Many expats end up leaving Japan for the summer when their kids are out of school. However, because Elsa and I both work, this really wasn't an option for us. For the month of July, we found an amazing nanny to watch the kids during the days. Then finally, the second week of August (for Obon holiday in Japan), Elsa had a full week off work, so we decided to take a trip to a new part of Japan. There are many places we still want to visit, but for this excursion, we chose Hokkaido - the northernmost island of Japan. Hokkaido is typically a place you go visit in the winter for skiing or for its super famous snow festival, but being a family that generally likes to avoid bitter cold weather, we chose to escape the crazy Yokohama heat and head to Hokkaido in the summer - where temps max out around 80 degrees versus the current 97 degrees and near 100% humidity we've been experiencing in Yokohama/Tokyo area.

Day One

We landed at New Chitose Airport in Sapporo and immediately began our food journey. There are an innumerable variety of foods and restaurants to be had at this airport. At first, I was highly suspicious of staying within the airport to eat, but Elsa had read numerous blogs recommending the airport's "Ramen Dojo (ラーメン道場)" so that's where we headed.

When we entered the Dojo, we were truly surrounded by ramen shops. It was both exciting and overwhelming. Hokkaido is known for it's ramen so picking one place to try out of the dozen or places was tricky. It was also quite crowded, so we quickly picked Teshikaga (弟子屈), which both looked good and didn't have a line that wrapped around the terminal.

We were not disappointed. Elsa lucked out and got one of their only 30-available-per-day Crab Ramen bowls, while I ordered the signature Gyokaishibori Shoyu Ramen.

With bellies full of noodles, we left the airport and grabbed a train for downtown Sapporo about 40 minutes away. When we arrived, it was cloudy and threatening some intense drizzle, so we opted for an indoor activity: The Sapporo Beer Museum.

The museum was a self-guided tour and completely free. There is a lot of history to the Sapporo brewing company, and the museum provided translations for all the exhibits within. After reading through these various things, I found myself wanting a Ken Burns documentary about Hokkaido beer brewing.

The one disappointing thing was there was the gift shop. In one section of the museum there was a great display of classic Sapporo beer posters. One in particular, a poster from 1958 depicting the three beer-brewing capitals of the world; Munich, Sapporo, and Milwaukee, I was really hoping would be in the gift shop as a print for me to take home. Unfortunately, the gift shop let me down.

The museum is free, but the tasting room is not. However, for only ¥800 (or about $7 USD) you can get three glasses of Sapporo beer, each about 8oz in size. The first is the standard Sapporo Black Label, which is what you get when you order Sapporo in the US. Then comes Sapporo Classic, which claims to be available only in Hokkaido but can definitely be purchased on the mainland (I saw it for sale this morning actually in our local convenience store in Yokohama), and lastly is the Kaitakushi beer, which is the original recipe from when the brewery opened way back in the late 1800s, and as far as I know, is only available for purchase at the museum (and maybe the factory in Hokkaido as well). I'm not a huge fan of the standard Sapporo Black Label and found the classic to be the best of the bunch. It's a little smoother and more flavorful where the black label has a bit of bite that I don't find very pleasant.

After the museum, it was time to check-in to our AirBNB and grab a light dinner. We hit a local sushi spot and called it a day.

Day Two

The weather on the second day was forecasted to be much better, so, with Elsa behind the wheel of a rental car, we headed to Lake Shikotsu. This lake was created by a massive volcano eruption 40,000 years ago, and is now surrounded by three more volcanoes and provides some breathtaking scenery.

There were various activities to partake in, so we started with a little sightseeing boat. Once on board, you are free to move from the surface of the boat to the bottom, where there are windows that let you observe the lake from below. The water was really clear, due to the fact that the entire lake bottom is rock formed by the hardened lava and there is virtually no dirt or sediment.

The kids had seen many paddle boats in the shape of enormous swans so of course that was next on our to-do list. After an hour of paddling around the lake, it was time to find some food.

