Day 37: Fun in Sapporo

Good day people! Today was definitely an early start, something which I struggle with but oh boy not today.... well I lied.. I always hate having to get up but today it was a little easier!

Today Shiro-san took us to Sapporo, a place which I was planning to go on the bank holiday this month but thankfully he offered to take us which just makes him even more awesome than he usually is. He picked us up at 8:30 as it would be a couple of hours drive to Sapporo but the route there was really pretty and we got to see great landscapes such as hills and valleys as well as rivers. The autumn leaves made everything look even more beautiful! Though it was a little scary to think that in just over a month, all of it would be covered in a thick blanket of snow that's deeper than my height.

Countryside in Hokkaido

In addition, we had Shiro-sans wife with us and she is as awesome and lovely as Shiro-san. She doesn't speak much English so talking is a little difficult without Shiro-san to interpret but never the less she is so nice. When we arrived in Sapporo we parked in one of the strange futuristic Japanese parking systems. Basically you drive onto a platform, get out the car and watch it be carried away to some distant location where it is stored until you get back. I'm not sure how big these places are but they were definitely fitting a lot of cars in there!

Not the same but this is how I imagine their parking system works

Once we were parked, we went on a shopping tour around a big department store. Shiro-san wanted to find a new cell phone case and I wanted to try and find some Canon camera batteries as I would like a spare for when I run out of battery life on the go. I found them but they were way too expensive, also I tried to find a cheap tri-pod but the word 'cheap' doesn't really go down very well in this particular department store :( Despite this, it was still fun to walk around all the floors.

The floors varied in their products so much, there was definitely a structure but the difference in the floors was so strange. We rode the escalator up each floor and the decor would change completely as though we walked into a different building at times, it was very bizarre and interesting. We more or less got to the top of the building where we entered a shop called Uniqlo.

Now, Uniqlo is in England and it's actually quite a trendy and expensive place to go (which I only found out later from my aunt, thank-you!!) when we first looked around and I noted down the prices of all the products, the prices reflected those of Primark back home. I'm sure to a Japanese person they would be a lot more expensive but when you factor in the exchange rate of Yen to pounds, the clothes seem much much cheaper despite being of high quality.

I was very surprised when we were told to try on some fleece hoodies. Turns out Shiro-sans wife was buying me and my partner one each as a present which I thought was absolutely amazing. The fleeces look really nice and they're so warm to wear. With the changing weather it really was an amazing gift and I am so grateful to her for buying them. The one thing I will mention is that Japanese sizes are a little different to those in the UK. The waist line is pretty tight and the sleeves are too long but a part from that I have 0 reason to complain.

Wearing part of my cosplay with the new fleee.

After we had finished that part of the shopping, we began walking to a rather large building which turned out to be the highest point in Sapporo. What's even better is that we were taken up the building and we had a 360 degree view of the entire city center. It was amazing and breath taking and it's definitely inspired me to pay out to go up Tokyo Sky Tree when I'm there in the next few months. There are no other words I can say about Sapporo except that it's just awe inspiring and beautiful. My love for the city life is definitely not going anywhere soon, let me tell you that!

Sapporo is so amazing! Just like a smaller Tokyo.

Once we finished observing the city from the top of the tower, we headed for lunch at a nice Italian place. Now, this place was heaven and their pizzas were definitely pizza! It's a little disheartening to be taken to an authentic Italian style restaurant, the day after you immediately attempt to make your own pizzas but by no means was I going to complain! The food was literally to die for! It was all made fresh and I absolutely stuffed myself with bread, fondue, cheese and pizza.

A delicious fondue set with delicious salad but with deadly peanut oil :(

Three cheese and mozzarella

It's only safe to say that after we finished lunch we effectively waddled out of the restaurant. I'm also fairly certain we gained an obscene amount of weight from the amount of wheat we ate! It was delicious though and I'm already craving more as I type. But still, the adventure must continue!

We began to walk around the city exploring some of the main tourist attractions. One of which was an old military hall which was once part of the Hokkaido university but now it is owned by the government in commemoration. They also built a clock tower which makes it look really nice. Those of you that like Shingeki no Kyojin will love the place as the style matches that anime perfectly!

After the old military hall, we walked over to the old government building which was in a park like area surrounded by small lakes and ponds as well as gardens. It was really beautiful to see it in the middle of the sky scrapers and even though it was so out of place, it still fitted in with everything perfectly in a strange sort of way. Inside were a variety of different exhibits and cultural displays, most of which were beyond me and entered deep into the realms of archaeology, history and philosophy, but they were interesting never the less.

It was getting late in the day so we started to make our way back to the car park but on the way back I was asking about somewhere I could perhaps find anime and manga related products. Most specifically I was after posters or wall scrolls as my room is looking a little bare still though now I have some of my gaming posters up it's a little better. Still; more posters would be awesome. However we ended up being taken to a large book store and a massive section (Almost an entire floor) was dedicated solely to manga.

Whilst it's not what I really wanted, I was heavily occupied for probably the next twenty minutes as I flicked through various titles. However, all the books were in Japanese so I knew from the start that attempting to read a manga would be incredibly difficult but the desire to buy them was too much. I had to give in and decided to buy some manga from a series called: Akame ga kill, I have already watched all the current anime episodes so I know the plot and most of what happens which means I can use the mangas to focus on improving my reading ability. Though I am pretty sure it will take me a month to finish one volume!

Akame ga Kill, volume 1

With that, the day in Sapporo was at an end and we headed back to the car. Stopping at a bakery a long the way we bought some fresh bread and I got a baguette which tasted absolutely amazing. Fresh bread really is an amazing thing to have!

I fell asleep pretty quickly in the car on the way back as I had stayed up rather late the night before after having got back home from the Guten Tag so I was very sleepy. However at about twenty minutes before we arrived at our next destination, I woke up surprised to find that were not heading home but rather to another restaurant in Date, (about 30 - 40 minutes away from home).

I was a little worried as I really didn't know how much food I'd be able to eat and I was a little surprised with how much I did manage in the end. The food this time was Japanese but we added a few western classics like chicken nuggets to even things out. I've come to notice that with Shiro-san we succumb to western culture a lot more. Shiro-san actually prefers using a knife and fork and opposed to chopsticks!

So once more we had to waddle out of the restaurant and back to the car. I'm fairly certain I wouldn't need to eat again for the next few days after the amount of food that I consumed. It's also safe to say that I crashed out on the bed very quickly and slept for a long long long time. Luckily the next day is a bank holiday so I was able to sleep in and have yet another lazy day!

Thanks for reading and make sure to visit Sapporo if you can! I will definitely go back for the ice festival and maybe Christmas shopping soon!

Oyasumi!