Trip Report part 1: Honeymoon in Sapporo

We’re on our 4th trip, our honeymoon, in Japan. Rather than one big trip report at the end I felt it was best to break it up into regions, also giving me time to reflect and something to do while transiting to the next region.

Flying into Haneda, our flight was shockingly empty. It was probably tied for the most empty plane I’ve ever seen, and despite us having early boarding with business class the plane was in the air faster after I was seated than I’m used to as someone who frequently flies economy.

The flight was overwhelmingly Japanese people, and most of them were wearing suits. SFO Sakura lounge is meh, but the business class food in-flight was shockingly good.

Getting into the country was about as fast as it was pre-pandemic. They do have you sit and wait on the plane until cleared, letting those connecting to other international flights off first, so a lot more of the wait time is in that section. When you disembark, you will, while walking, show airport staff your mySOS app at the blue screen and they’ll hand you your card. There’s then a check where they scan your barcode. My husband screenshotted his, scanned it, and was good to go, but in my case they wanted me to show them the app first and the airport wifi there was absurdly slow so I was stuck standing around tapping my phone screen to prevent it from turning off several times. Guess it’s the luck of the draw. Airport wifi was perfectly fine everywhere else.

The international terminal 3, at the domestic transfers and international check-in areas was eeriely quiet and very empty. Yet somehow, still a line at the Tak-q-bin counter, so keep that in mind if you’re picking up a portable wifi or a sim card, which we luckily were not. The domestic terminal 1 however was incredibly crowded. I did see several other foreigners going onto the same flight and one foreign woman was pointing at and counting us all… very uncomfortable please don’t do that. The plane was huge and completely full.

I asked the hotel in Sapporo to decorate our bed and send a cake to our room as a surprise to my husband, and told them to congratulate us for our marriage when they asked what to write in a card. They used the world’s worst translation app and there’s no way I could have gotten anywhere with this request if I didn’t start speaking to them in Japanese. They gave us a card congratulating us for our “pregnancy”, and they delivered the cake shouting “happy birthday” in Japanese so that… Uh… certainly surprised him. No, I have never been pregnant. The different messages make me confident this was not a translation error so much as a communication error amongst themselves reflecting the state of the covid-hit hospitality industry.

I was right to not buy JR passes ahead of time, as our first day we made a huge change in plans and went on the 4 hour ride to Hakodate to see the autumn leaves, which required us to buy the Hokkaido area pass instead of a cheaper, more specific one. Our flight in was simply too late for Sapporo, and with our current itinerary we’ll be set to miss out on all the leaves until maybe Sendai, so this was like our last chance until then. We could not buy the JR Pass until the office opened at 8:30 am however so that did delay our day and make it a pretty tight schedule. We checked out Goryōkaku Tower, got sushi, then caught the next train up to Ōnuma park and were simply blown away by the autumn colors there. Back in Sapporo, at night, the Halloween festivities had begun with countless people in costume enjoying the nightlife.

Second day, to unwind from the long train rides we just hung around exploring Sapporo. Saw street racers that night, like actual ones not those god awful go-karts, and one was blasting the invincibility tune from Mario Kart.

Third day, Halloween, was spent in Otaru. Very romantic, relaxing spot; fully understand why it’s so highly recommended. We did not need to make advanced reservations for the canal ride, we just showed up and bought tickets for the next time slot.

Fourth day, hiking around Noboribetsu. A sudden rainstorm drenched us but Noboribetsu is known for its onsens and hopping in one after getting drenched was one of the most fantastic feelings in the world. Definitely a must visit.

Fifth day and final Hokkaido rail pass day, went back south to the Ainu Museum and Park. Very little English support outside the museum but we still enjoyed it. If you’re not already interested in the Ainu people you might not enjoy it, but it was very beautiful, fantastically maintained, and we learned a lot.

Sixth day we weren’t sure if we should go visit Asahikawa area or explore Sapporo more. We probably made the wrong choice doing the latter. One stop, Makomanai Takino cemetery with the replicas of the Moai statues and Stonehenge were very underwhelming, I only recommend it if you’re travelling by car and happen to be nearby. The meme was not funny enough.

I was surprised by how many places did speak English here in Sapporo despite the pandemic killing foreign tourism, and the automatic announcements and menus+signs were always available in English as I expected. I still used Japanese for convenience however, it’s just faster.

And now today we’re travelling to Aomori by plane.