Day Eight: Sapporo (Going South)

Due to the lack of a laptop charger, we have not been regularly blogging for a little while. I propose to gloss over this error by posting updates for all the days we missed and acting like it never happened. So even though this is actually the very early morning of Day 14 at the time of writing, please pretend it's Day 8 (Feb. 9) all over again.

The last day in Sapporo was a slow one. We checked out sometime mid-morning. That wasn't, however, to say that we actually left the hostel. We would, in fact, spend most of the day there until our train at 10pm using their internet and toilet and vending machines to our heart's content. Whether they were happy about this we couldn't tell. But given the temperature outside, unless they physically dragged us out of there, we were going to stay.



That's not to say that we did nothing though. We went to the Sapporo Beer Museum, housed in the building once occupied by Japan's first ever brewery. The museum itself was small, unguided and entirely in Japanese. But the experience was redeemed by the museum bar at the end of it, which made for good times.



As you have no doubt gathered by now, sometime between returning to the hostel and departing for the train station, we used the laptop, eventually leaving the charger behind. Not a high point for us, but it all worked out in the end.

The train ride back to Tokyo (and then on to Kyoto) was always going to be a challenge. The rough ride we took to get into Sapporo gave us some indication that it wouldn't be all fun and games, but the return journey was always going to truly test our manliness. One train left Sapporo at 10pm, arriving in Aomori at 5:39am. 12 minutes later, the next train left Aomori, arriving in Hachinoche at 6:48am. Seven minutes after that, a final train left for Tokyo. Once there, we got on a 3-hour train to Kyoto with relative ease. But it's fair to say that we didn't sleep well at any point along the way.


See, that wasn't so difficult, was it? I bet it felt like February 9 all over again, and I bet you were glad to be there. For one thing, it meant that you were a few days younger. And if you were one of my sisters, it would mean that it was your birthday again! Yay! Check back in like 15 minutes for coverage of Day 9 (Feb 10). It's a blast from the past!