HOKKAIDO .

Aomori

We said goodbye to Hidaka last Saturday and rode the long way up, catching the Shinkansen to Aomori just in time for the Hakodate-bound ferry. Last week was Golden Week, a week-long cluster of national holidays, so the Hidaka crew of ALTs (all 2 of us) decided to use the time off for an escape to Hokkaido. We spent the week catching middle-of-nowhere buses and seaside trains; drinking beer and getting lost.

Hakodate Russian Orthodox Church

Hakodate was the first stop. The city opened its ports to outsiders in 1859, and 150 years later it exists in a lingering state of identity crisis – the mysterious love-child of a Japanese-Russian affair, where the city slopes are decorated with Russian orthodox and Roman catholic churches, and cobblestone paves the way to teashops and shrines. One minute, I’m standing under a towering orange gate; the next, I’m in a boat being rowed around a star-shaped fort.

Sapporo was all about the beeru. You just CAN’T (I’m yelling) go to Sapporo without getting to know their beer. Breweries played a major role in Hokkaido’s development in the Meiji Period, when the art of brewing was first brought to Hokkaido. Sapporo Lager was born, and lo and behold, the gold they’ve been brewing for over 100 years remains an important part of Sapporo’s rich culture. I learned all of this at the Sapporo Beer Museum, which was highly educational and – judging by the Dr. Seuss-esque displays – designed for children.

The rest of the time in Sapporo was spent drifting between East and West, devouring Genghis Kahn lamb and thin-crust pizzas, unwinding in rainy outdoor onsens and getting athletic at the Winter Sports Museum. (That was more humiliating than anything else... it turns out, I'm just as feeble at computer simulated sports as the real thing. Shocking, I know.)

Otaru was the last stop. This town is a popular day-trip location from Sapporo, with its canal district and rickshaw traffic. I could go into detail about the sushi and beer and yada yada yada, but every moment in Otaru has been eclipsed by the memory of eating a giant takoyaki. I fulfilled a dream I didn't know I had and it. was. phenomenal.

I had a bet going with Greg all week to see who could go the longest sans-Facebook, so I took to Twitter to fill the social networking void in my life. Have a look at my tweets to see my pictorial updates! twitter.com/chloerew