarai port in time to meet my friends and catch the ferry to Tomakomai, Hokkaido. At about 6p.m. we were off! We spent 19 long hours on the ferry, but it wasn’t as bad as I had expected. The massage chairs, ice cream vending machine, curry and rice lunch, and giant indoor public bath overlooking the water definitely helped pass the time and made the ride more enjoyable.
February 10th: We arrived in Tomokomai at around 1:30p.m. It was absolutely freezing outside so I don't think anyone minded the two hour bus ride we then took from Tomokomai to Gakuen-mae Station (which is only a few stops away from Sapporo station). After arriving at Gakuen-mae Station, we went to our hostel. I was a little nervous about this because when I imagine a hostel, I think of accommodations similar to those of some college dorm rooms: small, dirty, and cold. I was so relieved to find the complete opposite at our hostel. We stayed at the
Sapporo International Youth Hostel, conveniently located about three minutes behind Gakuen-mae Station. I shared a room with three friends and the four boys in our group shared a room across the hall. The hostel had a washer and dryer, free internet, really nice showers, and a public bath too!
After dropping off our bags, we ventured out into the busy Sapporo nightlife in search of a good bowl of ramen and the amazing snow sculptures we had heard and seen so much about. We had our first bowl of ramen at a small shop that a teacher of my friend recommended. The best part of this meal was our funny old waiter. One of my friends is a really big guy. When the ramen man saw him using a toothpick after his meal, he suggested that my friend use a chopstick instead...haha!
My favorite snow sculpture was the
Rilakkuma one of course, but the Disneyland one was cool too. In front of some of the more impressive sculptures, young girls entertained the crowds with their cute songs and dance moves. At one point we had to stop at a convenience store to buy little heat pads for our shoes because our feet were so cold. We ended the night at a local bar near our hotel. It felt good to relax after such a long day.
February 11th: After grabbing a quick breakfast (I had a long doughnut-like thing with maple syrup swirled inside it), we explored some ice sculptures and even rode down a miny ice slide! The ice sculptures were neat but would have looked even better if we saw them lit up at night.
Then we went to a different area with more snow sculptures and ice slides. Personally, I enjoyed the festival food at this place more than the attractions. My friends and I ate nikumaki (a rice ball wrapped in meat), fresh bananas on sticks that had been dipped in chocolate and rainbow sprinkles, and french fries. Unfortunately, the line for one of my favorite Japanese foods,
tayaki, was too long. But the man I found wearing a tayaki hat definitely made up for that...
The
Sapporo Beer Museum was next on our agenda. The museum is made entirely out of bricks and looks like something you would find in a historical area on the east coast of the U.S. After exploring the museum for a bit, we headed down to one of the lower floors where we tried three different types of Sapporo beer for only 400 yen! Score! We went to one of the beer gardens near the museum afterwards for some yakiniku (grilled meat) and vegetables. After this, the night was still young so we decided to stop at a karaoke place on our way home. We ended up at a haunted house themed karaoke bar that my friend and I had spotted earlier that day. The doors to the rooms in this place looked liked coffin doors . . . I love Japan.
February 12th: The boys wanted to go snowboarding and skiing on this day, so the girls and I decided to explore an area outside of Sapporo called
Otaru. Someone told me that Otaru is also known as “the Venice of Japan.” Otaru is northwest of Sapporo; it took us about two hours to get there by train. Otaru was MUCH colder than Sapporo and it snowed most of the time we were there. At night it got so cold that my friends and I couldn’t even handle taking our hands out of our pockets to take pictures!
But before it got dark and unbearably cold, we enjoyed nice hot bowls of miso ramen with gyoza, some Otaru sweets, and bought matching key chains as mementos of our trip.
The night was definitely the highlight of the day. We finally found the famous area we had been searching for all day: a long canal filled with small floating candles. The walkway next to the canal was equally amazing. Tons of tiny candles illuminated different designs that had been carved in the snow. The whole area was really unique and pretty-it kind of had a European feel to it that I loved.
After Otaru, we went out in Sapporo for the night and didn’t make it back to our hostel until around 5a.m., which is why our last day in Hokkaido started out with a late breakfast and a 30 minute back, neck, and shoulder massage…
February 13th: Since we had already shopped for
omiyage and seen most of the things we wanted to see on our trip, we decided to take it easy on our last day in Sapporo. This meant waking up late, getting breakfast and then having a 30 minute massage at a place in Sapporo station.
After this, we took an elevator to the top of the
Sapporo JR Tower. The tower is 568 feet tall with 38 stories. The sky view of Hokkaido was great, especially since most of the buildings were topped with snow! The neatest part of the highest story was a little bathroom that was (purposely) built right next to one of the huge windows so that visitors can enjoy the view, even in the bathroom!
We considered lounging at a café until it was time to catch our ferry, but decided it was a better idea to try to see more since we were there. We took a short bus ride to a salmon museum that one of my friends had mentioned. The journey to the museum from the bus stop where we got off was much more exciting than the museum itself. We didn’t know that the museum was right next to our bus stop so we walked the opposite way. After trudging through deep snow for about 30 minutes (looking absolutely ridiculous and getting stares from confused Japanese people) we finally arrived at the museum. We didn’t stay there very long though and ended up buying hot oyaki and catching the train back to Sapporo after just a little while. (side note:
Oyaki is a small pancake-like dumpling that has some type of filling...mine had apple and cinnamon). At Sapporo station our whole group had dinner together one last time at a ramen restaurant. I tried cheese gyoza here for the first time, which I think is a Hokkaido specialty.
The ferry ride back wasn’t too bad, aside from the fact that the only available food was in the vending machines. This wasn’t a problem though because we were told about it ahead of time and so we prepared ourselves accordingly. By this I mean we stocked up on instant ramen and snacks from a convenience store near our hostel before heading out. The ferry left at 1a.m. on Saturday and we slept until around 2p.m. on that day which helped pass most of the time. Then we showered, talked for a while, used the massage chairs, and ate our instant ramen and vending machine ice creams cones. The ferry arrived in Oarai at around 7:45 on Sunday night, which gave me just enough time to get home and get settled for school the next day.
The
Yuki Matsuri was really cool, but I’ve decided this: next time I venture up north, it won’t be during the ridiculously cold winter season, a time when apparently people aren’t the only ones who require
snow gear...
