Hokkaido Part 1

Sapporo, Hokkaido.
Such a nice break from Tokyo.

My friend and I checked into our hotel Wednesday night...sadly, what I thought were a picture of Alpacas in the lobby on the website turned out to be horses...

The next day we headed to Odori Park- one of the main sights of the snow festival.  There's a bunch of snow and ice sculptures of buildings (some HUUUGE), different characters and people, and scenes. There was also a sculpture from Portland, Oregon- since it's sister cities with Sapporo.

The Sapporo TV tower (yes the time is 5:42...and yes it's already super dark! It gets dark so early here)

We also hit up this building, the tallest in Sapporo, to view the city.

...Decisions, decisions.....

My two travel buddies also from Oregon: Rex and Davoods

Later we tracked down this "ramen alley" in a shopping center...aka heaven on earth

Sooo good. There was also a Pokemon Center and Hello Kitty store in the mall.

"so supah kawaii!!!!!!!"

"Rex, be a super excited school girl" 

Day 3 in Hokkaido meant eating famous soup curry and a visit to the Sapporo Beer Museum.

SO delicious!

Also very delicious...(Sapporo Classic! Only available in Hokkaido. Hate to say it though....it's got nothin on Pacific Northwest beer)

We had a 'Nomihodai' AKA as much as you can drink in 90 minutes. Needless to say, after about 10 beers each we were feelin preeetttaaaayy crazy.

I even made new friends outside- (we switched hats). 

Pictures from around the beer museum:

Needless to say, Day 4 in Hokkaido was spent sleepin in till noon and going to a friends house to nap under the kotatsu forever.

Capibara~saaan 

A Kotatsu by the way, is the greatest invention EVER. Picture this: a table frame, covered by a heavy blanket, covered by a table top. Underneath is a heater. It is awesome, and I want one in America- I will find a way!
Here's a picture of one from another website...

3 more days left of my trip here!