by Layla
We arrived in Sapporo, the capital of
Hokkaido, just before lunch and hustled to our AirBnB home, a slightly dingy
but central and generally acceptable apartment that was all ours for our stay
in the city. We dumped our bags and dashed out in search of food. And in doing
so, discovered Odori Park, the central artery of Sapporo and all summer long,
home to a massive beer garden that apparently has seats for 13,000 people! But
we needed better sustenance so followed our iPhone apps to Lohas Café, a hip,
vegetarian extravaganza of salads and grains and suspiciously vegan cheesecake.
An excellent start to our Sapporo vacation! Afterwards we decided that a bit of
mountain greenery was in order, so we hopped on a tram and before long we were
on a cable car, soaring up Mount Moiwa to an observation deck that looked down
over the whole city – which looked huge, in contrast to the rather intimate
feel that it has on the ground. The sun was shining and we decided to walk part
of the way down, along a lovely little path, accompanied by a random Japanese
family. By the time we got back into town, we decided we’re earned a beer, so
we popped into the Sapporo Beer part of the giant beer garden and indulged in a
pre-prandial sip or two…
We walked home via one of the city’s ‘top’
sights, the governor’s house. It was an attractive red brick building, but more
attractive was its lovely grounds dappled with grass and ponds… and more
interesting was that just a few days after the Pokemon Go game launched in
Japan, the grounds were absolutely full of Japanese people of all ages using
their phones to catch virtual Pokemon (which apparently hang out in real-life
grassy and watery places). This was especially striking as until now, we’ve
rarely seen Japanese people using their phones much in public (as opposed to
Washington or London where most people seem to walk along the street writing
emails). On our walk back to the apartment, our game became spotting who was
playing Pokemon Go – which obviously made us look a tad odd as we tried to
surreptitiously peer at everyone’s screens.
That night we’d planned to try the local
salty ramen, or corn and butter ramen, but everywhere we tried on ‘ramen alley’
seemed overtly unkeen on vegetarians, so we ended up in Jyoti, a really
excellent little Indian restaurant on a street that was all covered over and
very cheery. And after dinner, a new adventure awaited… karaoke! Ever since we
moved to Japan we’ve thought about trying karaoke but due to our insanely bad
singing skills, we had avoided it… But tonight was the night! We rented a
little booth, inputted songs (thinking of songs was much the hardest bit),
drank the beverages that we summoned on a little phone in the room, and sang.
It was not tuneful, but it was very fun to have this little private room to
belt out off-key versions of Good Morning Baltimore and Space Oddity, to name
but two of our eclectic playlist… Hilarious.
When we’d planned out trip to Sapporo we’d
been intending stay in Furano, a pretty little town famed for its lavender and
attractive mountain scenery. Because in Japan, places are all famed for certain
flowers and when they bloom, Japanese people descend on the place in fits of
delighted hysteria. By chance, the lavender was blooming this week, and this
week alone. This made it impossible for us to get a hotel room in Furano. So
instead we boarded a special train called the Lavender Express and in a couple
of hours (Roz reading, me editing a research paper about mental health in
Mongolia), we arrived in town. After much confusion about what to do, we
boarded a little wooden charming train decorated with bunches of lavender and
took it to a tiny railway station that only exists for a couple of weeks per
year. It was opposite Tomino Farm, the epicentre of lavender excitement in the
Furano region.
Not knowing what to expect, we were more
delighted than I’d expected. Tomino Farm was clearly also famous for melons. So
we revelled in delicious slices (followed by melon ice cream) before venturing
up to the fields. Sure enough, they were big and they were impressive. Huge
rectangles of purple spreading up along the hillside, and special paths to
enable viewing. Other flowers that had been planted in strips to create a
fantastic giant stripe pattern. It was incredibly scenic with the mountains as
a backdrop. We climbed up to the top where a classy little wooden bar had been
built. We read our books and drank beer and watched the Japanese people being
extra-delighted until it was time to catch the various trains and do more work
all the way back to Sapporo.
That night I did yet more work and sent off
the Mongolian paper – then we headed out to an obscure, fancy and delicious
Italian restaurant called Saf. Down a back alley, it was charming and romantic
and lovely and we had a delightful evening – even if Roz was bitter I’d worked
so late that dinner was almost at bedtime!
We had planned another daytrip for some
hiking the next day, so we were confused when we opened the curtains and found
it was raining in a very British fashion. This coincided with me being sent a
giant amount of health financing work and with the desire for some vacation
financing, we decided to head to a cool coffeeshop for Roz to read her book and
me to work. And both of us to angst over having planned the wrong things for
our final vacation week and entirely changing our locations and hotels.
With the rain continuing even after several
cups of tea and a cheese toastie, we decided that the cinema was calling. We
went to a lovely independent cinema called Kine and watched Brooklyn, which was
thankfully in English. Afterwards we settled down in Starbucks so, you guessed
it, I could do more work. And hooray: finished it and sent it off.
That night we sheepishly but covetously
decided to return to the delicious Indian restaurant, after which we went
bowling. We were amusingly placed on what seemed to be the ladies’ floor. And I
don’t like to boast but I beat Roz very resolutely indeed. She got her revenge
when we started playing air hockey though, thrashing me 10-1… Much fun.
This morning we checked out early, stowed
our luggage in lockers at the station (very much the done thing in this
country), and walked over to the Botanical Gardens. A much better botanical garden
than we expected, we spent quite a while strolling along paths that almost felt
they were in a forest. Then we walked further still and got to the Hokkaido
Modern Art Museum where we really enjoyed a little exhibition of contemporary
art focused on Hokkaido scenery. And polished it all off with a rather exciting
vegan Japanese meal at Itadakizen, the sister restaurant of a place by the same
name next to SOAS in London where my classmates and I would indulge in a bowl
of ramen after a tough morning of Japanesing.
And then it was back to the station in the
pouring rain, onto a train, a plane to Tokyo and now we are about to board yet
another plane. This time across the Pacific. Next stop: Vancouver!
