My ryokan owner went shopping after she dropped me off at Farm Tomita and returned later to pick me up. We drove back to the ryokan. In the afternoon, I took the bus to the New Furano Prince Hotel, one of the gateways to winter skiing. The hotel has two further attractions. First, I visited … Continue reading / view photos Kaze-no Gardens and Ningle Terrace
Author: Praful
Farm Tomita
Yesterday, the ryokan owner said that she would drive me to the Blue Lake near Biei, about 40 minutes by car. However, it turns out that the blue lake isn’t always blue. It’s temperamental and its colour depends on the weather. Since we had rain overnight, it wasn’t blue today. The ryokan owner asked if … Continue reading / view photos Farm Tomita
Sports day and a beautiful restaurant in Furano
I returned to Sapporo Station from Sapporo Art Park in good time. In my marathon session with the ticket staff at Sapporo, I ended up with a four-day Sapporo-Furano area pass. Furano is a small town east of Sapporo. It takes about two hours by train, and you must change trains in one of two … Continue reading / view photos Sports day and a beautiful restaurant in Furano
Sapporo Art Park
I had most of the day free before the late afternoon train to my next destination, Furano, east of Sapporo. Sapporo Art Park was on my list of places to visit, and I was glad I could squeeze it in before leaving Sapporo. First, I had to get the subway and change lines. The changeover … Continue reading / view photos Sapporo Art Park
Otaru
Sapporo, the fifth largest city in Japan, is on Hokkaido, one of the main Japanese islands. Sapporo, being the capital of Hokkaido, is a good base for visiting other places. One of the popular daytrips from Sapporo is to Otaru, northwest of Sapporo. It took me 30 minutes to get to Oraru on the rapid … Continue reading / view photos Otaru
Mount Moiwa and Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art
Mount Moiwas is 532m above sea level. My walk to the top started from the same location as the Maruyama walk a couple of days ago. This was twice the height. There were more people on the walk but it wasn’t that busy. Hikers are very friendly: everyone says hello to you (“konichiwa”). There were … Continue reading / view photos Mount Moiwa and Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art
Sapporo TV Tower and Moerenuma Park
My plan when I left the hostel was to go to Moerenuma Park. However, the sun was out today. As I passed Sapporo TV Tower, it looked good. So, I decided to go to the top of it for the panoramic views of Sapporo. I saw the length of Odori Park, which I walked along … Continue reading / view photos Sapporo TV Tower and Moerenuma Park
Some candles flicker and some candles fade
Sinéad O’Connor’s lyrics expressed deep emotions and conveyed raw vulnerability. Her powerful, soulful voice — sometimes haunting, sometimes uplifting — brought her songs to life. She wrote about her own life and about the injustices she saw in our world. She was a force of nature, who refused to be crushed. At the beginning of … Continue reading Some candles flicker and some candles fade
A hike, a shrine, and the red-light district
On the Alltrails hiking website, I found a few hikes around Sapporo. Since I’d started late, I chose one of the shorter ones that would give me views of the city and whose start could easily be reached. A reviewer of the walk commented that they wished they’d done the walk in reverse because there … Continue reading / view photos A hike, a shrine, and the red-light district
Sapporo – Hokkaido – Japan!
I got to Seoul’s main airport with plenty of time to look around. Once again, there was some sort of parade going on! The South Koreans love a parade! I’m flying to Sapporo in Hokkaido, a part of Japan I’ve never visited. There are over 14,000 islands in the Japanese archipelago, of which 260 are … Continue reading / view photos Sapporo – Hokkaido – Japan!