Brief Guide to Sapporo, Sapporo, Japan (B)

My trip to Japan began in Sapporo, in Hokkaido, because I didn’t want to get swallowed up by excessive Tokyo on my arrival. I wanted to relax in order to adapt to Japan smoothly and I therefore chose this large island in the north, snowy, almost uninhabited and ultimately not that Japanese…

Yeah, because Hokkaido is actually home of the Ainu, the indigenous people made a minority when at the end of the XIX century the Japanese in search of fortune began to colonize it by forcing the integration of the natives. Their cultural specificity has been recognized by the Government only in 1998 and now there are many museums, cultural centers and sculptures designed to make this culture leave and spread out. Once landed in Tokyo I took a direct Vanilla Air flight (65 €) from Narita Terminal 3 and arrived at New Chitose-Sapporo in 1h40.

It’s the capital of Hokkaido and architecturally speaking is a newly designed very Western city, where wide tree-lined boulevards cross regularly parks and gardens. Despite the winter frost I found it very liveable and lively, with always open countless shops and restaurants and many izakaya, literally shops where you sit to drink sake, but here they also serve delicious typical snacks. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).