This lake side was full of little vendors peddling their wares. And by wares, I mean deliciousness. Hokkaido is known for a lot of things, but in this case the three things we had our eyes on were fresh corn, scallops and ice cream. Corn is not something you often eat in Japan, as it's expensive and usually sold pre-boiled, so it was a nice change of pace to have some freshly grilled corn on the cob. The scallops were also freshly grilled and drenched in delicious Hokkaido butter and did not disappoint. The soft serve ice cream (from a local dairy - cream and milk from Hokkaido cows are famous throughout Japan) was of course also delicious.

From Shikotsu Lake, we started to head home, but made a pit stop at massive Takino Suzuran Park. This park is what the kids would say was their favorite part of the trip. It had all kinds of stuff to do and we only scratched the surface. We started out in this crazy maze where we truly lost track of Miles and Calvin for a few minutes.

From there, we found this giant....trampoline? thing that the kids could have stayed on all day. It was basically a massive set of air bubbles where they could run and jump and expel all of their energy. And because this is Hokkaido and not Tokyo, they could do it without melting or getting burned by the sun. The park also had a gigantic set of slides, huge foam cones the kids could climb on, and on and on - again, we didn't even scratch the surface...

Day Three

I've already mentioned various things that Hokkaido is famous for. Well, one more thing they are famous for is flowers and more specifically; Lavender. So, on our third day, we headed out through the mountains (think driving through the Smokies but twice as long and windy) to the famous Furano area about 2 hours from Sapporo, which is home to many flower farms. In our case, we selected Tomita farm.

Though they are famous for Lavender, they don't only grow Lavender. Depending on the time of year, there are different flowers blooming. When we arrived, there actually wasn't much lavender left in bloom, but a variety of other colorful flowers to gaze upon.

While the flowers were beautiful, the farm seemed to know 5-year old boys named Calvin might need a treat to entice them to hang around for a bit so mom could enjoy the blooms. We indulge in lavender soft serve, lavender soda, and even lavender steam cakes, all of which were delicious.

From there, we headed to the Prince Hotel property in Furano to visit the Ningle Terrace. This is a cool little village nestled in the woods with a variety of local artisan shops and cafes. We had some delicious curry for lunch and perused the merchandise in the shops.

It had been a cloudy morning, but with the skies clearing, we headed back to Sapporo to take in the sights from Mt. Moiwa, which is really close to downtown.

To get to the top, you ride two cable cars. The first takes you to a little past the halfway point, and the second one, the "mini cable car", takes you to the summit. From here, you get some absolutely stunning views of Sapporo.

Side note: The wind up here was insane and even on a 75+ degree day down below, it was incredibly cold at the top. I can't imagine how people come up here in the heart of Sapporo winter.

After descending back down, we roamed around downtown Sapporo for a bit before finding a restaurant to fill our bellies with delicious fresh fish rice bowls (海鮮丼). Elsa had been craving the fresh Uni (sea urchin) since we had arrived, and was not disappointed.

Day Four

Our last full day in Sapporo began with a visit to the Olympic Ski Jump that was used in the 1976 Sapporo Olympic Games. This was my personal favorite part of the trip. We had just been to the summit of Mt. Moiwa the day before and I wasn't expecting anything to really top that view. Oh how naive I was.

To get to the jump, you first have to drive a decent way up a mountain. Then, when you park the car, you take an escalator up to the museum and then a chair-lift to the top of the ski jump where you get an amazing view of not only the ski jump, but the entire city of Sapporo itself.

I can't imagine how distracting it must have been for these skiers to jump and have this insane backdrop to look at. Maybe they're too preoccupied with the impending threat of death by flying insanely fast down a massive slope to worry about such unimportant details like "oohhh is that the Nippon Ham Fighters baseball stadium!?!"

Not just a place for a pretty view, once we returned back down the hill, we explored the museum that celebrates the winter olympics and has various activities where you can "experience" some winter sports yourself. The kids really enjoyed the ski jump simulator and I personally preferred the speed skating. In the speed skating, you put on felt slip-on covers over your shoes and had to push from side to side as many times as you can in 30 seconds. There was also a bobsled simulator, that of course we dominated.

