Day 3 Freezing in Sapporo

I slept through dinner after reaching back to our hotel the night before. After fitful sleep, I managed to wake feeling slightly better this morning with the worst of my fever gone. However after our experience with the cold yesterday, we figured we didn’t really want a repeat so we changed our plan and skipped Tomamu.

Initially we had planned to make a detour to Noboribetsu to visit a sulphuric volcano crater but at our pit stop at Tomakomai (which houses a Don Q and Toy R Us), it started snowing heavily. By the time we got back to our car, it was covered in snow. This is also a first for me. I have never experienced such heavy snowing before. The weather forecast reported that it would continue to snow heavily for the rest of day so we gave up visiting the volcano and headed back to Sapporo instead.

We made a brief stop at the Sapporo Beer Museum since we had the car and learnt about the economic development of Hokkaido and the reason the first beer brewery was built here. I also learnt that ice was so fundamental to the fermentation process. I like the architecture of the brewery. Sapporo beer tastes different from the other beers I’ve tried before. It doesn’t have the bitter taste which I find rather refreshing.

We had originally booked our stay in L’hotel de L’hotel in Sapporo. But when Theo found out that the floor was not carpeted he was not happy. So we decided to cancel our booking, thankfully at no charge and found ourselves homeless at 1030pm in the middle of Tanukikoji while snow was swirling around us.

Ironically it could have been a rather romantic experience but the moment was definitely lost on Theo. The whole idea of snow falling gently is beautiful but the frigid cold is what makes this moment so bittersweet. It is at this point that I grew newfound admiration for actors who managed to still capture the love despite the weather.

Anyway thank God we found our accommodation a few blocks down the street at Watermark Hotel. Paid ¥1000 more and satisfied ourselves with a double bed and carpeted flooring. Whatever.