Sapporo (札幌市)

All right, so there is quite a bit to do in Sapporo beyond staring at snow and ice sculptures. For one thing, we ate a lot of awesome food -- chief among which was known as Genghis Khan. Why would a food be named Genghis Khan you ask? Well it's certainly not after the Star Trek movie.

Internet sleuthing revealed that this dish of barbecued lamb is so named because Mongolians ate lamb. The other thought (that I prefer) is because the dish you cook it on resembles his hat. Which is accurate?!

Sapporo is full of places that serve it, but we ate a restaurant associated with the Sapporo Beer factory, called the Sapporo Bier Garten . It wasn't until later that we understood that the cute little lamb character was actually the mascot for Genghis Khan (its hat is the grill above). What sort of animal is the mascot for a dish that serves its own kind?!

That being said, it was quite delicious, as you can tell by me enjoying it in my bib. "We love barbecue style party!"

No trip to Sapporo is complete without a trip to the Sapporo Beer Museum (and factory), so we did just that. 

 The museum is located approximately 20 minutes away from JR Sapporo Station; there is also a bus that will get you take you to the museum if if you don't want to walk.

There was an English brochure you could take to understand the history, which was quite interesting. Apparently, Sapporo was first released in 1877 and was the first brewery in Japan (Hokkaido was chosen because of the ice and soil). At the end, you could buy a 200 yen drink ticket to taste the beer and get harassed by drunk Australian guys. 

The other big food attraction in Sapporo is Ganso Ramen Yokocho ("original" Ramen alley), located near Susukino Station. On this little street there are about a dozen restaurants all serving up miso-ramen, a flavor that originated in Sapporo in 1951. The original original site was demolished in preparation for the Olympics, but the newest version was built in the same location.

On to the non-food related fabulous locations! One of them is yet another shrine known as Hokkaido Shrine, located in Maruyama Park. To get to the park, take the Tozai Line (toward Miyanosawa) to Maruyamakoen Station and walk about 9 minutes. 

The shrine contains three major deities and also Meiji Emperor, and more importantly was covered in snow!

This dude is Yoshitake Shima, responsible for bringing the objects of Shinto worship to Sapporo.

The bear ema is the "Relax Bear Ema" and the arrow one is the "Success Ema"

The tree contains some of the different omikuji fortunes you could buy tied up on the branches, which is the custom here. They can be either Daikichi (extremely lucky), Chukichi (moderately lucky), Kichi (lucky), Shokichi (minimally lucky), Suekichi (unlucky) or Kyo (terrible misfortunes). I've never gotten a Kyo, thank goodness. 

Located in the same park is a small little 225m mountain called Mount Maruyama (originally Mt Moiwa if you are the native Ainu people). This hike is apparently quite leisurely in the summer, but in the snow it was treacherous! My life flashed before my eyes with every slippery step up that damn mountain. As further proof of my idiocy, when I attempted to go down a different route a kindly old Japanese man looked in horror at my spike-less shoes and warned me to go a different direction that was less steep and dangerous. Thank goodness for kindly old Japanese guys!

Proof it was actually me taking the photos, because you never know who will challenge my actual presence at such a place.

At the base was actually a little shrine called Daisho-do with a trail of multiple kannon for you to glimpse. They looked pretty cold in the snow, but thankfully someone was thoughtful and brought them hats and scarves.

I almost forgot two big things -- the TV Tower and the Sapporo Clock Tower! They are famous for being a tower and a clock. Okay, so the clock tower is of American design and is the oldest standing building in Sapporo.