Like any major city in Japan, Sapporo is home to a vibrant fish market. After a morning of Olympics, we arrived to the market around lunch time, so many of the shops that sell the big fish and crabs to the major restaurants had actually already closed up for the day. That didn't mean that there wasn't an abundance of deliciousness to be had though. There are a bunch of little stands and restaurants offering freshly caught fish of all types.

As we were roaming around trying to figure out where to go for lunch, a friendly restaurateur who spoke excellent English started chatting us up. Before long, he was showing Miles and Calvin his fresh crab and posing for photos. Obviously, this meant we were committed to eat at this place. So that's what we did.

Calvin had some Salmon sashimi with plain rice while the rest of us enjoyed fresh rice bowls filled with crab, shrimp, uni, salmon roe, tuna, scallops and salmon sashimi. (The kids live a rough life, I know.)

Perhaps the most famous park in Sapporo is Odori Park, where the Sapporo Snow Festival takes place each year. There is a large tv tower on one side and you can go up to the top for a view of the place. After doing both Mt. Moiwa and Okura Ski Jump, going up in the tv tower seemed silly so we decided against it.

The park is very pretty though, with flowers and fountains and there was even a summer festival happening when we went through which meant a few tents serving food and drinks. If you come here during the snow festival there will be ice sculptures and tons of vendors all over the park. However, it will probably be cold. Very, very cold.

With some time left in the day, we gave the kids the option of what they would like to do. They chose to go back to the giant park we had visited earlier in our trip even though it was a 40 minute car ride away. However, instead of going back on the trampoline thing, the boys opted to rent bicycles and ride around some of the more scenic areas of the park.

This ended up being great. Miles and Calvin can both ride a bike, but with how busy Yokohama is they've never really ridden anywhere other than around our building in circles. This was their first opportunity to be on the "open road" so to speak. Calvin had to learn on the fly how to use hand breaks, as back pedal breaks aren't a thing in Japan we learned. We also had to establish a specific rider order to avoid any racing or crashing. But all in all, they did a pretty great job. Multiple times during our almost 2 hour ride, Miles commented that this was the most fun thing he had ever done. Vacation win.

The ride was worth it for the views too. Within a short distance from the bike rental location, there were two waterfalls, which were awesome.

Departure Day

With an typhoon hurling towards Hokkaido, we were left with a very windy and cloudy final morning and early afternoon to kill before our evening flight. Elsa found a nearby science center so we headed there.

Inside on the second floor was the exhibition hall, which had all kinds of hands on learning experiences the kids could try out. We learned about the earth and its layers, how snowflakes are formed and which parts of Hokkaido get the most snow, which planets you would weigh the most on and so on. It was a great way to spend a hour or two and we easily could have spent more time. With a looming flight home, we decided to head to the airport a bit early and grab one last meal before taking off.

I somewhat glossed over the airport in the initial part of this post. That is a shame and I would like to correct it. Now, I haven't been to every airport in the world, but I feel pretty confident that New Chitose Airport outside of Sapporo is THE best airport in the world. Hokkaido is known for so many things and nearly all of those things can be experienced here. You can eat the best Hokkaido ramen from all the most famous restaurants, seafood, curry, ice cream, etc... You name something from Hokkaido and you can probably find it at the airport. There is even a miniature fish market so if you want to grab some live crab before heading on your flight, that's an option. Need a half-pound of uni? You can get it packed in dry ice and ready to go!

With all of these options, it was really difficult to decide where to eat our last meal. We ended up doing one final sushi trip as we had found Hokkaido seafood to be just so delicious, but I would love to make a trip back to the airport in the future. There are so many ramen joints to try and not enough time.

I think there is no better way to close this blog post than with a beautiful quote we saw on the back of a tour bus in Furano: "We provide you with a comfortable space. So, It's a our purpose. We transport you a great view with your smile. We looking forward to meeting you of our heart....See ya!"

Right back at ya Hokkaido.