Monday, June 17, 2013

Sapporo_The last seven days.

This moment, June 18, 12:20 AM. At 2:05 PM the overnight train for Kyoto pulls out of the station. I am winding up my last night here in Sapporo. I am not at Seb's and Horiko's because I had to get a train two days later than I had reserved the house for. They had other people coming in. I am in a hotel, across the street from the station, one of my favorite places to be. After breakfast, I'll check-out, put the suitcase and Travel Tuba in a locker at the station and do some wandering while I wait for departure time. I still have some credit on my metro pass, so maybe I'll ride the streetcar, bus or the one subway line I haven't ridden on. This pass is specific to Sapporo, it won't do me any good anywhere else in this country, so I'll use it up. Public transportation is actually pretty expensive. I buy these passes and it can seem like I'm not spending tons of money, but after I've gone through two or three of them the price tag starts tagging me.


These are photos from the final days... 

View of the mountains from the neighborhood.

Same view, different camera setting.

We had a Japanese BBQ; Hiroko and her sister made Yakisoba for me.

Hiroko, Seb and Horiko's sister.

It's a quiz; who are these people?

Yakisoba. My contribution was dessert: SautĂ©ed bananas & apples with KahlĂșa over vanilla ice cream. No photo.
Flowers in Eniwa.

A broom at the JR Eniwa eki.
One evening I took the Mount Moiwa ropeway for a night view of the city.

This is the cable car to the very top after the first 3/4's in the ropeway gondola.

Sapporo at night.

You can see the tower and the ferris wheel.

Gaggles of children in uniforms at the ropeway. You run into them no matter where you are or what time of day.
Sapporo subway culture. Yes, they really line-up.


I had a little mishap. I was making sugar syrup for my tea. It got distracted and it went its merry way. The place was pretty smoky. 

I went out to lunch with Harumi again. We had Okonomiyaki. Back to Fukuyama…I asked the ladies at the hotel reception desk what dishes I should look for that had some Fukuyama distinction to them. They had to think for awhile and finally came up with Okonomiyaki. Any visitor to Fukuyama needed to eat that. As you know, it did not come to pass because I found the "Japanese place with Chinese flavor," and limited my dinners to their fare. Finally, way north in Shin Sapporo I got the Okonomiyaki. At this place you do it yourself. Harumi did the honors.

Oil the griddle.

Assume the correct attitude.

Pig, egg, vegetables, flour.

Place.

Yakisoba on the side.

Our waitress. 

I don't know what these things are called but they are all over the place, including Los Angeles.

Almost ready.

Add the secret sauce.

Top with katsuobushi. It definitely danced.

Finish with mayonaise, which is ubiquitous in Japan.

Divide it up and chow down.
Taraxacum (dandelion) seeds are floating all over town.


A Kirwa baum in the heart of Sapporo.
I found this place one of my first days in Sapporo, but was not hungry at the time, besides which they weren't open. I had one of my first conversations in Sapporo with a who was waiting for it to open. He assured me that I needed to eat this place's soup curry. I marked it on my GPS in the hopes that I would be able to make it back. On my next to last night here, I finally did. He was right, I needed to eat this curry.

Mango lassi.


I got sentimental walking through the subway station, so I took the shot.
In Hokkaido, they really want you to know that it is a bowling alley.

My last supper in Sapporo. 

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