Sapporo and Niseko, Hokkaido, January 3 - 8, 2012

We have quite a distance to travel from Kyoto to Sapporo. First, we need to get to Ueno in Tokyo. We take the first shinkansen. The non-reserved car is full, so we have to stand until we reach Nagoya; then one of us gets a seat. And a couple of stops later the other one.

The non-reserved car isle is full of people standing all the way to Tokyo.

Before boarding Hokutosei to Sapporo we have a brief pasta dinner at Bravo Pasta Cafe. We are not promised too quick a service, but everything works out perfectly. The only downside is that in order to get to the restroom, one has to walk through the smoking section.

We occupy the top beds in our cabin. We enjoy some Kirin with pizza sticks before going to sleep.

The train stops at Fukushima in the middle of the night for more than an hour. Tomi sleeps through it, but Tei does not, since the neighbor downstairs snores. The going in the early morning hours is also very shaky and noisy. From time to time it sounds there's a huge storm outside.

Our approach to Sapporo is sunny at times, ...

... and flurry at times.

It is so great to see an open sea for a change.

At nine, we are in the restaurant car for breakfast. We order one Western and one Japanese breakfast. The Western is ok, but the Japanese just strange. We don't have any more Japanese breakfasts in this trip, but stay tuned to our Summer 2012 trip to Hokkaido.

We had quite a few of these during our rail travels. Not bad, and definitely better than Starbucks in Singapore. And it only costs 300 yen.

Last minute nap before arriving at Sapporo around 1pm., more than an hour and a half late.

It is cold and wintery in Sapporo, the snow beats our faces horizontally as we walk from the JR station to hotel Cross. The local people don't even wear hats.

We put on our best winter gear and brave the weather going to Sapporo Brewery and Beer Garden.

It is freaking cold, but the vision of chilled beer keeps us going.

Sapporo Brewery and Beer Garden.

The guy pouring Sapporo beer.

We order jingisukan (also known as Ghenghis Khan). It is a dish consisting of lamb and veggies to be grilled at the table by the patrons. We are given sexy paper aprons to protect our clothing.

The place is crowded, warm, cosy, and the service good.

Bicycles left in snow next to the Hokkaido University campus.

From Sapporo Brewery we head towards the campus and Patagonia store we had located online earlier. We find another (enormous) outdoor store on our way, but we don't find anything appealing to buy.

At Patagonia Tei finds a fleece hoodie, similar to the one Tomi bought in Kyoto (only a men's sizes are available in black; women's sizes come in neon colors). Overall, we receive superb service. The assistant is seemingly content of the opportunity to practise her English.

When walking back to the hotel we get some hail, whoa! To finish the night we visit the hotel's Italian organic restaurant Agora, and order some more food -- a salad and pasta carbonara -- and chat with the server about the strange language we two are talking to each other.

Next morning we take a taxi to Sapporo Winter Sports Museum.

Before visiting the museum we take a ski lift to Okurayama Viewing Point on the top of a ski jump tower (it's not a true tower but a platform in a steep slope).

We have a nice view to the ski jump stadium. The venue was used in the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics, and is still in use.

A gorgeous view over sunbathing Sapporo.

Ice cream seems to be extremely popular in Japan even in winter time. This is soft watermelon-vanilla ice cream.

Storm is approaching from West.

Old wooden skis.

Sapporo Winter Sports Museum mostly feature things and events related to Sapporo Winter Olympics.

Finnish skier Virpi Kuitunen. She did not participate in Sapporo Olympics (she was not born yet), but the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in 2007, where she won team sprint freestyle (with Riitta-Liisa Roponen), individual 30km classical mass start, and 4 x 5km relay (with Roponen, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, and Pirjo Manninen).

Finnish nordic combined athlete Hannu Manninen. He did not participate in Sapporo Olympics either, for the same reason as Virpi, but was very successful in FIS games in 2007.

Tomi in the ski jump simulator. Being born in the ski-jumping capital of Finland, he still did not participate in Sapporo Olympics (he was 5 years old).

