Sapporo

Well, we fled India early because 41 degrees Celsius was a bit warm. And I think we my have overcompensated.

We spent about 10 hours on various trains travelling north from Tokyo – 1050 miles north to be precise. And ended up in the region called Hokkaido - in the capital city, Sapporo. Which in a way is nice. Sapporo is a very vibrant, lively place. Nice to wander around. There are lots of tasty restaurants to choose from, and interesting department stores to get completely lost in. The basements of these are the best – they have delicatessent counters which hand out free tasters from time to time, so you can get delicious samples of dumplings, gyoza, and various scary Japanese foods. And the servers are so polite when you pass these food counters – they all call out ‘sumasen’ or something, smile and bow. When we left one department store yesterday at closing time we were virtually bowed to by 20 odd people at the same time. Very disconcertingly polite!

Sapporo is famous for its beer. According to Gary it has very good draught beer – ‘Sapporo’ brand of course. Unfortunately, as Gary has discovered by experimenting since we’ve arrived, not all canned beers you buy in Sapporo are safe. Ones with green in the label, or claiming to be ‘original’ are bad news. Those ‘brewed for your pleasure’ or ‘good times’ are worse! Apparently they tend to taste completely flavourless alcoholic water – a bit like dilute vodka. Nice.

Hokkaido does have a disadvantage however. It’s a bit like Scotland: renowned for its beautiful scenery and cold weather! It’s freezing here – and I thought Tokyo was cold. Ah well, bring back Delhi! Tomorrow we’re going to a national park of volcanoes, hot-springs and scenic mountains. I wonder how Scottish the weather will be.