Milk Mania

We made it to Sapporo, Hokkaido after a short plane ride from Tokyo where we did continued research into the upcoming typhoon. We got to the airport very early for our 5:30pm flight since we had to check out of our hotel room at 10am, and we got through checking our backpacks and security with HOURS before our flight boarded. We thought we had boarding passes on our phones through a PDF but at the last second before we are set to board, both of our phones stop working and we can’t load Mer’s boarding pass. We had to run to customer service and have them print her out a physical boarding pass then run back to our gate and then we were the last people to board. Yikes.

Regardless, we made the short hour and 45 minute flight where I started Zootopia 2. It was embarrassingly entertaining. After we deplaned we had an hour long train ride which went perfectly smooth. I was very excited about Grogu greeting us upon arrival in Sapporo.

On our first full day in Sapporo, we started the day in the Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade where we went to Mermaid for some milk bread, a matcha red bean scone, and coffees for our breakfast. They roast all their own beans at their shop and you get to choose the different types of milk you want based on the flavor the certain cows milk is (sweet, rich, etc.) along with the type of beans you want. We both chose the fruity roast and it was mind blowing. After breakfast, we wanted to walk around the area to get a feel for the city. We headed to Nakajima Park where we just wandered around since the weather was 65 degrees and sunny. There were beautiful flowers, people rowing boats in the pond, a zen garden, and some colonial looking historical buildings. We ran into some shrines, that seemed as if the city was just built around them as well.

After our stop at the park we went to the Hokkaido museum of modern art which was …interesting to say the least. There was the main exhibit A all about women in art (very misleading) and exhibit B pokemon in different mediums for its 30th anniversary. We opted to just go to side A as it seemed the most interesting. Let me just say thank god this isn’t a solo trip for many reason this definitely being one. The entire exhibit was full of naked women and I was the only male in the space…. It was pretty cool regardless but definitely got some weird glances when I wasn’t standing next to Mer. The upper levels were super interesting it was all about exploring artwork through imitation and feeling so a kind lady walked up and offered us wipes so we could wash our hands and touch the sculptures. We both found this super unique as you don’t often get to actual feel the different grooves and mediums that sculptures are built with.

P.S. I still have his nose…

After our museum experience we stopped for coffee at this small shop ran by a father daughter duo. They had some really good pastries and the star of the show was that the menu has an ice cold class of world renowned Hokkaido milk on it! For those who don’t know, Hokkaido has perfect conditions for dairy farming, which allows for the cows to have very low weather-related stress and allows for nutrient rich grass to grow for grazing which makes the cow’s milk some of the highest quality and most flavorful in the world. Upon seeing the straight glass of milk on the menu, Conner promptly order and let’s just say he 100% approved. It is definitely the most flavorful and rich milk we have ever had. So yummy.

After we finished at the cafe, we headed to the shopping arcade, once again because I (mer) desperately needed a different pair of pants, so I could give conner his back since we won’t be reunited with our luggage for quite a few days. For dinner, we grabbed some miso ramen which was apparently invented in Hokkaido and finished the night a glorious Hokkaido milk soft serve cone (the first of many). Ice cream here is not vanilla flavored, its just milk flavored because the milk here is so creamy and rich it doesn’t need the additives.

After dinner we did more planning for our next chunk of this trip as our detour has left us back at square one. We tucked in early unaware of what the following day had in store…

SICKNESS!!! CONNER’S DOWN FOR THE COUNT!

Seriously though Conner caught a cold, so he spent the whole day inside recovering and drinking liquids while I ran out to get us breakfast and lunch. It was another beautiful day, so I tried a new bakery and coffee shop and walked around to see more of the city trying to make the most of my time without my sweet Conner. After a day of watching shows, coughing, and sniffling, he mustered the strength to get some dinner with me though and we called it an early night to hopefully have a new found strength for the next day.

Today was our last full day, and Conner was still feeling a little under the weather, but Hokkaido was not gonna wait for him, so he decided we should push on! We had big plans for this day to go to the historical district of Hokkaido. Turns out it was on our itinerary for yesterday because it’s closed on Mondays :(. Which was a bummer, but we had more than enough plans to fill the day. We were originally going to hike up Mount Moiwa, but given the sickness decided to just take the ropeway up instead. Still absolutely worth it, the view of the city, the nature, and the surrounding mountains was breathtaking. We put a lock of love and good fortune at the top of the observatory with our initials on it as well.

After the observation deck, we hit the souvenir shop and cafe for a cool down sweet treat since it was 86 degrees, and then headed down the ropeway to catch the bus to our next destination of the day Hokkaido Jingu.

Hokkaido Jingu is Hokkaido’s most famous shrine for being the spiritual heart of the region and it enshrines 3 deities who pioneered Hokkaido along with the soul of Emperor Meiji. Th heart of the shrine was in this big park where you got to walk through the forest, through a tori gate and run into a couple small shrines along the way. The wooded areas are so peaceful and were a wonderful way to end our day!

We ended our last night in Hokkaido with a Hokkaido dish that is a MUST TRY. Curry Soup! I have been majorly craving some veggies, and this beef curry coup was so spicy, savory, hearty, and warm. It came with cheese rice which was new for us, but how could you not like cheesy rice.

We are now getting packed up for our long travel day tomorrow to our new destination tomorrow since Okinawa was a no go. We are heading to Kanazawa!! Hopefully all goes smoothly tomorrow, and we are super excited for the next leg of the trip!