The Sapporo Overview

For our third anniversary Matt insisted we travel to Sapporo, Japan. He selected a hotel overlooking the Toyohira River and a short walk from the subway system. I booked the flights while he was training in a foreign country, and waited anxiously for him to return so we could begin our trip! And waited...and waited... Matt's return was delayed by several days and we cut it close. He got home only 36 hours before our flight left for Sapporo. He had no time to unpack his gear before we were on our way!

Sapporo is the largest city of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and the site of the 1976 winter olympics. It is surrounded by mountains, and a popular location for skiing. We planned our trip for before the snow started falling. We had to take two different flights with a layover in Tokyo as well as a half hour train ride into the city center, so we arrived after dark with no time or energy to sight-see the first night. We woke up the next morning delighted to see trees changing color! I finally got to experience autumn! I drank hot coffee in the crisp morning and wore sweaters and boots. I really enjoyed the change in temperature from Okinawa which is still in the balmy 80's every day. Matt figured out the subway system so we got to explore different parts of the city.

My necessary hot beverage!

I found colorful trees!

Odori Park

A whole restaurant devoted to pancakes! Breakfast food for lunch!!!

Matt's savory pancakes with "Mint" stamped on one.

We toured a chocolate factory!

My favorite part of the whole trip had to be Matt's gift: tickets to see Phantom of the Opera! It is my most loved musical, and I was afraid while living overseas I would not have any musicals in my life. The lyrics were in Japanese, but since I have every word memorized already I did not miss any of the plot. While the props and special effects were the same, the theater itself sat much fewer people than the theaters in the states. The theater was probably the same size of my high school auditorium. I had more leg room and felt so close to the action!

I had a wonderful trip to Sapporo with my husband of three years. More blog posts to come with descriptions of some more sites of Sapporo!