As we've experienced so much city life in the last week, today offers an opportunity to see more of the beauty of nature we saw in the botanical gardens yesterday. Sapporo has been very temperate and cool thus far - getting into the outdoors a bit should be a comfortable experience.
On our last night in Tokyo, it appeared to rain overnight, but it was almost dry by daybreak. Last night in Sapporo, it actually dripped a bit while walking back from the konbini. Today's forecast called for cloudy skies that would clear later on. One thing I've learned from Japan: clouds always mean a chance of rain, often a brief shower. We'll be sure to take an umbrella, though we may only need it for a few minutes.
I've slowly become accustomed to both the neat, almost-European arrangement of things in the apartment. Drawers and cabinets are not only logically spaced and placed, they offer clean lines and hidden catches to keep things organized and out-of-sight. While the controls for most things are in Japanese and often tricky, the manual things are simple and - once you "get it" - obvious. In particular, the controls for the heating and cooling are very tricky (because of the dizzying array of options and settings), but cooking (teapots and coffee pots) are nice and simple. Studying up on my Kanji next time might help, so I'll put that on the to-do list.
As we sipped our morning coffee, Ramona reminded me that we needed to get our JR Rail reservations for our trains. First, we'd need a reservation from Sapporo to Hakodate, then another from Hakodate to Sendai. Reservations were necessary, because we were traveling with luggage. JR books luggage passengers in the last row of seats in each car, so that you can tuck your luggage behind the seats. There are only two trains leaving from Sapporo to Hakodate daily, so we'd have to arrange our departure time with them (also, the early morning train would almost certainly put in the morning rush - this worry was not lost on me).
We considered using takkyubin, often called ta-q-bin, or luggage forwarding. This is a service that allows you to ship your bulky suitcases ahead to your destination, so that you are hands-free for travel. It takes quite a bit of planning, however, as you need to be able to carry your toiletries and necessities in a smaller bag. At this point, we'd need to pickup another bag for this purpose. While Kylee had a second suitcase, it might take a little rearrangement to get an overnight bag situated. Given the complexity, we opted to skip takkyubin this trip. We prepared for the day and made ready to head to the station to get our tickets, then head onward.
We took the subway back to Sapporo Station, then navigated the sprawling complex to the JR Rail ticket counter. The ticket agent's English was excellent and she quickly got our reserved tickets and seat assignments generated for tomorrow's journey to Hakodate. When getting our tickets from Hakodate to Sendai, however, the trains we wanted were all standing room only. Yikes. The agent shuffled through available trains to get us tickets on an evening train. That means more time in Hakodate.
With our tickets in hand, we headed back through the station for another subway line. We'd follow the subway all the way to the end, then switch to a bus. At the end station, we were all low on our stored fares, so we needed to top up our Suica cards. The machine inside the gate didn't work, but the one around the corner let me charge or cards. Win!
Mona asked the station attendants which bus to take, and a helpful clerk explained which line to stand at and which bus number to look for. The busses ran every 15 minutes, so we didn't have to wait long. The bus wandered along the road, with passengers boarding and exiting as we went. The bus eventually slowed near the entrance to the Art Park, and we worked our way onto the grounds. We came across a signpost and made our way toward our first stop, the Art Musuem. As we got closer, however, another sign indicated the museum was closed. Huh? There was nothing on the web page, but sure enough, the Art Museum was closed. We followed a foot path toward another building and looked at a collection of small art pieces (mostly small pieces of pottery or woodwork) for sale. Fortunately, the Sculpture Garden was open and would could tour it at our leisure. Mona noticed the cafeteria was open, so paused for lunch. The lunch was an actual buffet style lunch. In the back of the kitchen, a collection of ladies were hand-making dishes in small batches, then bringing them to the serving trays in the buffet line. I circled like a hungry shark, snapping up different vegetables and meats. With lunch complete, we turned our attention to the sculpture garden.
The weather was so cooperative, it was easy to wander up and down the many paths. It was late enough in the day that the sun was obscured by the heavy foilage, making the paths actually cool and comfortable.
After we'd seen nearly everything, it was time to venture onward. The busses were running on 20-minute intervals by now, so we had to walk swiftly to the gates to make the next bus. We easily arrived with several extra minutes before the bus came into view. Minutes later, we were back at the subway station. Mt. Miowa lies in the southwest corner of Sapporo. We'd already planned to take the ropeway up to the lookout platform, so we set our next desination. There was no direct path from the subway to the ropeway station at the base, so we added another mode of transportation: the Sapporo Streetcar! Sapporo also features an old Streetcar network, with a circular path centered on the city's midpoint. We rode the subway to a station that intersected the Streetcar lines, then stepped out onto the street. The streetcars pull up to small, concrete islands, labeled with the direction of travel. Once aboard, you can ride them to any stop for only 200 yen ($1.39). The Streetcar slowly made the loop around the city, before coming to our stop for the ropeway. As we headed toward the ropeway, I noticed a sign. As I stepped closer, an attendant was guiding passers-by into a line - for a free shuttle bus to the ropeway! An unexpected pleasure, I can assure you, as the ropeway station was about 600 meters from the Streetcar stop.
The bus dropped us off at the ropeway station, and we joined the line for tickets. In just a few minutes, we loaded and the ropeway car began a slow ascent from street level. The view of Sapporo from the car was a bit diffficult, as the car was completely packed with people, but was still quite nice. When the ropeway car stopped, an attendant directed us to another line - the ropeway only goes to the middle station; a mini cable car went the rest of the way from the middle station to the observation platform.
The view from the top was clearly awe-inspiring. Sapporo sprawled out before us, and a ring of mountains framed the two sides. A sign indicated we could commemorate our trip, by purchasing a 'padlock of love', locking it to the railing and ringing the 'Bell of Happiness' - lovers would then share happiness forever. We dutifully purchased our lock, affixed it to the railing, rung the bell and shared a warm kiss atop the observation deck. Ah, amor!
The evening granted us a spectacular view of the city, but we chose to move onward, instead of waiting another hour and a half for the sun to set (us old folks can't stay out that late!) We took the ropeway back down to the parking lot, then hailed a taxi for our last stop: the Sapporo Fushimi Inari shrine. Famous for its rows and rows of beautiful torii gates, we wanted to take Kylee to see a different kind of shrine - at least one that was different from the one we'd visited in Tokyo. The taxi driver was fine with waiting for us, so Mona and Kylee headed in as the last of the light began to fade. The taxi driver quickly sped us across town to our apartment.
With a quick stop at the konbini for dinner and provisions for the morning, we sauntered upstairs to unwind. Tomorrow would see us heading to Sapporo station early, to catch our train for Hakodate. While I'd grown accustomed to the quiet neighborhood and cleanliness of our apartment, I was eager to see our next area of Japan.
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