I wanted to have enough time to explore Sapporo before heading to the airport at 1 pm so I had to get up at 5 am again. My host dropped me off at the station on his way to work. The train ride back was beautiful! A good part along the stormy, winter ocean. I got to Sapporo station at about 9:30 am and promptly hit the toilets and flopped on a bench. The not feeling well had carried over from last night and I didn’t want to move at all. I dragged myself off to buy souvenirs and some water, before ending up on the phone with my mom and dad for a bit. I listened to my mom’s advice and decided not to sightsee, but to go straight to the airport before I felt worse.

My card didn’t work when I tried to go through the gates. I showed it to the staff member and explained to him that I had to pay cash in Kutchan last time. He asked for the paper they had given me. I thought it was just a receipt and threw it away, whoops. Luckily he accepted that I had lost it, and cleared the error. The more you learn… On the ride to the airport, an old woman sitting next to me strikes a conversation in perfect English. I was so surprised! I haven’t met elderly people that speak English at all here. After she exited the train, the woman on the other side of her moved over and told me how surprised she was too. We continued talking for the rest of the ride. She was a flight attendant for Air Canada and had lived for awhile in Vancouver.

Once I got to the airport, I found a tucked away corner with comfy chairs and nested. I had three hours to waste. I definitely feel asleep at one point. I’m glad I left because I did end up feeling more nauseous and feverish. I left to go find my check in counter, which was a little confusing, only to see that I had another delay of 30 minutes due to the same ship arrangement. Once again, I passed through the whole process without showing my passport. The gate area was pretty full, but I got a comfy seat. The window seat next to me on the plane was empty - lucky! So although I had a middle seat, I could stretch out. This plane was much newer than the last and had more leg room. Sadly because of the 30 minute delay, I just missed the next bus to Takasaki and had to wait the full hour. I shedded some layers in the bathroom and bought a thermometer to confirm I did have a slight fever. Hung out outside in the waiting area for bus. The cool air and snow (!) felt good. The bus also got into some traffic so once again it made the 9 pm and 9:30 pm trains to Tomioka impossible to catch. I finally got home at 11 pm after a brisk bike ride. So happy to see my bed. Too bad I have school tomorrow.

It was raining even worse this morning. Happy Valentine’s Day! I should have brought an umbrella with me! I got up late (vacation after all), and stopped by a bakery on the main stretch. Such wonderful looking goodies. It was really hard to pick one! I also got a coffee nearby at Sprout and ate my delicious cake pastry with it. It was amazing. A strawberry hidden inside with so much pudding cream. Yum! Hung out there for a bit before I managed to catch the next bus at 1:00 pm. The Kutchan station bus schedules were nowhere online so I had to take a picture of it earlier.

After I got back to Hirafu, I went to get some lunch at a cafe that was also way overpriced. Although it was crowded, as one person, it was easy enough to get a seat. I ordered a cheeseburger that came with sweet potato fries. The cheeseburger was very Aussie like instead of American ha. I hung out there for a while watching the rain from my window seat. I ended up walking up to the slopes to see how they looked today. The fog lifted for a brief moment and I could actually see the mountain. I thought about doing night skiing for five hours from 3 pm on, but it’s so expensive and the snow not worth it. Clearly my snow curse followed me and although I came to ski, I wouldn’t be able to at all. After a little bit of people watching, I caught the bus and headed back to Kutchan.


I stopped by a grocery store to get some dinner - sushi - and breakfast . The checkout lady even spoke English there. Afterward, I went by the Tsutaya to hang out at their cafe and got a much cheaper coffee. I got back to the airbnb at dinnertime and ate. After getting ready for bed, I started feeling unwell. My stomach was acting up and I woke up several times in the night.

I woke up to rain, bleh. Last night’s sleep was much better. I wore my fleece leggings and an extra long sleeve shirt and sweater with my pjs and that helped. I caught a local bus from the station to Niseko Hirafu, the ski resort town. With rain, I had already given up on cross country skiing. After arriving in Niseko, the slopes looked horrible, completely covered in mist and fog. I walked down into the town, trying to find somewhere to eat. I didn’t have any proper rain gear, but my jacket and snow pants held up. I ended up at a creperie as most places were pretty full. After a pretty short wait, I got my table. So many of the workers were French! All the lovely accents. The food was amazing. I had a savory galette and then a sweet banana crepe with ice cream. I even got to order in French. Absolutely delicious. I had a nice conversation with the Australians who were my table partners.

