Hello adventures,

February 11th
The day started out without a hitch. I packed up my belongings and gathered a few snacks to prepare for my 2 hr drive back to New Chitose airport to return my rental car. The company was unfortunately booked full and I couldn’t keep the car for an extra 2 days. My flight out to Kobe wasn’t for until the 13th. After packing away my luggage I started to clear the snow off my car. In the distance near the entrance of the hostel I noticed someone standing there with a large suitcase. I wondered if they were heading to the airport but was too shy to shout at them and ask. They also seem to be in a hurry and walked towards a different direction then the car path. After clearing my car, I wondered if I should walk towards the path they took and see if they were there but once again my shyness won out.

I hoped in my car and left the hostel. After leaving the hostel I made a left and about 20ft after was a red light. I followed the GPS and made another left turn. About 20 ft from the turn was the guy waiting at what seemed to be a bus stop. I decided to pull over and roll down my window and ask if he was heading to the airport? He was! He graciously accepted my offer for a ride and put his luggage in my car and off we went!

“Jayden” is in the army and has been in Korea the last two years. He’s finishing up soon and I asked him what was something he missed the most about home. Asides from friends and family, pizza was one of the items he said he misses. He mentioned how it’s just not the same here and he misses the American way of it. He also missed Mexican food like tacos and burritos. I asked him what some of his favorite things to do was and he mentioned karaoking with friends! He highly recommended I try it at least once while here in Japan. I took note but stashed it away as something that might happen but would be difficult unless I really got out of my shell.

We talked about many things on the drive and the 2 hours passed quickly. I stopped at a gas station before returning the car and he kindly offered to pay for my tank of gas! After getting to the rental car company we parted ways as he was heading towards the international terminal and I needed to go to the domestic in order to catch a bus to Sapporo.

After getting to the terminal and found my way to the bus counter and purchased a ticket to Sapporo. I was a bit confused at first about the whole line situation. Previous bus tickets I’ve purchased in a similar manner had seat reservation and a set time for boarding. Thinking that this worked similarly I waited inside until it was closer to the departure time. But after reading the ticket information again this bus was not a reservation. It was just a fare ticket and the bus was FCFS. I went to wait in line and it was quite long. A bus came but it could only take a few people before being full. Another bus would come in 15 minutes, and so I waited in the cold winter air.

I got on the bus and was thankful to see a bathroom in the back. Anticipating that I might need it I headed towards the back and sat down. As others boarded I heard a group of guys chatting. One of them mentioned how “Yousuke” was so thankful to see a toilet. He headed into the toilet as others boarded. The bus became full and someone came to sit in Yousuke’s seat. I did my best to explain in Japanese to them that the person was in the toilet. That’s when I learned that buses have extra seats that fold out from the side! What an awesome feature!

Once the bus took off I pulled my Insta 360 out to look through the footage from snowboarding the other day. As I was editing I could hear Yousuke and “Shoyo” chatting about things in English. At some point I heard Yousuke mention having the best pizza on earth. They were deep in conversation so I didn’t want to disturb them. Once I found a lull in their conversation I turned around and asked about it. It was a place in Kyoto called Pizzeria Bar Le Napoli. Jayden from the other day had mentioned how pizza was one of the items he missed having most. I’m hoping this will curb my pizza craving in the near future.

He mentioned having had pizza in Italy and that this place was better than that. I was intrigued and saved it as a place to go for my later travels. I chatted with them quite a bit and was really vibing with them! Shoyo seemed to be the most out going from the group and helped keep the conversation flowing. By the end of the bus ride I exchanged IGs with them and headed towards my hostel for check in.

A part of me wanted to see about joining them in whatever activity they were going to do after getting off. I wasn’t really sure and also felt like I wanted to put my luggage away before heading somewhere. After putting my luggage away I hit up some of the recommendations Yousuke gave me.

I first hit up a Hanamaru sushi which was Yousuke’s recommendation. They had some really cheap lunch set options. I got the 2200 yen set which came with a soup, sushi, tempura and dessert! The tempura came soon after they delivered the main dish but I was too hungry to take a picture. I think my favorite nigiri in the set mightve been the crab. It was slightly sweet and the meat was nice and plump. The dessert was also really interesting and I quite like it! It seems to be some sort of silky tofu with a sweet flavor.

After lunch I headed towards an onsen again. This one was slightly far away but there was a convenient bus that stops right near the onsen, Yunohanajozankeiden. The snow in the area was looking really pristine and pretty so I decided to try my first vlog.

Yunohanajozankeiden has got to be my favorite onsen thus far! It was a little more pricey than the others at a whopping 980 yen. The sauna was huge though and best of all they had a waterfall station. Three of them! with 2 spouts each that poured water in 2 parallel streams. There’s a seat under the streams and they run constantly. The onsen also had 2 open air baths. The baths there had a really cool cave area with an open window view into the woods. I of course finished up the onsen trip with a soft serve! I left the onsen and went to wait at the bus station to head back to Sapporo. The weather in the area has been quite cloudy and snowy. The clouds had cleared up by the time I finished onsening though. The almost full moon looked quite beautiful. My camera skills could use a lot of work though.

After the getting back to Sapporo I headed towards a recommendation by Shoyo. Sapporo Soup Curry Bar Dan was a popular spot in the late night. I made it in line just before they closed it out. I ended up waiting about 30 minutes before being seated. I ordered the cheese chicken soup curry. The soup was nice and flavorful and came with some kabocha pumpkin which is one of my favorite toppings in soups. The cheese was quite creamy and added a nice layer to the dish. I ordered the dish as not spicy but I think with the cheese a mild spice would have elevated the combination of flavors.

I kept Shoyo & Yousuke updated on my activities. Shoyo and I got chatting and I asked him what his group plans to do tomorrow for the 12th. He mentioned wanting to do karaoke but wasn’t sure on scheduling. He asked what was my plan and I replied. “To crash your karaoke 🎤” he laughed and said he’d check with his friends. They agreed!