Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone from Sapporo. 2012 has been a major change for the family with the relocation, but the main thing is that we are together.

Let's hope 2013 will be a great year with many positives and wish everyone all the best wishes for the new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Merry Xmas

Merry Xmas to everyone from Sapporo, Hokkaido. Hope santa is nice to everyone and enjoy the festivities. It's nice and piles of snow outside, definately a white christmas over here...

Land Of The Rising Sun

Good morning world. A beautiful sunrise today and plenty of snow in our street...

Hakodate - Goryokaku

We also went to the first western fort built in Japan (Goryokaku). Pretty nice but it was getting cold. For some reason it did not lit up so we didnt have nice views from the tower. Maybe we should submit these photos of Chisa to Jetstar, he he...

The trip was only a short 2 night trip but very enjoyable, would recommend to anyone planning to travel to Hokkaido in future..

Hakodate - City Hall

We visited the city hall which also provided dress up back to the old colonial days. Chisa would not let up an opportunity to dress up like Cinderella, or was it Belle, Ariel, not sure she like all of the Disney princesses..

Hakodate - Xmas Feel

As we're in December the city is also lit up at night to add to the Christmas feel. Streets and trees are nicely decorated in the touristy areas which adds to the atmosphere around the restaurants. Nice and cold too...



 

 

Hakodate Views

So here is why everyone travels to Hakodate, the money shot. People from all over the world travel to Hakodate to see the offically rated "Michellin" view. We waited for about 2 hrs whilst enjoying cake and coffee, below are shots in sequence to give you all a contrast on the view as the night falls. Pretty spectacular!

Hakodate - Sightseeing Ropeway

We headed up to the ropeway the first day to check out the views of the city where Hakodate is famous for. The town itself is like a sleepy seaside town with the nice bay at the foot at the mountains, nice tram and colonial buildings influenced by the west as it was one of the first ports open to foreign trading in the feudal days. A few shots from the ropeway and top...

Hakodate - Arrival

After 3 hrs on the train we arrived at Hakodate train station. Surprisingly there was hardly any snow and a litle warmer than Sapporo.

Their famous fish market was just next door and our hotel was only a couple of hundred metres, nice and convenient. Time to check-in and have lunch at their famous fish market, their speciality is catching the squid live and serving it while its alive (I didnt order as I thought it was quite barbaric eating a squid trying to run away from your bowl of rice - I mean literally running away). Instead I had my favourite uni & scollaps, we ordered squid but they served it nicely on a plate for us, a couple of nice shots of below...

Train Ride to Hakodate, Hokkaido

An early start, left home at 6 am to catch the 7am super express train to Hakodate which took about 3hrs south. The train was smooth, had breakfast and took a few nice shots. The train hugged the shoreline so we had nice view of the sea on one side and nice mountains on the other side...

Vegetable sushi

 

Went to dinner in Sapporo, these great veges sushi were great alternative for Chisa my girl, who is yet to take raw food. They look and tasted beautiful. There were eggplant, shitake & enoki mushrooms, potato, broccoli & tomato. All made to look like raw fish....

Earth Moving Experience!

7.3 earthquake off the east coast of  Japan @ 5:18 pm, pretty scary! Whole building was shaking and tsunami warning up east coast...

Heavy Snow

Another day in paradise! It's forcasted for a big dump for the next 24hrs, really bucketing outside. Can't even see further than 10yrds.

We are due for alot of snow since it has come late, the news said that snow in Sapporo has been late by about 3wks this year, they have'nt see this in 30yrs. Looks like global warming takes the blame again, but it's freezing outside so no sign of global warming today, he he he...

Decent Snow

Finally some decent snow fall. It's about 1 degree outside and it only took approx 20 min for it to blanket everything white.
It's forecasted for more snow so hopefully get a cover by tonight, I  don't like the wet slushy pavement.

Sapporo Factory Outlet

It's snowing outside today but I wanted to post these nice pics I took at Sapporo Factory Outlet only a few days ago, was looking for a new down jacket.

It's getting pretty cold now and the snow is increasing by the day, my new MARMOT jacket should keep me nice and warm. Bring on the snow so I can go skiing..

My Litle Bike Adventure

I went for a 10km bike ride yesterday to Maruyama Koen, it took about 40 minutes at a pleasant pace. The weather was nice and sunny so was able to see the local surroundings along the way, cut through the university and saw many local shops.

 

I must confess that I miss my car as I enjoy owning a car and driving, but relying on pedal power since moving to Sapporo will hopefully enable me to trim some kilos off (if you know what I mean). Not only keeping fit but it gives me the opportunity to explore the local area a bit more, at least before the heavy snow comes.

 

Chisa and I visited Maruyama Zoo back in July and did'nt really get a chance to have a look around, besides it was about 30 degrees that day so after an hour on the bike we were just glad to get inside to view the animals.

 

Getting to the mountain was quite pleasant, Maruyama is a quite area with nice shops and cafes. I would'nt mind living here should we stay in Sapporo for longer perioed. The bike climb up the mountain was quite hard for these old legs, but the scenery reminded me of growing up in Norway. I could see the ski jump but I knew it was miles away. I could feel that I came about 1-2 weeks late as the red and yellow leaves have reduced, but still very nice.

 

I visited HollmenKollen ski jump back in Norway when I was about 8-10, and could remember it was very old and it kind of reminded of that. Having a closer look yesterday I could really appreciate these guys jumping at such height and speed, I mean I can ski pretty well and fast but there is no way anyone would be able to talk me into even trying ski jump.

 

After having a look around I left my bike and climbed up the small mountain, the small mountain became big mountain soon as my legs became more and more heavy. After a 10-15 minute climb and catching my breath back, I could see the beautiful view of Sapporo city. It was nice and quiet but I could hear kids and teacher shouting out instructions doing exercises, as I pan over I could see them on the rooftop doing morning exercises. What a view these kids have, they don't even bother playing in the playground with these views.

 

The trek down the litle mountain was more easier, and so was the bike ride down into Maruyaman Koen (park), just make sure your brakes work. I decided to swing around to the temple and went in for a quick visit, unlike many temples I have been to west of Japan, this is a very small temple.

Other areas of the park are also nice, but due to the recent rain it was quite muddy and it was also getting windy. The weather always changes very fast here, the first signs of dark clouds are coming in so I decided to descend back to Maruyama for some lunch and rest up these old legs before the 10km ride back home.

 

 

 

 

Other Photos I took around the park....

 

 
 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn - Getting Chilly

Autumn is here and getting nice and cold, but the beautiful trees brightens up the place. These are a few shots around Sapporo and Hokkaido University.

Will be heading up to the mountains next weekend to really get a birds eye view of these picturesque mountains covered in red & yellow that I have read and seen on brochures, so will post more.