The interesting part of Hirafu was how intensely expensive it is - most pricey place I’ve been in Japan (paying around $20 per meal)- and how it felt like I had left Japan. All the signs were written in English or romaji. Westerners everywhere you looked and only English in the background. The most Japanese I heard was at the convenience store. It was crazy.

Post lunch, I stopped by the convenience store to buy some conditioner and I went to a nearby onsen. Most provide shampoo, but my hair is picky and I didn’t want to end up with a nest of snarls. After some research, people said this was the cheapest one and had a nice outdoor bath. The way there was slippery and downhill. I should have gotten some traction pads for my shoes. The onsen had just opened. It was my first time paying via machine to buy my ticket. First time onsening with only foreigners ha. This one mom with her two daughters had clearly never been before - towel clutching - and didn’t even realize they had to prewash until they saw the signs. At one point, this mom whips out her phone and starts taking pics of her daughters submerged in the the water! Luckily another woman told her it wasn’t allowed. They spent like 5 minutes in the water before leaving…

The condition of the slopes

The indoor section was pretty sulfury, the stones covered in yellow. The outdoor part was okay. I think Gunma has spoiled me with its amazing onsens. I got to talking with this lady, F, and her partner afterward. They were such a cool couple from Perth and really interesting. We ended up exchanging info to meet up for dinner later. I then headed off to a cafe to hang out. Gah, such expensive coffee. We had dinner at a hot pot place. It was so much food! I couldn’t finish the end bit when they add noodles to use up the extra broth. Very yummy with all the seafood in it. We hung out for awhile chatting, before I caught the bus back to Kutchan and walked back to my airbnb.

I didn’t sleep that well because I was much too cold. Japanese blankets are always a bit too short for me and the cold air drifted up through the floor and air mattress so it was hard to generate heat despite the down quilt. I realized I had a vent open on the wall for the kerosene heater and promptly shut it. The weather report looked horrible. Warm and rainy. Not sure if this skiing thing was going to work out. Cursed I say.

I decided to catch the train at 12:30 ish to Otaru to explore that coastal town and see their snow light festival at night. I walked slowly to the central area of Kutchan to get some lunch. The mounds of snow looked even better by daylight. There were spots that were taller than me. The town was pretty empty as I wandered checking out what I could eat for lunch. I ended up in a empty ramen shop by the station. As I was now in touristy land, they had an English menu. Four other salarymen later joined me, slurping away. Hokkaido is well known for its ramen and it was indeed yummy. I still had some time before the train so I went to get a coffee at the cafe across the street called Sprout. It had a hiking, outdoorsy theme and sold hiking gear too. Tons of hiking books and National Geographic magazines were spread on the back shelves.

After sitting down, I double checked my train time and realized I had misremembered the departure time and had already missed the train by several minutes. I’m so far out in the middle of nowhere, the next train was an hour and a half later. I hung out at the coffee shop for the whole time and got to have some interesting conversations with the other tourists there. This just meant I’d have less time in Otaru and no chance to go to the outlook on the peninsula or visit the aquarium to see the penguins walking outside. It took a little over an hour to get there. Otaru was bigger than I had expected. I walked around and down to the canal it was famous for and to the ocean! Seagulls! A sweet Japanese lady offered to take my photo in Japanese when she saw me attempting a selfie. I got a pancake sandwich - dorayaki - with sweet potato ice cream for a snack, but it didn’t have a strong flavor. I also checked out the glass work in the glass shops. You could even make your own glass bead.

As dusk crept up, the hoards of people - especially Chinese - increased. Everyone was squeezing into the best spots to take photos of the lanterns on the canal. I really enjoyed the frozen flowers and berries inside snow and ice. The second section of lights was especially spectacular. I couldn’t stop taking photos. I had dinner above a fish market. I really wanted the scallops, but they were all sold out so I had to settle for mackerel. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that great and seemed a bit over cooked.

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.