Day 4 - Sapporo? And Hakodate

Just a sandwich and frjed chicken

On my way to Hokkaido shrine, passed this guy again

I like how even if you don't speak Japanese you can probably tell that this is a construction notice

You ever look up at the sky and think this isn't going to end well

Yep, raining a bit, is it enough to buy an umbrella though

I decided to try just going with my hoodie we'll see how that works out

Maruyama park

Watch out for attacking crows

Hokkaido shrine

More shrine

Rain stopped selfie

Tree hallway 🤤

I guess the other shrine sections were just baby shrines

I did this ritual but doing it when it's cold and kind of windy outside and getting your hands wet is actually not that fun, do the gods really need me to purify my hands

When did the sky get blue again

Time to test my fate

Kichi, I'll take it

Shrine is pretty

Okay, now off to the Hokkaido museum and I think there's a historical village or something near it, although since Hokkaido is pretty modern as a city it's not going to be like super old school style more like colonial, I think

Taking the subway there, it's a pretty standard subway though they have a hip height barrier before the tracks I guess

It's not a japan only thing but god I wish Toronto had cell reception in subways outside of like one provider...

Some subway pics

Now on a bus to get there

The eye of Sauron looms

Because I missed the direct bus I'm walking through a residential neighborhood that The back-up bus dropped me off at, I love some of these aesthetics

The eye draws nigh

Do they turn the eye on at night or what

Huh there's literally not a single soul here besides me where's all the tourist site

Ok I saw some people on the normal path to get here

Come on there's no way this isn't it.

Ok it's actually the Hokkaido Centennial memorial tower

Some more pics of it and environs

Made it to the museum

This museum is about the history of Hokkaido and starts with mammoth

I'll post the history parts part 1

Part 2

Sorry if this is a bit dull, just neat history of a region I don't know about so wanted to remember it

This is where I'm sleeping tonight!

Ok I'll stop posting them I think though I'll take more, also lest you think it's fully bilingual l, most text is not translated

Some random pics that were neat

Ok, now the historical village but I'm going to speedrun it because I'm hungry

One thing I've noticed is that most museums here are surprisingly cheap they're all probably around like $5-6?

Almost there

Yep this is Japanese colonial Williamsburg

Horse drawn wagon ride though

This place is pretty big

Random pics from inside, I left though, even as a speedrun I'd normally look around the whole thing but the bust leaves at :30 and I didn't want to walk around another 30mins

I think without being able to read (or at least not without taking a while + mental strain) most of the place descriptions the "charm" of this kind of historical village is lost so I'm not too sad to leave "early"

Also did I mention I'm hungry?

Going to a vegan place that has neat reviews, I thought about a traditional dish the Genghis Khan grill, but I feel like that's just a variant of normal jbbq whereas vegan is not at all what I think of when talking about Japanese food so I'm a lot more intrigued

Almost there, so hungry.

Lol, the stairs tell you how many calories you've used to get up

Hungry, got the lunch set and a soy based ice cream parfait, I'm ready

It's a cute place

Barley and sweet potato croquet (itbwa excellent) with some house-special mayo made of soy and some other things which was lovely, and the middle top is kurumafu (wheat gluten) in a pickled-ish way that was really interesting

It was a really nice meal, very Japanese but vegan, what a world

Soycream parfait 🤤

Another customer was super intrigued by a generic "Rice Dream" carton, even got the restaurant owner to let her try it... Not drinking Hokkaido milk must be a tough sell given how proud they are of it

The parfait was nice but not amazing, I liked the ice cream itself more than I thought I would since soy is one of my least favorite milk replacement

The croquet and the mayo were the real MVPs, I liked the rice with a black sesame but that's probably only because I love black sesame so much.

I like how my choices for food where this vegan place, or literally all you can eat meat BBQ and I'm happy with my choice

My train leaves at 8 (in 5 hours about) so I'm going to go to the Sapporo Beer Garden, then maybe the mountain overview depending on time

Me: gets on subway, starts checking phone as I walk to the first car since they say it has the fastest exit at my stop.

Me: looks up.

Ok at the beer garden

First the museum probably

Actually...

Ranking Black Label, Classic and then Kaitakushi though I'm not enough a beer drinker to say much beyond that

..and done

I signed up for the Japanese only premium your because why not

Do I feel out of place in this waiting room? Maybe just a tad.

We are led by a Brand Communicator

I wish I could have recorded the opening movie, it was pretty interesting about how beer played into the modernization of Hokkaido and how a stowaway that went to Germany sure a part but... THE MUSIC was so over the top, it was hilarious

Also didn't get to post during the tour because listening required all my attention

This is an actual in use kettle, it makes like 24k bottles if iirc per batch

If you ever wonder about the star on the beer brand

When Sapporo started making beer they didn't have the technology to make glass bottles so they bought used European beer and wine bottles

Also learned Asahi used to be the same company but they got split post-war because the beer company was too powerful

We got th we at the end of the premium tour, one was the black label, the other Fukkoku Sapporo beer, at first I misheard which glad was which and was disappointed I liked the black label more but the Fukkoku was really nice j

Some pics of the tasting area

If I was leaving from here if get some Sapporo Classic since it's officially only sold in Hokkaido but not carrying liquids for 10 more days

B-boxes french fries??

Ok done, I think it's too late to go to mount moiwa and still make my train so what do

Oh it's Christmas here

Yes there's a speaker playing Christmas music "giddy up giddy up let's go"

For when you just need more freedom🦅

I have time to kill...

Wait this one... Feet massage sounds great

That tech is unreal... So good.

I've reached the Sapporo factory Hall shopping Center

It's Christmas huh

There's a live show

One more song

Ok, went back to station, grabbed stuff from locker and now I wait for train in 30

Got an ekiben for the ride, didn't even see what's in it, just asked for the recommended one, so I guess we'll be surprised together in the train

Another call-out post

On the express train, ETA around 4 hours, arriving at 11:38pm

Ok, booked 2 nights in Morioka to peek around Iwate starting tomorrow and you to Friday morning, after that spending two nights in Aomori at a friend's place

That's settled so time for ekiben

Sleepy... 2.5 hours left, if I sleep it might mess up sleeping once I'm there or maybe it won't, who knows

I slept 😋

Disgusting, we're 3 mins early

Oh wait, that was the next to last stop

Can't believe we're 1 minute late. I'm going to complain about this nonsense.

Welcome to Hakodate

Train Station

Smol but perfectly serviceable for one night