Yeah so the night before I had totally lost my mind... I needed some good rest so I just sucked it up and looked for a reasonable hotel online. Nakamuraya Ryokan hotel had traditional style Japanese rooms, meaning a tatami mat with the bedding right on top of it on the floor and, of course, a bathroom the size of a porto-potty.
I passed out super early, and I got up as late as I could to still leave before 10am checkout. Earlier that morning, I had made the decision to walk to Shikotsukoosen (the small lakeside town I'm in now... I'll just say here that the name literally is Shikotsu Lake hotspring, and it looks as though LA's Little Tokyo were uprooted and the one square block was just put outside a forest next to the lake).
I took my time and wandered by the fish market (which was quite unimpressive... I can't wait for the 4 am trip I'll take to the Tokyo fish market) before making my way to a park on the way out of Sapporo.
I wasn't sure what to expect on the way out about how long the walk would take etc. I was hoping to do it in one day, but I got a late start, and I didn't want to walk in the dark on the side of the highway. And don't be fooled by the Google map directions screenshot I posted... Cause that was bullshit.
Little did I know... These two days, SEPARATELY, were far more difficult than climbing the towers in Patagonia... I'm fairly certain I walked over 45 miles total. And I thought the first day was bad... Until got to the mother fucking second day... But I'll get there.
Oh and a bonus in the chronology of photos is a nifty little portable ashtray... I guess as nifty as could be and so very Japanese (minus the whole smoking thing since that seems to have waned quite a bit in popularity) and my leg covered in mosquito bites!
After the fish market, I just wandered towards the general direction out of town and took some shots of cool buildings and little, neat nooks and crannies of the city. I was also in search of some mosquito repellent! Which the only form I found it in was incense... Which actually works brilliantly provided you can keep the incense from going out.
Then I went through the beautiful Nakajima park. There were few kids either getting art lessons or being carefully watched over by parents... I can't tell you which. There were couples a plenty and, also in the park, at the Sapporo concert hall, there were a bunch of young musicians getting their photos taken in groups. And before I forget, in the parking lot there was a flea market! Selling junk just like they do back home.
From there it was all heading out of Sapporo to the south east pretty much the whole way on highway 453. One strange thing from the moment I got into more rural areas (as you can tell by the farming photo...there was also a lot of home farming or community garsens) was just the sheer number of people hanging out on the damn sidewalk. At first, I didn't think anything of it... Then I noticed all the cops on each side of the highway at each light... Odd... Maybe it's a Japanese thing?? However, the crowds kept growing until eventually some cars and motorcycles zoomed by with bikes piled on their roofs... Of course! I looked it up, and there's a cycling race. Tour of Hokkaido that was finishing that day.
I stopped for lunch at a convenience store... It was actually pretty good katsu curry and supplemented my intake with juice, which isn't good (especially not the Coke I'm drinking this very second), but I need intake to keep going.
I passed two massive golf courses (I wanted to sleep so bad on that fucking fairway...) and decided to call it for a day. I walked about 20 miles, and the sun would go down pretty fast. Luckily I got set up just in time on the side of highway 453 (don't worry, there was a barrier and a little hill between me and the traffic) with my mosquitos incense, and it worked like a charm... That is... Until I woke up at 3 in the morning soaked... It had started to rain.
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