When KF and I were planning our trip to Japan, I asked her if there was anywhere in particular she wanted to go, or anything she really wanted to see/do there. You’d be forgiven for thinking that I’m about to say Mt Fuji was top of the list (or on the list at all) but there was only one place she was set on going to, and that wasn’t it.
Well, not exactly. The place she wanted to visit is actually on Mt Fuji, so it inadvertently ended up at the top of the list. Continue reading
So I know I’ve already gone back to Tokyo in my post earlier this week, but I’ve got unfinished business in Otaru, so we’re heading back to Japan’s north island for this instalment of Thursday Doors. Actually just a quick post this time because, between my never-ending struggle to improve my sleeping habits (i.e. to sleep earlier) and my other writing commitments, I’m gonna have to pare down my blogging time a little. Just a little.
If you’ve been following my Japan posts, or even just my TD posts about doors in Japan, you’ll probably know that I really like snow. With that in mind, here are some doors + snow: Continue reading
Pretty sure I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I have a bit of a soft spot for small towns. Not sure how I’d go living in one for a long time, but they sure are lovely places to visit. One of my most favourite places in Japan was a small rural town: Otaru is located somewhere west of Sapporo, in Hokkaido, and we visited on February 8th.
Otaru is only about half an hour from Sapporo by train. Things like this amaze me because sometimes it takes over half an hour to get from one part of Brisbane to another by train – on one train line, travelling through the same city!
This year, the Asahikawa Winter Festival was held over the same week as the Sapporo Snow Festival. Since Asahikawa isn’t too far from Sapporo, it was an easy decision to add it to our itinerary when KF and I visited Japan in February. It is a considerably smaller city (about a fifth (?) of the population of Sapporo) so the festival wasn’t quite as big as Sapporo’s, but still worth the trip.
I’ve lived my whole life in Australia, in a place that doesn’t snow. Growing up, I’d watch American movies and TV shows (and probably some British ones too), and always see those stereotypical scenes of children waking up to snow (usually on or around Christmas), and I’d think how wonderful that would be (on any day of the year). So you can probably imagine my delight, on the morning February 7th (yes, these posts are taking a lot longer than I’d originally foreseen), when I peered out the window of our Sapporo hotel, and saw flurries of glorious snow falling from the sky!
The snow continued to fall quite heavily as we left our hotel and made our way to Susukino Station. I could not take the smile from my face. (I was probably also still on a high from the Sapporo Snow Festival the day before.)
I’m sad that this will probably be the last of my Sapporo posts, but I’m also pretty excited about sharing all these photos. Sapporo is a wonderful city (I think so, anyway), and it was delightful to explore and wander through the city’s streets (even if my snow boots were starting to give me a bit of pain…) Continue reading
pistachio conspiracy #63 