February is the month for visiting Sapporo, being the month for snow festivals. And having managed to book our holiday in February, we decided to head north to Hokkaidō instead of south to Kyūshū on this trip to make the most of the snow festivals.
Ōsaka – Umeda
The new shinkansen route connecting the main island to Hakodate on Hokkaidō opened in 2016, but the sheer distance means it’s still faster to fly into Sapporo.
So, we wake up bright and early at to head to New Itami Airport
There are airport buses to the airport located around Ōsaka. We head to the one near the Hilton Hotel.
It’s early, but there’s a steady stream of people waiting for the bus.
Tickets are purchased at the machine next to the stop.
Large pieces of luggage are stowed underneath the bus free of charge, and you’re provided with a tag to claim it later.
There’s a bus every 10-15 minutes, and our one fills up pretty quickly.
I imagine when the bus gets full, the section from the armrest can be folded out as an additional seat in the middle of the aisle.
The bus we’re on is called the ‘salad express’ with cartoon vegetables.
Itami Airport is undergoing extensive renovations so much of its boarded up.
We’re greeted by the airport’s mascot providing directing to places for children to relax while waiting for their flight.
With time to spare before our flight, we head to the Starbucks for some people watching.
The Starbucks overlooks the initial customs clearance area where large pieces of baggage are x-rayed before checking in.
I was after the green coloured limited edition drinks on the right but had to settle for the Pink Medley Tea Latte.
It tastes like a creamy hibiscus latte – it’s not my drink of choice, but it is interesting. D, of course, sticks to his trust chocolate drinks with his iced mocha.
There’s still the wakame onigiri from two days before, so I eat that for breakfast. It’s a bit dry, but otherwise, it’s a pleasant mix of crunchy seaweed and white sesame seeds.
From Starbucks, we can also see the Ōsaka Monorail coming in and out of Ōsaka Airport Station. Travel into the heart of Ōsaka requires at least one transfer to a train so the bus is more convenient.
We’re amused to find an apple vending machine in the airside of the airport.
It sells quarters and slices of apples from Aomori prefecture, which is known for its apples.
Airside, near our boarding gate, we find an omiyage store. The store stocks character goods featuring the airport’s mascot, Sorayan.
This is the keychain. He’s a cute aeroplane with a captain’s hat and an air hostess’ scarf.
Ten minutes out from when the plane is scheduled to take off, we’re still waiting to board our flight…
…so we watch other planes take off instead.
It’s a bright morning in Ōsaka, but heavy snow at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaidō is causing congestion in the air, hence the delay.
It’s our first time flying with ANA, so the in-flight announcements are still fresh to us.
The front of the Service Information pamphlet featured rakugo, a form of Japanese entertainment where a lone storyteller sits on stage. This amuses us as we’d been watching the anime Showa Genroku Takugo Shinju earlier.
This is Ōsaka during the day, a view we’ve not actually experienced as we always fly into and out of Ōsaka in the evening.
There’s thick cloud cover by the time we approach Hokkaidō.
Sapporo – New Chitose Airport
And we’re in Hokkaidō! For some odd reason, the staff on the ground bow to our plane when we taxi to the gate… Perhaps because of the delay?
With the amount of snow outside, we’re surprised by just how oppressively hot they’ve made the inside of the airport.
The Coca-Cola polar bear welcomes us to Hokkaidō.
We head to one of the main drawcards of New Chitose Airport – Royce’ Chocolate World. It’s a world first, being the first chocolate museum and chocolate factory in an airport…
There’s a large collection of cans of cacao from all over the world and various chocolate labels on display.
Through glass windows, visitors can watch staff hand make chocolate.
These moulds are filled with chocolate and then spun to create ‘hollow chocolate’.
Other machines fill chocolate into the mould or draw colourful patterns onto the chocolate.
One of the star attractions at New Chitose Airport is the Royce Bakery, which featured various baked goods using their famous chocolate.
Their Choco Pie (above, right) is their No 2 bestseller. It’s filled with chocolate custard, dipped in chocolate, then topped with pieces and shavings of chocolate. The overload of chocolate is a bit much to remain enjoyable throughout, but it’s good quality chocolate.
We also their Raw Chocolate Croissant, their No 1 bestseller. It’s more like a cruffin (croissant shaped like a muffin) in construction, and it’s by far the tastiest I’ve enjoyed: the pastry is light and fluffy while the oozy chocolate innards and cubes of cake sponge add richness and texture.
To finish off my ‘lunch’, I have the coffee bean bread from Kōbe.
The bread has a good hit of coffee, while the bread itself was tender with chocolate swirled through. I’m surprised by how enjoyable it was considering its made with wholemeal.
The tomato and cream cheese pan is very satisfying to eat. The sourdough is tender, while the tomato adds pops of freshness, the cream cheese adds a pleasant savoury note, and the sprinkle of rosemary brought an aromatic flavour. This is so delicious, I was sad we couldn’t return for more!
