I spent my winter break in Sapporo and Otaru in Hokkaido, Japan's second largest island. If you look at the map of Japan, that's the top most island that looks like a manta ray, and it's really close to the Sakhalin Islands and Vladivostok. So it was my coldest vacation ever!
Our plane reached Sapporo just in time. It was closed the following day due to snowstorms. The weather was foreboding but we still stepped out to fill ourselves at a robatayaki.
Nothing like cold beer on a freezing day!
The nihonshu was excellent and it went well with all the food!
After a sumptuous dinner, we trudged out to Odori Park, famous for the annual Sapporo Winter Festival in February. The snow was all slushy and my boots were for Tokyo streets so I badly needed some snow boots! Found a nice cheap pair for $40, tall, waterproof and fleece-lined, my feet were in heaven!
The first thing I did in the morning was to take a peek outside. Sapporo was all covered in snow. Tons of it! A snowstorm was raging outside and we had a scheduled meeting. It was my first time to walk in a blizzard. My face was stung by the wind and snow, and I guess I've burned a lot of calories just by walking on ice for a couple of blocks and confronting my dreaded fear of icy pavement. By the time we reached our destination, I can say that I've finally overcome my fear.
We're no happy campers, so we got on a taxi afterwards and headed straight to Sapporo station, hoping that the trains to Otaru were still running.
A view of the Sea of Japan from the train gave me a haiku moment. We were in for more bad weather so the sea was all gray, chilling and totally unforgiving. Still, signs of life were there, seagulls were riding the wind or perched on rocks enjoying the breakers.
Finally, moon base alpha. Otaru station.
