We woke up, had a shower, and met outside our room at 8.00. Our first mission was to get money from the bank, but it was closed! Luckily we found that we can withdraw money from the ATM in the 7-11, and it was the best exchange rate we have encountered yet! So that’s good to know.
We went to the food market, and after a bit of a browse, decided it was time for breakfast. We ate at a Ramen restaurant. We then walked around the market a bit more (I had a matcha tea frappuchino), and then we walked around the port. We could see the ropeway up Mount Hakodate, but decided against doing it. So we booked our tickets to Sapporo and then went back to the hotel to check out. Back at the station we bought some food for the trip, and caught the 10.48 train.
The trip seemed to take forever. I had a nap, ate lunch, and another nap, but it was still really slow. Nearly 4 hours in total. The scenery was nice, especially going around the bay, with the water close enough to touch on the right, and the mountains on the left. Finally we arrived, and found our hotel, navigating through the subway.
Once we had checked in and were taken to our rooms we had a bit of a relax, but then thought it was time to hit the food festival. It was about a 5 minute walk from the hotel to get to the start but it took an hour to get from one end to the other… and that was just seeing one side! We stopped regularly to buy some food and drink and it just seemed to go on forever. We then walked back on the other side with more stops and enjoying the look and taste of the selection of food available.
We had seen everything just after 6…So now it was time for dinner. But we were all full! So we went back to the hotel. It was starting to get cool now it was dark. We had some relax time and then walked to the tv tower, which we had first noticed as we walked to the festival, and on the way home it was lit up. As we got closer we could hear music playing, which ended up being “YMCA” – a Japanese favorite, and it was playing at an oktoberfest underneath the tower! It would be wrong of us to not stop and have a drink, so we ordered a drink each and sat down. It finishes at 830 and it was already after 8 so things were thinning out. By the time we had finished our drink the lights were off.
We paid our 720 yen and went to the top of the tower – about 90m high, and walked around admiring the sights. The Sapporo region is definitely a picturesque one. We could see the ski jump which was used for the winter Olympics many years ago. It is one of the attractions on my list if we have time.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the convenience store for some food. We were all pretty tired – the adrenaline is wearing off. So we had an early night.