Firstly before anything else if you don’t get notifications of new posts here and just read them directly on the site every now and then you may have missed my last post as I’m doing two in a row very quickly. To read it just follow this link here.
Now with that out of the way on with the information on Sapporo. The main thing on Sapporo is its cold, its one of the few cities in the world to have the population it does and the average temperature it gets (average is 8.5c) and an average snowfall of over 6m per year. While I was there it was about -9 to -4 degrees each day which according to my friends is one of the coldest winters in a while (it definitely felt like it). Overall though it was beautiful to walk through the city with all the snow falling but its understandable why not many people go outside.
Well they do go outside, but only when the underground paths no longer go anywhere. One of the incredible things in Sapporo is the network of tunnels under the city which house all kinds of shops, restaurants and subway entries making it easy to walk from one section of the city to the next all under the ground and in heated corridors making it easy to escape the cold. Then again for the mad ones like myself it is quite pretty to walk above ground in the falling snow (then again I’m sure if I had to do it daily I’d take the underground path).
So what was my main reason for going to Sapporo? Well back in March 2010 I went to Sapporo to work in the Airport on the new terminal that was being built. While there I made good friends with the local staff who would run the products in the airport. At this point I made a promise that if/when I returned to Japan I would come visit and catch up. Simply put I was true to my word and returned to see them all!
Highlights include going out to dinner for Shabu-Shabu (hot pot), seafood (honestly so many different types I’m not sure if the place had a specific name/speciality) and checking out the view from both the Sapporo Tower (a mix between Tokyo Tower and the Eiffel Tower) and the JR Tower which sits above the train station. For anyone heading to Sapporo I highly recommend the JR Tower its view is from smack bang in the middle of the town and at night they dim the lights in the observatory to make it easy to see all of Sapporo light up, its very very impressive.
Once again that’s enough rambling here are some photos and its time for me to get some sleep. First day of working tomorrow so need to be rested.
