Konnichiwa!
We took a trip to Sapporo last weekend with our gaijin friend Matt (We’ve only known Matt for a few weeks, but he’s been around to help us with many things, as he is the only foreigner who A) works at city hall B) is fluent with both English and Japanese). The purpose of the trip was to go to the Apple store in Sapporo to make Steve Jobs happy by purchasing an Airport express (Which has apparently now been renamed the Airmac express, odd.) It’s interesting that every single wireless router we found here is significantly more expensive than we expected/could have found in Canada. Japanese-made items/electronics are definitely of high quality but I suppose that comes with a high price as well.
Sapporo is just a 50-minute express-train ride away from Takikawa. The train we take is called the “Super Kamui”, and is also the same train we took when we first came in from the Sapporo Chitose Airport (CTS). The train tickets came to around 3000+ Yen each for the weekend rate (around $28 CDN). We also bought RailMate cards. With the RailMate cards we will get discounted rates for our future train rides.
Strangely, Sapporo had no snow at all. In fact, it started raining shortly after we arrived! (Takikawa has been covered with a blanket of snow for over three weeks.) We walked around near Hokkaido University and bought some nice winter stuff. Winter is hitting us harsh and fast. Walking in knee-deep snow is awesome fun these days…
We went to the Odori area in Sapporo, which is the busiest part of Sapporo. It’s pretty much the central street, with a big radio tower and a giant park. The Sapporo White Illumination Festival was happening just as we were there over the weekend. Trees were covered with Christmas lights and people were drinking hot wine while listening to bad karaoke and staring at white santa. (as oppose to asian Santa, not that there’s anything wrong with an asian Santa…)
We fed our hunger for Apple products, took the Super Kamui back home to find our car buried under a foot and a half of snow.
Back at home, we cooked up a delicious shabu shabu dinner with the Sukiyaki grill we bought 2 weekends ago at the local second-hand shop called the Oki-Doki.
Sapporo is very fun, and just far enough away from Takikawa to be a “going to the big city” adventure. Soon will be the Sapporo Snow Festival, so we will be back before too long. For now, we will enjoy wireless internet, shovel the car daily, and eat good food in our humble apartment in Takikawa.
Cheers!
-Goodfishies
Hi Kevin & Cathy - was looking for your update on Sapporo - sounds like it was a success - curious to know more details about how this town might work for you - it will be the start of your “big city fix” adventures! - Thinking of you from warm sunny PV!! - Hasta Luega - Barb
haha, the Oki-Doki. cute. It’s been pretty snowy in Montreal too, and Vancouver got half a foot last weekend, too!
The Oki-Doki is one of our favourite stores here in Takikawa. So far we have bought a heater, a humidifier, a Suki-Yaki grill, some dinnerware, a tripod, some shelves and maybe soon a guitar!
Sapporo is very fun. It’s definitely an adventure being in the big city, but its so nice to live in a relaxing town where everything is walking distance (though heavy snow greatly reduces the radius of “walking distance”…)
Thanks for the comments guys,
-GoodFishies
It reads like a script for a cute cartoon! You guy are walking, living cartoons! How’s the documentary research going???? I think it would make for an awesome movie, I would definitely pay $13 to watch it!!! I want to be where you are. Everything you write makes me green (with envy not sickness ha ha) What do you guys miss most??? I am trying to think up ideas for a care package to send you…
Natsukashii ne !! (Nostalgic)
Your story makes me jealous! I miss all these places so much.
PS: The Oki-Doki 30 minutes south of Takikawa by car is much bigger and called “Doki-Doki” for some reason which describes the sound of your heart beat in Japanese. If you want a better selection, check that place out for sure.
And if you ever want a good spicy meal for a cold winter day, hit up “Mama’s Kitchen” in the middle of nowhere. Hard to find, ask a student or Travis.
Hey Kevin & Cathy!! :)
Wow, the whole thing sounds like a lot of fun!
Are there any pictures of the big snow?!
Everything u said was cute, even the shop OKI-DOKI. haha!!