Rounding up Sapporo

This last day in Sapporo i really had no big plans. One thing i had to do was my laundry, one of the consequenses when you travel light without too much clothing. I also wanted to get a new handwritten seal from Hokkaido shrine in my shuencho so i figured i'd do them in one trip. Dropped of my clothing and walked through western Hokkaido to Maruyama park where the shrine was located. Because Sapporo is built like a modern American city it consist of a grid of streets and avenues. This makes for easier navigating but the amount of crossroads with traffic lights can become frustrating. Especially since they take a long time to turn green. Although maybe my slight hangover might have to do just a little bit with it too. ;-) I got a wonderful new seal in my book and continued to walk through the park as i heard chanting in the distance. It turned out to be a highschool baseball tournament. The entrance fee was only 500 yen so i decided to check it out. I've watched professional baseball games here before and wat striked me the most was the chanting of the fans of either side. They keep singing and dancing for as long as the game lasts, which can be up to 3 hours. Talk about loyalty! It was really cold and windy in the stadium but the atmosphere was great so i stayed till the very end. I walked back again to the hostel and after a great and filling dinner at a kaiten sushi restaurant with Japanese speaking but very helpfull staff, I met up with Ronja, Ole and Stephen again. I wanted to go to bed early since i wanted to get a good headstart on my trip to Hakodate but that kind of failed because we had way too much fun. :-)Read more