We’re starving, not having had much for breakfast, so D picks up a Classic Burger from Freshness Burger. The beef is well-seasoned and touted as being 100% Australian beef. It’s a tasty and fresh burger, although he wasn’t impressed by the thick slice onion. The photo is from Freshness Burger.
The chip wedges that accompany the burger are a tad undercooked, alas, but we enjoy the crispy skin.The photo is from Freshness Burger.
Of course, there’s a Sanrio store dedicated to Hello Kitty.
This is Hokkaidō Ramen Dojo, a section in New Chitose Airport with a collection of ramen stores.
The place is immensely busy during lunch hour.
Here, you can try different types of ramen from all over Hokkaidō.
On our way to the train station, we pass Siretoco Sky Sweets. Siretoco is known for their cute baked donuts.
They come in flavours like cocoa chocolate and chocolate chip, each with an animal shaped doughnut hole sitting in the centre.
There’s a Hokkaidō Milk and Hokkaidō Pumpkin flavour that’s limited to the region.
We spotted this cute bamkuchen ad on the way to the train station.
We’re lucky to get seats on the train as our train ends up sitting at a station for a good 20 minutes as the snow starts falling too heavily. Again, it’s ridiculously hot inside the train even in just a shirt.
Sapporo – Shin Sapporo
Thankfully, by the time we reach Shin-Sapporo, the snow has stopped.
Shin-Sapporo is about 15-20 minutes from Sapporo Station and considered the ‘suburbs’. We’re staying here, though, as the price accommodation in central Sapporo had skyrocketed even when we booked 6 months in advance.
Our stay at Hotel Emisia Sapporo is easily the fanciest of all our hotel stays in all our visits to Japan (Kanazawa from 2015 comes close).
February is such a popular time for tourists (mostly from China) in Hokkaidō that the twin corner rooms were the only ones left when we booked! To our surprise, we got ‘upgraded’ to the 25th floor…
…which meant we had amazingly expansive views of the Sapporo from both our corner windows. This view is to the west-northwest.
This is the view to the north-northwest.
In the far off distance in the north-northwest, we can see a white hill – this is Moerenuma Park covered in snow.
Moerenuma Park is a landscape sculpture designed by Isamu Noguchi to offer distinctive expressions of the four seasons. It was transformed into the art park from a waste disposal site and created over a period of 23 years.
Towards the north-east, we see Hokkaidō Centennial Memorial Tower in the distance.
It was built in 1970 as one part of Hokkaidō’s Centennial Project, as an expression of gratitude for the hard work of the people who built the Hokkaidō of today and as a symbol of limitless future development. The tower is 100 meters tall to represent 100 years, and a view room that overlooks the city of Sapporo and Ishikari Plain was built on its 8th floor (23.5 meters up). Quadratic curves that stretch toward the sky and cross at a point at an infinite height symbolize future development. Moreover, on a planar level it is modeled on a hexagon, which expresses a snow crystal.
D and I were surprised by the odd appearance of this structure against the winter landscape as if it were straight from a gothic scene rather than a snow crystal. Turns out, though, it’s built using weathered steel or COR-TEN, which ‘when left in the atmosphere, rust occurs first in the same way as ordinary steel, but dense protective rust forms on the surface of the steel due to the action of the alloy element over time, inhibiting the later development of further rust’. For safety reasons, the tower and the surrounding area is currently off-limits.
Looking down below the hotel, we’re opposite JCHO Sapporo Hokushin Hospital.
Before the evening is out, we head across the road from our hotel to explore the Aeon Shopping Mall, the Qualite Prix and Sunpiazza.
Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of the shops themselves due to mishaps with a memory card. Inside the Aeon, the ground floor was taken up with stalls selling Valentines’ Day chocolate. These were streets around the area. Snow is piled high.
This is the manhole cover for the Atsubetsu area.
The shops are rather lacklustre compared to what we’re used to elsewhere in Japan so we trek outside with the intention of visiting a large supermarket down the main road. The snow starts coming down heavily, though, so we give up and head into McDonald’s to defrost and dinner. This is the store from Google Street View.
D’s after his comforting Big Mac, but I have the Teriyaki Burger. The burger has a quintessentially Japanese flavour with the soft bread, the teriyaki sauce and the wasabi mayo. It’s delicious, but it’s apparently a nightmare for staff to assemble neatly due to the sauce. The photo is from McDonald’s Japan.
From 24 January, McDonald’s offered Premium Chocolate Hazelnut Triangles. These were a step up from their ordinary chocolate triangles we’ve had on previous trips, with a very pleasant rich chocolate and butter flavour in the pastry as well as in the filling that was mixed generously with crushed hazelnuts. The promotional image is from McDonald’s Japan.
With our bellies full, we head back to our hotel. We’re in the tower on the left, situated in one of the rooms directly below one of the red night lights.
We’re stoked with the view – usually, all we see is the wall of the building next door! On the far left, is Hokkaidō Sapporo Higashihogyo High School. We don’t see any students during our time there, though. The lit up building is a video rental store.
Tucked into our plush beds, we’re excited to experience the cold in Hokkaidō!