Miso Happy!

My last stop on my Hokkaido trip was its capital city: Sapporo. Sapporo is most widely known for its namesake beer, which is the oldest beer in Japan and the #1 best-selling Japanese beer in the United States, but it has more to offer! I arrived in Sapporo in the evening, so I waited until the next morning to start exploring. I decided that since the weather was pretty nice, and I had missed my hiking opportunity in Hakodate, that I would do some hiking early on in the morning. My hostel was near Maruyama Park, which has a small 200-meter mountain within its boundaries. As I was walking around the park and looking at some cherry blossom trees early in the morning, I saw that some groups were setting up tarps for picnics on the second to last day of the holiday week. Some of the younger groups were already drinking - possibly continuing the fun from the night before. Others were patiently waiting for the rest of their parties to arrive. The climb up Maruyama afforded some nice vie...

Hakodate is one of Hokkaido's largest cities, and it lies on the southern tip of the island. It has a lot of history from a Western perspective because it was one of three ports in Japan that Western traders could use after Japan opened up commercially a couple hundred years ago. As a result, there are still relics of the Western presence in the presence of Victorian-era houses and churches (including an Orthodox Church founded by the Russian consulate). For me, however, the real jewel of Hakodate was Goryokaku, and it was possibly my favorite part of my trip in Hokkaido. Before I went to Hokkaido, I read a "cherry-blossom report" which shows when cherry blossom trees are expected to bloom around Japan. I saw that not only were the cherry blossoms expected to be in bloom while I was in Hokkaido, but Hakodate is one of the best places to see the cherry blossom trees. This is because Hakodate has a park called Goryokaku ("pentagonal" in Japanese) which has 1,6...

The northern Japanese island of Hokkaido has interested in me for a while. I've seen pictures from my friends who have visited and from my guidebook depicting a wild an open land filled with bears and foxes, sulfuric hot springs and snow-covered mountains, and snowboarding and biking opportunities. Hokkaido is much less densely populated than Japan's main island, Honshu, which has Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, as well as other major metropolitan areas. Therefore, Hokkaido is not as an outdoorsy getaway from the hustle and bustle of Honshu city life. My 5-day trip in Hokkaido started out in the onsen town of Noboribetsu. After flying from Tokyo's Narita Aiport to New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, I took a couple of trains to get to Noboribetsu (take my advice and spend the extra money on express trains), and I finally took a bus from JR Noboribetsu Station to the onsen part of Noboribetsu. Planes, trains, and automobiles! For those of you who don't know, onsen is defin...