I’m finally to my Hokkaido trip!!!� Woohoo!� Hokkaido was one of my favorite trips (definitely). It was a really beautiful place, people were a little more friendly, the food was delicious, I saw a lot of stunning nature scenes, and I made some great friends! What more could you ask for?!?!?� So I hope you’re ready for a lot of photos of flowers that I don’t know the names of…� I bought a little guidebook but of course that’s already packed in a box on the way back to the states so we’ll just have to make do for now.
On June 24th I got on the ferry (more like a cruise ship) from Nagoya heading to Tomakomai port in Hokkaido. I wanted to travel to Hokkaido, but flights were kind of expensive. I had time to spare but not money! The ferry takes 38 hours from Nagoya and costs about $100US each way so that was definitely the best option for me. I was a little nervous as English is minimal to non-existent as far as the ferry was concerned, but it turned out ok. A few people talked to me in English and a few people attempted Japanese. Overall, it was fun! A little disorienting feeling the ocean for so long, but there was a break in the middle at Sendai port (quite a bit North of Tokyo) where we could get out and walk to a shopping center for about 2 hours.
And after 38 hours on the boat, I arrived in Tomakomai Port on Tuesday, June 26th in the morning. I had to take a train to get to Sapporo, the first stop on my schedule. I took a taxi from the port to the train station which was quite a bit further away than I expected. I definitely don’t recommend trying to walk to the train station. It was a good 10 minutes in the taxi. Anyway. Trains don’t run too frequently between the port and Sapporo so I had to wait about 40 minutes. Did a lot of reading.� :-) Arrived in Sapporo and went to a Botanical Garden near the University (west of Sapporo station). There was also an Ainu (the indigenous peoples of Hokkaido) museum and a building filled with stuffed animals from Japan, many of which are endangered now. Interesting…..
And then it was on to the Sapporo Beer Factory!!!!!!!!!!!!� YAY!!! It was the very first Sapporo factory and now it’s a museum where you can learn all about the history and making process (if you speak Japanese). And you can taste some of their different beers at the end. Really fun. Plus I love their beer.� :-) There’s also a beer hall/restaurant where you can try out one of Hokkaido’s famous dishes:� “Jinjisu kan” (also know as “genghis khan”) which is fresh lamb and veggies that you cook on a dome shaped hot plate thingie on your table. Delicious!
After the beer garden I headed to the hostel I was staying at:� Ino’s Place. It’s not right in the center of Sapporo, but a quick train ride away. And they were really friendly and nice there. Definitely one of the nicer places that I’ve stayed in in Japan! I had an early start the next day as I was going to take a train all the way to the northern reaches of Hokkaido….