Hokkaido - sounds like pumpkin....

No, actually the pumpkin name has nothing to do with Hokkaido...instead of pumpkin, here you will find cherry blossoms, lots of tulips, mountains, and a lot of snow. Each season has its own special charm here, so a trip to Hokkaido is always worthwhile.

However, it looks like we can't get to northern Japan fast enough...Okinawa, Sendai, and now Hokkaido?? Those are some pretty big jumps...yes, it's true. We were in a bit of a hurry because the cherry blossom season was almost over! Since Japan spans so many latitudes, the north blooms when everything in the south is already over. In the north, we were lucky enough to experience Japan's most beautiful, but also short-lived attraction! - Parks and streets full of blooming cherry blossom trees 😊 And thanks to our great train tickets, we can shoot through the country on the Shinkansen super express trains (they are as fast as the word 'long' is).

Hokkaido is somewhat isolated... It feels closer to Russia than to Tokyo, and spring has just arrived... The green of the trees was still fresh, but you could also imagine what it's like here in winter. The average winter brings more than 6 meters of snow (not all at once, but spread over the season), there are great ski resorts (popular with Australians because of the same time zone), and some people apparently only travel to Hokkaido in winter to watch the snow removal service... Nobody can beat the Japanese at that either. There are of course heated roofs and even roads...otherwise where would we end up 😉 After a few days in Japan, nothing surprises you anymore - if something is technically possible, it will be done. No small efforts, but big ones...

We went on a beautiful snow hike. Although we weren't equipped well enough to climb the highest mountain in Hokkaido (Mount Asahi-dake) completely, we were allowed to climb around its slopes and sink knee-deep in the snow... Once again, our equipment didn't seem so bad when we met a businessman on the way who completed the small snow hike to the hot springs on the mountain in a suit. Yes, time management is everything: "If you have an hour between two meetings, just take a quick mountain tour." 😊

Asahikawa, where we spent a few days, didn't offer much besides mountain tours, cherry blossoms, and parks full of tulips (including a funny Japanese school class - was it the photography course?? In any case, everyone had a reflex camera... the Japanese start practicing photography early😉)

therefore, we ended up at the zoo again, as we heard that you can observe the animals there from completely different perspectives. And it was true. There were many plexiglass constructions that allowed us to see a polar bear swimming, look into the eyes of a hippopotamus underwater, or watch a seal passing over, under, and vertically past us... Amazing!! - Did we already mention that the Japanese somehow manage to do everything??...

Then we were in Sapporo... Exactly, older people will say, Olympics 1972... Exactly, beer drinkers will say, Japan's most famous beer is called that... (even with Braille! - very exemplary!! And useful! After all, everyone should buy the RIGHT beer 😉) Furthermore, Sapporo is a nice, fairly young, typical Japanese metropolis. If you're looking for architectural highlights, you don't necessarily have to come here.... But if you want to see cherry blossoms, a city that works pretty perfectly, and the 1972 Olympic ski jumps, then this is the place to be. We took a nice bike ride to the mentioned ski jump, from where you can enjoy a beautiful view of the city. One of our memories will also be a crow that became very angry and greedy, longing for Lisa's soft serve ice cream and became more and more aggressive and even prepared to attack. In the end, Lisa capitulated and gave the ice cream to the crow (had to)! It was practically a matter of life and death - grrr...stupid bird!

At the ski jump, there is also an Olympic museum, where unfortunately, we couldn't read anything again. However, we passed the time there with a few funny simulators: bobsledding, standing in goal in ice hockey, skeleton (good practice for floor wiping😉), and of course, the ski jumping simulator... With the latter, I had the perfect jump and set the record of the day... We can do what Hannawald can do...