Another spontaneous trip with Jesse, whom I met at the Couchsurfing bar. Turns out she also wanted to go to Sapporo's Snow Festival and I had already planned on going as well so she went with me. We had a couchsurfing host in Sapporo, someone who hosted both Jacob and Anders, my two Danish couchsurfers from way back, Jacob put us in touch.
Jesse went to Hokkaido first and I arrived a bit later. As I got out of the mainstation, excitement started to hit, seeing the snow covered city was definitely something new. The roads were icey and a bit slippery but I pushed on til I arrived at the main plaza where giant snow sculpures towered above everything else, the long park was subdivided into several sections and each zone had its own giant snow sculpture. It also started to snow heavily at this point as we went around half of the plaza before deciding to head back to not keep our host waiting.
He picked us up near a snow covered parking lot, his name being Yuji or Uz for short. His house was a bit of a ways from the main city but dang, he had one of the biggest houses I have ever seen. A giant wooden cabin, with a fireplace and a couple of floors and even an attic. He had a dog, Shiro and we got along immediately. I usually only get a couch or a bed if I am lucky but this time around we had the whole floor all to ourselves, I felt like royalty. He prepared a bath for us as well with essential oils and everything. It was awesome. I talked with him throughout the night while Jesse went ahead to take a bath, then I went after while she got to know him more before we retired to our beds for the next day.Read more
February 7, 2020 in Japan ⋅ 3 °C