Frozen City

Sapporo , Hokkaido’s largest city is an interesting place. It is Japan’s fifth largest city and is well known for its beer, skiing and annual Sapporo Snow Festival featuring enormous ice sculptures. In winter the streets are covered with snow and ice. The layout of the city is “American styled” in a “chest like” fashion , very easy to navigate in. The streets are very large and the air is very cold. Sapporo is home to lovely people and yummy food.
2 days in Sapporo and the last day of the 2019 year ,  here we go !

Emptiness feeling.

City center area.

The central area is walkable even though the city is quite big. Sapporo has about 2 million inhabitants. Everything is wider compared to other Japanese cities. The flat we rented was also three-time bigger than Tokyo size.

Sapporo icon , the TV tower.

H&M store , Sapporo style.

So far this Sapporo town feels nice. The conditions are pretty rought with that cold (-6°c) , wind and icy walkway but there is a nice vibe nevertheless. The best way to get warmer is to enjoy one of Sapporo’s main food speciality , the Miso Ramen !

Finding Ramen street.

Pick up from the many small Ramen restaurants.

And enjoy the delicious Ramen ! Itakakimasu.
This Ramen was rich in taste , also had butter which gave extra creaminess. This is definitely a good winter food as it keeps you fueled for the long cold hours.

Let’s explore some more.

Sapporo’s oldest construction , the Clock tower.

Inside you can find a small museum explaining the history of Sapporo city. I was suprised to learn that American played a big part in developing the area. In fact around 1900 the American’s came to Sapporo to teach basic farming such as : raising animals , agriculture , producing milk … This had a major impact on Hokkaido’s today’s culture.
Long time ago Hokkaido was home to indigenous tribes called “Ainu”. In fact Sapporo 札幌, means “important river flowing through a plain” in Ainu language). The Ainu remanent culture from the past still remains nowadays but you might have to explore out of cities to feel that.

For the new year day a special event was taking place inside the Clock tower. Some really nice traditional music.

Druming circle. The music was very tribal and deep , just like like some trance state. This band was mindblowing ! Musicians playing their instruments always is inspiring to see. They become possessed by another energy. Channeling some invisible energy and expressing it all out with their instrument. They become someone else , some sort of deeper self. Really cool 🙂

National Champion of Shamisen , a traditional Japanese instrument.

Guitar , african djembe and Shamisen Fusion !

Sapporo is also home to many yummy sweet food. The local specialty being milk , you will find many cheese flavored sweets in Hokkaido and Sapporo. Let’s eat our way throught that town.

Japanese french fusion , what can we find here ?

Croissant / choux a la crème fusion food. Yummy 🙂

Fresh milk biscuit , really amazing one.

Similar biscuit but with rum soaked dried raisins. Also very nice. Mmmh this Sapporo food is very comforting. It doesn’t matter if it’s cold actually.

Some more interesting architecture can be find in Sapporo.

Sapporo’s Former Hokkaidō Government Office.

Theses pods can be find everywhere in the city. Inside you can find small bags of salt (?). This might be to prevent the ice on roads.

Inside a shopping center. This looks like a popular study spot for students. I can understand why.

This is our last day of 2019 and we are in Sapporo. In Japan there is no Countdown for the new upcoming year. Rather families gather to the local Shrine to pray together. It’ a way to start the new year with good wishes. But we wanted to find some parties with my friends, it was difficult but we ended up finding a place …..

….. the Elevator.

Countdown party in Sapporo’s best club , Riviera.

Happy new year 2020 friends !

Fun experience with nomi. We can say that clubbing is  definitely not part of the Japanese culture. It felt a bit strange to us inside and it was mostly younger people , and the music was pretty bad too but we had a good time 🙂 Travelling is about experiencing , it doesn’t matter what are our preferences , it’s good to get out of the confort zone a little in order to grow , right ?

Out of the club , with ringing ears , for our first 2020 stroll .

Many girls bar in Japanese city. Nothing is hidden here.

Going to bed & Waking up
With more snow in Sapporo.

Thanks you Hokkaido for this amazing trip. We enjoyed it very well. I will highly recommend this area of Japan if you want to explore a wilder area , experience the nicest food and a less stressfull experience. I would love to get back here in summer. Biking and motorbiking is quite popular in Summer here. Tabun ! (maybe).
We are now heading to a lesser known area of Japan with my friend. It’s called Akita . This prefecture is located north or Honshu , Japan’s main island. Apparently there is not much to do around there , this is perfect.

Happy new year to you friends. May this one will be even more beautiful , balanced and full of positive experiences. I send my wishes to all of you.