Our hotel

We are staying at the Vessel Inn near Nakajima park. It's a great location, the park and its subway station are just minutes away on foot. And like I mentioned yesterday, the central Odori park is only about 20 minutes away. 

The hotel room is very small, but modern and clean. We've really enjoyed our stay here!

We are on the 5th floor. (out of 13) Here is the view from our window:

 

I found these in the lobby. Very handy indeed. The map is very detailed and I've studied it many times already. :)

 

There's not much room but Miss Elisabeth doesn't mind. She's getting her workouts in just fine!

 

The view on Saturday night from our window. 

 

Today we met Kevin's other contact from a TAMK exchange. We went to Nitori, a large furniture and housewares store, to buy futons for our apartment. We are going for the full Japanese experience and will be sleeping on the floor! 

Then we bought subway tickets and learned more about getting around with it. It's really quite simple and we were so grateful for the info! By this evening, both Kevin and I felt really comfortable traveling with it. 

We had a guided tour at a couple smaller grocery stores which was really interesting and fun. I loooooove food, so obviously if you want to impress me, take me to a grocery store. It was really nice to be able to ask what things are and how they're used. I'm really looking forward to cooking Japanese style food at our apartment!

Finally, we went to visit Hokkaido University campus after our amazing dinner. We went to a tiny local spot for students, which seemed like a mom and pop owned kind of place. We ate katsudon or donburi, which is a rice bowl with topping. Katsu is a breaded pork cutlet. It was deeeeeelicious and apparently what the little restaurant is known for. Yum! It was a lot of food and inexpensive which explains the popularity amongst students. Our meals were 550 yen each, so about 4-5 euros/dollars.

Elisabeth even tasted some of the rice with chopsticks. Very cute! 

The university campus is HUGE and makes TAMK and Tampere's University look very small indeed... In general, Tampere feels like a quaint little town in comparison. Apparently the Hokkaido University is the third largest in Japan!

Tomorrow we will be going to our apartment. Very exciting!

Hotellistamme (Vessel Inn) sen verran, että sijaitsee lähellä Nakajima-puistoa ja sen metroasema. Kuten eilen mainitsin, on myös vain n.20min kävely Odori-puistosta Sapporon keskustassa. Hotellihuoneemme on erittäin pieni, mutta siisti ja moderni. Olemme kyllä täällä viihtyneet ja Elisabeth on päässyt jumppamaan pienestä tilasta huolimatta.

Tänään tapasimme TAMK:ilta toisen tutun vaihto-opiskelijan, joka vei meitä futon-patjojen ostoksille ja opetti meille metrosta ja ruokakaupoista. Kävimme illallisen jälkeen vielä Hokkaidon yliopiston kampuksella kävelemässä, joka on TAMKin ja Tampereen yliopistoon verrattuna jotain ihan muuta. Ilmeisesti on Japanin kolmas suurin yliopisto! Illalliseksi söimme katsudon. Katsu on paneerattu porsaankyljys ja don = donburi, eli riisikulho. Elisabethkin maistoi syömäpuikoilla riisiä! :) 

Huomenna menemme asuntoomme! Jännittävää!

Konnichiwa from Sapporo!

Konnichiwa!

Here we are, happy as can be! 

It was a rough trek to get here. And long. And sleepless. But we made it!

Elisabeth was an awesome little traveler, who barely cried and handled the take-offs and landings like a champ and made friends with everyone she met along the way. Gotta love that little muffin! 

We were met at the Sapporo airport by Kevin's friend, who he met through an exchange in Tampere. We are so grateful he was there to meet us too, as we might still be figuring out how to get to Sapporo via train...and from the train station to our hotel via subway. ;)

After some 30+ hours of being awake, we all passed out once we got to the hotel and showered and ate. Ah, glorious sleep! It actually worked out quite well that we got to the hotel around 5pm local time, since by the time we were ready to sleep, it was 8pm and we were able to get on a decent schedule right away. Hopefully this means that we will have no jet lag? 

This morning we woke up, drank coffee (Juhla Mokka like real Finns) with our French press, and talked on skype with the Nelsons who were still enjoying their Friday night. Time difference will never cease to amaze me! 

After Elisabeth took her nap, we set off to find Odori park, which is the central park avenue here. We set off for a few minutes in the wrong direction (south instead of north) to Nakajima park. I have a feeling I'm going to love that park in the spring, since it impressed me even covered in snow!

We turned around to head in the right direction and walked up the street. It was a pretty crowded street and I'm sure I looked like a smiling fool to the passersby. It's kind of overwhelming all the hustle-bustle and noises (ads through speakers outside), traffic etc. It was like SLAP -- you're in Japan again!! I love it! 

We made it to Odori park in about 20 minutes or so.  The tower in the back is a landmark, so obviously we had to take plenty of tourist photos.

We decided to walk to the other end of the park (some 10-12 blocks) and find some more convenience store snacks along the way.

Right before we were ready to sit down and eat al fresco, my dear fell asleep. 

Kevin has been looking forward immensely to eating these onigiri, which is a rice ball with filling (and often) wrapped in nori (seaweed). 

This one was roe with egg.

I had one without the nori, but there was wasabi-tinted roe in there. Yum. And I don't even like the stuff!

This was dessert. It could be called heaven dessert. Royce apparently, is a big (chocolate) sweets company here and was founded in Sapporo. 

This particular ice cream was white chocolate green tea with nuts, with green tea ice cream and chocolate sauce inside.

Other things we found: green tea kitkats, bacon and asparagus snacks, and pumpkin snacks. 

I also had to have some caffeine, so I had a cold coffee drink. Yummy.

Kevin wanted a hot vending machine coffee. Like a boss. ;)

Here are some other photos from our walk.

 This guy passed us and seemed like an interesting fellow. 

The weather here is brisk, I have no idea how many degrees, but cold enough for there to be snow, but warm enough for bulbs to be rising. 

So there it is, the first day of our spring in Sapporo. :)

Typistetty suomennos:

Pitkän matkan jälkeen saavuttiin erittäin väsyneenä Sapporoon. Meitä vastassa oli jo Tampereelta tuttu vaihto-opiskelija, joka vei meitä junalla ja metrolla hotelliin asti. Onneksi, sillä olisimme luultavasti vielä lentokentällä ihmettelemässä millä junalla mennään ja miten. ;)

Perille kun päästiin nukuimme suihkun ja pienen aterian jälkeen makoisat 12 tuntia. Aamulla juotiin juhla mokkaa, koska eihän suomalainen lähde ulkomaille ilman sitä, heh. 

Iltapäivällä eksyimme vahingossa Nakajima-puistoon, joka oli luminen mutta kaunis.

Käännyimme toiseen suuntaan ja kävelimme Odori-puistoon, joka on Sapporon keskuspaikka. Sen päädyssä oleva torni on eräänlainen maamerkki, joten tietenkin turistikuvia piti ottaa! 

Kävelimme sitten puiston toiselle puolelle, noin 10-12 korttelia. Söimme lopuksi riisipalloja mätitäytteellä ja vihreä tee-jäätelöä. Naposteltiin vihreä tee-suklaata ja pekoni-parsa naksuja. Join ihanaa sokerista jääkahvia, Kevin taas halusi kuuman kahvin automaatista. 

Elisabeth nukkui rattaissa suurin osan lenkistä. Pieni maailman matkaaja. ♥

Täällä on pikkasen kylmempää kuin Tampeerella. Ainakin viima käy ja lunta on paljon. Sulaamassa se on kylläkin. Näkyi myös sipulikukkien nousevat lehdet.

Näin keväämme Sapporossa alkaa! :)