Just as everyone instructed, I took TONS of photos, so many in fact that in order to share with you all four of my wonderful days in Hokkaido, it very well may take me four or more separate postings. I thought the festival itself would take up all of our time, but we ended up spending most of our time outside of Sapporo visiting famous locations.
For this post, I'll tell you about our first day there. Our plane from Tokyo to Sapporo was at 7am, so we arrived at about 8am, giving us the whole day to enjoy. By a happy coincidence, two of our dormmates and their friend were on almost the same trip as us (we booked through the same travel agency) and their seats were right next to ours on the plane. They asked us if we would like to go with them to a sacred onsen, or hot springs, nestled in the snowy mountains outside of the city. We agreed, and then it was a literal race against time to catch the bus to the mountains! We just made it in time!
It's a good thing we did, because the onsen was AMAZING! They seriously weren't kidding when they said it was "nestled in the mountains"! I had never seen a real mountain range before, so I was very excited. By the way, that strange guy in the pic is Jeff, another American ^^.
Before enjoying the hot springs, we all had lunch, which turned out to be in an igloo! Move over Eskimos, it seems the Japanese are the igloo experts, at least in Hokkaido. The walls were ten feet of packed snow, and the ceiling was stabilized with wooden polls and bamboo mats to keep the snow
above the grill from dripping on us. We had jengis khan (sp?) mutton, a specialty of Hokkaido. It's basically fatty lamb and veggies that you grill yourself. It was really fun, but we kept putting on too much food and burning it! Hence the black stuff caked to the grill in the photo ^^;;;
After lunch, we ladies separated from the guys and went into the onsen. Unfortunately, cameras aren't allowed, but I'll do my best to describe it:
Like many onsen, this one had two parts: artificial pools inside and natural pools outside. We all immediately went outside to sit in the natural hot spring bath. The water was nice and warm, perfect for the cold climate. Imagine being in a giant hot tub made of stone outside, surrounded by snow-laden trees and mountains. All you can hear is the quiet chatter of a couple of other guests in the far section of the pool. A few minutes later, it starts to snow lightly, covering everything around you in a fresh layer of fluffy whiteness, while you sit safe and warm in the water. Almost makes you want to hop on a plane right now, huh?
Stay tuned for the next Hokkaido post!
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