Last day of the year!

Sapporo was supposed to be slightly warmer and less snowy than the other cities we have been to so far and the weather held up, even though we still don't get to see much blue skies/sunlight. Oh well.

I think ever since Kutchan/Niseko we have been starting our days later and later - doesnt help that we got to bed late the night before coz I was waiting for the damn laundry. It was only about 10 when we set out.
Mandatory sightseeing day and we really only have this one full day in Sapporo, and limited daylight hours so we cut out some of the attractions which are really out of the way - Shiroi Koibito Park being one of them. Only tackled those that are in the vicinity and reachable by tram line alone. Started with the old Hokkaido Government Office which is within a stone's throw from our hotel.







Lunch and for some reason we decided to have KFC. Ever since I heard about the Japanese Christmas KFC tradition - which I thought is totally odd - I have marked KFC as a must-eat in Japan dontaskmewhy.




Hopped on a tram ride to Mt Moiwa. Actually wasnt going to go up the Ropeway - learnt our lesson back in Hakodate - so got off the shuttle bus from the tram station, 意思意思 enter the building for a while, then set off on foot towards Fushimi Inari Sapporo. This is the significantly less famous cousin of the one in Kyoto of course, which is why it not necessarily a must-do in Sapporo - there were very few tourists around. Hence good place for photos.







Down the hill, spotted a Daiso and went in for a bit, before hopping on the tram back towards Odori Park. Plan was to head to Sapporo Station and the connecting malls - Daimaru etc and get a nice dinner there, it's NYE after all. And probably go to a bar or sth and countdown there.


One of our strategies we developed after a while is to eat dinner slightly earlier before dinner peak - so we can get seats. So it was just after 5pm when we reached Sapporo station and was looking for a nice yakiniku place (got a bit lazy researching so was gonna settle for a chain in Gyukaku). Imagine our surprise when we were told that they were "sold out".

And everybody else were "sold out" too, and some even started switching off lights and shutter down. There are plenty of restaurants on this floor of Daimaru/Sapproro Esta (honestly dont really know which building we are in) and it's like they all pakat alr or sth. Then we figured it's probably because of NYE and we were like, sheesh. Such a killjoy.

So headed down to the basement food hall at Daimaru and decided to just tapao random food stuff back to the hotel for dinner. Lots of people around but after a couple of rounds (while getting some stuff on the way), some stalls we passed by earlier have also started shutting down and it wasn't long before we were shooed out of Daimaru itself coz they were closing too =.= When we returned to ground level we noticed that most shops have closed too - few exceptions like Starbucks but I think they probably closed soon after too. Not quite believing what was happening, walked into Uniqlo/BicCamera and was shooed out too. It's like the whole city is evacuating or something, seriously. So gave up and headed back to the hotel.

Lol so much for a nice dinner followed by countdown at a bar.

But there's another twist! After dinner and shower..the sister suggested to head back to Sapporo TV Tower to countdown. Actually don't know what to expect, googled but couldn't find any event happening at Odori Park so I pictured us like watching the clock and whispering Happy New Year to ourselves when the time comes. We were supposed to leave at like 1130pm and walk there since it's pretty near, and we very nearly didn't because the person who suggested this got sleepy =.= and ended up I was the one who had to drag her out.

And very glad we did. Because, while all the Japanese head towards temple and shrines, all the foreigners have gathered in the park to countdown! And have probably been there for a while because we didnt see anybody along our way. Plenty of Chinese, Thai, and lesser angmos, but yep. Got atmosphere and not crowded until cannot breathe that kind.





And the Tower lights went off at midnight too hahahah spoiler till the very end. Good job la.


So that was definitely a unique countdown experience. And our last night in Hokkaido.

Labels: holidays, japan, travel