Hotel KKS Sapporo

Day 168 - Spent a great day around Hakone - eventually getting to see Mt Fuji in all it`s glory. The weather could not have been any better, and i traveled by train, cable car, ropeway, boat and then bus, doing the standard circuit around the place. Got some black eggs (sulphur boiled) at Owakudani and soaked up the snow and sun. The train up fr...

My friend took me to the Moerenuma Park (http://www.sapporo-park.or.jp/moere/en glish.php) where a famous Japanese-American architect/designer, Isamu Noguchi designed.
He's famous for those Akari series lights (you can see these at IKEA often).

I heard this place was just for garbage dumping... and the city of Sapporo decided to hav...

I came to Sapporo last year with my friends. On the last day, I went to visit the Ainu museum in Shiraoi by myself. Since then, I got in the PhD program, and I am focusing on the indigenous issues. Ainu culture is such beautiful. I got so much interest in their culture since then. This time, I came to Sapporo to meet up with more people. Haruzo ...

9.2..: Jugendherberge, wo niemand vom Personal Englisch kann, Stockbetten à la Futons (Holzbretter mit Futons) - sehr hart, sehr schlecht geschlafen.
10.2.: Vergeblich Bus von Sapporo zu gebuchter Skitour ins Rutsuku Resort gesucht - Verzweiflung und Alternativprogramm: Sapporo Beer Museum und mit Bus in ein Onsen - relaxed.
100 Yen Shop...

So on the morning of Sat., Feb 9, I flew from Itami airport (a domestic airport in Osaka) to Sapporo in Hokkaido, the northernmost island in Japan. There was indeed a method to my madness: the weekend of Feb. 8-9 this year was when Sapporo hosted the world-famous Yuki Matsuri, or snow festival, an annual event in which huge snow and ice sculptur...

We're in Sapporo now and it's absolutely amazing. However the hostel is charging ten yen per freaking minute to use the internet - which adds up to roughly $10 AUD an hour. So there won't be any further posts until we reach Tokyo again in another three days.

Missing you all,
Tom and Rachael

We're in Sapporo now and it's absolutely amazing. However the hostel is charging ten yen per freaking minute to use the internet - which adds up to roughly $10 AUD an hour. So there won't be any further posts until we reach Tokyo again in another three days.

Missing you all,
Tom and Rachael

Back in Katsuura after a 3 day weekend in Hokkaido...Here's what we did: The JET's in Hokkaido (the Northern most Island in Japan) organize a package trip every year for other JET's to attend their famous Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival) held every February. I had heard a little bit about it and really wanted to go, thank you HAJET's! **The Snow Fes...

Ugh - it's raining. We've generally had great weather this whole time, just a few rainy days, but here's another. We are to meet Dr. Kawamori at 11am and had been planning to see the sights around the center of town during the morning hours but the rain gives us pause. We don't want to be soaked when we meet our host. After hemming and hawing ab...

That was the first time to take a flight in my life. It was very nervous at the time the airplane took off the ground and I also experienced compressed air in my earhole on the flight for the first time. Sapporo had a snow festival with a lot of snow sculptures and ice sculptures in Odori Park. In Sapporo, I paid a visit to not only the festival...