Tomi in the speed skating simulator.

This is the Japanese ice hockey team uniform in Sapporo Olympics (we think).

This is something we do a few days later in Niseko, for the first time in our lives.

More old wooden skis.

Nordic walking has made its way all the way to Northern Japan.

After a couple of hours of winter sports, we truly deserve a hearty lunch of jingisukan and Japanese curry.

The storm is getting closer.

But it is still far, but unfortunately in the direction we are heading next.

After the museum visit we get back to the hotel, pick up our backpacks, and rush to the JR station to catch the first train to Otaru.

The shoreline to Otaru is impressive, and the sea very rough. We see some surfers in the water. Whoa! It must be a chilly ride. Unfortunately we don't capture a single one in our photos.

We have an hour and a half to spend in Otaru before the train leaves to Kutchan. We wander through a shopping alley and then down to Otaru harbor.

There's a lot of snow, it is cold, and streets are icy and slippery.

We did not find a vacant locker at the station, so we carry the backpacks with us.

It seems that the storm is finally reaching us.

We escape the cold to Otaru Club Cafe(?), which resides in an old building that has been thoroughly renovated. The temperature in the restroom is +10C, but the toilet seat is heated.

The cafeteria is connected to Tourist information center.

The night is falling as we head back to the railway station to catch the train to Kutchan.

JR Station, Otaru.

It is snowing heavily in Kutchan, but it takes us no more than 10 minutes to reach Freedom Inn by taxi through the snowy landscape. We are surprised to have a toilet and a bathroom in our room (we thought we booked one without either one).

Freedom Inn's location is somewhat remote, far away from restaurants and most of the Niseko ski areas, so they offer a free shuttle bus service on request to the nearby places like Hirafu Village.

Around 8pm. we get a ride there for dinner. Snowfall is still heavy and it is cold, and we are not prepared for spending much time outdoors.

Our first attempt to Kabuki 1 fails because it is full, but we find a good sushi place Fuji-Sushi nearby. We order a sushi and a sashimi set, and a bottle of Vina Esmeralda (one of our favorites from Torres and a rare find in Asia). We down everything in no time.

We still have some time to spend before Freedom Inn's shuttle bus comes to pick us up, so we briefly visit A-Bu-Cha 1st bar for a couple of beers.

It is still snowing heavily, and we even get some hail on our ride back to Freedom Inn.

Snowy landscape with streetlights at night looks very idyllic.

It looks quite different in the morning.

After the warm breakfast -- bacon, eggs, and potatoes -- we start to figure out our options for the day and rest of the stay. Because of the heavy snowfall cross-country skiing is out, and we are not quit ready for the slopes yet.

So, snow-shoeing it will be. On the nearby golf course.

I takes us for a while to reach a place where we can get off road safely ... or with reasonable effort.

Shoes on!

Tying shoes in the blizzard is not an easy task.

This is the bank we need to conquer first.

Ready ...

steady ...

go ...

whoa!

The golf course has all sorts of dips and ravines that we need to be wary about -- there is no way of telling how deep the snow is.

The wind is strong and freezing snow blows horizontally to our faces and sticks to our sunglasses; it is hard to see anything. Still we find the activity great fun!

After two hours on snow-shoes, we slide back to the road. What a fall that is!

We return the shoes to Freedom Inn and head to nearby ski area Hanazono for lunch.

We have a burger and a beer each, and then cafe latte in the ski resort cafe. The place is buzzing with people returning from slopes where they have spent all morning.

Hanazono slopes.

Hanazono, like all Niseko ski areas, is known for its powder snow.

This time we book a table at Kabuki 1, and we arrive early, so we enjoy the empty restaurant for quite a (and quiet) while.

Studying instructions carefully. This time we are going to cook okonomiyaki and teppanyaki.

Salmon teppanyaki, and pork, potato, and kimchi okonomiyaki, with Mad Fish Pinot Noir.

