Two for the Road

I left off plugging that I’d be climbing a mountain! Well, waking up bright and early after publishing my last blog, I opened the curtains to a wall of white fog. I made the executive decision to call off the hike and instead avoided the fog, which later turned into rain, inside my appartment. It cleared up a bit in the late afternoon though so I wandered into the city centre.

I did some souvenir shopping at the Studio Ghibli store and grabbed a beer, before enjoying seeing the lights of the city at night on the way home.

My next major outing was to explore in the opposite direction form the city centre. I’d seen on my map app that there were a few parks and shrines to be found so I set out for a day of walking first to Toyohira Shrine and Park. Both were beautiful and calm, there was even a student practicing violin in the park, which boasted a rose garden and a lovely glade of birch trees bordered by hydrangeas.

After enjoying the shade of this first stop I headed on to Tsukisamu Park, via a convenience store to grab some bits for a picnic.

This park was a little more sprawling and rather than manicured hoticulture of the last one, it was home to a series of memorials and monuments. One comemorated 50 years of the establisent of Toyohira town (the ward in which the park sits) and the Yoshida family, an ex-samurai clan who settled in the area and were at least partially responsible for its prosperity in the first half of the 20th Century.

There was also another monument  comemorating the merging of Toyihira town into Sapporo city in the 1960s. Thank god for Google Lens for helping me translate signage on the go!

I also found another shinto temple in this park before finding a shaded spot for my lunch.

The afternoon heat was ramping up so after my refreshment I pressed on through the park seeing it’s boating lake and the biggest slide I’d ever seen.

I then wound my way back through the suburbs.

The following day I went for a long walk along my favourite part of the city so far – the river bank footpaths. I spotted some cool beetles, and street art on my way.

Returning home, I detoured to a fancy supermarket. They had some really expensive fruit, including a melon which was going for around £25! I picked up a few more resonably priced luxuries and headed home for an early night as the morning forecast the next day was looking good to attempt climbing the mountain!

Mt Moiwa is a popular spot for hiking, thought it does have a cable car to scale the 500ish meters to its summit as well. It also has a big board warning of bear sightings at the bottom of its trailhead which was a bit of a worry, but as I started my hike there were so many others on the trail, many equiped with ‘bear bells’ that made an encounter seem very unlikely.

While it did turn out to be a day with great visibility, the downside was after a couple of days of rain the path was pretty muddy and travelling light as I am, I wasn’t as equiped for it as the locals!

I managed not to fall over but after a couple of close calls, and a lot of water breaks on the way up I made it to the top after about 2.5 hours to incredible panoramic views of the city and countryside.

After a tuna onigiri (triangle shaped rice ball with fish in the middle, covered with a seaweed sheet) at the top and a bit of a rest, I hit up the souvenir shop before joining the queue to head down by cable car. As well as saving my feet this also meant I got to enjoy some more great views of the mountainside.

Walking back to my appartment, I could see the observation deck on the hill from a distance, it seemed very far away!

Today, I’ve relaxed and let my legs recover from yesterday’s exertions, but I still made it down to the river for another walk, this time and sunset.

Tomorrow I plan to head to Sapporo Beer museum, and on a food tour in the evening. Over the next few days I hope to take the train and explore further afield in Hokkaido – I’ll report back about how I get on!

Iris