Snow in Sapporo

I dozed off during the flight here and woke up when we landed. I could already see the snow from the window, so pretty!! And felt the cold air as I got off the plane. I again took a bus as far as I could and walked the last 10minutes to the hostel. There was some snow but none on the sidewalks or streets.

Once at the hostel, I stayed in most of the day. It kept snowing for hours! I set out the next day to Odori park. It didn't snow and the sun was kind of shining. It was very slippery though and I didn't exactly bring the best of shoes for this type of weather haha. But I got there and started walking, being very careful. Look down, look up, look down, look up, I was mostly shuffling my feet, it was so slippery!! There was snow sculptures everywhere, pretty impressive. Most impressive were the ones that were as big or tall as a (Dutch) house! I mean, wow and some of the details were amazing! Some were still working on theirs and others were already covered in the snow from the previous night but you could still see what it was. 

After warming up at the hostel and waiting for night to fall, I walked to Susukimo, where the icesculptures were and at night they were lit up. Also pretty cool, especially some of the details! I have to admit, that I did expect it to be even bigger, but it was still pretty impressive!! On my way back, I walked into a small restaurant and ordered food. In a lot of Japanese restaurants like the one I was in, you order on a computer and pay, you then place the tickets on the table where a waitress picks them up and your food is brought to your table when ready. I had gyoza and rice, nom nom, how I do looove my gyoza :)! 

Didn't do much else in Sapporo besides watchin as the snow fell from the skies, which it did a lot! And I also planned some stuff for the other half of my trip. I also had to cancel my weekend to China to visit an ex-collegue on febr 14th, because of the Corona virus. I was still keen on going, but couldn't get into Australia within 14days of visiting China and I would 12days after. Australia would re-evaluate on the 14th but since that was the day I was suppose to fly, I couldn't cancel my flight if the decision stayed the same. There's a lot of warnings/announcementd about the virus to wash hands and that staff wear masks and I read that there were also a LOT of people, groups, tourbuses and kids school trips canceled to visit the Sapporo snow&ice festival because they were afraid of big(ger) crowds.  

Well, that's it for Sapporo! I walked to the bus with my backpack on my back and a smaller one to the front and listened to the crisp snow with each step I took. I also got ambushed from above haha. Snow fell from a building on my front backpack, missed my face/head by less than an inch!

Good bye winter, I won't miss you but loved seeing you again!

Cheers,
T.