Our first self-cooked okonomiyaki with all the sauces and condiments.

Ready to be served!

It also helps to have instructions in a language we can read :)

We finish the evening at The Barn with Anchor Steam and some red wine.

After eight o'clock we are back at Freedom Inn to watch a movie. It takes a while until we get the video system working, with great help of Inn's staff. We never finish the movie (Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid) but fall asleep.

Our second full day in Niseko starts equally grey as the first one, but with less snow fall, at least less horizontal fall.

Today's plan is to go cross-country skiing. Inn's staff is not really aware of any cross-country courses nearby but after a phone call or two they find out that there is one in Kutchan; equipment rental is free and the course is 500 meters long. Wow!

Kutchan Asahigaoka is the oldest ski resort in Hokkaido.

The shoes, as well as ...

... the skiis are made in Finland.

This is the 500-meter loop.

Fortunately, we find 1, 2, and 3-kilometer loops in the nearby woods.

We ski the 3-kilometer loop three times; it is only moderately hilly.

Still we get toasted very quickly.

We have coffee and soaky French fries at the resort cafeteria afterwards. We order the fries just to get some change for the coffee vending machine, which we find out of order though. The guy in the cafeteria makes the coffee for us.

We walk to Kutchan town on very slippery roads in search for a place to have lunch.

Not too may places are open yet.

We find something called Japanese-French Foods.

It is run by an older guy with raspy voice. It takes him a while to prepare our meals and arrange the sides and condiments. Luckily, we are not in a hurry or bored; there is a video of Finnish snowboarding on TV (Antti Altti).

We stop for coffee at an espresso place before returning to Inn.

A little more sun to be seen in the future.

We have another make-it-yourself dinner at A-Bu-Cha 2.

Hot pot with miso-based stock, fish, corn, potatoes, mushrooms, tofu, and cabbage.

Green salad and scallops with butter.

On our last full day in Niseko we get abundant sunshine.

We have a instructor for the whole day to teach us some basic snowboarding. How hard could that be?! Very hard!

Mt Yotei and us. This is the most we see of the gigantic mountain. On a clear day it is fully visible from Freedom Inn.

We take a shuttle bus to Hanazono, and walk to Freedom Inn.

It is beautiful, and finally we can see the mountains around us. They are gorgeous in the sunshine.

After releasing our feet from the snowboard boots, our hiking boots feel very light.

For our last night we don't have Japanese food, but make a reservation at Grand Papa Fondue place. We have a fixed fondue set dinner with appetizers and dessert.

The items to be dipped in cheese.

The food is good, not impressive.

After returning from Grand Papa place we watch TV while packing. The next two days will be mostly train travelling.

The night is cold and clear, but in the morning snow is blowing in all possible directions.

We spend a few hours in Otaru before taking a train to Sapporo where we board Hokutosei overnighter to Tokyo.

At the time we came to Niseko we didn't have any idea what to do between leaving Hokkaido and flying back to Singapore, beside spending a day or two in Tokyo (to visit Popeye :). So, we came up with a plan to visit the other Winter Olympic city Nagano.

Our first stop is at Otaru Bine Wine bar. We have wine tasters, coffee, a salad, and some cheesy potatoes.

Otaru Canal.

Next stop is at Otaru Soko #1 Warehouse.

That is a home of a home of Otaru Beer, a German brewery Akio Shoji started in 1995. We sample their pilsner, weiss, dunkel, and dunkel bock (seasonal).

The place starts to fill with smoke, so we move on.

We head back to the direction of the JR station.

We find a nice little sushi place, and order miso soups, a sushi set, and a crab.

We try to find a smoke free coffee shop before boarding the train. Finally we find one with only 30 minutes left. Preparation of coffee takes some time, and once it is served, we have only 5 minutes to enjoy it. Boy, it is good! The charming old lady offers some more, but we have to run!

In Hokutosei from Sapporo to Tokyo we have a cosy two person cabin just for ourselves.