Japan - Hokkaido

It’s been a while since our last blog but we’ve been having too much fun in Japan to sit down and update you all. Sorry about that. 

We’ve spent the last week in Hokkaido in the north and its been colddddddd, down to -13 on the coldest day. It’s definitely a shock from the heat of Sri Lanka but luckily we have packed all the thermals to keep us toasty. 

We flew to Sapporo from Tokyo to catch the annual Snow Festival. Spread over three sites they have ice sculptures, snow slides and games and the most incredible, huge snow sculptures. It was all like nothing we’ve seen before. The ice sculptures were so intricate and the snow sculptures were the size of two-three storey buildings. They have these little photo spots where you can have an official picture taken and an old Japanese man on his own made us take a photo with him and he bought this very overpriced picture of the three of us which we imagine is sat on his mantle piece somewhere in Japan!

Snow slide! 

We spent a lot of time in Sri Lanka seeking out air conditioned places to cool down and here we’re mostly hiding away from the minus temperatures in warm ramen restaurants. We cannot get enough ramen in our bellies!

We visited the Sapporo beer brewery and of the three beers we tasted, got to drink Sapporo Classic which is only sold in Hokkaido. Yum!

Japan is probably the most efficient country we’ve visited. Trains run on time, they apologise profusely if they happen to be a couple of minutes late, the seats all face the direction of travel, everything is clean, people are kind and really want to help. There is a great bag forwarding service if you don’t want to carry your luggage on a train or want to go straight and sight see - you go to a 7/11 and fill out a form and the next day you arrive at your next hotel and your luggage is there! Just brilliant. 

After Sapporo we visited Yoichi the home of the Nikki whiskey distillery. It does sounds like we’re on an alcohol tour - just need to find a sake place to see next!    The buildings are gorgeous and really interesting to learn the story of the original owner Masataka Taketsuru which saw him travel to Scotland in 1918 to learn how to make whiskey and fall in love with a Scottish woman who he brought with him back to Japan. The whiskey and apple wine are all delicious and we got quite drunk on all the free samples. The single malt has salty flavours from the sea breeze coming in while it matures. 

Distilling the whiskey

Spot the tourists!

Beautiful view to sample whiskey

A little drunk! 

Continuing on the snow festival theme we went on to Otaru a little town with a little canal lined with candle light and cute mini ice sculptures. There are also lots of shops with cat themed things here. Japan seems to love little cat ornaments! 

We sampled some Hokkaido sushi and it was AMAZING - salmon, tuna, squid, octopus, eel, seaweed, tempura!

We’ve just left Niseko where we spent a few days snow shoeing and skiing. Luckily this time there were no broken bones. The snow was magical, powder every day. Alex reckons its the best snow he’s ever skied on. 

Vending machines are EVERYWHERE 

We stayed in a little cute airbnb run by a French and Japanese couple. They cooked everything from fresh - french bread, cakes, jam made from fruits picked in Hokkaido, homemade pasta, tortillas! We ate a delicious seafood nabe, a Japanese hot pot and okonomiyaki, a type of pancake made with mountain potatoes which are like yams. Basically this blog is going to end up a list of all the food we ate!!

Seafood nabe 

Okonomiyaki

After a long day skiing we visited an onsen - a natural hot spring. We don’t have any photos as you have to go in naked and cameras aren’t allowed. There is an etiquette you have to follow - men and women separate, get naked, shower before you go in, use a little towel to cover your bits until you get in the onsen, the towel can’t then touch the water so you keep it on your head, then soak and let the natural minerals in the water do their thing. It is wonderful! The one we went to was outdoors and looked out onto the woods with falling snow around. Magical. It definitely helped with our tired legs. 

We are currently in Hakodate, in the south of Hokkaido and eaten even more sushi. 

Night view from Mount Hakodate 

Tomorrow we take our first Shinkansen (bullet train) back to the bright lights of Tokyo. Tokyo will have its own blog as its so utterly bonkers there and Alex is working on his Japan version of the toilet situation!

Rach and Alex x