Hakodate – Sapporo
After the explosions of colours at the fish market, todays journey was viewed on a Decca black and white TV.
The first fifteen minutes of the trip is done through a snow storm that lines the trains panoramic windows like a grey bengal stripe shirt blowing on a washing line. It clears as we hit the coast, but the colour pallette doesn’t.
For the next two hours the Pacific Ocean sits forlornly to the East, wondering, if for the next 5000miles, anything will change before it hits California. A couple of sharp downward slaps on the Decca fails to change the monotones, just causing a bit of bluriness.
Sapporo
Sapporo Station has east- west platform exits to the concourses and north – south entrances to the streets. Connecting these are large thoroughfares lined with shops, cafes, department store foyers, tourist information, baggage lockers, toilets, ticket offices, police departments ……
It may be asked how the author has such a deep understanding of the layout of the station, well, I was like John Sergeant on Strictly, waltzing around looking for his Kristina, who in reality was Lucy, who had only been less than 25m away when I started the dance.
We caught up over ramen
The Sapporo Snow and Ice festival coincides with our visit, approx 2 million visitors come to see the sculptures, they vary from the ice bricked smoking areas to the model of Finland’s state building, those in between being your favourite anime and pokemon characters. (Nope, not me either) each being sponsored.
We’d booked a guide to help us visit a traditional Izakaya restaurant. Climbing up the narrow steps and ducking through the blue curtained entrance, you come to foyer with the telltale shoe racks and the step up to the dining area. After de-shoeing you enter, the room is made up of shallow pits with tables over. In effect you sit on the floor with your legs tucked under the table. Each table is separated from its neighbours by a decorated screen, moveable to increase areas. There are also curtained booths to allow even more private dining.
The food comes in many courses, some in single portions, some as table dishes. Meats and vegetables, on skewers and deep fried. A mountain of steaming vegetable rice topped with egg that cooks as it stirred through. A clear chicken soup in drinking cups, A stew pot that is cooked at the table, once it’s solid contents of chicken and veg are eaten, udon noodles are added to the still simmering liquor to cook through. Incongruously appearing at the end was a bowl of French fries and tomato sauce. The food courses where accompanied by Sapporo beer, hot saki, fruit juice and a very moreish salted plum drink.
A fine time was had, filled to busting and plans for the morrow made.
Trip to Japan 