Today was a holiday so no school, but I had to get up at the crack of dawn this morning - jk, it was before dawn - to catch the train at 6:20 am so that I could get my 7:15 am bus to the airport so I could catch my flight to Sapporo, Hokkaido at noon. It takes the bus about three hours to get to the airport because it lies so far away from Tokyo. After this, the curse kicked in and things went downhill. When we were about an hour away, I got the notification that my flight had been delayed three hours due to “ship arrangement” - whatever that means. Vanilla Air gave us the option for a full refund, or an alternate flight within the next two weeks. I had already paid for the bus ride and my airbnb, plus arranged my PTO so I decided to stick with the trip despite losing three hours. I had wanted to spend those hours at the snow festival in Sapporo, but now barely at an hour and a half to see one site. I wish they had delayed it earlier so I could have spent those three extra hours in bed.

We arrived at the airport. It was my first time at Terminal 3. I ended hanging out at the food court for a bit, eating a egg sandwich since my breakfast had been so long ago. Check in still opened at the old flight time, so I thought it’d be better to hang out past security. No baggage to check as I was flying on a budget airline and didn’t want to pay extra. I didn’t have to show my passport at any point during the process… it was weird. I didn’t realize that there was nothing past security but the gates. Whoops. Luckily my area had a small concession stand so I could get an onigiri and something to drink for lunch since I had four hours to waste her before they started boarding. But there was electricity and comfy chairs, even sofa thingys where you could sleep. After a bit of mobile browsing and Japanese studying, I played on my DS and time just flew by ha.

We had to hang out a long time on the runway as well, on this cramped airplane. My knees were rubbing against the seat in front of me. I finally made it to Sapporo and rushed off to catch the airport express into the city. There was no point in dropping my stuff in a locker as I only had two hours to explore before catching my train to Kutchan where I had an airbnb room. No time for dinner either so I just grabbed a muffin and a bun from the bakery and ate them while waiting on trains. I ended up at the Odori site as it’s the largest part of the snow festival. Although it was only about 20 F (-6 C) out, I was sweating from all my layers and from moving quickly. The ground and streets were quite slippery. I nearly fell hard, but managed to windmill my arm to stay upright while pulling a muscle, ha. Odori park was huge and absolutely impressive. Snow sculptures, people, and food everywhere. The towering, elegantly crafted ones were the best, especially those with light shows. I think my favorite was the Ruins of St. Paul's in Macau. The facade was so intricate. My second fav was the new shinkansen exhibit. The light show was really beautiful. Also there was a giant snow stage featuring a Winter’s Tale, a trick ski/snowboard jump, the Attack on Titan titans attacking Sapporo, and others. Walking was definitely slow due to the ice and herds of people, but it wasn’t unbearable.

I caught the first leg of my 2 hour train journey to Otaru and then transferred onto another train to Kutchan. The second train was completely filled with Westerners. All the people visiting for skiing. I’ve never heard a whole train car of English before. When I got off the train, I had to pay for my ticket in cash. The automated card system only worked up to Otaru. My airbnb host offered to pick me up at the train station when I arrived at 10:45 pm. The mounds of snow were unbelievable. I’ve never seen this much snow just laying around. It was also really cold! Only 7 F (-14 C) at this point. My host was great and the place nice. Happily to finally go to sleep after being up since 5 am.