Hokkaido Trip: Miku Snow Town

Day 3, Part 3

(Austin)

    We headed to the airport to fly back towards Osaka. We arrived with excess time so Elijah and Ryosuke went to look for souvenirs to buy burn I went to a special store at the top floor of the New Chitose airport: Miku Snow Town.

    Miku Snow Town is a store that specializes in the Snow Miku theme of Hatsune Miku. They have the store, which has a huge range of products, but they also have a small cafe and a Snow Miku museum. The level of dedication oh this "town" was actually quite impressive and enjoyable to see.

I purchased...way more than I want to admit, however I actually took no pictures of the inside of the store or cafe. My mistake. I bought a phone case for my sister, Emily, a lot of postcards, and many other collectible items. While doing this... I lost track of time..

    Elijah and Ryosuke started to blow up my phone with messages, requesting that I make my way back downstairs to the security line. I still hadn't gone into the museum yet, so I hurried into it and took all the pictures attached to this post. I was certainly pressing my luck. I hurried down stairs, through the massive crowd and made my way to the security line. The line was so long that we were afraid that we were going to miss our plane. They split the security line so that people who had flights leaving soon could get through sooner. After passing through security we ran to the gaye which was already boarding. Incredibly close

    We made it on the plane and settled in for the flight back to Osaka.

Hokkaido Trip: Of Snowmen and Zoos

Day 3, part 2

(Austin)

After we finished looking at the Ice Sculptures at Susukino site we went to the Sapporo Zoo. The closest subway stop was a 30 minute walk away from the zoo, so after getting off the train we had a long way to walk.

Unlike the central parts of Sapporo, the snow was stacked up along the sides of the road here. You can tell just how much snow had fallen here recently.

Along the way we walked through a park literally covered in snow. In the middle of the park there was a large snow covered hill that many kids were playing on and sledding down. We started making snowballs and had an impromptu snowball fight. Suffice to say: Ryosuke is not good at snowball fights.

Continuing towards the zoo I decided to make a snowman beside the road. We stopped for a while and I rolled some massive snowballs into the parts for a snowman.  someone had lost a red winter cap nearby so after I finished the snowman I out the red cap on it. While I had been making it many people had passed behind me. I wonder if they thought I was odd Haha.

Finally we were close enough that we could see the zoo and along the final path we saw some smaller snowmen. It is interesting to see the differences between mine and a Japanese person's snowmen. Theirs were much cuter and had a difference face type with the eyes and mouth. I thought the contrast was actually really cool.

Arriving at the front gate of the zoo, we paid a small fee and went in. It was on now that it dawned on us that some of the animals may not be out due to the snow. Luckily it wasn't really a problem as a good portion of the animals were out and any warm-loving animals were viewable in indoor facilities. They also had a polar bear.

After spending time at the zoo, kidding around and playing in the snow more than looking at the animals, we were hungry so we went to the food place that was in the zoo. We ate lunch and then left. We had a long trek back to the subway station. On the way back we came across the snowman that I made. Someone had taken the winter cap. Perhaps they were the ones who lost it? I'm not sure. However, they didn't just take it and leave, in replacement they created some interesting...bunny ears? They also gave it a little more flair with a a small leafy branch acting as a kind of flower near the neck. Pretty cool.

Near the park Ryosuke decided to uh...die in the snow? We partly covered him up and left him :D

After a lot of walking we made it back to the subway station. It had been a lot of fun but it was time to head to the airport. 

Hokkaido Trip: Yuki Matsuri, Susukino Site

Day 3, part 1

(Austin)

    We woke up the next day and packed to leave. We wouldn't be staying in the hotel another night because today is the day we were going home. After getting our stuff and checking out of the hotel we wandered back to the McDonalds.

    While waiting for Ryosuke to arrive, Elijah and I decided to order something called the Mega Muffin. Think of a Big Mac but in English muffin form. It was absolutely delicious. 

This is delicious.

    Ryosuke arrived, so finished our breakfast and left McDonalds. Today we were going to the Susukino site of the Yuki Matsuru. This site specialized in Ice Sculptures. Like the previous site, this one had be kinda messed up due to a few days with slightly high temperatures however it was much better preserved than the snow sculptures.

The rest of this post is just the pictures that I took of the ice sculptures so.. Enjoy!