Day 30 & 31: Food and nature

Day 30:

Hello dear ones, it seems you still want to know more about our trip. All right, you should too. The 30th day of our trip to Japan and the first full day in Sapporo were quite unspectacular. It started with us waking up in our hostel feeling well rested. This morning we didn't get anything from the convenience store because there was still a bit of food ahead of us today. Afterwards, the first thing we did was go to Susukino, a very busy district in the center of Sapporo. When we arrived at the station we saw our destination straight away. There was an autumn market in Ohori Park, a fairly long but narrow green space. But a street food festival would have been more appropriate since there was nothing else anyway. This was also the reason why we didn't want to have breakfast. There was actually quite a lot there, the whole market was probably about 1km long, with food from all over the world. There was even a German stand, complete with white sausage, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and of course hefeweizen. So after we got our bearings and looked around, it was time to eat. There was garlic naan, a Wagyu skewer for me (because Jule talked to me and I was ultimately convinced), a corn dog, fish on a skewer, salt with a few chips on the side and ice cream made from a tree strezel. As we were walking through the park, we must have scared a pigeon so badly that it jumped into the air before running away. We thought that was so funny that we still think about it.

Quite well fed, we continued exploring Susukino. Originally we wanted to go to a very large shopping arcade, but since most of the shops were still closed, we just strolled through a little and looked for a small shopping center nearby. There were only shops that sold figures, plush toys, all sorts of trading cards, books, video games and much more. Sometimes there were Pokémon cards for several hundred euros and one for a thousand. Snapper. In some departments it also became clear to us where the stereotype that the Japanese are perverted comes from. Some of the characters were more than scantily clad, there were manga (Japanese comics) that seemed to be less suitable for young people, and with all of that, you could never be sure how old the characters depicted were supposed to be. This has left us very disturbed at times and is still a bit heavy in our stomachs. Luckily, there was also a kind of flea market there, exclusively for video games from all kinds of consoles, which made us forget something about what was described before. Even very old things like Gameboy or Super Nintendo games cost a maximum of €2 there, which is an extremely good price when you consider that you can't get anything from us for less than €10. Unfortunately, the Game Boy games didn't really appeal to me and the Super Nintendo is region-restricted, which doesn't easily allow you to play Japanese games on European consoles. It's a shame, because there were some really cool things there that you shouldn't have missed for €2.

When we had looked around enough in the department store, we moved on and back to the shopping arcade, as more shops were now open. There we strolled through the shops a bit before driving back to the hostel and freshening up for dinner. We had a reservation at a restaurant. The decisive point for this was the fact that there was once again an all-you-can-drink offer. Food was irrelevant here. When we arrived at the restaurant of our choice, the first thing we noticed was that it was very loud and smelled of cigarettes. However, you could get used to the smell and a pair of headphones in your ear could skillfully block out the table next to us, which was responsible for a large part of the noise. Ordering was done via a tray, which was a good thing as it made ordering much easier and minimized the time needed for drinks. The range of drinks included various cocktails and long drinks, beer, wine, schnapps (sake and liqueur) and soft drinks. All this 825¥ per person. The food was also good but that shouldn't distract us from our mission to drink this place into personal bankruptcy within 1 1/2 hours. Without this offer we would have paid 9200¥ for the drinks alone, but that would only have been around 4000¥ including the food. I would say mission accomplished. We even think that they completely forgot to charge us for the all-you-can-drink offer because there was something absolutely wrong with the price and we couldn't find it anywhere on the bill. Good for us, I would say. When we were finished there, we went to the nearby Ohori Park, slightly tipsy, and spent some time on a bench before heading back to the hostel and soon going to bed.

Day 31:

Today, on the 31st day of our trip, a trip to a national park, Shikotsu Toya National Park, was planned.

Since the bus from Chitose only ran every 3 hours, we had the choice of either taking the train there at 7:55 or 10:55. As you can imagine, of course it was the latter as we couldn't risk getting up so early...

So we got up around ten, got ready and went to the train station around 10:55. We took the first train to Sapporo main station and then got on the airport train there.

By the way, we did this trip because we still had our JR pass for one day and we wanted to take advantage of it (for €196 we could ride as many JR trains as we wanted for a week.)

When we arrived in Chitose with our second train, all we had to do was get the bus, which only ran every 3 hours. I (Jule) was already afraid that we wouldn't be able to do this.

Maybe you can imagine how difficult it is to find the right bus in a foreign country. I find it difficult to get from Langendorf to Goseck…

Finding the train, on the other hand, is always relatively easy as much of it is written in English, but this is not necessarily the case for buses. Finding the right one, especially with what feels like 1000 different bus stops, is really a task. We found our bus at the last second and got on to drive the next 45 minutes to the park.

It was a very nice bus ride as you could see the beautiful nature. Nature is particularly beautiful in Hokkaido.

But when we arrived it was relatively cold and we immediately put on our sweaters. Maybe we should have brought another jacket...?

Since I was still hungry, we immediately ate the breakfast we had with us.

I had an egg sandwich again (I really can't smell it anymore) and Moritz had an onigiri that he had with him.

When we were finished, we first strolled around the area and then walked over a bridge to the other bank of the river. There was a signposted bird park there that we wanted to visit. To do this we had to walk 400m up a mountain that had the strangest steps we have ever seen. Some heels were 15 cm high. Some 40 cm. How all the grannies and ops are supposed to get up here is still a question for us to this day.

But there wasn't much to see there. Maybe we just didn't have the patience to wait for all the birds. There was a viewing platform there where we lingered briefly and took pictures.

Soon we made our way back down the hill to go to the water.

There we both tried to make stones jump on the water, Moritz could do it

better than me. More than once, its stones bounced three times on the surface before finally sinking into the water.

I just did what I did best: collect stones and see what else was in the water.

I also tried out the promised waterproofness of my cell phone by taking underwater photos.

(my cell phone still works).

But it was starting to get cold, so we decided to continue walking around. The machines that were standing around not only offered cold drinks, but also warm ones, which were warmed by the machine. So I got some milk tea to warm myself up a bit.

We took a break on another viewing platform. But at some point we became so cold that we could no longer sit. So we went to a small bistro nearby and bought corn and takoyaki (small dough balls with tentacles in them). For dessert there was soft ice cream.

Since the weather really wasn't that nice anymore, we wanted to take the next bus back to the hotel soon. Since there was still about 40 minutes to wait until the bus came, we looked at a free exhibition about the national park and its volcanoes. There were about three left here, all of which were still active. There was also a small VR glasses presentation, which was also very entertaining.

We set off at around 3:40 p.m. because our bus was supposed to leave at 3:45 p.m.

After we got back to the hotel, we took a quick rest and then went out again in the evening to look for something to eat. We went back to the same park as yesterday to jolenu food since it was still the fall festival. We had a really good time again and got delicious food. Especially the cheese fries, but also the ramen with cabbage and a raw egg tasted really, really tasty.

Afterwards we walked around the city a bit in the evening and looked at a few shops and also an arcade. I tried to distance myself from it a bit, since you can spend a lot of money there relatively quickly, but since you could play a game in this arcade for 10¥, I was happy to accept the offer.

Back on the street we even found a nice souvenir shop where we looked around for a while. All in all, it was really a very eventful day. The national park with its nature was really very beautiful again. We liked it very much! But the time in the city was also a lot of fun. In addition, we are back on our feet

come, but we do that every day.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Sapporo and the day after tomorrow we will fly back to Tokyo by plane to spend our last three days there.

So, thank you for reading and for your interest. See you soon Moritz and Jule :>