Given my struggles with the current heat and humidity in Tokyo, the last leg of this year's trip to Japan could not come soon enough. I'm off to Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido prefecture. I've been here once before back in 2007. That's sixteen years ago! It's hard to comprehend how much time has gone by since I was last here. I'm looking forward to it though. My recollection of Sapporo is that it is a beautiful city, laid out on an easily navigable grid pattern. I also seem to recall beer gardens everywhere and a strong focus on the brewing and agricultural industries. I do wonder though if my memory will be accurate after sixteen years (it wasn't).
Given that I've visited a number of towers here in Japan on this trip, I thought that I would make another pilgrimage to a tower - this time to the Sapporo TV Tower. This tower is not as impressive as either the Tokyo Tower or the Skytree which I visited earlier but it does provide some great views of the surrounding city and mountains. Of similar vintage to the Tokyo Tower, the Sapporo TV Tower was completed back in 1958. Today, it sits at one end of the Odori Koen park and is a tourist attraction. At the base of the tower is (surprise!) a beer garden. I also spotted a milk vending machine there as well (only in Hokkaido!).
There wasn't an option to walk up to the observation deck like there was on the Tokyo Tower. That's probably a good thing as I'm not sure that I could have done another set of steps like that. I took the elevator up to the top observation deck which is about 90m up (roughly one-fourth the height of the Skytree). There were some great views of Odori Koen park and the surrounding city. Mount Moiwa was also visible in the distance. I'm hoping to go up there one of these evenings to get some night shots of Sapporo from on high.
After I had my fill of the tower, I decided to take a long walk through Odori Koen park. This is a beautiful park that runs through the centre of the city. It contains many beautiful flower arrangements, statues, fountains, and vendors that sell corn on the cob. I had bought corn from one of these vendors back in 2007 and it was delicious. I bought again this time and it was equally as delicious. The flowers and other features of the park were still lovely.
I experienced some profound feelings as I walked through the park. I don't exactly know what was causing this - perhaps the feeling of the northern air, the smell of the freshly mowed lawn, the breeze blowing through... Something about this place reminded me of the past back in Canada. Maybe it was just the fact that this place is so different from Tokyo and I'm just adjusting to being further north again but I felt incredibly at home here. This place is definitely a part of Japan but it just feels different. There is a different vibe here than in Tokyo and I really, absolutely love it.
I spent a good chunk of the afternoon here in Odori Koen park. This was one of the most enjoyable and relaxing experiences in this entire trip. I hope to go spend some more time here before this trip is over.
Oh, and one more thing that caught my eye here in Sapporo - the road and sidewalk infrastructure is in somewhat rougher shape than in Tokyo. I take it that this is a result of the relatively cold and harsh winters that are experienced here. There is no doubt far more freezing and thawing here than in other parts of Japan. The sidewalks are scraped up (no doubt from winter snow clearing) and the roads have a fair number of seams and filled potholes.
I often complain about the crumbling infrastructure and potholed roads back home in Saskatchewan. It's largely a function of harsh winter weather and, in the case of Saskatchewan, the use of copious amounts of salt to melt ice. It's difficult to maintain infrastructure in the face of constant and extreme freezing and thawing. I guess that I'll have to cool it a bit with my criticisms of how we maintain our infrastructure at home. Any northern city is going to have to cope with this.
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