Sapporo - Day 3 - 16th February 2017

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Japanese convenience stores? Probably a few times. I could happily eat every meal of the day from Japanese convenience stores. Our hotel was sandwiched between 2 - a Lawson on one side and a convenience store we hadn't seen before, Seico mart on the other. The Seico Mart by far had the biggest range, including fresh veggies and fruit, but Lawson Mart had better breakfast treats. Today we ate from both - Breakfast from Lawson and post-dinner snack from Seico.

We started our day off pretty early - too early in fact. In Japan everything opens late. You can't expect any of the attractions to open before 10 or 11 am. We didn't remember this from last time and got up at 8am (a sleep in for us!), had breakfast and then walked into Susukino to catch a tram to the Mt Moiwa shuttle bus stop, intent on seeing the mountain. At around 9.30am we arrived at the shuttle bus stop, only to find that the shuttle bus, and the ropeway, didn't start up until 11am in the Winter season. To pass time we decided we would try to walk to Maruyama Park, which we thought was somewhere nearby. 

We walked. and walked. Probably not all that far, but in so many layers, and with so much snow on the ground, walking took a lot more energy than normal. The sun was also still shining, so the snow had melted even more and it was difficult not to slip on the dirty black sludge everywhere. It also meant that the effort of walking in such different conditions caused us to overheat, so we were constantly taking clothes off and putting them back on every time the wind came along. After struggling for 40 minutes, and not really having gotten anywhere, we turned around and made our way back to the Mt Moiwa Shuttle Bus stop and decided to just count that as the days' exercise. I had also had my Pokemon Go out to try and catch a far-fetch'd (the Asian-exclusive regional Pokemon) but no such luck.

The shuttle bus was just about to pull away as we arrived so we hustled on, squeezing our sweaty but somehow still cold bodies into the small seats. A few short minutes later and we were at the Mt. Moiwa ropeway. The ropeway cost us about  ¥1700 per person for a return journey to the top. The view from the ropeway was very pretty, watching more of a snow-covered Sapporo be revealed as we went higher and higher up. Soft, twinkling music played in the near-empty Gondola as it swayed gently. 

Going Up the Ropeway

At the top of Mt Moiwa it was blisteringly cold. The sights were stunning but it was hard to stay outside for long. We stayed up the top for a while, stopping to have lunch in the small cafe outlet attached to the restaurant. We had a weird sort of potato stick that was actually quite yummy (and most importantly, warm!).

On top of Mt. Moiwa

By the time we headed back down, it was heading into mid-afternoon and there wasn't too much daylight left. 

A cemetary on the way down the ropeway